My prototype inspiration, Tooele Valley Railway #11 as seen in its current museum display
I mentioned in another thread that I was starting a 2-8-0 rebuild project, stripping down a Bachmann model and then detailing it. The goal is to make the locomotive appear like my hometown steam engine Tooele Valley Railway #11 (FYI, its pronounced Two-Will-uh. Don't ask me why.)
One of the scanned images I have from the Tooele Valley Museum & Historic Park's collection is this photo showing Tooele Valley #11 leading a quadruptle-header consist on the Tooele Valley Railway. Trailing behind it are in order are locomotives #10, #12, and #9. #12 was another B&S engine and identical to #11, #9 and #10 were both former Butte Anaconda & Pacific engines. All four were ALCO Brooks built.
The prototype is a 1910 ALCO Brooks built engine that was originally intended for use on the Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad as their locomotive #169. However financial issues caused the B&S to cancel the order, and #169 never turned a wheel in service on behalf of its ordering railroad. In 1912 the locomotive was bought by the Tooele Valley were it became the line's #11, and it has spent the remainer of its existance; in service and later on display in Tooele, Utah.
So the Bachmann engine is not a 100% fit. The boiler shell is slightly longer than the prototype I want to model, the drivers a few inches wider than the prototype, and the tender a few scale feet longer than the prototype. However, I feel its okay to 'scale up' in this case, since the Athearn Roundhouse 2-8-0 despite having the same driver size as my prototype, in general is a lot smaller locomotive everywhere else and just doesn't "look" right in my eye. I figure the added length from the Bachmann engine is negligible in the long scheme of things.
Tintic Range Railway's work in progress D&RG 220S is the project that is inspiring me to take on my own locomotive rebuild. His project is nearly finished, just lacking some final decal work for the tender numbers. I grabbed this shot of his locomotive yesterday when we met up to discuss trains.
Of course the other incentive to do this rebuild has to be my envy of my friend who runs the Tintic Range Railway page on Facebook. He undertook the task of stripping down a Bachmann 2-8-0 and converting it into an early D&RG 220S locomotive. Turns out the ALCO built 220S class shares an awful lot with my own prototype, so a lot of the things he had to do to detail his model are very similar to what I need to be doing to detail my own. So I met up with him and a few other friends yesterday to pick his brain on what I need for my own project, and he even helped me in disassembling the cab of my locomotive.
I am slowly picking off parts as my project progresses, although I won't be fully able to strip down the engine until I buy or borrow a dremel tool for the domes and other stubborn parts of the model. Meanwhile, I am waiting for some brass detail parts that will replace some of the stock Bachmann components. I also need to sketch up my plans for a styrene tender extension that will raise the height of the coal bunker on the model. I was fortunate that one of Model Railroader's recent paperback book releases was dedicated to detailing and modeling steam locomotives, I bought the book and will be using it as a reference through-out this project.
My in progress locomotive's boiler shell posed next to Tintic Range's own Consolidation during our meet-up yesterday.
In the meantime, I will try and update my progress on this thread as I go along. Hopefully I will have some good luck with this project!
This sounds like you have done good prep work. You know your goals and made compromises to make it achievable. This all sounds great.
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Please keep us updated.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
good luck.
Both the sand and steam domes can be removed from the Bachmann boiler shell (the boilers were, and still may be, available separately from Bachmann - I bought several just to get the cabs so that I could give my IHC and brass Moguls a "family" resemblance to my freelanced layout's Consolidations).
Grand Valley Consolidations are only slightly modified visually from "stock", with a few added details and the tenders shortened. I have added a considerable amount of weight to them, though...
IHC Mogul with Bachmann cab...
Brass ex-B&M B-15 Mogul with Bachmann cab...
I have five Bachmann Consolidations in service, and another three like this one....
...waiting to be made into two of these...
...and one like this...
If you wish to shorten the boiler a bit, the best place to do so is probably beneath the steam dome.Most, but not all, of the weight added to my Consolidations was achieved by replacing the stock plastic air reservoirs with ones made of lead-filled brass tubing...
...and, as you can see, the sand and steam domes were filled with lead filings, secured with an application of ca. There's also an added reservoir on the pilot decks, and a block of lead on the cab floors - great pullers and very reliable locomotives.With careful work, it's not too difficult to shorten the tender and add a modelled open coal bunker, with or without bunker extensions...
All of my steam locomotives have modelled or semi-modelled open coal bunkers, with "live" coal loads, like this Athearn Mikado...
