D&RGW (Ex N&W Z1a) L-76 2-6-6-2 Project

[ryeguyisme]

Hi guys,

It's probably been a while since any of you have seen any of my projects so here's one I worked on today.

For about 4 or 5 years now I've been playing with the idea of turning the Bachmann Spectrum H-4 2-6-6-2 into a D&RGW Engine, I did make a 2-6-6-0  conversion out of one but I wanted a 2-6-6-2. Over the years I managed to pick up various photos of different kinds of D&RGW Small Articulateds like the L-62, L-76 and L-77

The D&RGW L-62 2-6-6-2 were the only engines of this wheel arrangement that were actually built for the Rio Grande, they were built in 1910





Next were the 2 N&W Class Z1a 2-6-6-2's which were sold to the Rio Grande to help boost the war traffic in 1942, these were class L-76's







Last of the Rio Grande Small Articulateds were the D&SL 2-6-6-0 which were  incorporated into the Rio Grande roster when the D&SL was bought out by the D&RGW. These were the L-77's. I have rebuilt a PFM basket case to include a Bachmann chassis. And I have two in N Scale also sporting Bachmann chassis.






Today I've been working extensively on converting the Bachmann H-4 into an L-76. I started by removing detail parts on the H-4 such as pipes, smokebox door, smokestack, sand domes and a few other parts. I made modifications to the running boards where necessary. The old holes for the sand domes were filled in with bondo and sanded to shape. Various brass parts were bought from Precision Scale in Montana where they have an extensive selection of brass detail parts. I was fortunate that they had important parts for the Z-1 included in the catalog from when they made a run of the engine a few years back. I bought a new smokebox door, a stack, the sand domes and firebox sides(which I'm not sure if I plan on using)

The cab is from a Bachmann heavy mountain. I moved the air pumps to the fireman's side where appropriate. I then  put some grab irons on  the smokebox door and used a bachmann wide screw for the number plate.

The tender is a bachmann auxiliary tender chassis with a Proto 2k tender shell from a 2-8-8-2. I really wish bachmann made the 16,000 gallon tender the N&W had, as they were seen on over a dozen railroads across the country.

Here's some pictures of my progress:







































Will continue work on this engine and will post picture of the progress!

[Doneldon]

Rye-

Great work! I especially like the 2-6-6-2 pair with D&RGW and AT&SF.

                                                                                               -- D

[jbrock27]

Terrific detail work!

[jonathan]

Rye,

I wish I could think of a new surperlative to describe my amazement!  That is truly wonderful work.  You provide inspiration to the tinker in all of us.

Congrats!

Can't wait to see the whole locomotive when complete.

Regards,

Jonathan

[rogertra]

Looking good, keep us posted.

Cheers

Roger.

[ryeguyisme]

Just have to detail it, paint it and wire it all back up so it runs, I have a sound module laying around somewhere. The cool thing is using the frame from the Bachmann auxiliary tender is I get dual pickup on both trucks.

I accidentally bought 2 H-4's when I went to purchase one for the project. Si figure I'd use the other one to make an L-62 which will requie a bit more modification to the frame and boiler shortening it.