Most Recent Buys and projects

[BaltoOhioRRfan]

Heres what i've bought recently


4-4-2 B&O by Mantua $50 Runs nice needs cleaning and possible new paint job



2-4-0 York & Peach Bottom $55 needs to be broken in and cleaned



GP18 LLP2K $25 has a binding problem.(note the BTC Peter Witts behind)



Don't ask, Don't remember why i got it. $20

Next up is a project that i been working on. (well getting pars for, i did all the work so far in about an half hr)

During the move of MB Klein we found a beat up Rivarossi Engine under a ser of shelves, they were gonna toss it but I talked them into letting me buy it($1)



as you can see it was almost trashed. I added the tender before taking the pic.



All thats left is the paint. I might make up a ficional road for it. I gave it a new frame, tender, sand dome, smoke box cover, and cleaned it and lubed it. Should run good as new when I take it into work tomorrow to show off. I'm going to leave teh cow catcher like it is.

[TonyD]

Pretty good catch you got here. That Bowker as the V&T had it were rare, but as an 0-4-0 or a 2-4-4T Forney, lots and lots were made, not just std guage, New Zealand has one, 2-4-2, now restored, by Rogers, in 42".. And I have a few, in different wheel arrangements- or will be in future...is that one tender drive or the huge can in the cab? Don't know which I hate worse...now, if Bachman would do to the Jupiter and 119 like they did with the richmond 4-4-0... all of these Renos and Genoas will be roundhouse stuffers......maybe someday. These older p2k geeps sometimes 'thump', or gallop, is that your finding? How is that Atlantic? Mantuas always...look...nice. How bad is the paint?Looks fine from where I'm sitting....Good luck with them all !!!!

[BaltoOhioRRfan]

the Mantua i'd say runs almost as good as the spectrum(it needs to be broken in. Looks like it was mostly a shelf unit) Very little or no wheel wear at all.

the problem with the GP18 is it Binds up. I think a lub job will fix it. although it didnt seem to do that on the test track at the show(GSMTS) The motor with the 2-4-0 is in the cab.

[Jim Banner]

Check the GP-18 for split gears on the axles when you are lubricating it.  You might need a magnifying glass to see them.

[Atlantic Central]

Fan,

As Jim says, check for the split gear problem. If you can hold one wheel and easily spin the other one on that axle, the gear is split and will cause a binding and clicking as it goes down the track.

If they are split, Walthers will send you new axle assemblies for free, just call them.

Sheldon

[Guilford Guy]

Or toss the current wheelsets and replace them with Athearns... That remedied the problem on my GP30's.

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

Holy cowcatcher! You paid $20 for that AHM Barnum car?  I've got two of them myself, early and late, from two different passenger set purchases. Now, if you'd gotten a Lincoln car for $20, I would have said you got a real deal.

I've never had cause to be sorry about my Mantua Atlantic. I have the one painted and lettered as the P.R.R. 7002 because I used to ride behind that engine at Strasburg.

If anybody is interested in the camelback version of the Atlantic, lettered P&R, I have one I'd be interested in selling. Not a thing wrong with the engine, it was just a mistake of mine to purchase it because I have no real use for it.

I have two of the AHM/Rivarossi Bowkers. Both tend to run best on curved track.    On one engine I clipped the plastic bell off the sand dome. Then I removed the pump from on top of the boiler and replaced it with a brass bell. I painted the whole engine black; I left the domes brass-colored, and painted the headlight brass. I also removed the wood load from the tender, added coal boards, and gave it a coal load.

[TonyD]

Yeah, that big pump was for the Bowler and James as a factory option, to aid Carson and Virginia city's fire departments, the pressure could carry water thru hoses way up the city streets if needed. Funny in 'the Union Pacific', they left the pumps on, and I saw the Bowker in a recent western, with the pump..it is now historic, so will be on the boiler forever, but yes, the bell and another preheater or sand dome could have sat there. I was disapoointed to learn the Bowker really was fire engine red... B&A and B&M had 3 dome 0-4-0 cousins up to the 1920's- Another movie 'urban legend' true? I heard, was that the Pocher Genoas were molded in grey because the modeling engineers from Italy, in Hollywood- to measure the Reno for details...as it was painted flat grey to better shoot night scenes for 'Love me tender' with Elvis. sounds good to me. The Reno itself was colored as it was the last days on the V&T, but never did a movie dressed like this, kinda close when going thru the saloon in "Joe Kidd'.....That circus car is OK, just needs to travel in unit trains, so keep shopping!!! Are you finding this stuff in a closed shop? Must be like archeology....

