…and don’t forget the freight cars for them.
Vic Smith said:
Bachmann could score some serious brownie points simply by upscaling some of the incredible locomotive’s they have done in On30, the 2-6-0, the Railbus, the Porter, just to start, and sell them for a reasonable price.
But they won’t, their market focus seems to be fixed on fancy short production run models of specific large steamers. I expect the next LS model to be a varient of their four axle drive, maybe an EBT Mike.
I had been thinking the same - Bachmann copied its LS models in On30 (e.g. the 4-6-0) but haven’t upscaled the Railbus. Not sure I (or anyone else) wants another strange articulated loco, and a 2’ gauge 4-4-0 isn’t much use. They already have a 2-6-0 and a 4-4-0, so no point in copying that. So there isn’t much else to hope for upscaled to Fn3.
I think they missed an opportunity with the Fn3 Forney. Bachmann seems to have no trouble jumping in to a new scale [ LS Big Haulers, On30 ] so they could have done the Forney in 7/8n2 scale. A few cars and a 4-wheel coach would have sold quite well - imho. The 2’ gauge 4-4-0 would work too, and the porter.
The real question is - what other locos ran on narrow gauge 3’ railroads? Most of the locos have been done: 4-4-0s and 2-6-0s were common, and the K27 was a good choice. I can only think of the straight-boiler 4-6-0, with a gap for the firebox between the last two drivers. Sort of an enlarged 2-6-0. Do we have a 4-6-0 in the Fn3 Spectrum range ? They were used for passenger service in particular - where’s the duck-bill passenger coach we asked for a few years ago?
Ah, yes, made in consort with Bachmann Europe. You are right about that, and I apologise to the ghost of AristoCraft past. It was, however, never intended for sale in the USA or Canada, where the real thing was actually built, and initially came to a dealer in TX for an unbelievable amount of $$$$$.
A few folks DID buy one, if only for the novelty value, but it was then, and still is a very fine model. My pal main131 has one with a Phoenix system installed, and it’s VERY impressive.
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS
And given an entirely different hobby scene to that at present i.e. more buoyant and manufacturers producing reasonable priced models it is possible that the Aristo/Bachman stocklist might have included another UK diesel model I suppose the Aristo Consolidation might count as well as the Class 66.
I am not over familiar with the Aristo USATC model but the prototypes were brought to Europe but I am not sure how much alteration would be needed to alter into a UK version (if there was such a thing).
These locos are still in existence.
http://www.lner.info/locos/O/s160.shtml
Freight cars for the Class 66, made by Aristo were intermodal flats with containers but many UK railroaders also ran Bachmann 3 bay Big Hauler hoppers and often have made UK open gondola types cars.
Alan, there were two classes of USRA-built locomotive in use in UK during the latter stages of WW2 and post-war. The USRA 0-6-0 so-called dock tank, and the much larger 2-8-0 used by the US Transportation Corps. This is the model that nailed the lid on Aristocraft. In spite of the promises that there would be a UK-modified version, it never happened. There are five of these 2-8-0 locos currently in use here in England - one of them up the road at the Nene Valley Railway - so I’ll let you look for it.
Here’s the skinny on the dock tank loco -
During the Second World War no fewer than 514 USATC S100 Class 0-6-0 tank engines were built by the Davenport Locomotive Works, for use by the United States Army Transportation Corps in both Europe and North Africa. Some of these remained in service long after the war, having been purchased or otherwise adopted by the countries where they were used. These included Austria, Egypt, France, Iraq, the United Kingdom and Yugoslavia.
The fourteen engines purchased by the Southern Railway in 1946 remained in service well into the 1960s. Designed to be extremely strong but easy to maintain, these engines had a very short wheelbase that allowed them to operate on dockyard railways.
And here’s the Connie at Cheddleton, after coming off service at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway -
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS
Thanks for the info Tac.
I am more familiar with the S100 USATC 0-6-0 dock shunter as they were at Southampton with the Southern Railway. Also the SNCF had some 77 designated 030-TU 1 - 77 which were usually in the marshaling yards in northern, western and eastern France. There are some very nice HO models of this loco.
tac Foley said:
Alan, there were two classes of USRA-built locomotive in use in UK during the latter stages of WW2 and post-war. The USRA 0-6-0 so-called dock tank, and the much larger 2-8-0 used by the US Transportation Corps. This is the model that nailed the lid on Aristocraft. In spite of the promises that there would be a UK-modified version, it never happened. There are five of these 2-8-0 locos currently in use here in England - one of them up the road at the Nene Valley Railway - so I’ll let you look for it.
