Modeling the prototype of a freelance locomotive

[ryeguyisme]

Construction Continues

Disassembly:


Had to cut down the motor frame:


Added pilot truck:



Cut down on the cylinders and modified it for the assembly as well as a bit of assembly


And Finally put the pieces together to see how it looks so far:


^Reference

[pdlethbridge]

I see that the front truck on the tender has side rods. It's a booster engine so there should be an exhaust stack on the tender too. You're off to a good start. I like the way you mounted the front truck on the engine. I feel that's the only way to get that truck to track successfully.

[ryeguyisme]

I see that the front truck on the tender has side rods. It's a booster engine so there should be an exhaust stack on the tender too. You're off to a good start. I like the way you mounted the front truck on the engine. I feel that's the only way to get that truck to track successfully.

The booster truck on the tender is called a Franklin Booster, I have about five of these nifty things in HO, and I continue to collect them as I come across them. You can usually find them by precision craft co. for about $14-$24 they can also be found on some brass locomotives and the newer rivarossi 0-8-0's.

The front pilot is a lot less trouble than I thought it was going to be, the real problem I face at the moment is the side rods and valve gear assemblies. The Varney side-rods are long enough but they're die-cast so they like to break easily. I took the main rods off an older bachmann 2-8-0 and I hope that'll possibly solve my problem, but I'm skeptical because it doesn't have the same appearance to it.

[J3a-614]

Rye,

That music on your YouTube channel--Argh!!!

I had (and still have) a rebellious streak in music myself that drove my parents bats at times, but it took a different turn from yours--old-time stuff!  I was "country when country wasn't cool," taking a liking to what are now classic country performers like Johnny Cash and Hank Snow, loved the idea we had a live radio show in Wheeling called the WWVA Jamboree that was nearly as old as the Grand Old Opry in Nashville on WSM.  Later, when country got too modern for my taste in the later 1970s, I "discovered" a throwback called blue grass.  Surprisingly, blue grass is a relatively modern form, dating from the 1940s, was primarily "invented" by Bill Monroe as he searched for a distinctive sound for his own band at the time (and he thought some of the country sound was getting too "modern" then!)

Funny thing--Johnny Cash in his early years, and the Seldom Scene in the 1970s, were considered revolutionary in their fields at those times!

A sample or two from a favorite band of mine, the Seldom Scene; one clip is from the 1970s (and sadly the band is not the same, especially since John Duffy passed away at the relatively young age of 56):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk9vhhGyRyo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m180ipearwY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-Q-PhU8I-I&feature=related

While on the subject of vintage sound, check out this video of Mike Dodd's now dismantled New River Division of the Virginian Railway.  For atmosphere, Dodd found an old 1950s radio and had a friend record a "broadcast" from 1954 that he had run into the radio from a CD player. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmAT6p1cb9k

http://www.mdodd.com/virginian/index.html

http://www.mdodd.com/virginian/sound-module.html

I wonder if anyone else has appropriate background sound (which could be just music, and my blue grass is certainly appropriate for any Appalachian railroad)--and I wonder what the appropriate sounds would be?

This is from some fellow in California who is also a C&O man; great sounds from just the trains:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2B6xxDRJAM&feature=related

If you're hoping to "recreate" part of the G&D, you may want to consider a second Russian Decapod to simulate the Jim Findley's Tioga Pass connecting service.  Findley would have used a Frisco version of the engine, as that was all that was available from Pacific Fast Mail at the time:

http://www.gdlines.com/GD_Galleries/locomotives/slides/Tioga_Pass_right_1.html

http://www.gdlines.com/GD_Galleries/locomotives/slides/Tioga_Pass_left_3.html

Other comments:  I wouldn't worry too much about Varney-Bowser cast rods; if John Allen used them, they would have held up well enough.  They don't have tor transmit thrust like the prototype does!

Took a look at your Christmas display videos as well,  Did I see an AHM 0-8-0 (Indiana Harbor Belt prototype) among the engines on a passenger train?  This also would have been a nice display in the Model Railroad Showcase promotion Martinsburg's Main Street organization used to run.

Enjoy, and good luck at finding work again.   

[pdlethbridge]

As much as I like some C&W, I'm more into Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller like Chattanooga choo choo

[J3a-614]

I just put in a new post on a real Jet Train; there's a music sample there you will appreciate.

[pdlethbridge]

I did!

[ryeguyisme]

Yes that was a newer Rivarossi 0-8-0, I have a tendency to collect them

errr yes that's my christmas display I put on every year for the kids waiting in line to see santa, my apologies as the engine was rather speedy since the layout dirties up while I'm not always at my post to operate it(need hot cocoa sometimee) I even had a double header of these babies pulling a freight when my Spectrum 2-6-6-2 needed maintenance.

As far as music I listen to alot of music that just happens to be the music I listen to at them moment, but anything else beats rap and some of that hip hop i can't stand it, the subliminal and direct messages kind of disgust me.

Back to the project: The die cast side rods kept breaking on me when I was trying to bend them a bit for main driver clearance not to mention the dremel had to be used to shim them down a bit, and they both broke in like three places, so superglue was used

I'm actually needing to get back to work on this project as I said I'd complete it and I've become overwhelmed by needing to fix the drivers

[Guilford Guy]

If I had known you were starting this project, I wouldn't have given away the Bowser 4-8-2 and Spectrum 2-8-0. Oh well, does Bowser/Cary still carry side rods?

[ryeguyisme]

If I had known you were starting this project, I wouldn't have given away the Bowser 4-8-2 and Spectrum 2-8-0. Oh well, does Bowser/Cary still carry side rods?

Alex -_____-


haha, um I talked with the Bowser guys at Springfield in January and they said they're discontinuing their whole steam line due to the massive market of RTR models and such. I wouldn't blame them when they price their kits higher than that of it's RTR competition. So I doubt they'll have much of that in stock

[RAM]

Just a point of interest.  I talked with the Bowser guy ten years or so ago.  He said that was looking for magnets for the motors in their street car.  Fro china they had this reply.  For that price we can make the whole motor.  So guess who quite making motors.  That was just the start of production going over seas.

[ryeguyisme]

Just a point of interest.  I talked with the Bowser guy ten years or so ago.  He said that was looking for magnets for the motors in their street car.  Fro china they had this reply.  For that price we can make the whole motor.  So guess who quite making motors.  That was just the start of production going over seas.

I'm not a fan of watching our industries go overseas. Now the Chinese middle class is growing and theres more and more Chinese model trains coming out now that more people can buy them D:

[ryeguyisme]

Today I did some grinding away at the boiler so the mechanism will fit nicely in without problem. It's coming along, I just need to figure out what I'm going to do with the side rods and valve gear. This is one of my toughest projects yet but I'm so dtermined I won't give up on the dream

[pdlethbridge]

Why don't you have a look here for parts. http://www.bowser-trains.com/misc/misc.htm
Look in misc parts 1. lots of valve gear, main rod parts

[ryeguyisme]

Why don't you have a look here for parts. http://www.bowser-trains.com/misc/misc.htm
Look in misc parts 1. lots of valve gear, main rod parts

I've finally decided just to stick with the bachman old 2-8-0 side-rods as they're flexible and won't break. I also stopped procrastinating and got to work on the valve mechanisms as well:



have one side done now, once the glue dries I'll do the other side, and then the final mechanism assembly. Then it'll be all down to doing the rest of the detailing the boiler and then construction of the tendet