Dave ; Thanks a lot for all the info,I'am sure I'll have fun with this one!My lay out is 42"X8'It is in the middle stage of work.LOL. I'll get some pictures up before long!
JIM
Jim,
I canibalized my Trix 2-10-0 for parts (i.e., the boiler and tender shells)... Max Magliaro is the guy who recently did a 3-part story in Railroad Model Craftsman on building a PRR Class I1sa 2-10-0 in N scale. He essentially extended a Kato 2-8-2 by adding a 5th driver and extended side rods. He then used the GHQ L1s 2-8-2 pewter boiler conversion kit.
The Trix 2-10-0 should handle 11" radius curves. If I remember correctly, there's plenty of side-play in the mdidle drivers. I don't recall, but it might even have a blind center driver (like the real PRR I1 class).
A few minor points to bear in mind with your 2-10-0. The drivers are undersized (in part because of the deep flanges that require Code 70 track or higher) and the cylinders don't line up with the steam pipes. This is because the mechanism was made for a German loco and they simply placed the K4 boiler on it to make the I1.
I found that out-of-the-box the running quality was kind of poor, mainly due to the electrical contacts (or lack thereof). Cleaning up the contact wipers and making sure they touch the wheels and axles will help greatly.
Overall, though, out of the box it looks quite Pennsy.
Now, you can get an even more accurate looking I1 if you shorten the boiler a bit behind the smokebox so the steam pipes line up with the cylinders. Also, the bell and dome need to be swapped (that's not so easy, but also not impossible). The tender can be used as-is, although it's technically a passenger tender (PRR class 90P75, IIRC), but photographic evidence suggests 90P75 and similar 90F82 class tenders made it to the back end of I1s from time to time.
Good luck, and welcome to N scale PRR steam!
EDIT: Oh, yeah... My minimum radius is 13.5". My M1 will not handle that. It stays on my outside main at 15". I don't like that, but I'm limited by the 4-8-2's rather picky lack of side-play and my own choice of drawbar configuration.
The current layout is a "placeholder" until I have the room to build a much bigger Pennsy. At that time I plan for an 18" minimum radius, freeing up the M1 to handle any track.
Modeling the Rio Grande Southern First District circa 1938-1946 in HOn3.
Dave;
I just won an trix 2-10-0 N scale,I know you have worked on an PRR 10 wheeler(kitbashed)How does it handle you curves?? And what is your min radi on you cuves?
Thanks for your great work in N scale!!
Imagine that... literally!" border="0" width="15" height="15" />
Don't know as I'd do that if I were you, Dave. The PSP (Prototype Secret Police) are everywhere. Those black helicopters don't belong to the gummint, but to the PSP. They know your every thought and tinfoil hats don't suppress the signal. The only thing that will keep them from catching you in such a heinous act is to smear yourself with raw hamburger and go without a bath for a week or two.
Andre
Dave,
You do know that at one time the PRR considered (seriously) extending their electrified trackage as far west as Pittsburg, don't you?
Oh, and how did you make th smoke for the steamers in your pictures? JK LOL
-George
"And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers ride their father's magic carpet made of steel..."
My first train was a Lionel GG1 with three Pullman heavywieghts. My dad got it for me when I was 4 years old in 1949.
My brother and sister both had steam drawn freights. I was jealous because I thought the steam locomotives looked neater.
I wish I still had my GG1 today, I just didn't realize what a prize it was.
I hope you have a few heavyweights to drag behind yours when you get it.
mls1621 wrote: Dave,You could have the GG1 being transported across your division, behind steam or a Geep.Just turn off the headlight. It will appear to be rolling along behind your head end power.
You could have the GG1 being transported across your division, behind steam or a Geep.
Just turn off the headlight. It will appear to be rolling along behind your head end power.
I thought about that.... But a few counter-arguments come to mind.
If I just want a dead unit to drag I can save my bucks and use my existing Arnold/Rivarossi GG1. No, I figure the Kato GG1 will run like a Kato, which means I'll want her running. Of course, as you suggest I could have her running headlight off and pans down, so as to appear to be dead-in-tow, but really pulling.
Good point.
