"Old Time" HO Steam Locomotives

[Anonymous]

Folks,

I'm new to this forum but a long time fan of the Colorado Midland. I'm
planning to model the CM in HO scale.

I'm based in Sydney, Australia and so will need to do most of my
purchasing via mail-order/internet, therefore sight unseen.!! I have
a query about the recently introduced Bachmann HO Baldwin 4-6-0, I
realise it's probably not an absolute replica of any specific CM 4-6-
0 but I'm not a scratchbuilder and my budget wont extend to Brass.
I'm hoping it might be close?

Does anyone have one or has anyone seen one? Could this model pass
for CM power? Also how well does it run? I know the Bachmann Spectrum
range is supposed to be pretty good but I've seen mixed reports on
their USRA Light 4-8-2 and I'm hoping the Baldwin 4-6-0 is more like
their other Spectrum releases?

What could I use for a CM 2-8-0 ..... assuming that Brass is a bit
beyond my reach? I wonder if Bachmann has any plans for a "standard"
Baldwin 2-8-0 of the same late 1800's era? Roundhouse/MDC advertise
an "Old Time 2-8-0" but I've never seen one in the fle***o know how
good it is or more particularly how well it runs (I remember the old
Roundhouse Box Cabs & Climaxes were dreadfully noisy mechanisms). I
could see myself doing some minor kitbashing to get the appearance
closer to CM practice if necessary but if the mechanism is no good
then it'd be a waste of time. Are there any other options for a
Midland 2-8-0 in HO?

Sorry for all the questions first up - g'day from Australia,

Nick

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the forum Nick!

[dehusman]

The Bachmann 4-6-0 is a beautiful engine and runs like a top. Its DCC ready too.

It has Walsherts valve gear which is probably more modern than you want. At some point when I get the courage I will remove mine and backdate it to Stephenson inside valve gear for the 1906 era. It also has a electric headlight and generator so that would have to be removed and replaced with a oil lamp.

The MDC s can be made to run reliably but do take some work. If you are familiar with Rev. McGee's Puyi and Phui 1906 layout that's been in MR several times, he uses some MDC locos with additional detailing and some have been remotored. He also uses DCC. The MDC locomotives would be closer to TOC (turn of century) engines than the Bachmann 2-8-0 would be. There are also the various maker "General" 4-4-0's that are porr to passable runners.

Yahoo groups has an "Earlyrail" group dedicated to discussions on pre WW1 ing.

Dave H.

[Anonymous]

I'd recommend the MDC 2-8-0, since it's in kit form, you'll have plenty of extra parts to detail your engine to your specific needs. you'll want the 2-8-0 Old Time Consolidation, not the 2-8-0 Old Time Consolidation outside from them. be wary, the MDC 2-8-0 comes in 5 different styles, of varying timeframes, you want ref# of 480-486.

They also have your 4-6-0 in kit form as well, with all the extras, you definately could make it look just like what you want. you'll probably want the Harriman Style for your area.

if you're shooting for early line, and go with the 2-6-0, get their 51" driver version. Again, in kit form.

I'd also recommend the MDC 4-4-0, again, since it's a kit.

All this and more can be found at http://www.mdcroundhouse.com/

Believe me you'll love the kits, they'll give you plenty to do, as well as teach you how steam engines work and what is what. Besides, the extra smaoke stacks and other parts can be used to enhance your structures to make truely interesting buildings.

Also, the MDC kit's will run you between $65-$85, where-as a RTR enguine of others will run you anywhere, for a good runner, from $150-$600. The Kit's aren't DCC ready, but you can easily add a decoder to them while you build them. making engines DCC'd is easy, just a little soldering and following instructions.

Jay

[dknelson]

For a time Model Power was importing a small 2-8-0 (made in Brazil?) that was about the right size and era for your needs. My recollection is that MR gave it a mostly positive review. I saw one in a hobby shop and it looked very nice but I never saw (or heard) it run. Don't overlook the Bowser kits that are basically the old Varney 4-6-0 and 2-8-0. Perhaps a little big for CM but old reliable kits with ready parts availability.
Dave Nelson

[Jetrock]

nsolomon: Does Sydney have any model railroad hobbyshops? I was led to understand that it's a fair-sized city, and there are certainly quite a few Australian model railroaders out there.

