The tender of my Bachmann Niagra was too light and the cheap plastic wheel sets caused frequent derailment.So I found brass upgrade parts from Key Imports on The Bay!Solved the problem!
Nice job, philo! And I'm sure the Lego is doing its part, too.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
OK... what is the Lego brick for?
Good news on the tender fix.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
C'mon, Kevin! It's a counterweight so the tender doesn't tip forward.
Ok I used it as a wheel block alignment tool while I drilled and tapped the holes in the tender floor.
Shortly after Bachmann introduced their version of the Santa Fe Northern, I bought one, with the intention of Canadian-ising it, as the CNR owned more Northerns than any other railroad.While I added brass details, mostly to the front end, I wasn't trying to make it into a CNR locomotive, as I wanted it for one of my freelanced roads. I did give it a vestibule cab, though, simply cutting the sides out of sheet styrene, then, after shaving-off any three-dimensional details from the sides of the model, cemented the new sides in-place.Once the cement had dried, I used my X-Acto to remove any portions of the original cab which showed through the windows.
The tender was a bit of a problem, though, as it had eight-wheel trucks, was an oil tender, and was abnormally long (okay for a Santa Fe Northern, but not so much for what I wanted.
One day, I was visiting a hobbyshop, (not my usual one at the time) where I saw a modern-style Tyco ACF covered hopper (lettered for Old Dutch Cleanser) that had been damaged by the sun when used as a window display. I enquired about the price, and was surprised that I could have it for nothing, as there were definitely some useful parts left on the otherwise badly-warped body.
Without going into too much detail, I cut-up the Bachmann trucks, then re-assembled portions of the sideframes into an eight wheel centipede-type bed.
I then dug-up a copy of MR from my collection, with a full page ad for a brass steam locomotive with a centipede tender - it was black & white, but nice and crisp-looking and, it was printed in HO scale! I traced its shape, then transferred it to sheet styrene, cementing them onto the re-worked sideframe. The spring detail was done using parts from Kadee draught gear boxes and some brass wire.
The Bachmann tender was then cut-up, shortened, and re-assembled, with a fully modelled coal bunker (I use loose "coal" in all my steam locomotives' tenders).I then cut-up the Tyco car, salvaging the top of the curved sides. They were cut to length, then cemented to the modified original tender, with the centipede bed added. The front truck is, I believe, from an MDC passenger car...
It wasn't a great runner, but its downfall was its limited pulling abilities, as my layout has many fairly severe grades.It's now owned by a friend.
Wayne
Nice work!you went above and beyond to build the tender that you wanted !
Painted and installed!
philo426Painted and installed!
That looks good, and should track a lot better than the lighter plastic version.
Yes sir!a very worthwhile modification!
philo426Ok I used it as a wheel block alignment tool while I drilled and tapped the holes in the tender floor.
Okay, that's creative!!
I love the 'heft' of the whole wheel system. It gives a good indication of how much weight the tender was actually carrying.
Nice conversion!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Thanks nice to find the correct parts so easily.