all new 4-4-0 American

[Terry Toenges]

BB - I ordered a used DVD/VCR combo today off Ebay so I can dub my VCR tapes onto DVD. After I got to thinking about it, I decided to ahead and do it. I've been going to get one of those for a long time and just never got around to it.

[edpb]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the comments and history.

I take back my description of the front couplers on the Jupiter and 119 as ridiculous.  It might well be that the real locos had front couplers at some time during their lives.  I still think that although these couplers must be fully operational, they are ugly on these locos

On the Bachmann Jupiter and 119 tenders, at the rear, there is a molded-on cover for a port for taking on water.

I was using "eastern" for "where there is no wood."  I don't think that Omaha would be considered eastern by an Easterner.

My pictures of the replica 119, taken from ground level, don't show what is loaded into the tender.

Ed

[Trainman203]

They more often had link and pin (the "coupler" of the day) compatible drawbars on the  big early "cowcatcher ", folded down.  My own opinion is that large rakish "cowcatchers" were slowly phased away as 1.  The US became more settled and fenced and 2. Frequent switching needs made the need for general coupler installation on pilots apparent.

Spoked pilots resembling greatly scaled down cowcatchers persisted until the end of steam in the US. 1. I Wonder why and 2. I Am glad they did, because to my American eye, few things look more peculiar than a steam engine with raw shiny wheels under a pilot-free pilot beam.

[bbmiroku]

Early cowcatchers were mainly used to sweep obstructions from the front of the engine OR to keep the engine from going up and over an obstruction, as the plow end would tend to dig into the object, like a boulder.  Kind of like the anti-climber over the knuckle of a diesel engine.  A buckled front end was usually easier to deal with and less expensive to repair/replace than a bend somewhere mid-frame.

[edpb]

Trainman 203:  I would like to replace the tender coupler with link and pin, just for the fun of seeing it there.  I don't know if my Jupiter and 119 will ever pull rolling stock, but you never know.  I bought them to be the main interest on a small portable layout that will be a much compressed version of the Golden Spike National Historic Site.  Using Atlas code 83, the wye will occupy a 4' by 3' main section of Homasote, and there will be three 1' wide extensions for the place where (1) 119 waits for the reenactment to start, just a short section of straight, (2) the place where Jupiter waits and the golden spike site, and (3) the double track inside an engine house and another small building to hold the reverser.  Overall, about 9' by 5', so it could be set up on a ping pong table.  And, in pieces, it will fit in the backseat of my car so I can take it to set up at three of my four kids' houses.  The fourth of my kids is 2000 miles away, too far to drive by myself.  Hoping to start next week.

I could remove the front coupler itself, but I don't know if I'm up to replacing the coupler box with spokes and getting the right color of paint.  I will find out.

bbmiroku:  Let's not go up and over!

[Terry Toenges]

I'd like to see pictures once you get it built. It sounds like a neat idea. I've kicked around the idea of making a reenactment diorama but never did and don't think I will because I got rid of most of my HO stuff and moved to On30.

[edpb]

I would post the plan of my golden spike layout but I don't know how to paste in anything.  I can get it into my clipboard but I can't paste it, at least Ctrl-V will not do it.

[Trainman203]

A replication of the Promontory ceremony would really look good with code 55 track.

[bbmiroku]

The easiest way to post a picture would be first to upload it to a photo sight, like photobucket, facebook, deviantart, etc.
Then copy the link of just the photo* into a message, highlight it, and then up in the choices click on the picture icon.
It should look something like this, but without the spaces:
[img ]http://estore.bachmanntrains.com/images/HO_John_Bull.jpg[/ img]

And without the spaces, it gets formatted like this:




*upload, go to the page for the image, right-click and choose view image, copy url

[edpb]

Thanks -- I will look into that --

Well, I found out that I can't upload a drawing.  The file has to have a photo extension.  Maybe I will take a photo of my drawing.

I'm still learning about the 4-4-0 replicas.  Pictures of the pilots of the locos show a hinged bar that is attached to the top center of the pilot and the other end rests on the bottom frame.  The outer end has a slot that I suppose could accept a pin.

Someday I will try to modify my Bachmann versions accordingly.  I wonder what the paint colors are -- well, I'm a long way from that problem.

[bbmiroku]

While restoring the William Mason, the B&O found that instead of sandblasting (or sanding) and repainting, a new layer of paint would just be slathered on over the previous one.  In fact, they found what was probably the same color as the original paint and tried to match it.  So as far as a single case of a single engine, the pint scheme it has now is fairly true to the original.

That being said, I believe the History Channel has an immense archive of photos from Back In The Day, and they are in the process of colorizing some of them.  So take a look and you might find what you need.

[bbmiroku]

Model Railroad News has an article (July 2018) about the new Bachmann 4-4-0 and compares it to the old 4-4-0 and has a short tangent on the history of the 4-4-0 as an engine type.

[edpb]

Hello everyone.  Thanks for all the comments, history, photos and more.

I just spent an hour putting together a post on what has been happening with me and trying to get the link from photobucket for a photo of my proposed working diorama layout (I couldn't copy the link).  When I was ready to post, I clicked on Review and the forum said, "Welcome guest".  All I had typed in is gone.  Talk to you later.

[edpb]

Hello everyone,

I have another thread going that started out to be about the electrical wipers on the tender axles in the new 4-4-0s.  In that thread I said, "When my locos first arrived, I was complaining about the details, and the trouble was I was fixated on the replicas at the Golden Spike site while Bachmann was trying to make some beautiful models of many different 4-4-0s.  Well, Bachmann succeeded, and I love my Jupiter and 119.  I think the sound is better than the sound that I heard in the video (which may have been distorted in the process.)  In the Bachmann locos, the bell has a pure, clean ring to it, the whistle sounds like steam, especially the way it turns off, and the chuff makes me think that there is a real one just outside my window."

Just so you know.

[Terry Toenges]

I just posted this in a different thread.
Here's footage of them stationary and in loco motion. At about 11:10 in this video, you can see wood sticking up in 119's tender as she goes by.
https://youtu.be/5664eYlGO_Y