Does anyone know how a person would model a small 2-8-2 like Magma Arizona RR #7? To me, the USRA Light Mikados just look way too big and don't really capture the look of a small shortline 2-8-2. I want to model a 1950s railroad in western Texas that will capture the flavor and feel of the Magma, and a Mikado like the #7 is a almost a must for me....but no RTR models that I've seen do the trick. Suggestions? ???
http://www.steamlocomotive.com/mikado/magma7-wessel3.jpg
http://www.rgusrail.com/txtsr.html
http://www.brasstrains.com/classic/Product/Detail/064721/HO-Brass-Model-Train-NWSL-Toby-Baldwin-2-8-2-70-Ton-Logging-Mikado-White-River-Lumber-Co-Custom
There were dozens of prototype engines like this. They ran on short lines as much as for lumber companies. Light axle loading for lightly laid poor track was the name of the game, that's why a MacArthur no larger than a lot of moguls.
I almost bought one of these models 51 years ago, still kicking myself.
Those small Mikes look exactly like a consolidation with a tiny trailing truck added.
If it were me, I would start with a Bachmann 2-8-0. Then finagle a way to add one of those tiny trucks off of the old 2-6-2s... which were 0-6-0 with some tiny trucks added. I happen to have kept a couple of those tiny pony and trailing trucks from an old project.
The B&O actually had a Consolidation to which they added a small trailing truck. Looked odd to me, until I considered a small road needing good power, like logging.
Then it's just a matter of shrinking the stock tender, or adding a smaller tender from a smaller locomotive.
I considered such a project once, then changed my mind. I hope you try it and let us see it.
Regards,
Jonathan
The issue for me here is that the driver size on the Connie is about the same as on the Mike. Most of these vest-pocket Mikes had drivers in the 52 - 56 inch range. For me a better start might be one of the old MDC/Roundhouse Old-Time 2-8-0 kits. You would need to do some work with rear frame extensions and stretch the boiler, but that would be one approach.
The Bachmann consolidation is a HUGE locomotive , it dwarfs the USRA light MacArthur when standing next to it. The boiler diameter is noticeably larger. I don't think that adding a trailing truck to it would give you the light engine look that you want.
Bachmann has or had a Chinese SY 2-8-2 that could be a good starting point, and would be quite appropriate in a way, too--the prototype has an ancestry that goes back to a smallish Alco design built for export, and also is close in appearance to a number of Alcos built for domestic service as well, including some for shortlines in the South.
One road that had such small 2-8-2s was the Mississippi Central:
http://www.msrailroads.com/MSC.htm
http://hawkinsrails.net/steam/msc/msc_steam.htm
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4002850
The Chinese SY 2-8-2:
http://www.kurogane-rail.com/kurogane-images/zh2/sy.jpg
http://www.chinesemodeltrains.com/encyclopedia_sy.html
http://www.hattons.co.uk/62137/Bachmann_China_CS00204_SY_Class_2_8_2_steam_locomotive_1530_tender/StockDetail.aspx
I forgot about those great looking MCRR 120-class light Macarthurs . One still exists at the bottom of a deep pond that used to be a gravel pit near Franklinton , LA.
Quote from: Trainman203 on August 31, 2016, 09:17:29 PM
I forgot about those great looking MCRR 120-class light Macarthurs . One still exists at the bottom of a deep pond that used to be a gravel pit near Franklinton , LA.
Tickling my brain cells. . .:)
Reminded me of another Alco light 2-8-2 that's still around, Elk River Coal & Lumber No. 10, originally built as Toledo, Angola & Western No. 100, and on display at Huntington, W.Va.:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elk_River_Coal_and_Lumber_Company_No._10
https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1612/23551605974_5e3c39596f_b.jpg
A bunch of other light 2-8-2s here. Aberdeen & Rockfish No. 40 is still around and operational (or at least stored serviceable or nearly so) on the Valley Railroad of Connecticut, and McCloud River 18 is around, too, though I forget where at the moment. The latter engine had a bit of Hollywood glory in the film "Emperor of the North Pole," with costars Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin:
https://sites.google.com/site/mikado282typesteamlocomotives/small-2-8-2
A number of those engines, including McCloud 18, Cowlitz, Chehalis & Cascade 15, and Georgia-Pacific 3 (which has a weird, apparently home made sand dome!), were marketed and sold by Baldwin as a standard logging engine, along with the small 2-6-2s and small Mallets that company built.
Mentioning Elk River Coal & Lumber in turn reminded me of its common carrier side, the very fondly remembered Buffalo Creek & Gauley, one the last steam shortlines anywhere, running steam into 1965:
(Turn on your speakers for the home page below. :) )
http://www.buffalocreekandgauley.com/
Those are some great pictures, and exactly the type I have in mind. That Bachmann Chinese Mikado is super sharp as well. Looks like someone could take the Susquehanna version, swap out the tender and cab, and rearrange the front handrails to make a decent representation of an ALCO 2-8-2. I'm not all that knowledgeable on detailing steam locomotives, but looks like they have quite a bit of good factory detailing. I assume it wouldn't be an easy task to switch cabs, though. A small Vanderbilt or a small standard tender with an oil bunker would look great coupled behind in my opinion.
