I only figured it out with a $10 2-10-0 basket case (dropped on the floor maybe) from one show which when I attempted to repair ended up out next to a 2-6-0 basket case (taken apart when someone started to kitbash a 2-6-6-2 that I presume was abandoned when Bachmann released one RTR).   

But the 2-10-0 is all over eBay for reasonable prices, you can't hardly give away a non-sound one. 

Closest thing I see to a prototype might be the Oahu Railways has a couple of 3-foot gauge center cab Whitcombs.  But none of the ones I looked at quite matched up to the pictures online, the cab is not quite right for any of them, and I don't think any had the same shape counterweights either.

It's possible the proportions look off because most of the ones I found pictures of were standard gauge, even the Hawaiian ones were the same width and visibly wider than the cars they pulled.


That said, they were building these as early as 1940, so if you bump your era up a little bit you can probably justify them.   

Might be better to use two #6 switches and even if you use a piece of Atlas sectional track (from the short piece assortment that gives you pieces from 1" to 3" or so) between them, separate them a bit for more clearance.  With tight joiners it should hold together okay, or you could add some plastic or other material to tie them together.

I had someone order one of those crossovers years ago from my shop and he wasn't happy with it - for some reason it wouldn't do what he wanted.  I was never sure just why though.

The 2-6-0 shell will just about drop right on a Bachmann Russian 2-10-0 frame, also, you have to grind the upper portion a tad at the rear.  You could delete the last pair of drivers easily enough and have a 2-8-0, albeit with fairly small drivers.  It should run just as well as it did out of the box and with the bonus of being DCC.

Doesn't the RGS have a small GE based on a 44-ton that's had the clearances cut down (low cab) for narrow gauge use?

I would think this would be the best option for Bachmann because they've already done GE 44 and 70 ton engines in HO and N, so to scale up to an O narrow gauge variant wouldn't be too hard. 

But as noted it's liable to be bigger and wider than you'd expect.   

Just put a shelf coupler on it.  I think McHenry was making one.  It's what they use on modern tank cars, it literally has a ridge on the top and bottom to prevent the knuckle from becoming disengaged. 

I have some curves and hills on my layout and I've run the Forneys around without problems, other than one curved switch I need to replace with a better one which gives some trouble - but it gives trouble with other engines and cars too. 

A long shank coupler and a shelf type on the first car would help with radius issues. 

My nitpick on some of the older engines is they have a directional light.  In actual service, they'd turn the light on and that would be it, if they had to back up you might turn that one on too, you might not. 

Even modern diesels don't change the headlight every time they change directions, and I see plenty come down by with a rear light still on on the last locomotive, or both on a single unit. 

It's not a light bulb, it's an LED, and the assembly is not seviceable so far as I know, you change the entire unit. 

But LED's last just about forever, it seems more likely some other problem would keep it from working. 

I've changed front lights just to have a different one than came out of the box; they're not hard if done with care.

This is a ridiculously easy swap if you don't mind it sitting higher than the pictured locomotive. 

Trim the tab off the bottom front boiler of the 2-6-0 and cut a small notch in the rear bottom center.   On the 2-10-0, remove the upper weight and motor and grind the rear where there is a square hole, down flush.   

Spread the tubes that go into the cylinders, or use the lower boiler shell and some sandpaper to open them up, and you're done. 

You can even put the 2-6-0 pilot on by removing the 2-10-0 pilot and drilling one hole in the frame. 

The only thing that looks odd is the more modern cylinders, but if you want to go all out you could probably just adapt the 2-6-0 cylinder set to it.  It should fit the frame okay, would be a matter of altering holes to take the 2-10-0 main rod and hangers. 

Even with the larger boiler it didn't look that out of place next to a 2-6-6-2.  I may work on it a little more to get it lower.  But if I wanted to, I could start putting it back together right now, it would just be a matter of a couple of holes to screw the new shell into place.   

I also think you could easily remove the rearmost driver set without any issues. 

The key to getting something new in production is they need to be able to sell lots of them, not just a few hundred.   

Now a Big Boy fits that bill, except... it's been done to death. 

An obscure Virginian engine, not so much. 

This is why with a few exceptions, the Spectrum line has either been designs used by multiple railroads, generic engines, or if they're a specific engine they're still generic enough to be acceptable in multiple roadnames. 

I remember when guys were blowing them out for almost nothing to get rid of them.  Go to shows, look around.   

Assuming I can get this to run, I have an HO Bachmann 2-10-0 missing some parts I wasn't sure what to do with.

Well, I also have an On30 Bachmann 2-6-0 I bought in pieces where someone started to bash a 2-6-6-2 only to have Bachmann release one and do the work for you. 

Lo and behold, the boiler shell comes close to fitting the 2-10-0 frame as-is, it would need a tab on the bottom front removed, but appears it would even cover the stock 2-10-0 upper weight. 

I just wonder if a 2-10-0 is overkill, with all those drivers would it be too little weight on them to pull much were it a real engine, although looking at it I see no reason why I couldn't remove the rearmost drive axle and rods. 

I picked up a 2-10-0 cheap at a show Sunday, like stupid cheap, because it had been damaged or dropped or something.  Appeared to be mostly cosmetic damage. 

Everything it's missing I can replace easy enough, if I don't bash it into something else entirely, but before I get into it I wanted to see how it ran.

Well, the wheels wouldn't move and the motor clearly was, so I presumed maybe a belt issue and opened it up for a look-see.  What I found is the belt is fine, but there is a pronounced squeal that comes and goes from the motor or one of the bearing areas for the upper shaft the belt drives.  At first it did it in both directions, then in only one, then it would come and go with a noticeable decrease in speed when it did.  Anyone else run into this, can I lubricate it to solve the problem?

As to the lack of wheel motion, it appears the drive gear is chewed up and no longer can contact the worm.

Bach-man, I see I can buy the entire set of drive wheels, but is it possible to buy only the geared axle?  Is that a question for the sales department?

Any of you guys seen what Peterboro is doing?  They have a guy custom bashing various new types of locomotive by combining parts of existing engines.  Excellent work on them.