My advice would be to do some research on the prototype Colorado Midland, either online or via a library (I know my local library has information on European railroads--so Australian libraries might have some books on American railroads) in order to find pictures and documentation about what sort of engines the Colorado Midland had--then you can make use of the Web and the Walthers catalog to find relatively lower-priced kits for steam engines that are similar to those of your chosen prototype.

[Sperandeo]

Hello Nick,

MODEL RAILROADER has published drawings of three Colorado Midland locomotives:

1 to 3-series 2-8-0, September 1981, page 78
23 to 25-series 4-6-0, February 1964, page 42
100 to 102-series 0-6-0, April 1966, page 36

Photocopies of drawings from these (and any) out-of-print back issues may be ordered at the shopping section of this web site or by e-mail to [e-mail].

Unfortunately, the 1887 Schenectady Ten-Wheelers represented in the MR drawing bear little resemblance to either version of the Bachmann 4-6-0. I think the closest you could come would be to replace the cab, domes, smokestack, headlight, pilot, and other parts on the low-boiled Bachmann 4-6-0. This might give the effect of the CM locomotive, but the boiler would still be the wrong shape.

So long,

Andy

[Anonymous]

Andy is absolutely correct that there are no off-the-shelf models (either kit or RTR) that look much like the CM engines. In brass, Hallmark did both a 2-8-0 and 2-6-0 that come around occasionally; you may be pleasantly surprised since these models rarely go for as much as $300.

MDC has gone through at least three iterations of its kits over the past 25 years. The current kits have can motors and improved gear towers and run very well with little fiddling. They are also available RTR and the RTR models run beautifully - slightly better than the kits although I don't for the life of me see any visible differences. Earlier models were terrible runners as supplied and you're right, possibly the noisiest HO steamers I've ever witnessed.

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned the Mantua 2-6-0 and 4-6-0. The 4-6-0 in particular is probably easier to modify than the MDC. For approximately the last five years of their production runs, these models were can-motored and ran smoothly and quietly although their low-speed characterstics still were not the greatest. Mantua also offered a very simple can motor retrofit kit which I've heard may still be available from them until they run out of stock.

You can easily find these models on E-Bay.

[orsonroy]

The Bachmann 4-6-0 and various MDC/Roundhouse old time engines are going to be your best bet for motive power. Roundhouse will also be your best choice for freight cars, cabooses and passenger cars (their 80' Pullman Palace cars actually look like CM cars). For detail parts, try looking through Bowser's extensive catalog (online) of aftermarket brass steam details.

Do a photo search at the Denver Public Library's Western History Collection:

http://photoswest.org/

I just did a quick search for Colorado Midland, and came up with 1240photo hits. Browsing through them yielded a lot of scenery, a few buildings, and a few engines, cars, etc. It's worth the time to lok through them!

[Alantrains]

Hi Nick,
if you decide to get a Bachman spectrum 4-6-0 get the low wheeled version. You should ba able to get one in Aust from one of the model train shops but they are about $255. (Do a search on google in Aust for 4-6-0). There was one last week on ebay.au which went for Aust$131.50 (I bid $129 and missed the closing time due to daylight savings ) It was brand new never opened, so keep an eye on ebay too.

[Anonymous]

Amazing,

thanks for all the responses and wealth of information supplied. What a resource this forum is!!!

Thankyou all,

Nick

[CNJ831]

Rails5 comments, "I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the Mantua 2-6-0 and 4-6-0."

In fact, there is very good reason to _avoid_ these two engines. They are actually done to British HO scale (1:76), so are rendered overly large relative to their prototypes. This was a strange path for Mantua to follow and I've never seen it satisfactorily explained. On the other hand, Mantua's ancient (1940's) 2-6-0 Eight Ball Mogul was to 1:87 scale.

CNJ831