Turns out Valley Railroad of Connecticut has done just such a conversion in 1:1 scale to represent a long gone New Haven class:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/rrpa_photos/84073/NH%203025%201.jpg
https://photos.smugmug.com/Railroad-Photos/Valley-Railroad-Photos/i-bLp272j/0/XL/IMG_9985-XL.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iAIpdbwak4
Something I've kicked around mentally is the idea of using a Bachmann SY to make up a Virginian MB:
http://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=92324
http://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=61852
http://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=79122
The former Bonhomie & Hattiesburg Southern No. 300 is still in Hattiesburg, although in pretty bad shape.
http://www.rgusrail.com/msbhs300.html
Dierks Lumber & Coal Company #227. This one is on display about an hour north from me and across the state line in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. Number 360, a 4-6-0 from the same company, is on display at Queen Wilhelmina State Park not far from it.
http://www.steamlocomotive.com/mikado/dierks227-wessel1.jpg
http://www.steamlocomotive.com/mikado/dierks227-wessel2.jpg
The 227 bears somewhat of a family resemblance to the Bach Man's mogul.
The trouble with the Chinese MacArthur is the disc drivers, extremely modern for a period in America when no small steam engines were being built any more.
Jonathan: Those small Mikes look exactly like a consolidation with a tiny trailing truck added.
TM: that's exactly what they are. The trailing truck is, as much as to aid weight distribution, to help staying on the track while running in reverse, just like what the pony truck does for running forward. A lot if these lumber company lines didn't have turning facilities in the woods, and the track itself was light and poor. These little engines pulled trains running in reverse as much as forward and needed the extra guidance and stability that those little trailing trucks provided. The light prairies we've seen here before were engineered for the same reason.
Short lines often followed the same practice. Many had no costly turntables, and wyes used up space unavailable for one reason or another.
So, in my opinion this is one of the largest holes in the modeling world at the moment. There was a time when I would suggest a basic 90-ton Baldwin logging mikado as being an excellent addition to the Bachmann line, but I've long since given up that they will. I hope to be surprised one of these years...but so far no dice.
As for modeling, your best option might be to start with one of the North West Short Line/Toby 70-ton Baldwin logging mikados, brass imports from a couple decades ago. There were at least two versions of the Polson/Rayonier #70, one early and one late, which is today operating on the Mt. Rainier Railroad. Both the prototype and the model are slide valve saturated steam, unusual in as much as the locomotive was built in the early 1920s long after such equipment had given way to piston valves and superheaters. The other two models that I know of are both superheated piston valve machines, representing the Georgia Pacific #5 (formerly Brooks-Scanlon Lumber Company, on display in a park in Corvallis, Oregon) and Owen Oregon/Medford Corporation #3, now California Western #45. The biggest drawback for these models if you are after a 90-ton "Mike" is that they all have 44-inch drivers, the 90-ton version has 48" drivers. These brass models show up on ebay on a fairly regular basis, especially the Polson/Rayonier #70.
One other possibility might be the Life-Like 0-8-0, I don't know the driver size under it but they look to be about the right size...you would have to get rid of the entire boiler and cab and replace it with something smaller, and I don't know if the mechanism will fit, or can be modified to fit, under somthing smaller. But that would be another possible starting point with some strong possibilities.
Jeff Moore
Elko, NV
The Life Like 0-8-0 is based on the USRA 0-8-0, which had 51-inch drivers, and with a rather longish driver spacing that would theoretically allow for 57-inch drivers, which were used on some earlier switchers (though never on USRA based designs that I know of).
I kicked out the idea that Bachmann could have made up a logging 2-6-2, either tank or tender version, using at least some parts from the older 0-6-0T that they used to make. That little thing had drivers in the 44-inch range, just the sized used for the logging 2-6-2, 2-8-2, and some 2-6-6-2s.
By the way, a lot of those shortline and logging rod engines from Baldwin weren't delivered in black. The standard or "default" color at Baldwin was an olive green, often with silver or aluminum lettering and striping. This was standard into at least the early 1930s.
http://loggingmallets.railfan.net/
http://loggingmallets.railfan.net/sub/paint_and_finish.htm
Baldwin Locomotive Works No.26, which is now running at Steamtown, has been restored to its olive green paint it wore as a plant switcher:
http://steamengineresource.weebly.com/uploads/4/1/5/5/41554255/5386346.jpg?763
http://www.railpictures.net/images/d2/9/3/1/3931.1462039281.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzGSWodOYkU