Inspired by the Eirie Railroad articulated camelback banking locomotives, this will be a narrow-gauge behemoth. Idea commenced with leftover offcuts from the cab of the Baldwin Fairlie project. With no paint onhand to finish the Fairlie, I took what material was available and started on this project. Being a largish locomotive, I decided to give the fireman a luxury cab with windows, no less! Wheel layout will be 2-6-6-0, comprising a fixed rear driver set with an articulated drive set mounted off the front of the rear set in a prototypical mallet fashion. I am aiming for ten-foot minimum diameter, hopefully (?). I used this method with my 4-4-4-0 Mallet and achieved the ten foot minimum. To overcome a balance problem corrected in the early stages with the previous Mallet project, I added fishing sinkers (lead weights) to the lower portion of the Wooten firebox, to compensate for the overhanging boiler structure forward of the rear driver set forward axle. To ensure the forward driver set correctly exits a curve, no structure weight must exert any force on the front drive. The early LGB Mikados were infamous for exiting curves with their split drives crossed up, travelling crabwise down the straight track following a curved section. By allowing the forward drive set to act like a single truck, then the drive set will track correctly. This does mean that the only traction weight on the front truck is the weight of the drive set alone, thus limiting traction from this set. This is a necessary trade off. The photograph shows the extended boiler section, with rear cab and Wooten firebox fitted. Also fitted is the rear drive block. The cab will fit between the pressure dome and the rear sand dome. I had hoped to fit a trailing truck, but this would have extended the length of the locomotive another several inches, impacting on minimum operating diameter.
