TRR 2-6-0 #2 leads the morning milk train out of Neelyton It was an unusually wet spring in the lower end. The rains were never heavy, but constant. Constant for about a week. Tuscarora RR 2-6-0 #2 (ex. ET&WNC #2) was pulling the early morning milk train north from Burnt Cabins over a small fill when the ground gave way beneath her. She rolled down the embankment, shattering her cab and causing a fair amount of other cosmetic damage. The accident should have proven fatal, except for the lucky fact that the engineer had felt something not quite right, and was leaning far out the window when the train rolled. He lost his balance and fell out as the loco rolled the other way. The fireman in the tender, and suffered a broken leg. Fortunately for #2, the soft ground was as much blessing as it was curse. It cushioned the roll, so the damage to the locomotive proved to be primarily cosmetic. So, they picked the loco up, gingerly wheeled it up to Port Royal, and loaded it on a flat car to Baldwin so they could rebuild her.
Number 2 returned from Baldwin looking like a new locomotive. Sporting a new cab, domes, pilot–and most importanly–a much larger capacity tender. (The original tender really wasn’t all that badly damaged, but it was an excuse to order a new one.) She also finally got fitted with electric lights–a modern conveience that had eluded all TRR locos to that point. The model The story of TRR (new) #2 really began when I reworked a Bachmann 2-8-0 into a more “Rio Grande” locomotive for a friend of mine, as part of a bartered exchange that brought me handful of locomotives for various projects. Modeling the early 1910s as I do, “modern” conveniences like electric lights, generators, and dual airpumps really don’t fit into my era. However, I do like the looks of them. When I did this loco, I really had fun playing with those, and then weathering the loco a bit more heavily than I typically weather my equipment. Part of that barter included a Barry’s Big Trains 2-8-0 chassis-equipped B’mann “Annie.” That 2-8-0 would be destined to be the chassis for EBT #3, which is still in the shops. What I needed to complete that project, though, was a tender and domes from a Bachmann 2-6-0 or 4-4-0. My first thought was to strip down “old” TRR #2, and use the parts off of that. Then, what to do with the chassis? Well, why not do a “modern” version? I had in my scrap box domes and a tender from a Bachmann 2-8-0, which would work very well. I was still a bit ambivolent about tearing down one locomotive to build another, but if I had to. A change in plans… About that time, the 1:20pointMe web site hosted a photo contest. Well, I didn’t win, but Bruce Chandler did. The prize–a Bachmann 2-6-0. Bruce was lamenting that it was too early for his time period, so I suggested a swap, since I had been contemplating a “modern” 2-6-0 myself. I’d send him my 2-8-0 tender and domes in exchange for the older tender and domes, sparing my locomotive from the scrapper’s torch and giving him the modern 2-6-0 more fitting his time period. A short time later, Bruce decided that a modern 2-6-0 really wasn’t what he was after, so he offered to sell me the loco at a price I couldn’t turn down. So, now I had what I needed to do both EBT #3 and a “modern” TRR #2. It was originally going to be something of a “for the heck of it” project, but in the mean time, I had renovated my K-27 to become TRR #10, which far and away too modern for my 1910s time period. As a result, I decided that TRR #2 would become a sister loco to TRR #10, and I would work on two different eras in the TRR’s history–the old and the new, with modern steel cars and the like, giving me opportunity to model some of the EBT’s more modern equipment as well.
I raided my parts box for a number of bits and pieces from various locomotives for this project. The boiler is ABS pipe wrapped in 1/16" cork, then wrapped in styrene for the jacket. The cab is from a Bachmann 4-6-0, tender and domes from a Bachmann 2-8-0 (the tender shortened by about 1" and narrowed by about 1/2"), and various bits and pieces from goodness knows which locomotive.
More detailed construction and finished photos can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/TRR2602 Later, K