While it's not exactly a "How-to...", you might find something useful regarding tender modifications HERE.
Wayne
The Bachmann Consolidation is a good running model out of the box. Should make a fine undercarriage for your project. If the model dimensions are close, a few percent, to the desired prototype dimensions, they will look fine to the eye. Myself, I would not engage in major surgery to correct a small error in size. I think the Bachmann steam domes are separate parts, probably attached to the boiler with superglue. Acetone (nail polish remover) will soften the superglue and allow you to pull the domes off, no Dremel work required.
Here is my Bachmann, pretty much stock out of the box.
Here is my Boston and Maine P4, a medium kit bash based on a Mantua Pacific. The Mantua dimensions matched the P4 very closely, to within a scale inch or so. The pilot, and deck mounted twin air compressors are brass castings from Calscale, replacing a poor looking Mantua plastic casting. Paint is rattle can dark gray auto primer (Krylon). I should have blackened the handrails but I didn't.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
Good-looking Pacific, David, and that front-end treatment is a big improvement over Mantua's stock version.
xboxtravis7992...and just doesn't "look" right in my eye
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
There is a lot to be said for your attitude. I read some time back in a model railway book that Rex Hays, an English scratch builder of famous motorcars to museum quality, (1930s to 1950s), stated that “he had never built an exact scale model, that an element of caricature had to be present to make a model look like a scale model”! One of his examples was that of the vintage Bugatti which viewed from the front had a small oval radiator frame framed by two large wheels which canted outwards. Reduced to a foot long model, the angles had to be exaggerated to obtain the Bugatti look.
Its sort of inspired by "I want it to look right" but also "I don't have time to make it 100% right" type of attitude. If I wanted a 100% accurate model I would be chasing down the very very limited brass run that was made of that engine. I have only seen TWO examples of the brass run ever, one is part of the museum collection; the other was in the background of a local YouTube video were they were interviewing a guy who used to be involved in the brass locomotive import buisness and in the background on his shelves displaying brass UP Turbines and brass Big Boys; was one sole brass model of #11. Simply put, while I know the brass model is out there it is far to rare and likely far to expensive and outside my budget... not to mention its market rarity means there is no way to predict when one would go on sale. The next option would be to measure the preserved locomotive myself and build one from the ground up on my own. I do have a certification in SolidWorks and could possibly draw the plans for it, but to engineer a locomotive from the ground up is just to much of a hassle. Yes I would get a 100% accurate model, but the time sink into it would be insane. Hence my current approach. The Bachmann HO 2-8-0 has the right 'look' so its a good base to model. But it also means nearly everything else has to be based on 'look' to while building it. As long as I can trick my eye into looking at the model and thinking "yep thats the locomotive" I'll be satisfied.I do think the 100% accuracy method only really makes sense with the more mass produced stuff. Its easy to make a SD40-2 100% accurate since there are dozens of scale versions of an SD40-2 out there. My Athearn SD40N for example really is right on the nose for the prototype engine right out of the box, it just needs a coat of weathering to make it look right. Pretty much any mass produced American diesel and the famous steam engine classes (FEF, GS4, etc) can be now found nearly 100% accurate out of the box as a Ready to Run model. But the classic "common" steam that powered so many shortlines and branchlines like the 2-8-0's, the 2-8-2's, 4-4-0's, 4-6-0's, 2-6-0's, etc... are often just produced as 'generic' looking engines by the manufacturers. So from there its just the struggle of modifying those engines to look right and shake of their factory genericness. I want an ALCO Brooks 2-8-0, not a Bachmann 2-8-0!
that an element of caricature had to be present to make a model look like a scale model
Absolutely true!
Military modelers have this idea well establlished in their model building.
Model Railroaders are addicted to their vernier calipers and cannot see the artistry in their creations.
The overall "finished look and feel" is what matters, not inconsequential accuracy.
Forgive the blurry lowish light cell phone quality pictures, but I finally have an update on the project. The arrival of a dremel allowed me to finally remove the stock Bachmann domes. I have also pulled off the original running boards, and sanded down two of the three 'doors' on the roof of the cab leaving only the center one. I have learned a bit about the green putty I am using, to much of it can make thin styrene 'wet' and loose its strength. As such tonight I am leaving the boiler shell back on the frame of the motor, with a layer of styrene between the boiler and the green putty that is drying in place. Sort of a new learning experience for me.