-snip-
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS
Tac,
Aristo couldn’t get the drivers right on the 2-8-0 for the American market, so there was no capital for your mods…
'stroo. No matter how the Aristocrafters on the now-defunct forum argued about it, producing specious ‘measurements’, estimations, calibrations, et al, there was ALWAYS way too much daylight under the boiler for me and most everybody else. Those folks who actually bought one must be laffing now, though, since there were very few of ‘em sold and we might see them in future e*** sales for many thousands of $$$$$$$ as ‘rare opportunity to acquire a TRUE collectors’ item’.
And more, didn’t they have a problem with the wheels - not only quartered, but also falling off?
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS
Just a point, Tac, re the Aristo Forum; it is still in use. Not much being posted but its purpose, as decided by Lewis, is to enable answers to be given to folks who have an enquiry about their Aristo products. Most posts, of late, are concerning battery and electronics.
There are still some UK dealers with the consolidation in stock and still have other locos and cars.
I don’t have great hopes for many new items (such as locos) but can imagine a kit business working out pretty well. Products that can take existing drives and make the into something different. ex: On30 Bachmann Davenport to Box-Cab etc…
I love the look of the Little Euro Lokes so I guess if I ever get bored I can always scratch that itch.
That Connie at the North Yorkshire Moors preservation line that Tac mentioned…
Longish video of it in action…
They seem to have a heck of a lot of spare rolling stock awaiting renovation!
Cale, Euro-stuff can be fun, even little Euro stuff. A couple of weeks ago I bought a beat-up LGB Schoema diesel switcher off e***.de for around $65. It was pretty sad-looking and had seen better days. Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, given that I’m deeply touched, some say mawkish to a ridiculous degree about sad-looking stuff, I decided to resurrect it.
It got dismantled and underwent a whole car-body respray in Hungarian flag green, since some of the saddest-looking NG trains on earth are to be found in Hungary, and I already have tow converted Newqida passenger cars done. Running gear in black.
Then, I carried out the following mods -
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Cut out the fake grilles on the side and replaced them with real grilly stuff.
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Removed the LGB couplings and replaced then with Accucraft chopper NG items.
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Installed duplex air/vacuum hoses front and rear.
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Detailed the control panel.
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Scraped the new paint off the window surrounds, leaving them a nice bright yellow to contrast with the Hungarian railroad green.
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Installed aluminium tubing handrails all round.
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Printed up some ‘wasp’ stripes on photo-paper and fitted it to the end beams, and yes, Hungarian wasp stripes DO go up and not down.
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Made some vinyl GÁV signs for the cab-sides and coat of arms of the city of Gyor for the doors.
Note yet here, but on the way, is a battery r/c set with full sound…a totally unique model locomotive for substantially less than a hundred bucks, and, trust me, you’ll never ever see another one.
Pics to a few friends this evening and movies will be on Youtube soon.
bac
Ottawa Valley GRS
tac, building what we want out of what we can get is what many of us do, and sort of have to do given the choices we have in LS.
I look forward to the video.
Ross Mansell said:
That Connie at the North Yorkshire Moors preservation line that Tac mentioned…
Longish video of it in action…
They seem to have a heck of a lot of spare rolling stock awaiting renovation!
a lot of that stock would have been scrapped, restored or moved on, that video is 20 years old,
we are lucky in the uk to have lots of passenger cars and freight cars grounded for use on farms or as holiday homes, luckily more and more are being
restored but as any project it comes down to man hours and cash,
in the uk the vintage carriage trust started a site collecting a record of whats left and its worth a look through to see what still survives
Great to see so much effort going into bringing this icons of British railway history back to life, but sad to see so many unique items being vandalised for their scrap metal, or simply destroyed in acts of brainless arson.
The tac family actually own a very large percentage of a rivet somewhere on the A1 Trust’s ‘Tornado’ - I’d like to think that without it, the whole shebang would come to a shuddering standstill. We are not so mad keen on the P2 build, since we think it’s just plain ugly, and too much like an ineptly-delineated A4 streamliner.
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS
See my post on the video forum - the very first run of the mega-cheap Hungarian NG trainset.
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS