Another junkbox Mogul.. LGB this time!

[Mik]

A very nice gentleman sent be a box full of mogul bits in trade for making him a class A Climax engine. At the time, he said I probably could assemble an entire locomotive from them... Almost.... I still needed to do a little scrounging. What you see is bits of at least 3, possibly 5 locomotives. The wheels and motor are from a 2018D The cab and boiler are from a 2019S. I 'borrowed' the LGB tender from my Mallet #8.

The dynamo, headlight and bell are Bachmann, The LGB ones just looked wrong to my eye. The whistle is the Trackside Details chime that I use on AV passenger locos (when I have one) They say it's a 3-chime, but due to the little round tubes cast in, it looks more like a 7 to me

The only real problem (besides broken piping) Is it's STILL an 1884 Cooke. I want a more modern engine. So I need to make/scrounge a smaller smokebox door and dogs to give it a 1900-ish Alco look

 

[Mik]

More progress to show. I may be offline for a few days, so please, if I don't respond promptly, don't take it personally.

Smokebox front removed. This wasn't your usual 'pop it off and go' project, as it is moulded as a single piece with the smokebox. It took about half an hour to cut all the way around with a razor saw, so as to not damage either piece

While I had the thing apart again, I added a few more details. Ozark Miniatures drifting valves, reworked valve rockers, etc.The whatisthis stuff from the firebox wrapper also got sanded away and replaced with more prototypical looking controls.
h

The cab walls got painted Shamrock Green just in time for St. Paddy's Day! - Actually light green or grey was used for a couple reasons, it helped reflect light without being glaring (the same reason the underside of the cab roofs were often white) and darker objects, like controls, showed up well against it in low light conditions.

Patience is a virtue, but even though I preach it, it still isn't one of mine. A gent from another board offered to trade me smokebox fronts, but in the meanwhile I 'borrowed' this one from another project. The curved handrail was switched to the bottom because it appears that way in the few other NG Alco photos I've seen that has one at all.

The tender got the backup light swapped and a new coal load. The number 8 on the back got a black square painted over it - actually very prototypical looking for when real RRs did tender swaps. The loco is intended to look like it would after the end of dedicated passenger service - when such engines could/would be often used in mixed traffic, and local peddlar freights - but before they were relegated to switching or scrapped

 

[Mik]

No this isn't a zombie thread. It's an update. If you read my roadrip thread, you heard that I took the new #12 along on Saturday the 6th. Sporting a Pennsy inspired paint job, and a Bug Mauler tender she was pulling a 4 car passenger train, and had a lot of wheelslip.

You also read that the drive failed after about 5 hours running.... yay!

Well tonight I went looking for the trouble, and found it. The intermediate gears were a little marginal, and cleaning the traction tire created just enough extra load that one failed... I found teeth slivers in the (was fresh) grease.

Up side, it will be a simple fix. Down side, I don't have spares, so I'll need to go shopping. Hopefully it will be done before any Christmas shows.

 

[robsmorgan]

Another good one Mik
Your work is always very creative, so I've been taking a leaf out of your book and buying boxes of 'bits' to experiment with..... bought three lots so far which, when worked on, amount to five (yup 5!) working locos with the odd bit missing.
My current project - an 1860s period 4-4-0 with scale 6ft drivers scratched from a Bachmann 4-6-0 Big Hauler.... we'll see :thinking:

Best wishes and keep them coming
Rob

 

[jgallaway81]

Rob, where do you find these box'o'bits?

 

[Mik]

Jason, There's 3 good sources: Under the table at train shows. Swapping with another guy from your club, or the forums (don't be above asking for specific bits.. sometimes guys will GIVE them to you with the stipulation that you "pay it forward" by helping the next guy), or that world-wide jumble sale... fleabay.

 

[robsmorgan]

Rob, where do you find these box'o'bits?

I've been watching ebay (both UK & US) for any Bachmann 4-6-0 & 2-4-2 cheapies for a couple of years - they come up occasionally, usually with a drive fault of some kind to fix - some you win some you don't (be aware that you will have to pay high postal charges from the US though) in other words bid low allowing for the postage of around £25, then there is the risk of import fees PLUS an £8 bill from Royal Mail for collecting said fees!
All that said you can end up with a good chassis or two for an outlay which is much easier to justify scratch building something unusual
see my Camel film link below

Best wishes
Rob

 

[Dennis Paulson]

Really nice parts mogul there , looks real .

A beautiful unusuall locomotive Robsmorgan , and a great video on a well senicked railroad , well done .

 

[Mik]

Something like 2 months ago a gent from another board sent me new idler gears. I'm sure he's probably wondered what's taken me so long to get off my lazy backside. The simple answer is "stress"...

Anyway, this is what he sent, It had stuff like axles I couldn't use, but the idler gears and pins that I did:

In case any of you ever need to do this, I took several photos. The idlers are on pressed pins. They're a pain in the butt to drive out, and nearly as much fun to drive back in.

Motor and idlers installed... it was also time to oil the idler pins and motor bearings... very, very, lightly.

Then I re-installed the cylinders, and the top covers... mostly just to make sure the motor stayed put!

Next was to lube the gears and axle journals before installing the wheels. Did you ever forget to install the brushes?... durrrrr

The drive wheels have to be timed perfectly, one tooth off either way will create just enough of a bind to cause excessive wear - even though the rods are pretty sloppy. The easiest way is to set whichever side you are looking at to one of the 4 cardinal directions. I got lucky, it only took me 3 tries. If you're not sure, just remember they gotta be parallel with the rail head, put the bottom cover on and measure... I also put on a brand new traction tire while I had things apart. If anybody else needs one, I have spares. Anyway, here we are with the wheels and buss bars in place.

Aaaaaaand all buttoned up. It runs very smoothly, even at very low speeds, with only a tiny bit of gear noise. This should fade as it runs in, I hope.

Re-assembly to the superstructure will have to wait until I get some wiring stuff.