american 4-4-0

[hudson488]

is there any company out there that can makes the american locomotive with out the motor in the tender?

[skipgear]

How much are you willing to pay? It can be done but the motor alone for the loco will cost more than any of the 3 currently produced Americans. Then the issue is, would it actually be able to pull anything? If you replace all the weight currently in the boiler with the motor, the loco's will loose half their weight and that much or more of their tractive effort. The other option is to have the motor hanging out of the back of the cab, I would rather deal with the driveshaft between the loco and tender.

If you want an American with the motor in the boiler, there is always the more modern Model Power version.

[n-scale chesapeake & ohio]

y do you need the motor in the cab? if for dcc there is a site giving instructions on how to install a micro decoder in the tender.

[hudson488]

see the problem i have with the tender motor is the shaking of the tender. and i feel it has more possibility of breaking

[skipgear]

Really, breaking is not much of an issue unless you plan on dropping the loco. Which version of the 4-4-0 do you have. The latest production runs seem to rum much better than the older ones. I think the stiffened up the springs under the tender that make contact with the trucks, giving better electrical pickup and stabilizing the tender a bit.

If the tender rocks alot, I bet the loco has been stalled on a turnout before. If you do this, the springs heat up and loose thier tension (ask me how I know) and the loco no longer runs well at all.