A current thread along these lines seems devoted to diesels, so I thought I would open this up to steam.
Wayback, 3 layouts ago, when I was a free spirit in the late 70's, I had a road called the Disputanta and Danville Western, (coal hauling fantasy road). I customized an AHM Y6B to make it into something I liked.
I attach a B&W pix taken about 1979.
Those in the know will see that I worked in a lot of "Cal Scale" brass among the plastic. New headlight on a diamond deck plate, extra air pumps on the smoke box cover with an Elesco feed water heater and huge, extra upper boiler air tanks. (The D&DW had monsterous grades!)
Anyone else here ever add to... customize..... kit bash.... or scratch build a steamer that just never was in the real world, but has a special appeal or was cool at the time or even now. While John Allen certainly seemed to have had no limits, how many of us are bold enough to alter a nice steamer today.
Note* I am still into making up my own road, but I just can't bring myself to the point of significantly altering a nice $450.00 Blackstone K-27.
I used to restore old 1950's and 60's Lincolns and at a car show once, I saw a sign by a tricked out "T" bucket that said "Anyone can restore a rare old car to perfection, but it takes a real man to cut one to pieces to make something else entirely." This post is now asking for others to show off their skills in dreamland steam alteration or customization.
Anyone else here have the stones to embarrass themselves in front of the purists?
Richard
If I can't fix it, I can fix it so it can't be fixed
Richard,
Back in the 50's/60's/70's there was a lot of 'free-lance' model railroads. Even MR suggested making a 'family' look to your steamers with a standard headlight or Elesco feedwater heatrers, etc. Your AHM steamer is a classic example - Nice Work!
Jim Bernier
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
Thanks Jim.
For the sake of discussion, those who have simply modified a pilot or added a different cab, etc., would be OK here. Real railroads did this, too, after wrecks or major rework modifications on selected steamers, etc.
The old k-27 mudhens, as issued in 1903, had only slope back tenders and compound vulcain cylinders. A real weird and rare piece of steamer work! pix below.....
The D&RGW quickly modified the tenders to hold more fuel and resemble a normal squared off road engine's tender. Next, they ripped out the compound vulcain cylinders and put in more common piston steam chest with slide valve gear. A few years later, they switched out the slide valves for the more modern round valve chest and walschaerts gear. They even had different mudhens with either an "inny" or an "outy". (Inside tilted valve chests and outside tilted valve chests.)
Then there were the one-off, seasonal-as needed, homemade, snow plow pilot additions. The mudhens, after 1930, looked nothing like the originals delivered above. When #455 wrecked, RGS threw on a distinctive standard gauge cab that made it stick out like a sore thumb among its fellow Mudhens.
D&RGW, K-28's had to suffer through the 50's-60's movie and early tourist fad by having a totally rediculous and insane looking diamond stack cover and, ultimately, two disgraceful gawdy paint jobs.
So...........A bit of monkeying around with steamers on a MR layout, provided they make some sort of sense based on need, convenience or economy, would certainly be allowed.
My freelanced ATLANTIC CENTRAL has lots of kit bashed steam designed to give that "family look".
The most unique ones are my custom heavy Mikados, actuall made from Bachmann models of LIMA 2-8-4's.
Here is a picture of one before it made it to the paint shop.
These could have existed, and in fact LIMA did build Mikes that looked very much like the Berks for the DT&I, just not with 69" drivers.
Many of my other locos have tender awaps and other detail changes to give them a "family" look.
Sheldon
Richard:
Actually, I did something similar to that old Rivarossi 2-8-8-2, the results of which came out very similar to yours--I was shooting for a 'kinda-sorta' D&RGW L-131. I had the loco until it wore out (by that time, I'd been able to purchase a used PFM L-131, anyway).
I did 'customize' a brass PFM ATSF 2-10-2 into a 'kinda-sorta' Rio Grande F-81 2-10-2 some years back, using a lot of Cal-Scale and PSC brass detail parts--I still have the loco and it still does pretty yeoman service on my Yuba River Sub, even though in the meantime I've been able to afford a 'real' Rio Grande 2-10-2 from PSC.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
In real life the CPR had many hundreds of 2-8-0 Consolidations during the steam era, but none of these were fitted with Elesco feedwater heaters while in CPR service. However in modelling life one of these Consolidations, CPR 3953, was leased to the Grizzly Northern Railway and quickly retrofitted with an Elesco system, as shown in the photos below - a Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0 modified using CalScale parts - headlight, feedwater bundle, feedwater pump and top mounted inlet valve.
Back to real life, I later discovered that CPR 2-8-0 Consolidation 3716, built in 1912 and disposed of in 1966, has found its way to the Kettle Valley Steam Railway in Summerland BC, where it has been beautifully restored and fitted with an Elesco, as shown here.
Another demonstration that there's a real life prototype for many flights of the modelling imagination!
Isambard
Grizzly Northern history, Tales from the Grizzly and news on line at isambard5935.blogspot.com
I've done quite a few brass locomotives for a friend who models the CNR, but that was simply modifying or adding details to make a stock model look more like a particular locomotive. Here are a couple of examples.The CNR bought 10 USRA 2-10-2 s from the B&A and ran them through their shops before placing them in service
Akane USRA 2-10-2 (with a Bachmann tender)
In the shops:
In service:
The prototype:
No before photos of the rest, but most involved adding a feedwater heater and re-piping as required:
Brass USRA Mikado:
Athearn USRA Mikado (this one got a new pilot, and complete re-piping, plus modifications to the cab and tender:
Brass CNR S-2-a:
Here's a BLI Mike, turned into a "what-if" CNR loco for another friend. She wanted an Elesco fwh and an all-weather cab on a USRA loco. CN had all three components, but not all on the same loco.
Here are a few of my own:
Proto USRA 0-8-0 converted to a CNR P-5-h. All new piping, lowered running boards, front frame extended, rear frame rebuilt, modified cab, new air tanks and footboards:
Bachmann USRA Light Mountain converted to an EG&E Mohawk:
Bachmann Northern - new front end and a scratchbuilt all-weather cab, with a centipede coal tender kitbashed from the original Santa Fe eight-axle oil tender and a Tyco ACF covered hopper:
Freelanced Tyco Mikado, with an MDC oil tender converted to coal and about $100.00 worth of brass detail parts from Cal-Scale and PSC:
A John English Pacific, with Cal-Scale Elesco, Kemtron all-weather cab, and a scratchbuilt tender:
Another freelanced Tyco Mike, with a scratchbuilt all-weather cab, added details, and a NWSL gearbox and can motor:
Bowser Pacific - same modifications as the Mike above:
A slightly modified B&M B-15 from Samhongsa:
...later re-worked with piston valves, Bachmann cab, and modified tender:
...and its usual running mate, a slightly modified ex-Espee Mogul from IHC:
...also re-worked with a Bachmann cab, and its tender modernised:
Wayne
Really nice work you guys! I am very envious of the talent and detail that you folks have poured into those locos. Custom tenders are also a nice item to work up as no road steamer is without one. To take a Tyco mike, which is about as spartan, crude and bare bones as one could get and turn it into the above example is a nice piece of work.
Also cool is the effort to go prototype for specific real engines that the model makers do not produce via alteration of a generic that they do make. Customization doesn't have to go way outside the norm
WOW!!! Well, I should not even try to contribute here, however, this one is special.... (& not finished!)
Here is another shot of my TYCO 2-6-2 Prairie locomotive I am customizing. This is the only (now) working locomotive that survived my childhood. This was approx. a 1974 unit & I was using it when my Grampa made a 4' x 8' layout over a door frame. This loco ran on flex track that had stapled fiber ties back then. As you can see I am attempting to make more Scale modifications to it, & there is a huge bag of additional details that I did not locate, and are missing, but will be included later. I am in a conundrum about the front boiler plate, the non-scale (TYCO Signature) headlight ‘irks’ me, but some of me wants to keep it for a nostalgia aspect.. But then, I am also motivated to put an appropriate one on it to not destroy the entire effort of the customization. Well, I just donno, stay tuned.....
