Athearn 2-8-2 Progress Report

[tomwatkins]

Hi Nigel,
My railroad is based loosely of the western end of the Murphy Branch,from Murphy to the eastern side of Red Marble Mountain. It 's set in the late 40's-early 50's and will include compressed but recognizable versions of Murphy, Andrews and Topton NC as well as the Graham County RR interchange.
As I'm sure you know, The Southern served the western end of the branch with Ks class Consolidations and small low drivered Pacifics. The light Mikes didn't venture farther west than Waynesville. I understand that they tried to turn one once on the wye at Balsam and put it on the ground. The L&N used their H-28 and 29 Consolidations to come into Murphy from Blue Ridge Ga. Later F-units and GP-7's were used by both roads.
This is where my railroad departs from reality. During the floods of 1916, three of the four rail lines coming into Asheville were washed out . The Southern's lines from Spartanburg, Spencer and Knoxville were gone until they could be rebuilt. The Murphy Branch was all that was left to keep supplies coming into Asheville. The Southern routed everything over the L&N to Blue Ridge and then up their Murphy Branch to get back on Southern rails at Murphy. I've read that they ran trains about fifteen to thirty minutes apart, twenty four hours a day for a while. After the lines were repaired, the Southern and L&N entered into a discussion of trackage rights exchange on both Murphy Branches. This would have given the Southern a more direct route from Atlanta to Asheville and would have given the L&N a connection with the Clinchfield at Marion NC. The discussions came to nothing because of the amount of rebuilding (heavier rail, eased curves and grades, stronger bridges) required on both lines to handle increased and heavier traffic.
In my 1/87th scale version of the world the discussions were successful, improvements were made, and locomotives and traffic are heavier.
I agree that a closer, low drivered Consol would be nice, as would a starting point for an H-28 or 29. However, with detailing, moving the running boards and domes relocated, the Spectrum 2-8-0 is Ok as a stand-in for the Ks class Southerns. It's nowhere close to an L&N Consolidation. This is one reason I decided to rewrite history a bit. And it's fun. I'm having a ball with it.
I did mis-speak myself in my last post. My next,fairly minor project, is going back into another Athearn 2-8-2 and bringing it up to "current standards" It's detailed out as the L&n's J-3 #1519. Now that I know what to do it won't take long.
Thanks Again,
Tom Watkins

[nfmisso]

Hi Tom;

Are you modeling the Murphy Branch? It is a great route to model, no matter what the era.

The Ks were a bit smaller and lighter than the model the Spectrum 2-8-0 represents. It would be really nice if they came out with a 56" drivered 2-8-0, closer for Southern and N&W. <G>

Do you subscribe to the Murphy Branch group on Yahoo! ?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MURPHY_BRANCH_PRJCT/?yguid=161198982

[tomwatkins]

Hi Nigel,
The 2-8-0's can also get some additional weight. However, the Southern rated their Ks class Consolidations at 14 loaded 40' cars plus a caboose running double headed over the Red Marble Mountain grade in western NC. The Spectrums come a lot closer to that now than the Mikes came to what they normally pulled on the eastern end of the Murphy Branch. Besides, I wanted the Mikes to be capable of pulling more than the Consols. And, I'll admit that I didn't want to let a 1/87th scale model beat me. My next project will be a Southern Ms-4 Heavy Mike, based on the new BLI model, which I really like so far.
Thanks again,
Tom Watkins

[nfmisso]

Hi Tom;

Your efforts paid off well...

Now what are you going to do about your Spectrum 2-8-0? The prototype had about the same tractive effort as the USRA Light Mike due to about the same amount of weight on the drivers. The Mike's bigger firebox provided more horsepower ---> more speed with any given load.

[tomwatkins]

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a question about a problem with my Athearn Light Mikes not pulling well on grades. I had previously added about 2 oz. of weight in the smoke box area and over the front 2 drivers. despite this, they would only pull 7 40' cars and a caboose up my ruling, 2.5-2.6% curving grade. This was no better than my stock weighted Spectrum
2-8-0's and I was looking for help.
I got it. A couple of people recommended that I ignore the balance problem that exists with these locomotives and add more weight over the rear drivers and also remove the trailer truck spring.
I added A-Line 1/32 sheet lead to the chassis between the driver springs, ending it just in front of the motor. I also laminated the sheet lead onto the factory weight on both sides,using several separate pieces for each side. I had previously done this over the front 2 sets of drivers, so this time I added it in the smokebox area and over the rear 2 sets of drivers. I had to round off the edges of the lead and file and sand some areas inside the shell to get everything to fit, but it does.
Success! The locomotive now weights 16.1 oz. and pulls much better. It will easily pull 9 properly weighted 40' cars and a caboose up my ruling grade, and with careful use of the throttle it will pull a bit more.
Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it
Tom Watkins