suggested goldrush-era steam engine?

[JITO]

Hi,

my wife and I have been dreaming of purchasing our second engine and need some help.

We're modelling a late 1800's BC, Canada goldrush-era layout, complete with a mountain, waterfall, creek and pond. At the opposite end of the layout is the location of the "town". We've only constructed the train station at the moment but would like to add additional buildings.

Our train is a track-powered LGB starter set from about 5 years ago - PRR roadname - but we dream of re-lettering everything with the Cariboo Railroad name if we can ever figure out how to do that! We have an engine, tender, 2 passenger cars, a baggage car and a caboose for  a total of 5 cars. A 3% grade means that the engine won't handle all of that but could do 3 maybe 4.

What would be suggestions for a second engine that would have more pulling power and come with sound (or have an option to install) without spending an arm and a leg? We like the typical steam engine look and have enjoyed looking at the C-16 Consolidation (21402) with the blue boiler at the Aristocraft website. However, we've heard concerns about the drive-train system in it and can't determine if promised upgrades have taken place yet or not. An engine like the USA Trains Docksider caught our eye at a recent train show with its performance but wasn't quite what we were after style-wise.

thanks in advance for your suggestions and ideas.

Michael

 

[cabbage]

You are looking for a Double Fairlie.

Garden Railway Specialist sell their Kit for one at a not unreasonable price. You will require two 0-4-0 LGB chassis for it though. Several railway used them in Canada from about 1870 until 1910 when the last one was shipped from Avonside Works.

regards

ralph

[vsmith]

I would recommend an HLW Big John, its the same scale as the LGB set, has the power to pull on those grades and would be right at home on a late 19th cent mining or logging RR in Canada or the US

HLW Products

http://www.h-l-w.com/Products/locomotives.html

 

[cabbage]

Sorry Vic...

But there never were any Meyer type locos in Canada -let alone a Dunkirk!!! Some pretty weird Mallets from The Windsor Works -but nothing like a Big John. I admit it is a nice engine -plenty of traction to it. But it is dyed in the wool US -at this time "The Dominion of Canada" would have bought from the UK builders -with the notable exception of a railway in Quebec which went to the trouble of importing a "Golsdorf" designed loco from Haine St Pierre. Legend has it that they could not understand the technical french(!) and used an illiterate US loco driver to run it.

regards

ralph

[kstrong]

I can't speak to the specific prototypes which ran in BC in the late 1800s. I can speak to the Aristo C-16. The "latest" version of the drive is a belt-drive system that was introudced around 2008. The "Classics" line has been discontinued except for one version of the C-16, so don't expect there to be any revisions. To my understanding, the belt-driven C-16s have proven reliable. (My dad's got one he runs regularly.)

Later

K

[JITO]

thanks all for the suggestions.

I was checking out the Hartland website and see a couple of possibilities. Our train layout is a fun layout with the creation of the fictional Cariboo Railway with a gold-rush era theme. We're not concerned if something would have run in that area of BC or not. It just needs to look like it would fit right in and provide an enjoyable visual representation. The Big John from Hartland would certainly have been used in that logging context but doesn't quite fit into the desired visual of what we're after. One's like the C-16 or Hartland's Laporte or the Princess pulling a couple of passenger cars could look quite nice! Unfortunately, the Hartland website or their distributor's sites don't tell a lot about the engines themselves other than a brief description. Would you know if the Laporte or the Princess (or even the American engine) would have the necessary pulling power like the Big John?

thanks

[JITO]

Hi, the Wife here (the person on the right side of the photo...and the one who lugged 98% of the rocks to the back yard and created the mountain and the waterfall),

So we're going a little bug-eyed and more than a little crazy trying to work out WHO makes WHAT engine that could work in our little garden railway (and looks good, too!).  Prototypical is not an issue - we're mixing a lot of historical fact with some G-scale liberties.  Our space is very limited, so we had no choice but to use some 5 foot curves (it's a mixture of 5 and 8 foot curves), so as gorgeous as some of the engines are, they're simply physically too big to run on our little railway.

What we need is to know WHO makes steam engines in 1:24 scale, so they fit in with our cars, and can run on 5' curves, and they need to look "at home" pulling passenger cars. (and being nice looking would be a real bonus).  :)

Thanks much!

Shannon

[JITO]

m