But then the other issue is why she'd be in tow on the Middle Division at all. One GG1 was rebuilt at Altoona in the 1950s; that's the one that lost its brakes and crashed into the Washington Union Station concourse. She was repainted Tuscan Red with 5 stripes (instead of DGLE like the Kato). But this was a one-time deal. All repairs on the GG1 fleet, including heavy class overhauls, were done on the Northeast Corridor facility at Edgemoor, never leaving the elctrified territory.
So... I'm thinking I may have to take a giant step away from prototype up-tightness, and just run her from time to time with rear pan up (Pennsy standard procedure) and pretend that there's catenary!
Imagine that... literally!
sleeper33 wrote: DaveWhen you get your GG1 how are you going to do the cantery? or how much r u going to need?
Dave
When you get your GG1 how are you going to do the cantery? or how much r u going to need?
Hmmmm.... I have to have a GG1, no question about it. But the Middle Divison wasn't electrified. That poses a problem...!
Someday, when I do the "big one," I've been thinking of adding a short stretch of electrified track. I was thinking like an "impressions of Pennsy" layout that would include Philly 30th Street, Enola, some town on the Middle Divison (like Huntingdon or Lewistown), a coal mine, and Altoona. So Philly to Enola (across from Harrisburg) would be "wired."
Lewistown presents a good LDE candidate because there was a steel mill just up the track (Standard Steel at Burnham on the Milroy Secondary). Plus Lewistown had a yard and a small engine terminal.
Modeling the fictional B&M Dowe, NH branch in the early 50's.
The debate rages every few weeks about when the "golden age" of model railroading was. I'm convinced that in N scale, the golden age is NOW.
Er, uh, Dave, it doesn't matter which scale we're talking about. Now definitely is the golden age.
P.S. I like the working position light signals. That's cool. Adds a touch of authenticity to your layout. Now, if someone would just make Harriman style lower quadrant semaphores in N scale.....
I have been to your site a couple of times and I love the 6 minute intro video. I watched it before I looked at your trackplan and I was blown away when I saw that it is only 36 x 80. Excellent work and the operating signals are great.
Gary
Dave:
Any, and all, photos you show of you layout are just awesome. I plan on starting out with a layout like yours and then add it to a larger layout when I get the room finished.
Mike (mls1621)
I like the photos of your layout too. I, and I bet others, would like to see more.
My layout will be around the wall of a 10ft x 14ft room.
Keep up the great work.
As space constraints and the stress of moving often (I'm active-duty Air Force) made HO less and less practical, I looked at N with envy in terms of size. But I was never quite sure I could do what I wanted to do convincingly in N. But then around 2000 or so, MR ran a few really nice layout features in N scale. Lance Mindheim and the late David Haines had shown me N scale layouts that looked better than most of the HO ones I'd seen. Then I stumbled across Jerry Britton's reproduction of 1954-era Pennsylvania Railroad 4-track mainline operations. I was sold.
So, in March 2002 I switched scales and never looked back.
Atlas, Kato, Athearn, IRC, ConCor, and Bachmann Spectrum are hitting the market reularly with new and exciting locomotives that perform (for the most part) on-par with HO, and there are a wealth of small manufacturers making proto-specific cars and structures. Even for us kitbashers, we've never had such a choice of materials in N.
Add to that our two dedicated publications, and N scale is doing just fine these days.
A big boost came along when the prototype modelers started taking N scale seriously. Now I can build a highly-detailed and accurate metal brass, wood, and zinc exact model of a PRR/TTX F30d or a cast-resin and brass PRR X31a or B60b... The possibilities in N are growing every day.
The best decision I ever made in model railroading (after asking for a train set for my 8th birthday) was to switch to N.
Cool! My 2000th post! I need a life...
No matter how you slice it, unless you have a vast room to work with in a larger scale, you can't beat N scale for it's scenery to train ratio. I shot this last weekend, and in my opinion, it's perfectly do-able in N on even an average size layout...
Look for more threads on N scale, not less. The range and quality of products available grows every day, and there's a lot of people of all ages finding the benefits of working in N. No longer must we skulk about in the shadows.
I'm N with the N crowd!
Lee
Route of the Alpha Jets www.wmrywesternlines.net
Always enjoy your pics, DV.
...and from what I've seen at shows in the Mid-Atlantic region, N-Scale is still very much alive and well, thank you.
your photos are really impressive! Thanks for posting them!
