Thanks folks. It looks like I'll be using a Powerhouse, USRA Light Mike from Oriental Limited as I had one stored away. It was not difficult to remove the boiler from the Westside, Wabash J-1 Pacific and drop out the mechanism and frame from the Powerhouse Mike.
The only issue I see right now is the motor is too far back to fit in the firebox of the brass engine by about a 1/4". Yes, I could remove and modify the motor bracket, change the drive shaft coupling and move the motor suspension spring under the bracket. But I think it will be much easier just to find a shorter can motor (or spend more for a rare earth, coreless motor).
The front porch and pilot of the Powerhouse engine are removable with screws, so I can change that easily as well as move the pony and trailer trucks. There will be some detail changes but nothing major. It looks very doable. Wish me luck.
Victor A. Baird
www.erstwhilepublications.com
The Athearn Mikados were very smooth runners, but, as Ed notes, poor pullers, with a few other minor issues.Since you need only the mechanism, the lack of fine detail on the boiler shouldn't be an issue (I didn't think it to be that bad, and didn't replace much of it on mine). The lack of tractive effort was mostly attributeable to poor balance and a somewhat light weight. Both of these problems are correctable, depending on how much work you're willing to do. There's a detailed procedure of what I did here:
bigbluetrains.com/forum/viewtopic
Since you're using a different boiler, you could add the weight in the boiler instead of onto the mechanism. The amount of weight is not as important, though, as it is to balance that weight. The fully-assembled loco (without its tender) should balance around a point mid-way between its two centre driver sets - add or remove weight as necessary until that balance is attained.As for the limited pick-up, I put tender trucks from a Bachmann Consolidation under the Athearn tender - only a slight modification to the tender was necessary. I run DC, and found that the improved pick-up was sufficient, but it's not all that difficult to add all-wheel pick-up to any tender. There's some info on that here:
You should be able to find these Athearn locos quite readily, and at reasonable prices, too. I bought two in the initial release, and when I learned how to improve them, quickly bought two more at bargain prices. Some modellers reported an issue with a split gear, although mine, which are double-headed in regular service on a rather heavy coal train, have had no problems. I did buy a fifth Mike, also at a reasonable price, from an acquaintance who had replaced that gear, as a matter of course, with one from NWSL. They do offer a gear specifically for this loco, so you'll not be left stranded if the mechanism you buy has that defect or later develops it.Here's one of my updated Mikes:
...and one which I did for a friend:
Wayne
Victor,
I'm not skilled enough to modify locomotives to a specific prototype, but if you are looking for a reliable chassis I don't think you can beat the BLI Mikado.
Mine was a 2004 Christmas present from my wife and has run almost continuously on the BRVRR for going on 11-years without a single problem. The sound is good and the BLI motor control is better than "pretty good" IMHO.
It can crawl so slow it is almost imperceptible and it pulls like a heard of elephants. A great little engine.
Remember its your railroad
Allan
Track to the BRVRR Website: http://www.brvrr.com/
Hi, Victor
One of my favorite USRA Mikes is the GTW 4070 which I had the pleasure of being intimately involved with back in the early 1970s.
This photo shows the roll out in May of 1975 at the B&O W.3rd. St. Yard. Fresh paint and all. I have always wanted a good representation of this engine.
Here's another view from later in the year after she had a few miles under her driving boxes running from Cleveland to Akron on the B&O.
I bought several of the Athearn Genesis USRA Light Mikados but I was never quite satisfied with them. They are poor pullers and only have pickup from the eight drivers. I did like the ease of attaching a decoder that tucked into the tender through an opening under the deck plate. Detail was OK but somewhat sparse for a "Genesis" series.
About a year ago I got the bug to look for another Mike to dress up into what is depicted in the above photos and I came across an ebay seller offering a BLI Blueline Light Mikado that had sound problems, which turned out to simply be a bad speaker.
I had planned to ditch the sound-only decoder anyway and I installed my first TCS WOWsound keep-alive decoder and I couldn't be more satisfied with that arrangement. It is still in PRR paint and doesn't have a Coffin feed water heater but it is pretty darned close. I don't know if you would have the same luck but the BLI turned out to be one of my favorite engines on the roster.
I gave away all but one of the Athearn 2-8-2s. Nice to look at but just don't cut the mustard.
Good Luck, Ed
I think the IHC 2-8-2 would be a good starting point. It's a smooth, quiet runner with a simple chassis design that should be easy to modify. I can't seem to find the diagram for you to look at, but I did at least find one for the old Model Power 4-6-2, which is very similar. http://hoseeker.net/modelpower/modelpower462pacificpg2.jpg
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For one of my kitbashing projects down the road I'm going to need a USRA, Light Mikado mechanism to built a model of a unique 2-8-2 for my favorite RR. (It appears the driver diameter and wheel base on the USRA prototype are very close to my non USRA engine.) I already have the unique boiler, tender and cab from a brass 4-6-2 loco, as my RR used these indentical components for its 4-6-2 and 2-8-2.
Quite a few manufacturers have made the USRA Light Mikado in HO so I'd like to hear what some of you think would be the best mechanism to use as a donor including price.
Thanks in Advance Victor A. Baird http://www.erstwhilepublications.com