Large Scale Central

Finally found my "big" engine for my railway

I have tried various engines on my railway and they are either to large and balk at my curves, are jack rabbit runners which jack up my already bad anxiety(railway is raised 4 to 5 feet off the ground) or the “fit” just wasnt right. My little Regner Paul tram is great for my couple LGB Euro cars but I have wanted a main line USA style locomotive. Our Pearse 0-4-0 is sort of a main line style engine but built to 1:20.3 scale, so its a bit odd but a great runner. A member of a local steam group is paring down his collection and I picked up this AML USRA 0-6-0 along with a bunch of freight cars for a keen price. Then he gifted me his 5" UK ride on scale class 08 “Gronk” battery powered diesel and several sections of track along with 2 ride on cars(needing bogies/trucks replaced). The throttle on this 0-6-0 is easy to set with having jack rabbit running, or running away on the downhill side of my layout then stalling on the up hill either light engine or the long train its pulling in the video. Enjoy! Mike the Aspie

Nice video of a nice locomotive.

Here is a pic of the Class 08 diesel shunter in 5" gauge. These were nicknamed “Gronks”. Runs on a pair of 12vt batteries driving 4 electric motors. More pics later in its own thread. Mike

Mike,

It’s always a pleasure to vicariously engage in the live steam hobby via your posts. Looking forward to doing the same aboard “Gronk!”

Eric

It will be awhile till the Gronk runs. Civil engineering is not my forte’ So that will be a slow process. Waiting to hear back from friends in the UK on its min operating radius so I can start laying out where the track will go. Then I am going to need a load of stone and some more rail to match what I have. Hopefully by late fall or early next year I can ride around the yard.

New video of the USRA 0-6-0 pulling every USA style freight car I have right now. Also showing off the new home brew chuff pipe I made, not as obnoxious as the Summerlands, which also really obstruct the stack and cheaper obviously. This also keeps what is normally a very messy slobber stack model to run. Oiling itself and anything around it down before I made the modification. Now there are but 1 or 2 drops on the boiler jacket and not soaked like it was, along with the tender, first coupler cars, nearby buildings ect. This running on manual control, there is no RC and it will run just as slow and nice with no train at all. Has to be one of the best manual controlled live steamers I have run from all that I have owned. Enjoy! Mike BTW, the Gronk, track, 2 ride on cars(missing trucks) are for sale for a keen price!