Has Bachmann ever considered making some of the earlier stlye locomotives from the 19th century such as the Colorado Midland engines.
Royce Wilson :-*
Royce,
The best bet for a start on the old Colorado Midland engines are the old MDC "Old Timer" Consolodations. While Model Engfineering works did them all in Brass some 40 years ago, those will be the closest. There are a couple of things closer but they aren't good runners, the Model Products 4-6-0 and 2-8-0 which were very cheap copies of the MEW locomotives, Those have tender drives but are pretty close in appearence.
I do agree that a turn of the century 2-8-0 Ma & Pa or the CM locomotives should be a nice locomotive for small layouts.
Once again, I hear cries for SMALL HO steamers. COUGH...COUGH...
2-6-0, 2-8-0, 4-6-0,4-4-2, YEAH!
Gene
Hi Royce, finally got on the board. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one that's hung up on the CM. Unfortunately most of the Midland engines were built by Schenectady with wagon top boilers & the steam dome mounted almost against the front of the cab, not exactly the usual place in my experience. I had hoped that Bachmann would release Ma & Pa #23-24-25-26, the light consolidations but none so far. PLEASE MR BACHMANN ASK MR RILEY? We (those of us that are modeling late 1890's-early 1900's) need a slide valve connie with stephenson valve gear and Spectrum quality. My understanding, Royce, is that Mr Riley likes Baldwin locamotives & the Ma & Pa so thats probably our best bet.
Hi
Not modelling neither CM nor Ma & Pa, a small, generic (4-4-0/2-6-0/2-8-0) slide valve steam locomotive would be most useful. Not only on a layout modelled around the turn of the century, but also for us modelling the early -50´s. The famous Moguls of Wabash were still slide valve until the end in 1954 as I can see from pictures. And a Stephenson valve gear would be most interesting to watch at slow speed.
Regards, Yukonsam
Don't forget that we have the Ma and Pa 4-4-0's, in both slide valve and piston valve versions, along with the Ma and Pa 4-6-0. I agree that a Ma & Pa-type light 2-8-0 with slide valves is a needed addition. Very similar locos were used by the Coal & Coke RR (later became B&O) and some of the WM's predecessors as well. Now, as for working Stephenson valve gear, that's another thing entirely. A couple of high-end brass models have had this rendered to some degree. Bachmann did it on the On30 Climax (I don't know about the HO model). Doing a fully-accurate version, with the dual eccentrics on the inside of the frame riding on the driver axle, would probably be cost-prohibitive for a mass-market model. Some models that have tried to represent working gear have used a simple axle-mounted cam that works both lever arms together. Not prototypically correct, but you can't see both sides of the model at the same time.
I too, would love to see a turn-of-the-century, state-of-the-art, slide valve consolidation. A Baldwin catalog engine similar like the 4-6-0 would be perfect.
In Nevada, the Las Vegas & Tonopah, Bullfrog Goldfield, Tonopah & Tidewater and Tonopah & Goldfield railroads all had similar slide valve 2-8-0's and 4-6-0's before WW I. - Nevin