The rumor mills are in full swing:

http://120pointme.blogspot.com/

Looks like a Bachmann/Accucraft collaboration, and it's generating a lot of positive talk in cyberville. I don't suppose there's any chance of anyone from Philly commenting?

Later,

K

Okay, for all those folks complaining that Bachmann hasn't come out with any new 1:22 stuff, here's something to get your creative juices flowing.



This is a "downsized" Bachmann 2-8-0. Ordinarily, I take the 1:22 models and "upscale" them to 1:20. This time, things needed to go the other way. My dad wanted a new loco for his railroad and liked the Bachmann 2-8-0. Alas, dad's railroad was built prior to the popularity of 1:20, so some of his clearances are too tight for the larger models. That, and the stock loco dwarfs the rest of his rolling stock. So, he and I sat down and brainstormed over ways to make the stock 2-8-0 a smaller scale. This was a collaborative effort. He did the basic structural work; replacing and refitting the cab, trimming the running boards, and narrowing/shortening the front pilot. He brought the "roughed in" locomotive back out to me, and I did the finishing details and painting.

"Official" builders photo:


Engineer's side:


This illustrates the resulting size difference between the two. On the right, my 2-8-0, which--while modified--is unchanged in terms of overall dimensions.



The tender is a 1:24 model of an EBT mikado tender I had built years ago for a project that never got off the ground.

Photos of the loco prior to painting and more on the modifications can be found here:
http://www.mylargescale.com/Community/Forums/tabid/56/forumid/8/postid/33173/view/topic/Default.aspx

Later,

K

Not to start any rumors or anything, but when y'all release the EBT mikado , here's some simple fodder for some rolling stock that can go behind it:

Before:


After:


More, including a link to the mods I made can be found here:
http://www.mylargescale.com/Community/Forums/tabid/56/forumid/8/postid/23750/view/topic/Default.aspx

Later,

K

With all the talk of the new colors on the Bachmann 4-4-0, all I want to ask is:


What's wrong with basic black?

This used to be a rather garish SPC red. (with apologies to SPC fans)

and fortunately had a run in with a spray can.



The repainting of this loco will be the subject of a the next few "Garden Railways Basics" columns in Garden Railways. More photos and a little history of the loco's prototype can be found at:
http://www.mylargescale.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=49585


Perhaps this might convince Bachmann that an updated and modernized 4-4-0 may make a nice addition?

Later,

K

As much as I love the operating journal lids on the new trucks, be forewarned that groundcovers--especially thyme, veronica, and sedum--will reach out and open them up or pull them off. This seems to be more of a problem with the archbar trucks, as the lids are a bit looser than the ones on the hopper car.

I did manage to find three of the four that came off.

Later,

K

Okay, they didn't stay unchanged for long... I got the new B'mann hopper and two flat cars, and it wasn't long before they underwent some minor surgery.

The Hopper:


Out of the box, the hopper's a good model of the EBT's 2-bay ganister rock hoppers which they built in the 1930s. There are some quirky details that aren't "quite right," though, so I set about to correct them. The biggest was the lack of any kind of detailing on the underside of the hopper, and the incorrect air brake rigging.



This was remedied with some styrene, and a bit of brass rod and other bits to rework the brake plumbing. Curiously, some of these details were included on the 1:22 hopper, but not on this one. 



The car comes unnumbered, so I applied some dry-transfer numbers to the side. A little light weathering completes the car. I also added the air line that ran along the outside edge of the hopper.



I used the archbar trucks from the flat car to put under the hopper. The stock trucks are quite accurate for the 1930s hopper modeled, but not the original 2-bay hoppers that the EBT purchased from the Pressed Steel Car Co. in 1913. Since I model 1913, swapping the trucks seemed appropriate. (The other trucks are slated for another project.)

More of the hopper conversion can be found here:
http://www.mylargescale.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=45037

The Flats

Both of these cars started life as a Bachmann flat car.

The first off the workbench was the gondola, patterned after an EBT gondola.



No good photos of the EBT's gondolas have come to light, so this is more conjectural than prototypic. (though gondola #78 was 30' long)



In 1913, the EBT had not applied air brakes to most of its fleet, so the air brake detail was removed from the underside.



The deck was painted with Folk Art "Barnwood" acrylic paint, and the gondola stakes cut to fit in the stake pockets.



The deck was washed with dilute black paint to give the deck a weathered look. The wood sides of the gondola were also washed, and matched surprisingly well. I wasn't expecting such a close match, but I'll take luck when I can.

The second flat car got an identical treatment in terms of backdating the brake gear and moving the brake staff to match EBT practice.



For this one, I added "end gates" which the EBT used on a handful of flat cars for pulpwood and other timber commodities.



I wanted this car to look a bit older and worn, so I weathered it a bit more, drybrushing some of the barnwood paint on the sides of the car and sanding off some of the lettering prior to washing the car with dilute black paint.

The trucks on both of these cars are Delton/Aristo-Craft archbar trucks.

More on these cars can be found here:
Gondola - http://www.mylargescale.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=44154
Flat - http://www.mylargescale.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=45084

Later,

K