I am wondering if we have anybody that could take a Hartland 4-4-0 and turn it into Casey Jones’s engine the 382 and have it look mostly correct. Proper spoked pilot wheels, lima arc headlight ect. I was hoping we would see an 4-6-0 from them by now, its been hinted at with the V&T ten wheeler and that one is very close to Casey’s turn of the century Rodgers ten wheeler. Hartland has been very quiet in recent times, probably due to the economy. Anybody wanna build me one?
There are tons of “scratchbuilders” here. But there’s a difference between someone that scratch builds what their collection is lacking and someone that will build a model for you from scratch.
Jon.
Mike is right and I might add that it should be built in 1/32nd scale for gauge one track. The Hartland (ex-Kalamazoo) is just too large.
Barry - BBT
Forget the heartland and start with one of Barry’s drives.
barry’s drives would be nice, but it would take different drivers, his are to small in dia. The HLW drivers are more correct for the 382. Barry’s drives are also quite expensive, was looking from more of a cost control stand point. I dont have any issues with my HLW 4-4-0, runs nice, much better than the original Kalamazoo ones, although those arent to bad if you had track skates to them or metal wheels and pickups in the tender.
To not put too fine a point on it, if you’re looking for someone to custom build a locomotive, the price of what you use to start from is fairly insignificant. Just to give something of a frame of reference, a friend of mine who custom-builds gauge 1 live steam locos once quoted me $1,000 per axle for him to build a loco for me. So, a 2-8-2 (6 axles) would have cost me $6,000. A small 0-4-0 (even something as small as the Accucraft Ruby) would run $2K. Now, there’s usually a bit more engineering that goes into a live steam loco as opposed to an electric one, but the amount of actual work is not too different. The details are all the same.
Starting with an existing locomotive as opposed to completely scratchbuilding one will reduce the cost, but much there also depends on how much additional needs to be done to the loco to get it “mostly correct” as you state.
What I’d be tempted to do would be to look at the possibility of using Hartland’s large drivers in a BBT 4-6-0 chassis. There’s enough room between the axle centers, and I think both drives use the same diameter axles. Might be worth asking Barry to be certain on the axle diameter. That way, you have your 4-6-0 chassis to start and can run from there. It may be a c. $300 part to start from, but as someone who has scratchbuilt a few locos, there’s definitely something to be said for a bulletproof running mechanism. Money well spent.
Later,
K
Mike,
How large a driver do you want to use. I can adapt most any metal wheel. And if necessary a regearing is not out of the question. What do you see in your dream?
Barry - BBT
I wanna say the drivers from a Hartland 4-4-0 look about right if we are modeling the ICRR382 in the same scale as the Hartland products. While going true 1:32nd scale would be nice, the bastard scale used by HLW better matches what I will pull with it. So I would go with that size of driver, I will have to take my calipers to it and see what the actual dimension is. I would keep the overall detailing of the engine along the same lines as the HLW 4-4-0, good for outdoor use and handling the engine. I find Bachmanns stuff, while very beautifull, also quite fragile feeling compared to either LGB or HLW products. I had seen over on MLS on the story of the guy that worked with both Kal and HLW on the 4-4-0 as well as other products, bashed up a ten wheeler that doesnt need much to pass for the 382. Hartland has been very quiet lately, wonder what they have up their sleeve for when the economy gets going again?
Mike,
I think Hartland is nominally 1/24th. Nothing wrong with that if that is what you want. Still what size driver would you need? I built a set of siderods for a converted 4-6-0 to a 4-4-0. That seemed to work out pretty well and low cost.
I need a little info in order to suggest what you might be looking for.
Barry - BBT