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Best HO engine kit manufacturer
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I have been working on an Arbour Models C&O K4 Kanawha. For about 15 years. Most of us know that these kits were pretty expensive, and the mechanisms were pretty bad. I finally gave up, after installing new brass side frames, brass tube bearings for the drivers (the geared driver had an axle smaller than the others, and installing an NWSL drive train and motor. I had spent a lot of time detaling the boiler and tender, but the frame was, as above a POS. I was digging around on my shelf and found a Bowser N&W J replacement mechanism and got to looking the two over and the J mechanism slipped into the Arbour boiler pretty slick. Even the Arbour eccentrics worked pretty well, the tapped threads in the Bowser drivers were the same as the Arbour threads. But the Arbour siderods, drivers, frame, all pretty bad. I ended up with a pretty presentable K4, compared to the brass version I have, but it was a lot of work, only for someone who enjoys taking sow's ears and fabricating a silk purse from them. I am pretty proud of myself. My next project is to try to make a Rock Island R-67 Northern from the Bowser "generic" Northern. Yes, I have the brass R-67, but being a glutton for punishment, this is a challenge.
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