What a difference a few details make, Chad. If you decide to remove the original headlight, the best tool is a hacksaw, then clean-up with a mill file and finish with modeller's files and/or a cut-off disk in your Dremel.I'm doing a couple of simple conversions for another friend, and both had a similar cast-on headlight. He tried to remove the one on this Tyco Pacific, but got careless with the hacksaw, and I had to finish the job with a mill file. A Cal-Scale smokebox front covered the sloppy saw work, and I added a Cal-scale headlight and bracket:
The other loco is a Varney "Old Lady" Consolidation. I removed the cast-on light and replaced it with one like that used on the Pacific, giving both locos a bit of a "family look" as they'll both be lettered for his freelance road.
To further enhance the family look, I replaced the Tyco cab with one from my scrap box, sawn off a Varney boiler some years ago. The Tyco cab was attached with a screw, so removal was easy. I had to modify the Tyco boiler to accept the new cab, then alter the frame to allow everything to fit back together. Because the cab is longer than the original, the loco looked a little gangly, so I added a home-made stoker engine, some piping, and a cold water pump for the Worthington fwh.
The engineer's side got a non-lifting injector from the parts drawer, and some piping, tied-in with the cast-on pipes on the boiler. The tender is from an Akane USRA Mike.
I've never taken a photo of a loco I've had for a LONG time, so bear with me:
The loco in question is a Baldwin 0-8-0T, class of 1897, a brass model of a (Japanese) Imperial Government Railways 4020 class, 1:80 scale, 16.5mm gauge. Ken Kidder imported them in the early 1970s without identifying anything except their Baldwin origin. I bought mine (as a kit) several years earlier in Yokohama.
Soon after assembly, the inadequate pickup from the insulated drivers was replaced by a home-brew that made contact with all four drivers instead of just two.
In 1981 I decided to upgrade it to make it suitable for use in 1964. Off came the buffers and vacuum brake hoses, on went air tanks (on top of the side tanks clear of the engineer's line of sight) air cooling coils (between air tanks and domes) and a Westinghouse one lung air brake pump on the side of the smokebox, with its exhaust routed through a muffler attached to the back of the stack. This is very much in line with Japanese practice for similar upgrades. The result received number 42 and the `Tomi Maru' badge of the Tomikawa Tani Tetsudo, and went to work shifting cars around my colliery module.
A couple of years later I took it to an open house at a club I was thinking about joining. I was accosted, then verbally chastised, by a `brass locomotive collector' for, "Ruining that Ken Kidder HO (catalog number, which I disremember) that I need to complete my collection."
I don't think I made him any happier when I informed him that I had purchased it in kit form to move cars at my Japanese prototype coal mine, that it was a model of a `Built by Baldwin for Japan' prototype, wasn't HO and represented a loco that ran on 42 inch gauge rails. His reaction? "Oh! I didn't know that. I wonder why Kidder imported it if it was never used in America."
(I wasn't feeling mean enough to point out that the famous `Porter Mogul' had a similar history. In Japan, it's referred to as Benkei, since that's the name painted on the one that's still preserved 139 years after it was delivered.)
TTT #42 is still going strong, currently on the point of a work train - 3 4-wheel gons and a gondola brake.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
When I was in HO and especially back in the 70's when Varney's old lady was still being offered, I should have ordered a couple from the old AHM ads in the front pages of the old MR magazines. Unfortunately I was more into mallets back then. I hope to maybe still find one as a kit or built at a train show......Maybe this weekend at Timonium.
I have a Spectrum Consolodation that I modified to make it look more like an MEC prototype per an article in MR some years ago. The biggest modifcation was replacing the stock pilot with a brass CalScale boiler tube pilot. Other mods include replacing the pilot stairs with a step, changing the contour of the cab roof and vent hatch, and handrails on the tender. The decals are from Highball Graphics. It has an engineer figure and a fireman shoveling coal; these old steamers did not have stokers. It has a Tsunami decoder.
I also have a Mantua 2-6-6-0 that I upgraded with a brass detail set that was available when these locos were new, but do not have pictures. I plan to repaint and re-decal it to match an MEC prototype. Also have a Gensis Mike awaiting conversion to MEC similar to the consolidation, above. One of these days....
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
Here is my Northern Pacific W3 Mikado, bashed from a Rivarossi Mikado. This was done before detail parts from Precision Scale and the other detail parts became hard to find. The tender was shortened and a brakeman's Doghouse built. New pilot, sand dome and stack, new catwalks along side the boiler a bunch of new piping and gizmos added to make it look like a W-3. I still need to convert this one from DC to DCC and it could use a bit more weathering.
The above is a Broadway Limited NYC J-3 Hudson, converted to the Northern Pacific's 2626 A1 "Timken" Bearing Company Northern 4-8-4. (Yes, it is missing a pair of drivers). I don't think the actual "Timken" Northern would have fit on my Bowser Turntable! For my purposes, it works very well and $1,500.00 or more for a Brass N.P. Northern is far above my pay grade!
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
NP2626,
Very nice work.
Respectfully I must ask, since when are PSC, Cal Scale, or other parts hard to find? Every time I need such parts I simply do one of two things - give my LHS a list and usually have everything I need in a week - OR - call PSC or Bowser directly and place an order - which usually arrives in my mailbox in a week or two.
I just ordered some trailing trucks from PSC as recently as a month ago - had them in a few days.
Personally I think it makes more sense for such products to be sold direct by the manufacturer to the consumer, than to have them sitting on hobby shops shelves waiting for someone to happen to need it in that community. Or for them to be lost on distributor shelves waiting for some local hobby shop to need them. Rather than being spread all over the place waiting to be bought, central distribution makes more sense - it is working well for Athearn.
With today's rapid shipping and communication via the net, direct sales is the future of efficient and profitable commerce for lots of specialized products.
Neither Bowser or PSC has been out of stock on any item I have needed in the last few years - seems to me detail parts are very available?
On parts Availibility, I agree, if I place an order they usually show up, some quiockly but others a little time.I have had this happen with many manufactures, & most of the time the results are worth the wait.Here is something to ponder...."Most folks do not have the patience for MY patience!"
To rip off another commecial slogan, 'Slow down, & Model..'
There's some really nice work in this thread- good job, everyone! I only have a meager contribution to this thread.
It's still a work in progress, but I'm taking an old 4-4-0 and modifying it to look more like a Shay locomotive, because 1) I like how that looks and 2) it fits my narrative for it. It's an engine near the end of its life that the railroad is using as a yard engine, with steps on front and back (to be added- see the flat front plate).
I've taken off the front pilot, added a coupler, and replaced the stack. I also plan to touch up a few detail spots. I also added the loose fence around the tender to keep in the small logs I'll be putting in- the molded plastic ones looked awful. Then, the whole thing will eventually get a paint job and decals.
Before:
Currently:
ATLANTIC CENTRAL NP2626, Very nice work. Respectfully I must ask, since when are PSC, Cal Scale, or other parts hard to find? Every time I need such parts I simply do one of two things - give my LHS a list and usually have everything I need in a week - OR - call PSC or Bowser directly and place an order - which usually arrives in my mailbox in a week or two. I just ordered some trailing trucks from PSC as recently as a month ago - had them in a few days. Personally I think it makes more sense for such products to be sold direct by the manufacturer to the consumer, than to have them sitting on hobby shops shelves waiting for someone to happen to need it in that community. Or for them to be lost on distributor shelves waiting for some local hobby shop to need them. Rather than being spread all over the place waiting to be bought, central distribution makes more sense - it is working well for Athearn. With today's rapid shipping and communication via the net, direct sales is the future of efficient and profitable commerce for lots of specialized products. Neither Bowser or PSC has been out of stock on any item I have needed in the last few years - seems to me detail parts are very available? Sheldon
So, Sheldon, your sole purpose in life, is to find the one miss-spoken phrase in a post and lecture the perpitrator to death on the horrible mistake he/she has made, while boring everyone else to tears?
To everyone else, I stand corrected, detail parts are actually still avaliable, talk to Sheldon!
Interesting thread guys
My son came up with another concept at a train show a few years back. After seeing a few consists running with midtrain helpers, he asked my why diesels, why not steam. True, midtrain and rear end helpers did run on prototype trains back in the day, but its easy to do with diesels, especially with dummies.
So when we got home, out came the junk box, and we cobbled together 2 engines out of 4 busted up Chattanooga Choo Choos, the fitted them with spare tenders. The headlights do make use of the electrical pickups, but other that that , they are true dummies and roll very easily.
While not true detailed copies of the prototype, the do serve a purpose, and sometimes mystify spectators as to how I could possibly speed match engines so well!
Karl
NCE über alles!
Your dummy steamers look good Karl. That B&O tender is especially interesting, as not too many are offered with open coal bunkers.
My steam-era layout is strictly DC, and while I often run double headers and/or pushers, I've also used powered mid-train helpers on very long trains.
I'm getting off the topic a bit, but your comment about mid train and rear end helpers in the steam era caught my attention. The Grizzly Northern routinely runs heavy drag freights with a "pusher" on the front end, ahead of the road engine, plus mid train and rear end pushers, using various combinations of 2-6-6-2 Monashees and 2-10-2 Santa Fe's (Bachmann Spectrums, all powered and mu'ed via Digitrax).
Unlike today's locomotives which can operate multiple units mu'ed, with one crew at the head end, in the steam era each loco required its own crew, with communications between loco's usually maintained by whistle toots and hand signals, until the advent of radio in railway usage.
If you had sufficient operators, you could run your helper-equipped trains in the same manner as the prototype (without the shovelling, of course ). The most interesting way would be to neither speed-match nor consist any of them.
doctorwayne If you had sufficient operators, you could run your helper-equipped trains in the same manner as the prototype (without the shovelling, of course ). The most interesting way would be to neither speed-match nor consist any of them. Wayne
On several of the DCC layouts in our group we have done that, each steam loco has a seperate engineer and they work as a team just like real life back in the day. As it turns out, it's really not that hard to do in model form with DCC.
As it happens the 2-6-6-2's and 2-10-2's haven't needed speed matching, perhaps because they have 56 in. and 57 in. diameter drivers respectively, and similar gearing.
I have operated double headers non MU, convenient with the dual throttle feature of the Digitrax DT400 but not with four big brutes.
Doc, you've inspired me! Next time one of those heavy drags is headed for the climb over Horsefly Summit I'll be soliciting additional hoggers to join the fun, no shovels required. :)
Here on the ATLANTIC CENTRAL we don't do much helper sevice, but we do run lots of double and tripple headed steam.
Using DC, and with no loco modifications specific to speed matching, we run the following locos together in whatever combo is needed with no problems:
Spectrum 2-6-6-2's
Proto2000 2-8-8-2's
Spectrum 2-8-0's
Bachmann 2-8-4's (converted into heavy 2-8-2's)
BLI USRA heavy 2-8-2's (with all sound and DCC removed, factory tenders replaced with Spectrum tenders)
Spectrum USRA heavy Mountains (4-8-2's)
All of these locos have similar gearing and similar starting voltages on our Aristo Train Engineer wireless throttle and all run just fine together.
I suspect most these combos would also work as pushers or mid train helpers as well.
We seem to have gotten off topic here, lets get back to showing the steam locomotives we have customized! I see nothing wrong with one of you interested in this off topic topic, starting a thread on that topic
OK, the photos are not great, but here are a few more of mine:
Spectrum USRA 2-6-6-2 with long vandy tender swap and Delta trailing truck
Spectrum USRA heavy Mountain with hicken tender swap and Delta trailing truck
I need to take some pictures of some of the others:
BLI USRA Heavy Mikados with Spectrum long haul tender swap and Delta trailing truck
Spectrum high driver 4-6-0 with oil fired vandy tender swap
PFM USRA Light 4-6-2 with oil fired long haul tender swap (Spectrum 2-10-2 tender) and Delta Trailing truck.
Some of these also have other small detail changes and all are, or will be, lettered ATLANTIC CENTRAL.
Hmmm, must try mixing it up with 2-8-0's too! Perhaps 2-10-0 Russian Decapods also.
An explanation about "pusher" as used in Grizzly Northern parlance; a loco, whether used as an helper in a double or triple header, mid train or at the rear end, is called a pusher, as was common western CPR steam era usage, front end pushers often being located in front of the road engine.
Here's an Athearn Genesis USRA Mikado, which appears little-altered from its original form.I've added a different headlight and bracket, along with some number boards from PSC. The stack is a piece of brass tubing with a soldered-on piece of strip brass around its top - I thought the original one a little too small in diameter. The air-ringer bell is from Cal-Scale, while the pilot-mounted air tank is more brass tubing, this time filled with lead. I also added a larger wind deflector on the cab roof (cut from sheet brass) and "canvas" sunshades - these are brass shimstock over brass wire frames.
The tender has been altered, too, with the coal bunker cut-out and more fully-modelled, and extensions added to increase its capacity. I use "live" coal loads, mainly to allow me to show photos of the loco at both the start and end of its trip. There's a new back-up light, handrails, and more ladder detail. along with footboards on the rear.
The real modifications, though, are mostly unseen. While these locos are very smooth runners, they were notoriously poor pullers and some suffered from cracked gears. I bought two when they were first released, and later picked up two more, after slightly-used ones started showing up at my LHS at very attractive prices. NWSL offers replacement gears, although none of mine have had gear problems. I later bought a fifth one, also at a good price, which already had the gear replaced - it's awaiting conversion to a CNR loco, much like the one shown earlier.My layout has many curves and many grades, often occurring simultaneously, so it's important that my locos can handle decent-size trains over the entire layout. These locos, in their original form, could handle only two or three cars on the 2.5% grades - not good enough.Part of the reason that these locos pulled so poorly was that fact that they were too light, and they were improperly balanced, with the weight concentrated at the rear. To compensate for this, Athearn installed an especially strong spring between the trailing truck and the bottom of the firebox, in an attempt to shift some of the weight forward and onto the drivers.My solution was to simply re-distribute the weight and, if possible, add to it.
After disassembling the locos, I used a hacksaw and mill files to remove as much of the stock weights as possible, while still retaining the necessary parts to hold the motor, flywheel, and gearbox. Shown below is a pair of modified weights, with an unmodified set below them
I made simple moulds from aluminum sheet, in order to cast lead parts to replace the lighter Zamac material which had been removed:
I also replaced all of the plastic air tanks with new ones made from lead-filled brass tubing. The mounting bands are strip brass from Detail Associates, sweat-soldered to the tubing. An additional tank was constructed in the same manner for the pilot deck.
Here are most of the modified parts ready to be re-assembled. Note the additional lead weights atop the frame and inside the steam chest.
The original locomotive weighed 12.5oz. and I removed 1.75oz. from the stock weight. After re-building, the locos now weigh 17.5oz., a net gain of 5.0oz. Equally important, the weight is balanced at the mid-point of the driver wheelbase, where it will do the most good.A pair of these locos can now handle a 100oz. loaded coal train on any of the grades on the layout, and they also doublehead well with my modified Bachmann Consolidations.I run DC, so eliminated the original "pigtail" wiring. The loco was re-wired to allow operation (for maintenance) without the tender, and Bachmann tender trucks, with electrical pick-ups, replaced the stock Athearn trucks. I added some weight to the tenders, too, and fully-loaded with loose coal, they tip the scales at about 7oz., ensuring good electrical contact under all conditions.