That’s looking great–very cool!
Why is the slot for the fourth wheel axle so big? Do you have bearings in there?
Mike, the slot is really only a little bigger than the others.
It’s not just an axle that I’m putting in - it’s a driver “unit”. It includes a gearbox and presumably some bearings. This happens to be the first generation; the others are just a bit smaller. I won’t be driving it via the gear shaft; just the side rods.
Bruce
That makes sense–I thought you were simply adding an axle and wheels, but you’re using the whole Aristo gear box?
The Mikado drive block has the hex socket/drive shaft exposed on the front end. It’s too bad they did not do that. Then if you wanted you could could have the fourth wheel powered by the motor. But maybe it would make no difference?
Yep, I’m using the entire gear box. But, it’s a different design and shape than the newer ones. I thought about using the drive shaft, but I figure that’s what the side rods are for. 
Of course that means I need to MAKE some siderods, but I’d have to do that which ever way I chose.
These are close to done. Now to figure out the valve gear.
I’m still undecided on making a pilot from scratch. I’ll at least use the front part from the Annie. The pilot is a bit high above the track but otherwise actually scales pretty well. The boiler support is from the original Pacific and looks OK, though it’s not nearly the same as the one on the EBT Mike. Of course this is a J&B Mike, so that’s OK. 
I went ahead and spray painted all of the wheels to get a more uniform look. I’m thinking of leaving them all black, instead of painting the tires white. I have some old pictures of the EBT Mikes and they don’t have any white trim on the drivers. No brass boiler bands either.
Right you are. The white trim and brass bands are tourist era features. They have been blacked out on occasion for some photo charters, but most tourist era shots will have them.
Your chassis and steam chests/cylinders look great. Making good progress 
Dangit, just when I had come to terms with my lack of desire to work on my 2-8-0 project, you go and post this. Curse you, Chandler! Actually, my bigger debate is whether to work on the 2-8-0 project, or the 2-6-0 “modernization” project, now that it has arrived safe and sound in the TRR shops. I may do them concurrently, since I’ve got to steal a bunch of details off of the 2-6-0 for the 2-8-0 anyway.
That’s looking great!
Later,
K
Kevin Strong said:
Dangit, just when I had come to terms with my lack of desire to work on my 2-8-0 project, you go and post this. Curse you, Chandler! Actually, my bigger debate is whether to work on the 2-8-0 project, or the 2-6-0 "modernization" project, now that it has arrived safe and sound in the TRR shops. I may do them concurrently, since I've got to steal a bunch of details off of the 2-6-0 for the 2-8-0 anyway.That’s looking great!
Later,
K
You need to get started - I need some instructions!
Glad the Mogul made it - hope you had a good visit with your folks.
Now, I thought we knew each other well enough to get cursed by our first names
Wow. A lot of good input on the pilot via email. Thanks. The current pilot is 1 1/4" tall. It should be another 1/8" or so - not a BIG deal, but it’s a bit higher off the track than the prototype.
And, it looks a tad different.
But, I’m not sure it’s really worth it to build a new one from scratch. It looks just like the ones we use on the J&B. Now, onto the side rods. The current ones are kind of clunky looking.
Once again, I’m torn. I COULD build all new ones, but these are done. The real problem is that the pins on the drivers are HUGE, so I’m afraid I might be stuck with clunky. As it is, I’ve got to build a set to connect to the front driver. I’m planning on using some 1/4" brass strip and hoping I can make them look similar to the ones I have. I’m amazed at the level of detail on the Annie siderods when I compare the two.
Regarding the pilot… you won’t notice the difference from the pilot house of a galloping horse.
Looks great!
Bruce,
On the pilot, why not add some thickness to the bottom of the current pilot beam. It would get it closer to the rail head and give it that bulkier look at the same time.
Bruce,
You are getting a lot of good comments/help. What are you looking for as far as the siderods are concerned?
I’ve got a lot of “stuff” you may be able to use. What is your axle to axle dimension?
If you had another set of the same siderods, you could make the long center section in an assembly. I think those rods are Zamac and can’t be soldered. The long center section means the end pieces would be uniformly hinged. Just thinking out loud.
Barry - BBT
Barry,
I haven’t tried soldering yet. Ouch. That was my plan. I may have to re-think it.
Right now, I’m back to building that pilot. It just doesn’t look right.
Barry, it looks like 74mm center to center on the axles.
Too bad you don’t have some big drivers for the BBT drive. I was pushing my BBT ten wheeler along the test track yesterday and it just rolls so nicely.
Barry,
I just tried soldering to that…and you’re right: it doesn’t hold.
I’ll be interested to see what you might come up with. Otherwise, it looks like I’ll have to fabricate some from brass - but that sure doesn’t sound very easy.
Somewhere I saw a guy who had fabricated siderods out of stainless code 332 track. He filed the wide part (the web?) down to where it was even with the railhead. I think it was a builder log at mylargescale, guy was making a PRR atlantic. Brass would be easier and you could solder to it.
Mike, The “good” news is that the side rods are flat, so I could use just flat brass strip to make it.
But, it’s the ends that might be tough. I’m thinking I could solder some larger brass pieces to the brass strip, but I’d still have to file and drill the end pieces. Another thought is that I could some pieces from Annie side rods - but I’m not sure what they’re made from or if I could solder to them.
When building something like this, there’s always a couple of ways to do something. Typically, I seem to choose the wrong way first. I got this far on the side rods before finding out I couldn’t solder to them. I ground away the relief so that they would be flat and also tried to remove some of the thickness around the holes.
I probably just should have built some from scratch to start with, but to tell the truth I still haven’t figured out the best way. Of course, this probably kills the resale value of those side rods. 
Bruce,
I have done several extended chassis mods on the Bachmann Annie and my method is also applicable to your dilemma. Firstly, obtain a spare set of rods. Pick one rod from each side of the locomotive and cut mid distance between the journals on the non-hinged rod. You will then have two rods with a hinged rod section on one end and a missing journal on the other. Source some K&S ‘U’ channel brass strip which is a tight fit around the back half of the rod and cut to length and bond the two rod ends that are missing a journal together. I typically use high-strength (slow cure) epoxy. This will then give you a rod prototypically hinged at each end. Repeat for other side.
One hinged rod, at the forward end on each side, will need to be adjusted in length to suit your modified wheel spacing, on the leading axle. The 'U' channel brass strip is also effective here as well. The thickness of the strip is almost visually negligible once the rod is painted.