I'm clan lines brother I have the prints of the M-3 M-4 class locomotive. The only difference I see in tenders is the top gear. the auger motor is at top and curves instead of straight bends. the difference of 1' is with a knuckle on. otherwise it's a perfect match. besides that point the em1 has a lower boiler pressure then the M-4, but in modeling point detail doesn't have to be perfect. think of a 2 foot rule view point. if it looks good then and operates like prototypical with 120 or more ore cars go with it.

I have been having a few problems with my RC system. The motors over load the system and shut it down. Plus the little motors I added made great sence, but they don't have that much weight or pulling power up grades. I'm tempted to either rebuild the trucks with worm drives or convert to standard DC power. The body won't be that much altered and lights will still be battery power.

Suggestions will be helpful on what you think will work best in this situation.

I have been building a South Shore steel interurban car. Based off SS cars 24, 25 and 107 currently at east troy. here's the problem. 80 feet in 1:32 scale is a little over 3 feet.

With railroad Alaska starting there second season soon the Alaska railroad has been getting a lot of business. For bachmann making new decals for ARR won't take long but then how many would be sold. It's nice that they have all the base engines that ARR ran, just add some winterizing details and some extra equipment and good to go. With Athurn genius releasing the SD 70 MACS and passenger cars some ARR F7's would be nice for older trains. The best thing with ARR they keep almost all there units in either museum's or on a RIP track for emergency use.

Looking in my blue prints of the FEF class the side rods were forged out of silver steel. Theres on thing why diesels took over the rails because man power was majorly reduced, but they need specilaists to keep them going! With steam any black smith can keep them going and they will bring you home one way or another. On your model keep the bottom of the rods with a little dirt for realisim.

From my experience as a model railroader the urges come and go. But it never takes much to bit you back in to a strong urge to play trains for a few years. One thing that 1:20.3 allows is the great size to scratch build. But more verity on parts for the scale would be nice like more trucks, hand rails, steps, lights, brake stands, underframe detail parts, loco domes, cab detail, passenger car decorations and so much more that can make it interesting for scratch builders. It's a trend In the whole hobby of trains that more and more products are ready to roll. No MORE KITS or very few kits at all. I don't really see this scale every dead just slumbering for years. The younger generations need to learn to enjoy more then Technology. If you have kids have them build some trains instead of the screen. It helps there minds instead of drains there brain and the couch.

I have been working on the lights for L-8 recently. It will run on one AA battery with 1.5 volts. There's going to be a manual switch to change light directions. With the main head light center then the class markers on each side and the red's on the rear. I'm going to make a section of the roof removable for both batterers. After that is all worked out I press on to the finishing details and paint. Then on to the next project Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad interurban cars. These I will be selling after three cars are built for display at the east troy depot.

If any one is interested on seeing the real prototype I can give you a first hand tour of our car barn in east troy.

The RC systems were soldiered in place this morning. Now i just have to get a adapter for the battery and will give her a test run. it's only been around 2 1/2 months since i started. lights will be added later after some more electrical figuring.

A full week of raining weather allowed me to keep building L-8. so this is whats done sofar to date.
http://s1288.photobucket.com/user/uscgtanker/media/L-8%20project/P1020488_zps4a1cfeba.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

the hand rails are added to one side of the cab, door is in and the floor is laid down. been looking at RC systems and found a 2 channel 2.4 ghrs system at Hobby Town. I might wire in the trucks to run on track voltage for a period of time. After both ends are half detailed I will move on to the roof that will hinge for full access.

I see your problem. My little traction motors will work for this but come at a price. Your loco has about the same design as the union pacific turbines. Then you would have to make 12 motors or make the center axle a idler then give it some extra weight. I would love to take this for a challenge but my building desk is quite full at the moment if you know what I mean.

 DO you have a water feture in the center that would give a calm feeling. Tall grass works well for hiding certain areas or make a seclusion from the house. herbs make some nice little bushes for buildings and can be eaten. I like to put strawberries in my railroad they are out of scale but what better way to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Then fill the rest of the space with flowers 1 every 4 square feet should bloom every season, then you have something to smell.

I'll keep up with how your doing.

If you want to take a step further in to the project look into your gearing. is  it high speed, medium speed with equaled torque, or low speed with maximum torque. On this project thats the part I can't really fix prototypicaly. L-8 has a high and low gear that is set by placing more resistors in to the system.

I wish you luck in your projects that they don't overwhelm you that much. There is one thing that i like with large scale you can get more prototypicaly then in smaller scale. but my brother want's to go in to the welsh narrow gauge, some were between 15inch and 2 foot.

Wiring in series works well till one starts to overload. On the proto type all motors are in parallel but since we operate 600 VDC, so running in series doesn't work all that well.

I know the voltage is way to high but with my transformer I can run large the switch to Ho scale voltage. I can also put resistors in the wire circuit. And since I'm going to run this on RC it wouldn't be that much voltage.

to answer your last question bob, I got the gears at hobby town. they are reagular RC truck drive gears 48P pinion 34T, by Robinson Racing Products. The motor's are from radioshack 1.5-3vDC motor with metal gear. If there is a simple solution to anything keep it.
I'm looking at the possibility to make this model RC control. I'm also thinking on making more then one model and build a few more in 1:29th.