[BaltoOhioRRfan]

Got it from the Great Scale Model Train Show in Timonium MD. Whats funny was the same table had another one of the circus cars, it was $5 more.

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

I was disapoointed to learn the Bowker really was fire engine red.

No foolin'? When it was running on the V&T?

[TonyD]

OK Johnson Bar, now you owe me. This is from Ferrell's Virginia & Truckee, out a few years ago. The Bowker and Inyo arrived in Reno on March 22, 1875. The bowker became the Virginia switcher, renamed "Mexico', until put in the dead line in early 90's, then sold in July 1896. the Hobart Lumber family donated her to the Cal div. RR & loco hist. soc. in 1937. Shorty after it was made up for the UP movie. Now, I have a question. If it was a switcher, it didn't need a cowcatcher, it needed a solid coupler pocket & footboards. It didn't need a pilot truck either, unless this was to act as a fire engine, and get down the line fast if called for. There is a fine large scale model of one in the Nevada state RR museum, made many years ago by a fellow who worked from memory. How acurate this is-matter of faith and trust huh? But, his is alot of red, incluing the wheels, which is strange pocher on down didn't do this, and the brass and wood varnished natural. I would think all the stacks and smokeboxes were black, as that was a hard spot to keep pretty, until the aluminized/ graphite paints. I presume it didn't change much since built to preservation, maybe someone else can chime in about this....and- how is the Reno? must be rebuilt by now- the fire was years ago.....as I reread what you qouted from me, agh, not 'dissappointed' in the red I suppose, but -- really stunned???   

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

OK Johnson Bar, now you owe me. This is from Ferrell's Virginia & Truckee, out a few years ago. The Bowker and Inyo arrived in Reno on March 22, 1875. The bowker became the Virginia switcher, renamed "Mexico', until put in the dead line in early 90's, then sold in July 1896. the Hobart Lumber family donated her to the Cal div. RR & loco hist. soc. in 1937. Shorty after it was made up for the UP movie. Now, I have a question. If it was a switcher, it didn't need a cowcatcher, it needed a solid coupler pocket & footboards. It didn't need a pilot truck either, unless this was to act as a fire engine, and get down the line fast if called for. There is a fine large scale model of one in the Nevada state RR museum, made many years ago by a fellow who worked from memory. How acurate this is-matter of faith and trust huh? But, his is alot of red, incluing the wheels, which is strange pocher on down didn't do this, and the brass and wood varnished natural. I would think all the stacks and smokeboxes were black, as that was a hard spot to keep pretty, until the aluminized/ graphite paints. I presume it didn't change much since built to preservation, maybe someone else can chime in about this....and- how is the Reno? must be rebuilt by now- the fire was years ago.....as I reread what you qouted from me, agh, not 'dissappointed' in the red I suppose, but -- really stunned???   

I've got the Ferrell book in my library, too, just not with me here at work. (I was interested to read that when the Genoa was retired, she was still burning wood, as God and the Baldwin Locomotive Works intended.  ) I can't recall if it includes any "period" photos of the Bowker. I've always thought it was kind of funny to have a pilot truck and a pilot on an engine intended as a switcher, but I think the I.E. James had 'em, too, so management must have had a reason. Maybe you're right about taking them out on the line for fire fighting? A fancy finish seems a little odd for a yard engine, too, even in the 1870s, but who knows?

I have no clue here as to what's become of the Reno. From time to time I think of changing the name and number on my most recent Rivarossi Genoa and running her as the "as-built in 1872" Reno. I believe the engines were identical--must have been Baldwin catalogue models.