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Really nice! Truly inspiring work, a joy to behold. What curve radius are you using on that layout?
Thanks...!
The smoke is using the airbrush function in Paint Shop Pro 7.
Sawyer Berry
Clemson University c/o 2018
Building a protolanced industrial park layout
Dave Vollmer wrote:We catch up to M1 #6811 again at Jack's Run (below):
We catch up to M1 #6811 again at Jack's Run (below):
Yeah, the smoke is the clincher.
How do you create the photographic smoke?
Conemaugh Road & Traction circa 1956
Dave- those are some great pics! I'm not a steam guy but I like seeing the smoke, it makes the pics more alive.
Mike- Your pics look great too! I would love to see a trackplan.
BTW- since I am also an N-scaler, I would love to see more in the forums.
Craig
Dave-
Wow, your N-scale layout makes me want to start on a little 21"x21" N scale layout I'm planning.
keep up the good work. Its very hard to tell that your layout is only the size of a door! good job!
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot Visit my blog! http://becomingawarriorpoet.blogspot.com
Bruce, my condolences on your Pats!
But if I may... I would say that for every N scale thread here there's maybe 10-20 more HO threads. If N scale is roughly 20% of the hobby (per CNJ831, I think), then we're still under-represesnted here thread-wise. But no matter; plenty of other forums have N-scale specific sub-forums.
I stay here mainly because it's a good way to keep abreast of everything going on in all scales, and from noob to collector to dabbler to hardcore prototyper. But I also feel if I'm going to take from this site (i.e., the info about what's going on outside N scale) I ought to give back.
If an HO guy is really getting tired of all these N scale threads, I'm not going to lose sleep. After all, here and in the pages of MR, it's just assumed that you're HO unless otherwise specified. Sometimes that gets exhausting for the non-HO modeler.
I feel bad for the S, Z, and O people here because they get even less coverage. But, I'm sure they have their own forums, and I know they have their own publications.
I heard elsewhere (and I can't confirm its truth) that the reduced N scale coverage at MR is due to MR conceding the field to N Scale Magazine and N Scale Railroading. It sounds somewhat plausible. Either that, or the more cynical reason; the big advertisers in MR make their money in HO, so that's what MR pushes. Could be. Who knows.
Things are alive and well in N scale. However, if all anyone were exposed to were this forum and this magazine, one would get an incorrect picture of the vitality of N scale right now. The same could be said for any scale besides HO.
It appears that my post may not have been clearly understood. I would never suggest that Dave (or anyone) switch scales or stop sharing work - unless they really wanted to. It's just that I had been noticing a lot of N-centric topics lately, and I feared that our fellow modelers in other scales might be getting a bit weary of it.
I also may not have been in the best of moods yesterday because our beloved PATS lost a heartbreaker of a Super Bowl. And now that Dave has admitted to being a Giants fan, well, I might just have to put a contract out on him or something...
Honesty Dave, your Giants played well. Congratulations.
Now off to therapy...
MAbruce wrote: Dave Vollmer wrote: My apologies for the repeat post, but as I've been told, I'm now an unofficial MR Forums N Scale Advocate.Not that I have a problem with your advocate title, and have always thought your work is top notch, but I fear the line of N-scale overload has been crossed. Out of concern for oversaturating all that is N-scale, maybe it's time to give it a little rest?
Dave Vollmer wrote: My apologies for the repeat post, but as I've been told, I'm now an unofficial MR Forums N Scale Advocate.
My apologies for the repeat post, but as I've been told, I'm now an unofficial MR Forums N Scale Advocate.
Not that I have a problem with your advocate title, and have always thought your work is top notch, but I fear the line of N-scale overload has been crossed. Out of concern for oversaturating all that is N-scale, maybe it's time to give it a little rest?
YES! YES!!
TOO MUCH N SCALE! TOO MUCH N SCALE!!
Just kidding.
Good modeling is good modeling, in whatever scale one is working. To me, N scale is just too small. From some of the photos in this thread, it clearly isn't for others. I'll stick with HO, where I can achieve moderately good results, and just continue to enjoy the products of those who have mastered the intricacies of working in Nano Scale. So saturate away! As long as it's model railroading, I don't really care what the scale is.
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton