in need of some inspiration, from an alternate merger to a 3d printed 4-12-12-4, show me what fun fiction builds you made!
Hi TractionAction1700,
Welcome to the forums!!!
This isn't exactly what you were thinking of. It is 30 axles short of your 4-12-12-4, but it is straight out of my head!
If you study it you will note one serious flaw. I mounted the headlight on the top of the cab roof. It should have been above the front grill. Where it is located results in a shadow from the exhaust stack and it totally lights up the hood which would cause real night vision problems for the crew!
What kind of radius would be needed for a 4-12-12-4?!?
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
I built this one when I was 15.
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It is now one of my most prized items int he collection.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
LION has always thought that the railroads merged the wrong way...
Pennsylvain Railroad should have merged with the Northern Pacific, and be called the Penn-Northern
New York Central should have merged with the Great Northern and be called the Great-Central
If Norfork Southern should merge with Union Pacific it would still be called the Union Pacific.
ROARING
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
A few years ago, one of our forum members, Wolfgang Dudler, passed away. He was a fine modeler from Germany. His Westport Terminal railway was an inspiration. l named the small railway handling my carfloat operations after that model.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Find something you already like and riff off it is usually the productive strategy. Not sure where that leaves the 4-12-12-4, but maybe you can figure that out later.
I like the Rio Grande a lot, both standard and narrowgauge. I even wanted some dual gauge, which would normally restrict you to modeling places like Alamosa, Salida, and Montrose. But I let history help me out. Odd as it seem now, but Dunrago was dual gauge back in the early 1900s. At one time, standard gauging the line there from Alamosa was contemplated and the SP was rumored to be interested in expanding north into the coal lands south of Durango. The Farmington Branch was built towards them as a standard gauge line to counter the SP When the notion of standard gauging the Cumbres line was finally abanadoned in the mid-20s, the Farmington Branch was narrowgauged...
But not on my layout. Instead, demand for strategic resources soared after WWII ended with the onset of the Cold War, leading the Rio Grande to extend its standard gauge line down to Moab on into Durango, then south through Farmington to the Santa Fe main, thence into Albuquerque via trackage rights. Thus, in Durango the dual gauge lives on long past when it disappeared in 1:1, along with the Rio Grande Southern.
Also notable is that the "Three Little Lines," the Mears roads that ran north out of Silverton, continue to serve the mines there. To keep things simpler , I amalgamated them into the Silverton Union RR.
Finally, there's the Cascade Branch, which leaves the Silverton line at Cascade. While the rest of the layout was built on the notion of an extended and larger than life portrait of the Silverton Branch, none of the locations on the Cascade were actually served by the RR. However, it lets me add in lots of traffic from the other Rio Grande branches not present on the Silverton in 1:1, as well to model the rolling stock and trains this generated elsewhere on the system. Thus, while my concept is based on lots of wishful thinking, it's solidly grounded in the existing reality of the area and railroads it models. Rather than starting from scratch with freelance, consider modifying the real to suit your needs and desires.
The question was more about what's been built to accomodate such notions, but the background I just laid out is importnat to understand my concept. Bring something interesting to the table to model then modify it in context to suit your goals. What results is a more modern narriowgauge, but with many common elements preserved to make it appear to be a natural evolution of the Rio Grande reality.
First of all, I needed more motive power. Many narrowgaugers hate diesels, but I like 'em alongside my steam. Mine are mostly built by narrow gauging DG models. The exception is my DL-535E Alcos, which were built from PSC kits of the locos found on the WP&Y. These were modified with a Pyle light in the nose and proper horns up top, along with suitable paint, so real locomotive, fantasy scheme.
I took Kato NW2 models and narrowgaged them into "NW2M" locos, adding in steam generators and dynamic brake details to suit my needs. This time, entirely fantasy, but looks suitable to me.
I also acquired a DL-531, an Alco export model used in Australia, along with a HOn3 chassis to put under it from Downunder. This time, a real loco transplanted from another continent.
The Australians actually had these locos in 3' gauge, so only a bit of a stretch. I also acquired from Downunder (my very first ebay purchase in fact) a American NG diesel, a copy of SP's GE #1, which was easy enough to redo from SP to a Rio Grande scheme. Basically the only mod needed was some decals.
While the mechanical part of modding some Bachman 70-tonners is a bit toucjy, they can also be narrowgauged.
For modern passenger power, I turned to Liliput's model of an Austrian diesel, which comes in HOn30 (9 mm) and can be converted with the mfg's kit to HOm (12 mm gauge). With HOn3 being right in between (10.5 mm) it was easy to modify the 12 mm wheelsets to 10.5 and I had a very nice loco for right around $200.
For standard gauge power, I've always wanted a SDL39 and Milwaukee Road paint would just not fit. After adding suitable paint and a nose light, it looks plausible to me although the Rio Grande never owned any.
Rolling stock has also been similarly treated. Logging wasn't very big on the DRGW, but I wanted some. I have some MT logging cars, but I wanted to also harvest poles, so needed something longer. The solution was some PSC kits for 6500 series flats to which I added some log bunks. Used with suitable idler cars, they work for bringing in the long poles needed by utilities and others.
I needed a way to haul bulk cement, so built a couple of cement cars by modifting boxcars.
Since most of the passnger cars are steam heated, I needed something to help when diesels were pulling them, so built a steam genny car from some cut-down F unit sides.
Most of the freight fleet is typical DRGW practice, but I did build some XML and RBL "hy-cubes" bashed from various cut-down parts.
Then there's TOFC...
And COFC.
Modern passenger stock was imported from Europe.
Or bashed from it to suit, like this RPO/express car.
That should help give you some ideas. Find something you like as a theme, then run with it.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Mike: That is an amazing collection of locomotives thatyou have. I am very impressed, and the story for each one was interesting reading.
Thank you for sharing. That was an A+ post.
Mike is a great inspiration. Sometimes its harder to make the imaginary seem real than to copy precisely what someone else has already built. That's some great work in making an alternative universe look as real as the real universe.
- Douglas
Nice work Mike!
I have a couple locomotive builds, as soon as PB gets it's act together, I'll post.
Sites been down for almost 3 days now. Chatter on social media says they had a power outage, and they are struggling to fix it.
Mike.
My You Tube
Thanks for the kind comments everyone. When the Search function is restored, I'll look up some past posts that provide more detail on my narrowgauge diesel fleet.
That said, I shouldn't neglect to mention I have Blackwater and a few pieces of brass steam that are prototypically correct. These locos, while not at all fantasy, provide more of the essential context that help make the diesels and other things I build that aren't seem authentic. Once again, the most convincing fantasy builds happen within honoring the historical context they are said to exist in.
Many know that Norfolk Southern has heritage units.
I have a fantasy heritage unit, in a ES44 painted as Erie Lackawanna. (They did not make a EL heritage unit, but did do Erie and DL&W as SD70Ace's.)
This fits in with my freelanced line having former EL and PRR trackage, and having a cast off ALCO repainted in PRR paint.
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
mlehmanI like the Rio Grande a lot, both standard and narrowgauge...
You've done a really nice job of modelling the equipment you needed, Mike. Outstanding work!
Wayne
Between Slate Creek Rail and Summerset Ry.. Summerset wins.You judge.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Thanks, Wayne! Your work in standard gauge does in some part serve as inspiration for mine, along with such narrowgaugers as the late Jim Vail.
Nice work there, too, Brakie!