B&O Power (Suggestions)

ebtnut · April 08, 2010, 12:42:50 PM

If you are handy about kit-bashing, the thing to do is find a Rivarossi Big Six at a good price. Then shop around for a Proto2000 USRA Heavy 2-10-2. Mate the Rivarossi superstructure to the Proto mechanism (using the Rivarossi trailing truck with replacment wheelsets. Detail fanatics will want to change out the valve gear from Southern to Baker. Then replace the wheels in the tender trucks. One issue, common to most all Vandy tenders, is that if you want DCC/sound, you're going to have to cut out the coal load to gain access to the interior of the tender.

pipefitter · April 08, 2010, 03:10:50 PM

Quote from: jonathan on April 08, 2010, 10:22:53 AM
... Anyone ever run the mallet? If it's got big flanges, my code 83 track won't like it ...

I have the Rivarossi 2-8-8-0 Mallet that I bought new from Walthers years ago. It runs quite well, smooth and relatively quiet. It is a good looking engine. Got to get some of that stuff to blacken the rods. All my track is code 100 because I have a lot of old stuff and the Mally even negotiates 18" radius with ease because both sets of drivers pivot. They are linked together so they pivot at the same angle. Doesn't mean the loco looks good on 18"

but just to let you know how nimble it is. Here's two photos of it when I had it on a shelf at work. If you look at the links you can see the pictures full size.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4029/4503431726_95986574ed_b.jpg (full size)

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4029/4502801489_b430249e7d_b.jpg (full size)

jonathan · April 08, 2010, 03:51:38 PM

Georgeous, man! I want one... hard to photograph a black engine, isn't it?

Regards, and thanks for the info.

Jonathan

Colorado_Mac · April 08, 2010, 09:02:29 PM

Quote from: pdlethbridge on April 06, 2010, 09:19:46 PM
and this one
http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/bo905s.jpg

I love how the tender is sloped to provide more visibility in switching moves, and then that is rendered completely useless by the extended coal bunker!

pdlethbridge · April 08, 2010, 09:26:10 PM

The B&O had some strange designs. I have a photo of a mallet that has 3 tender trucks. Go figure.
http://i768.photobucket.com/albums/xx330/pdleth/bo7120s.jpg?t=1270775634

Colorado_Mac · April 08, 2010, 11:07:41 PM

Quote from: pdlethbridge on April 08, 2010, 09:26:10 PM
The B&O had some strange designs. I have a photo of a mallet that has 3 tender trucks. Go figure.

I recall reading in one of Charles Roberts' books that they used this configuration on more than a few tenders, but this is the first time I've actually seen it. Didn't the Pennsy have a tender with more wheels behind the T-1?

pdlethbridge · April 09, 2010, 03:58:25 AM

I know they had 8 wheel trucks

J3a-614 · April 09, 2010, 06:49:03 AM

P. D. Lethbridge found some interesting Mallet photos. The first one of the 2-8-8-0 with a short tender is a builder's photo; this is about how all would have looked as delivered, in compound configuration and short tenders. The three-truck tender job he found is notable not only for the clear view of the tank (and I have one in my original post as well), but for the location--that's Grafton, W.Va., which had a track layout, some structures with unusual features, and a town above on a mountainside that looked like something John Allen might have cooked up.

Among these features: a junction layout at the west end of the yard that included a double track split alongside the roundhouse, and a branch junction that headed south (eventually to Charleston, W.Va) that was a wye configuration that overlapped the mainline junction and also enclosed the roundhouse; the same roundhouse was also part of a pedestrian bridge that went over this junction, and that included a walkway that curved along its roof from one side of the house to the other; a large stone shop building that dated to the 1850s; a station from 1910 next to a railroad hotel built in the 1880s (the hotel is visible in the background of the three-truck tender photo); all of this was just across the tracks or within sight of the station, including interlocking towers that were active until recent years. Going further back, there was once an earlier roundhouse in Grafton that was like the roundhouse that is being restored in Martinsburg, W.Va. (this had been a B&O standard design used in several locations, including twin roundhouses at Piemont; they were actually a form of building kit, with cast iron girders made at Mt. Claire). I'll try to find some photos later.

I would be modeling the B&O myself if I weren't so big into C&O's modern steam. And wasn't it Charles Roberts who said every railfan had two favorite railroads, the B&O and another one?

J3a-614 · April 09, 2010, 07:11:17 AM

Johnson Bar Jeff likes 19th century power; he might like these links (and consider this locomotive another to wish for):

http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/abboc.Html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Winans

Although this is an HO forum, Johnson Bar may want to consider a change to O scale, simply because of what is available (even though it's not cheap).

http://usmrr.blogspot.com/

http://usmrr.blogspot.com/search/label/Locomotives

http://www.smrtrains.com/

http://factorydirecttrains.com/winanscamellocos.aspx

There is this firm, too, which does have some HO Civil War equipment as well (though no locomotives):

http://www.btsrr.com/

http://www.btsrr.com/bts9506.htm

If Johnson Bar is in the East, I invite him (and anyone else) to West Virginia.

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,12784.0.html

Enjoy.

jonathan · April 09, 2010, 08:01:13 AM

J3a-614,

You must be a teacher. Every time I get into your posts, I find I have more homework to do.

This is my first layout. So I started out a little freelance, with a modern theme, using CSX and Amtrak as a prototype to follow.

