n&w j questions?

[sp4449lover]

hi, i'm thinking about buying an n&w j and i have some questions about it. does it have a front coupler (i want to do doubleheaders with mine) and can anyone tell me how long it is? like from pilot to the end of the aux tender. thanks if you can help

[ABC]

No front coupler on these models. Not sure on the length.

[Williamson]

Can't imagine why you'd want to doublehead a J, I've never heard of them being doubleheaded (K2s were occasionally though).

Mark

[David Leonard]

The 611 ran doubleheaded on excursions occasionally. The J's did not run very often with aux tenders in steam days, so I imagine excursions are what sp4449lover is aiming for.

EDIT: the disance between the pilot and the rear of the canteen (aux tender) is 11.25 inches. It may be 1/4" or so more, depending on your connections between the engine, tender and auxiliary tender. I used the closest drawbar hole engine to tender and Unimates between the two tenders.

[Williamson]

The 611 ran doubleheaded on excursions occasionally. The J's did not run very often with aux tenders in steam days, so I imagine excursions are what sp4449lover is aiming for.

Good point about the excursion trains, though I can't remember the J not leading the trains in excursion service.

In steam era passenger service, they were never double-headed to my knowledge, nor did they use auxillary tenders.

The only use of auxillary tenders behind Js in the steam era was when N&W was using the Js in Freight service after the decision was made to use diesels on passenger service after summer 1958.

Mark

[David Leonard]

You're right in general, Mark. Usually the smaller locomotive led on doubleheaders, and the usual doubleheading with the J was with 1218. But there were exceptions, e.g. the photo below. I also recall the J running behind NKP 587, but that was a tripleheader. It may have run with 587 on other occasions--or maybe with NKP 765--but I don't remember.

[Williamson]

Excellent!

[dtpowell]

Nice picture Mr. Leonard. Now all we need is a coupler on the J and for Bachmann to manufacture the N&W "A".   
I'll settle for the "A".  Aw...Just wishful thinking here.

[Williamson]

Nice picture Mr. Leonard. Now all we need is a coupler on the J and for Bachmann to manufacture the N&W "A".   
I'll settle for the "A".  Aw...Just wishful thinking here.

Hehe! 5 years ago I thought BLI/PCM would be doing the A, but you know how that story went ... 

If someone does the N&W A well in N scale I think it'll be a hit as it was/is in HO for BLI.

Mark