The Backshop has the beartrap for under $10. it is brass with a two piece casting set. You have to supply the  screen.

Contact Dave Braun at dbraun@jps.net for more info.

He also has the correct C&S tender trucks for the mogul. They can be had in either On30 or On3 at $16

Woody,

I still have a few of those. I have an old Akane Cab-forward that took me 3 months to payfor when I was in HIgh school. My Rivarossi ran better and had better detail. At the time, Bart Austin of M.B. Austin was importing stuff, some from international, mostly SP. I have the complete set. All have been remotored and re-geared as club operation took its toll. This was all bought from 1960-1964.

For the best results on under 30 inch radius your freight cars should be a scale 25 feet or less long.

The only two On3 cars that I presently use because of the disparite size are teh San Juan D&RGW short caboose and the C&S four wheel caboose from Grandt. The latter required changes to the brake system to work and the former required center sill and coupler pocket modifications. On the C&S caboose I  put the coupler pocket under the normal coupler.

I have a few Gramps frameless tank cars and Harold is right, they are just too big. They need to be made smaller to match the Bachmann rolling stock. Remember, the tanks for these cars came from standard gauge cars.

I wanted a steel flat car and found an American models S scale flat and shortened it to work. It scales 29 feet in O, a bit large for things but the dozer I put on it makesthe thing look smaller.

Bruce,

Billboard reefers were part of the turn of the 20th century to the mid 1930s. What Bachmann is producing are in the spirit of the old reefers rather than accurate. There's a couple of books on the subject with authentic billboard cars. You might even do the artwork for a tongue and cheek version of your own.

I have a couple lettered for Devil's Gulch and Helengone Railroad which was John Allen's narrow gauge on the Gorre and Daphetid Rail Road. This is the fun part of it all. I have some ore cars lettered for teh It's Minemine company.

Sorry, Gene. I meant WEST of Roanoke. Yes, there was electricity through the air on the N&W. The Virginian followed suit

The original series of Frieght cars was based on the Ohio River and Western Railroad. These cars have vacuum brake cylinders on them and appear to be typical cars from that railroad rather than specific cars. The same is true of the passenger cars which are representitive rather than a specific prototype. Both types of cars are foreshortened to be able to use 18 inch radius track. Bachmann's designers did an excellent job of engineering to ensure that the cars would stay on the track.
The Carsten's publication "Narrow Gauge Cars" has plans for similar cars. There is also a book "Ohio River and Western" on the railroad itself. It had Brooks moguls similar to the generic one sold by Bachmann.  The set locomotive, #22, is based on an actual prototype that ran on the Colorado and Southern narrow gauge and was scrapped in 1929.

Gene,

The N&W had electrics over the Blue Ridge.  They were just as big and ugly as the ones on the Virginian

Gene, Are you planning for any square-head electics on your 1957 layout?

I know you're a steam guy but your neck of the woods had two lines playing with electricity over the mountains in 1957. Just asking.

The Pennsy T1 had the nasty habit of  one set of drivers slipping like crazy while the other was still working. The S-1 had two turbines, a big one for forward and a small one for reverse. The big one was capable of over 6000 horsepower.
The Q-1 was supposed to have better traction. Nada. The J-1s easily out pulled them everywhere. The long rigid wheelbases kept most of them west of Crestline, Ohio. The J-1 lasted until the end of steam. The others only into the early 50s. T-1 engineers hated any track that was icy as one engine or the other would slip. One remarked that some idiot forgot to put side rods between the two sets. Not really a great idea on a rigid frame.

Chatzi,

No, you don't have to use a Thomas engine as a basis for a 4-6-0. MMiller proved that in his photos. It all depends on how good you are at adapting the components. I build and Sn3 4-6-0 from a Mantua Rogers locomotive. I have one in )n30 built from the same unit. The deal is that you have to look at everything before you do something. Model railroading is only limited by one's imagination.

My call would be RGS 20 as this model would cover the Florence and Cripple Creek (Who bought them new), The RGS (#20, #22 and #25), The SP Narrow gauge (#22), The Nevada California and Oregon, (Three locomotives and the Pacific Coast Two Locomotives. One that the PC bought used wound up in Hawaii on the Oahu Railway along with some of the F&CC cars. The locomotives are close to the ET&WNC tenwheelers except for valve gear. This is a lot of territory covered here.
Mr. Bachmann, please tell Lee that this would be an excellent locomotive to produce in On30. One caveat to all, these are pretty large locomotives, actrually larger than the 2-8-0 presently produced. I would do one version with Stephenson valve gear to cover the F&CC locomtives and one with walsheart's valve gear to cover the NCO, PC and SP narrow gauges (SP # 18). The whaleback tender would be nice and should also be sold seperately for us kit bashers.

Harold,
Thanks for the step by step pictures. Easy to follow. I just received some C&S tender trucks which raise the tender to the correct height to match the Locomotive cab deck. You might want to look into this. They are from the Back Shop and can be had in On30 or On3

Jim Pasha

As lenn pointed out, there are a lot of books on SP Motive Power. There is one book for $25 or so that is a paperback that is about Southern Pacific Daylight Locomotives. It has a good pictorial and many of the GS class locomotives besides the Daylights. Ron's Books carries it.

If the problems persist, you may want to convert to a PMD 2-10-4 mechanism which has a DC-71 motor and a very nice frame setup. I have two and they run great

Gene is correct, this model has  Santa Fe 4-8-4 boiler, not the round C&O. Wrong tender as well but they make a great model. When I run mine at the club, the guys think it's brass as I added detail.  I have a pair of flat motors if that's you problem.

Have you finished the SP 4-6-0? Just curious. I spent this evening selecting PVC for the boiler of my 4-6-0. This wqill be easier to adapt to the Thomas 4-6-0 for the model I want. The mechanism is stripped and the eye gears discarded. Silly but what the kids want.

I noticed that you cheated a bit by using a Precision Scale pilot and deck. Slick. We'll see how this goes. Looks much easier to use plastic than an old C-16 boiler I have. One never knows until they finish the model as to what will get used.

Mike,

The M-1 is a steel car built by Brill. I made a reasonable copy using a Lionel shell from a standard combine.

I also have built a Gas Electric using a Bachmann On30 combine. I used a single Athearn power truck from a GP 40 and motor to do the job, the motor and truck fit in the baggage area. I will provide photos off line to you directly if you are interested.

I made adapter blocks to attach the Bachmann truck sideframes to the power truck.. The modifications yield a very nice running gas-electric capable of pulling two passenger cars or four freight cars up a 3% grade.

Jim Pasha
japasha@aol.com