Now that I've been at it for a few years, my fondness for B&O is growing exponentially. Haven't even gotten halfway through my first layout, and I am already starting to plan my next layout, based on the B&O of course (transition era). Will probably need to work on a layout that hauls coal to the coast, to be loaded on ships. I have seen a sample of a distribution point in Newport News, as I was stationed on a ship, in the yards, right next to a modern shipping distribution point.

You have given me enough stuff to study to keep my busy for quite some time. Thanks, I think. My check book will be unhappy.

Regards,

Jonathan

pdlethbridge · April 09, 2010, 08:33:48 AM

When I was in my teens, my first engines were all B&O from athearn with the rubber band drive. I started to build a couple of 2' x 8' plywood sheets to match the yards at M&K junction. There were grades at both sides of the junction plus a branch line so there would have been lots of action. The layout never got past the track laying stage because we moved to a different town from a house to an apartment. No room for trains there.

jonathan · April 09, 2010, 12:06:26 PM

P.D.,

There is the final piece of the puzzle! You guys are making me study too much.

I have a large mountain on my layout (5'X7' peninsula). That can be the start of my coal operation, using small steam and early diesels. Power can be transitioned through a straight portion of the layout--perfect for M&K Junction. It's a 2'X20' stretch along the back wall.

Finally, the coal can be moved to a shipping point, which is currently my passenger yard--another long stretch of about 2'X14'. The Varney Dockside can move cars around the yard. Might need to build a second one (great). Although I do have a 44 tonner that would suffice, and looks cool, too. Hadn't planned to model water, but I suppose it was only a matter of time.

The beauty of it is I can switch between eras and still be reasonably prototypical. CSX can run, if I'm feeling modern. B&O can operate when I'm feeling nostalgic. Gonna start drawing up plans tonight.

I think somebody is plotting my future behind the scenes.

Regards,

Jonathan

Johnson Bar Jeff · April 09, 2010, 12:49:03 PM

Quote from: J3a-614 on April 09, 2010, 07:11:17 AM
Johnson Bar Jeff likes 19th century power; he might like these links (and consider this locomotive another to wish for):

http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/abboc.Html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Winans

Although this is an HO forum, Johnson Bar may want to consider a change to O scale, simply because of what is available (even though it's not cheap).

http://usmrr.blogspot.com/

http://usmrr.blogspot.com/search/label/Locomotives

http://www.smrtrains.com/

http://factorydirecttrains.com/winanscamellocos.aspx

There is this firm, too, which does have some HO Civil War equipment as well (though no locomotives):

http://www.btsrr.com/

http://www.btsrr.com/bts9506.htm

If Johnson Bar is in the East, I invite him (and anyone else) to West Virginia.

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,12784.0.html

Enjoy.

Many thanks for your kindness and trouble in finding and posting these links, J3. Maybe I'll try to download some of the pictures. ...

Those models are indeed beautiful things to behold, but I think at this point in my life I have far too many years and far too much money invested in HO. I'm happy with where I am in the hobby. I'm not sure what I'd do with a $1200 locomotive anyway.

I am in the East, BTW--Philadelphia,to be exact. And I saw the Martinsburg roundhouse from the window of my roommette on my way to Chicago on the Capitol Limited last August.

J3a-614 · April 10, 2010, 02:23:39 AM

I'm not a teacher, at least not as part of a school system. I am an auditor with the state of West Virginia (I make sure businessmen report wages and pay unemployment tax properly), and I guess I am a teacher in that I spend a lot of my time explaining unemployment compensation law and related matters to these employers so they can pay the appropriate taxes properly. This includes making sure they do not pay too much tax as much as making sure they pay what they owe. After all, they can use the money for their business to help make more jobs!

Funny that you talk about "homework;" that gave me the idea that you can use a reading list. Here are some things I think you'll like (even if your wallet doesn't). I am recalling some of the titles by memory (my library is downstairs) so not all of them may be totally accurate, but you have a good and intelligent readership on this thread, they can correct me and make additional suggestions:

B&O Power, by Larry Sagle and Al Staufer, published by Al Staufer, 1964, no longer in print. B&O locomotives from 1827 to 1960, written mostly by B&O's publicity man of the time.

A Centenial History of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, by Edward Hungerford (2 volumes), published in 1927 as part of the B&O's centenial. History of the road up to that time, although something of a PR piece (B&O historian Herb Harwood called it an "opera liberato, or something like that).

http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20090705/COL03/307059997/-1/COL03

Impossible Challenge, by Herb H. Harwood; currently available from Barhard Roberts and Company; history of the B&O's original lines in Maryland from Baltimore to Harpers Ferry.

East End, the Neck of the Bottle, Jeffrey Hollis and Charles Roberts, Barnhard Roberts and Company; B&O from Harpers Ferry to Cumberland.

West End, by Charles Roberts, Barnhard Roberts and Company; B&O from Cumberland to Grafton.

Royal Blue Line, Herb H. Harwood, Barnhard Roberts and Company, B&O from Baltimore to Jersey City (New York City).

Sand Patch, Charles Roberts, Barnhard Roberts and Company; B&O from Cumberland to Connelsville, Pa.

While looking up the Barnhard Roberts material, I came across this:

http://www.barnardroberts.com/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_S._Roberts

http://www.bing.com/search?q=herbert+h.+harwood&FORM=HPNTDF&pc=HPNTDF&src=IE-SearchBox

Be careful not to have too much fun, for your wallet's sake!

J3a-614 · April 10, 2010, 03:39:59 AM

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B&O Power (Suggestions)

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