Large Scale Central

Making a Nonesuch

Modeling
#1

OK, first – Yes, I know there weren’t any such animal as 1850s narrow gauge 4-4-0s — that’s why it’s a “Nonesuch”! Now that we have THAT out of the way, if there was one, what would it look like? Maybe something like this?

Or this?

Shawn Fields sent me an Aristo Pacific drive. It came this morning, and by lunchtime looked like this. I know the counterweights are wrong for 1855, but it ain’t worth replacing 1/3 of the spokes to fix.

I also had an incomplete MPC “General” kit here. While the General IS an 1855 Rogers, the kit is a model of it’s 1896 rebuilt configuration… So I decided to backdate it just a bit. The first step was to section the boiler and move the sand dome forward. It will now be a second steam dome.

I recycled the Bachmann pony truck that I shortened for #12, then didn’t use. The General kit is 2-1/4" gauge… narrowing things for 45mm required a bit of reconfiguring because the boiler is just a bit too fat. Good thing I wanted inclined cylinders anyway! Yes, in 1:24 those are 66" drivers. It’s an express engine!

Narrowing the tender trucks was fairly easy, so was fitting them with Lionel wheelsets… I strengthened them with coffee stirrers so they MIGHT hold up under use.

That stopping point called out of glue blues, the cab is just hanging in mid air to see what it will look like. The motor will be in the tender like a B’mann HO scale 4-4-0… I couldn’t figure any other way…

not bad for a day’s work?

#2

Mik,
Not bad at all for a days work! I’m glad that the block was of use to you.

Looks like a great build so far, looking forward to the progress.

#3

Aw man, right now the photos are showing broken links. :frowning:
Sounds like a really neat project, I do like the early ones.

#4
Forrest Scott Wood said:
Aw man, right now the photos are showing broken links. :( Sounds like a really neat project, I do like the early ones.
They're working for me... do you have photobucket blocked somehow?
#5

Very cool project!

#6

motor in tender, no idea what u mean…does Pac drive not operate?

#7

Neat Loco build…

#8

C. Nelson said:
motor in tender, no idea what u mean…does Pac drive not operate?

The Pacific drive has the motor hanging off the back… and is about 3/4" longer than the cab… and too long to stand on end inside the boiler. Sooo, rather than have the motor sitting right in the middle of the cab floor and hanging out the back, I’ll mount it under the wood load and then run a flexible driveshaft to the gearbox. I have a piece of 1/2"x .060 brass strip that I can make a sturdy drawbar out of, and the motor had a fish tubing filled with oil coupling when I got it, so I’ll try a longer one like that first. If it doesn’t work, then I’ll re-engineer it, somehow. My buddy said the paint scheme was too Mason for a quasi Rogers/Norris mutt, so I threw in a little Swinburn

(http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp52/steamnut1917/civil%20war/PC310052.jpg)

#9
Mik said:
. do you have photobucket blocked somehow?
Not that I could imagine, because I've been using it to put pictures in. Anyway, shortly after posting earlier, internet service here went down for an hour or so; that might have had something to do with it.
#10

10-4!

#11

This is fun. I have a General kit I started 25 years ago, and another from my Dad’s old stuff. I also have a Kalamazoo 4-4-0 I was thinking of sacrificing as it is an ugly duckling. I need to learn about radio control before I start anything though, my Dad’s experience with track power in the deep woods is enough to convince me of that.

Bill Nelson ( mainly playing in HO, need another scale like a hole in the head,)

#12

Interesting project.
I’ve seen the “General” kit and often thought about motorizing one.
ralph

#13

Cant wait to see how it looks when done.
Mik Ill try to get those parts in the mail Monday. Just have to dig through my junk box to find them.

#14

Ralph Berg said:
Interesting project. I’ve seen the “General” kit and often thought about motorizing one.

Some thoughts for others who want to try this. 1. A REA/Aristo Rogers drive would probably be a better starting point. An Aristo or Lionel 0-4-0 might work as well. 2. The kit plastic is really light flimsy and some of it is just plain brittle. Plan on replacing the siderods, and perhaps using a bit of pvc pipe for the boiler (scavenge the wagontop section, smokebox and sand dome). 3. Building a whole new frame might be easier than trying to narrow the kit one. Maybe even consider soldering one out of brass box for strength. 4. The front truck HAS to be reworked to slide side to side… unless you have really, really broad curves, so you almost HAVE to incline the cylinders for clearance. The plastic rail from the kit actually comes in handy for making a set of guides for the truck to slide in. Z styrene or brass might be even better though 5. In gauge 1 the sides of the cab floor tries to occupy the same space as the rear drive wheels. It might actually be easier to just replace it than to modify it…

(http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp52/steamnut1917/civil%20war/P1010052.jpg)

Anyway, here’s what it looks like this afternoon… I just HAD to use that cool ball sand dome… it’s a wooden bead.

(http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp52/steamnut1917/civil%20war/P1010053.jpg)

#15
Mik said:
. I just HAD to use that cool ball sand dome..
Of course you know there are people who will get them selves all flattered and puffy informing you how that is "Not prototypical. Never would have done that" ;)

Oh, really now, there’s a little 6lb book “American Locomotives” by a fellow named John White or something, which has some rather interesting photos scattered about its pages

#16

Mik,
Old 4-4-0s avoided the sliding pilot truck by only flanging the back driver set–the front ones slid side to side on the track, as the front truck only had a pivot to the frame. The B&O Museum’s William Mason (4-4-0, used in Wild, Wild West) still has that–the only real issue, supposedly, is that the flangeless driver set tends to cause derailments on modern guarded frogs. Yup, they run it like that.

Not suggesting that that’s a good idea, as it would only leave one useful powered axle on our sharper curves…but what the heck, it’s interesting history.

#17

There’s enough sideplay in the first driver set for maybe 8 foot diameter curves without the sliding truck… Unfortunately, I have R-2s outside and R-1s inside.

The thing will probably be mostly a shelf queen, but I’d like to at least be able to run it every once in a while, anyway… or claim it does. :stuck_out_tongue:

#18

Doncha HATE starting over? I tried to modify the counterweights, and Kim’s “works on most plastics” glue decided that it didn’t like the stress and vibration… Soooooooo, since I have to redo a bunch of things anyway, I’m going to try to modify the drive block to fit the motor inside the boiler (at about a 45deg angle)… Remind me again that this is “fun”?

#19

The reconfigured gearbox…

(http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp52/steamnut1917/civil%20war/P1050056.jpg)

It runs about as smooth as the original one did… Is it just me, or were those Aristo Pacifics geared awful high? ALMOST back to where we were yesterday morning…

(http://i397.photobucket.com/albums/pp52/steamnut1917/civil%20war/P1060020.jpg)

It only has 4 point pickup at the moment. I need to scrounge a 2 wire modular plug and put skates or something on the tender

#20

Foodled with this a bit today. Got the backhead stuff put on… it doesn’t look right to me, but that’s the way MPC wanted it

(http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt7/tigerlillie06/His%20Stuff/P1130020.jpg)

And worked on the cylinders

(http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt7/tigerlillie06/His%20Stuff/P1130021.jpg)