While I'm waiting for parts to come for my Texas type build I thought I'd alter a Minitrix 2-10-0 Decapod. As you can see I've removed the Belpaire firebox (rather crudely) and shortened the boiler so that the cylinders line up with the steam pipes! The engine didn't run so I'm going to use my spare Kato Mikado engine in it's place, so it should end up running well. My apologies to Pennsy fans.
So the next step for me is to remove the domes and smooth out the boiler, this is still very rough. I also chopped off the cab, I will replace this with a Santa Fe type extended cab, this should be long enough to hide the kato flywheel.
I've stripped the domes from the boiler, all appliances will be removed, the walkways will be removed leaving a very bare shell. The boiler is still a bit rough but the shape is smoother. I will cut a notch out at the rear of the boiler and add some curved styrene to clean up the edge the cab will mount to. The boiler will get sanded back to a smooth state and then the bands and other details will be added. The firebox skirt needs to be modified. Still a lot of work to do on the boiler / shell. I'll probably be modifying the mechanism tomorrow to accept a Kato Mikado motor complete with flywheel.
Spent quite a bit of time getting the Mikado motor to fit. Not finished yet. You can see it sits a little high and is not quite centered over the gear tower. This is quite fragile, I bent the contacts that connect to the circuit board - I'll straighten those out when I'm done filing and grinding the mechanism. I found one of Tonys posts (skipgear) and thought it was a really good idea since I has a spare motor!! - Thanks Tony!
This looks a little better, the motor is correctly oriented and centered, will have to choose a worm gear and slide that on then it will be ready for a test run. I still have to turn those huge flanges down though.
I stole the worm gear from an old Bachmann J 4-8-4, it was much smaller than the Kato Mikado one. I still had to chop off the shell support (I'll need to remake that). I applied power to the motor with the new worm gear attached and it ran!!!. Now I have to finish the mechanism off.
It operates pretty well, but I'll know better once I've mounted the weights, circuit board and repositioned the bulb and support tower
I've soldered some power wires to the motor, it performs a lot better than the old one. I noticed a wheel has a gouge in it so I need to smooth that out. It probably won't creep but I'll be putting a lot more weight in so I'm hopeful I can get it smooth and slow.
just ordered some sand domes and a replacement front pilot for this. I still need to order a cab from shapeways.
If the gouge goes all around the wheel, it was meant for a traction tire. That would be a rubber band that fits snuggly in the gouge and allows the loco to pull a decent size train. Got any pics?
After a long while sitting in my project drawer, I have reduced the flange size so that it doesn't go bumpity bump on code 55. I need to fix the way that power transfers from the wheelsets to the motor - way to fragile. Unfortunately I will not be putting any more effort into the plastic shell, instead I'm making a brass boiler so that the dimensions will be more correct. The wheelbase is going to be about 2 nscale feet too long using the standard Minitrix mechanism. Instead of using the front Minitrix wheels I'm looking to use a set from the 2mm Society. At the end of this year Minitrix are bringing out a 2-10-0, a French version SCNF 150X which I'm eyeing up - it's a bit pricey. It has DCC and sound and firebox effects and a state of the art notor.
The Santa Fe had four classes. They had one Baldwin (987) and two ALCOs (988-989) from about 1902 which had a bad habit of derailing in reverse. They looked more than a little like the 900/915 Class 2-10-2; you could say they were prototypes for the Santa Fe's first Santa Fes. Then there were three Russian Decapods and a small class of good 1925 Baldwins (2565-2569) which they got when they merged with the Orient (KC, M & O). The Russians got scrapped forthwith. Worley said the Santa Fe gave them as short shrift as the Commies gave the czar. The Baldwins lasted far longer than any of the others, haunting Santa Fe branch lines until 1953-1955. The early three had high headlights and Santa Fe cabs with plenty of arched windows. They also explain why you hear, engines got trailing trucks to support wide fireboxes behind the drivers, but the early Santa Fe Santa Fes carried their fireboxes above the drivers. Those pioneer 2-10-2s were merely these Decapods with an extra front truck added in back. That provided guidance both directions in helper service. The 1925 Baldwin group had their headlights centered on the smokebox door. They also didn't have Santa Fe cabs. Hate to tell you after you cut it off, but that cab is actually pretty close.
I still have the cab, and the Santa Fe Class I'm building is 988. Thanks for the info - you've filled in some gaps for me! Excellent post!!!
Then you're right, you needed a Santa Fe cab. They were the largest locomotives in the world for a year or so. You definitely build some of the road's most interesting classes!
There's a pretty good ATSF cab on shapeways that I'm looking to use by Golden State. I've cut the front part of the boiler - it's slightly under 81 inches so I will wrap it in brass sheet to get the diameter.