I am trying my hand at scratch building/ bashing a 1800’s Civil War Era Locomotive. My goal is to come as close to looking like “The General” as possible but still function properly while running. I have been using the MPC 1/25 scale model kit as a reference point and its moving along pretty fast. I am having a ton of fun doing this and wished I would have tried this sooner. However I am at a stumbling point. I am not sure how to mount the front pony truck for clearance and function. I have a few ideas and will see if they work out. Hope you enjoy the progress below and any ideas are gladly appreciated in comments… Thanks for looking…

I started off with a Kalmazoo locomotive that needed some TLC. I needed to lengthen the boiler to come close to what I want to hopefully achieve and that is a close representation of “The General” locomotive after the Civil War. I have some other parts from some Kalamazoo locos that I am using and some parts from other manufactures so I will let ya know what I use as I go along…

This is the piece I used to lengthen the existing boiler. It is the smoke box from scrap 0-4-0 K-mazoo

Both pieces were glued together using Gorilla super glue and then filled and sanded…

New section fitted and added to boiler.

Up next the pony truck for height.

front of the smoke box. this will extend down and be all one piece when boxed in…

Side pieces X two.

Rear of box.

smoke box completed. Now I am debating on whether I should fill this in with resin to add strength. Also thought of adding some lead shot for weight… If ya noticed that there is a brick pattern on it, This was a old Lionel building. I could not find my styrene pieces Soooo I went with “Miks” way of doing things. He would get a chuckle out of this I think… I sanded off the pattern after it was all dry…

Now onto the next step the steam cylinders. What I need to figure out is how to add this and still have clearance for the front truck to swivel. A one pivot point won’t work unfortunately.

So I am trying to use a front swivel piece from a B-mann loco, will see if this will allow clearance to mount wheels…

Swivel section test fitted to the steam chest section.

Some mock up of what I may use …

Very interesting project!

Updating progress…

Started with a Bachmann front swivel from a 2-6-0 as mentioned before. with a lot of modification to allow clearance this is the end result…

After cutting and shaping…

Pony truck Before and after modifying.

Next the front steam chest area and truck mount…

I re-enforced with some parts cut off of the bachmann engine chassis. and made it so I can remove the pony truck itself and able to screw the mount to the frame to make it rigid instead of just gluing…

So far it likes the 8ft radius curve not so much the 4ft. This is a view of the front installed. With some future parts I am gonna use…

This is the Kalamazoo engine next to the bashed K-Zoo that I am doing. It is looking more like a Civil War Locomotive now that it is longer…

Well that is all for today …Thanks for looking …

This period of US style locomotives is one of my favorites. I don’t know if it has been said whether level or inclined cylinders like in portion of drawing visible are part of the project. Also without having plans to look at, I’d think the pilot beam would want to have frame extended between it and cyllinders to allow more clearance for truck wheels. But, some locos of that era did have kinda funky proportions - which is part of what makes them really cool.

Forrest, it is my favorite too. I just wish that a manufacturer would make a correct version. Mine will not be perfect, but it will suit my needs for the Civil War period. If this one turn out really well and I get past some of the hang ups I am gonna find more K-Zoo or something compatible to bash some more Civil War Locos… This kit bashing is really a lot of fun. Now I know why you guys really get into this…

The Kalamazoo and Heartland 4-4-0s are rather toy-like. I did like the Bachmann 4-4-0s, but they are too big for what I am trying to model. Most of my kit-bashing and scratch-building is in 1:24th scale. Years ago I started a Kalamazoo 4-4-0 bash, but, like Devon, I got distracted and moved on to other things.

I wonder if “bashamazoo” could become a thing?

Kalamabash?

I favor Kala-bash!

Has a ring to it.

John

What a great project. I like what you did with the lead truck.

Will you be painting this black or go all out with bright colours like they did back then?

I like Kalamabash but Bashamazoo seems to fit this extensive project better.

Very cool, looking good!

Looks great so far. I hope to start working on my civil war cars this winter for my live steam 4-4-0. I wish someone would produce the older style 4-4-0. It is also one of my favorite rod engines next to the Forney.