Anyone have any thoughts on what it would take to convert one of the Athearn Challengers to a D&H Class J? I've seen quite a few photos, but it's hard to tell for sure what differences there are. The most obvious difference is the wheels under the tender, but other than that they look very similar to those of the Clinchfield. From what I can gather from UP & D&H steam loco diagrams is that they are very close in dimensions to the early UP types that didn't have a front engine bed (which only seems to account for about a 1-2" difference in wheelbase, etc. from the later models) It looks like the D&H had a 22K Gal tender, and the UP a 25K Gal. Overall length difference from the point where it attaches to the locomotive looks to be somewhere between 3 or 4 scale feet, or about 1/4". My thought is to either swap the tender (which I assume has all of the decoder and sound components) or alter the shell of the tender by reducing the length a little bit and swapping the centipede wheelset and forward truck with a pair of three-axle trucks. I've got an undecorated one coming so I'm eager for any input that will help me out if I decide to tackle it.
Reference Photographs In case you have not been out at my DHVM Website, here is a link you might find useful http://www.trainweb.org/dhvm/photographs/steam/photographs_Class_J.htm :thumbs_up: :thumbs_up: :thumbs_up: :thumbs_up:
Great pictures! I actually hadn't seen those yet. Very nice site by the way. Any ideas of where some pictures of the tenders could be found? It's hard to find much besides a front 3/4 view.
