I have a couple of Bachmann Spectrum steam engines that need to be converted to oil. While I could scratch build the oil bunker, I would rather use some kind of a kit. I have seen resin oil bunkers for O and On30 conversions. Kemtron used to make one in brass if I remember correctly. Is there anyone or any small company making oil bunkers for converting tenders in HO scale out there? Thanks, Nevin
I had a similar project I needed to do on a BLI Heavy Mike and was never able to find anything like you mention. Ended up having the job done by Trains Emporium (train@alpine.net). Excellent job, although it took a few weeks longer than I expected. Still I was quite satisfied. They are in Nevada, as I see you are. I got their information from the classifieds in MR.
I scratch built this out of sheet styrene and some brass walk board etchings. It's on an N scale Rivarossi Pacific that I modified.
Lee
Route of the Alpha Jets www.wmrywesternlines.net
Take a look below. You can email Yardbird Trains. He answers.
http://www.yardbirdtrains.com/YBDetailParts.htm
The below one is 10" 8" long.
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/585-31509
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
Don't know what your particular locomotivess and tenders are, but one possible solution is to substitute entirely new tenders. Bachmann offers a medium-length, oil-bunker tender sold separately (for $45??). This could give your locomotives a "family" appearance.
Mark
Many years ago I was looking for an aftermarket oil conversion kit for the Bachmann 2-8-0. But there was nothing then, and there's nothing now (as far as I know). So I built up a simple cover and handrail to give the illusion this is an oil tender. Santa Fe mostly had oil tenders, so I thought mine should too.
It wasn't hard, and this was one of the first scratch building projects I ever tried. Over the years I've gotten a lot better, but I never did go back to upgrade this conversion as it looks OK from normal viewing distances.
It's made out of some scrap pieces of styrene I had lying around. Basically it's the top piece cut to fit and two pieces underneath to support it. The handrail was made from some thin metal wire. It was painted with PollyScale Steam Power Black, which is a pretty close match to the Bachmann paint. It's not glued in place and simply lifts out. The holes you see underneath were drilled for a sound system. Not sure what the part number is, but it's a plug and play DCC/Sound board offered by SoundTraxx several years ago.
We rarely run the old steamer anymore, but it still looks good parked in the small yard:
Matt from Anaheim, CA and Bayfield, COClick Here for my model train photo website
I did exactly the opposite of what your trying to do with a pair of Spectrum Heavy Mountains I purchased used from my LHS. I just picked up stock USRA tenders from Bachmann. I believe I may have ordered them form someone other then Bachmann as they were cheaper but they offer 17 different Spectrum tenders one of them ought to work
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/products.php?act=viewProd&productId=273
Nevin,
The conversion from, coal to oil on a Spectrum 4-6-0 is about as easy as it gets when talking about scratchbuilding a bunker. The coal load comes out with one screw and it takes a piece of styrene cut to fit to fill the gap. I put a PSC oil tank filler cap casting on it and painted the whole thing black. Very easy and very quick....
Fitting a speaker into the spectrum medium vanderbuilt tender is more work. I finally decided to cut a hole in the top of the oil bunker to fit the speaker in the bunker. The water tank is pretty much filled by the decoder.
Guy
see stuff at: the Willoughby Line Site
I found it was a simple mater of reversing each pair of wires at the PC board and adding a 1k resistor for the LED headlight in the loco if you loco has an LED instead of a light bulb. The pair for the motor, the pair for the loco pick up and the pair for the headlight are reversed. If the loco has a light bulb, that pair can be left alone. The reversal occurs when you use the two short jumpers that come with the tender. This happened to me when using a tender I bought to use with the low driver 4-6-0.
Athabasca shops in Canada makes an etched brass oil bunker conversion kit designed to fit the Spectrum 2-8-0 and 4-8-2 tender. The kit sells for $26 Cdn. I have built a couple for some local modellers and they turn out great. The oil bunker kit was designed to give the Spectrum locomotives a CPR look as Athabasca Shops also sells an etched brass vestibule cab kit for both the Spectrum 2-8-0 and 4-8-2. The 2-8-0 kit also works on the Athearn Genesis 2-8-2.
The kits can be found here. http://www.athabascashops.com/
Wayne Reid