Hello all. First post here, just getting back into N scale after many years away. So, wanting to model a 1900's era, Eastern US layout, NYC, B&O, etc. Does anyone offer 1900's era locos- seeking a 4-6-2 and a 2-8-0- and wooden Pullman cars as well as freight like wooden box cars, gondolas, etc. All help appreciated.
I believe Athern still sells the old Roundhouse wood side coaches and many older style wood box cars. Many of the old timer Bachmann cars can be still found. I usually upgrade the trucks and truss rods underneath.
Bachmann Spectrum's 2-8-0 Consolidation is a very fine running and pulling engine, though there are some quality control issues. I bought two; one had a serious "clunking" noise (probably a bad idler gear) and sent it back to Bachmann, which cheerfully replaced it with a new one within 30 days that runs beautifully. Relatively easy conversion to DCC, and if you are adventurous, you can cram a micro-Tsunami sound decoder and 15mm speaker in the tender. Here's a video of one that I've done a sound conversion on pulling a train around my layout: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaSha-tJEGU"]YouTube - Bachmann NKP N-scale 2-8-0 w/Tsunami Sound[/ame] The Walthers 0-8-0 switcher is also a very nice model based on a USRA prototype; if you are a little flexible as to time frame (e.g., 1920 or so), it is worth thinking about, too. Another video of my 0-8-0's here: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJiOVw2aX2I"]YouTube - N-Scale NKP Steam w/Sound 1[/ame] Of course, if you're willing to consider 1920, then Kato's USRA heavy Mike also comes in the mix, and it's one of the very best N-scale steamers out there). John C.
Athearn sells the 2-8-0 and 2-6-0 which represent the era you're modeling. They also have the 33' and 50' Passenger Cars as well as 36' foot wooden box cars.
You have to be careful about the line between 1860-1880s, 1880-1918, and 1918 to 1945 era steam operations. I keep going back to an old lineup I made of when the first wheel arrangement of a locomotive type was first made and I am astounded again and again. The first Camelbacks were in 1877 The first Pacifics were coming out in 1902. The first Cab Forward was in 1908 [MC-1] The first Mountain was built in 1911 The C-16s [the infamous Dockside] was built in 1912 The USRA designs were developed between 1918 and 1920. The LAST camelbacks built was 1920. The first Berkshires were built in 1925 . The first 4-8-4s were built in 1927. The Camelbacks were BANNED in 1927. The Challengers were built starting 1936. The GS-4 was developed in the 1940's The first AC-12s were built in the 1940's. The last Mountain was built in 1948. The PA-1s were built in the 1950s. In short, the image provided by Russ would be an Oddity by 1900; those cars would have been built in the 1860s and the trucks are right out of the 1880s. If it was 1900, that car is now roughly 40 years old, and looking at my car I can tell you a couple things about what 40 years does to technology!! The real reason they would be an oddity is because those trucks are worth more than the cars - the cost of building a boxcar in the 1880s-1900s was ridiculously low, something like 40 dollars or so, with most of that being the wood and the fittings. So unless there is a lumber shortage or the railroad is pressed to use every car in service possible, it would be cheaper to relegate these old small boxes to shed service or firewood service [as in chopped up and fed to steam boilers everywhere, what do you think happened to so much of the old rolling stock???!] and build a new larger box. This is no slight of Russ's work, because it is top notch through and through! Now I admit, bogies is where my historical archives are incomplete. Here is what I have picked up thus far; If anyone can add dates to this and fill in the missing pieces, that would be GREAT! There is the truck that comes on the Bachmann and Tyco cars {HO}; it looks Weird and Differnet because it IS different. This truck has wood beams securing the friction bearing axle journals, and it would be good for at least the civil war. The transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869; the ATSF line was finished in 1882 and the SP line was completed in 1883; take a guess what these LONG routes did to theloading capacity of cars and thus the trucks under these growing cars! The next truck is the archbar truck, which has a greater load limit then the previous trucks. These trucks were use for a fair amount of time, but I do believe they were outlawed by 1915 or 1925 in regular service. The trucks that replaced the archbar were first the Fox truck and then the Bettendorf, the three used side by side for a while. Bettendorfs may all look the same to the untrained eye, but if you look closely you'll see that we now have rollerbearing journals and often three springs instead of two. This leaves out a ton of freight truck history and all of passenger truck history, but these items are worth knowing if you are interested in these types of operations. You could practically track the progress of US railraods just by looking at the trucks and the ratings on the trucks, and then by looking at when engiens were developed and first built. There's a couple books that basically read like company catalogs by titles such as "The Locomotives Baldwin Built" that are instrumental in determining a decent roster by year. Saying this, if you wanted a nice turn of the century engine, I'd suggest the Bachmann 2-8-0 first and formost, even though it might be more of a 1910-1915 era engine. N scale doesn't seem to have many 2-6-0s, 4-6-0s, or much at all that would be appropriate for this mid to late Steam II Era. The Athearn models would like qualify as a Huge engine in the late 1890s, but then not all railroads could afford or needed huge engines so by the late teens and early twenties it would be perfect for the small railroad. For reference, the D&RGW series K-27-37s were built between around 1900 and 1925. nd another anecdote; the Pennsy K-4s were first built in 1911. If you want to model the 1880s and before, your looking at almost solid rosters of 4-4-0s, and some of them lived on for a very long time past the introduction and retiring of other larger wheel configurations. 4-4-0s aren't very powerful, but then they are very simple, so they could be easily kept. There's another wrench to throw a twist in this story; COUPLERS! We take them for granted, but at one time they were simply links and pins, which is hard to couple and even harder to model! The easy way to avoid this problem is to move far enough forward in time to where knuckle couplers are standard! And there's one more little item you might have not considered: the Model T became Vogue in 1908; before that, you had better like modeling horses and experimental motorcars, becasue that was it!! So you see, I myself am stuck on where I myself want to model, and I'm in HO! I like the semi trucks that were being developed around the 1940s, and there are a ton of nice car models valid for between 1930 and 1960. The construction equipment is further very nice. But my favorite railroad equipment is on the smaller side - I'm even feeling the Standard 40' Athearn Boxcar as being a little too new, as that car would be built in the 1940s. I love steam between 1900 and the mid 20's. I used to groan about all the boxcars not being the same height, and then I realized one day looking at pictures of boxcars that...OOOH!!! The tall ones were almost all built LATER!! Hope that helps!!
I found this, saved it to my folder, and thought you guys might enjoy it as well. It's a nice intro to Steam Era LateII-III and eras onwards. http://www.trains.com/mrr/objects/pdf/mr_pi_5-06_freightcartrucks.pdf Another fun page; Northern Pacific Wood Archbar Trucks
Wow - that's a very well-done article. I wish model RR magazines would do more stuff like this: what rolling stock, engines, accessories, etc. were appropriate for what eras, how designs differed, and so forth. There probably ARE more articles like this one floating around out there; I just can't find 'em! John C.
Welcome to TrainBoard, Arik23! You've already received much information, hopefully not too much. Since the 1900's covered 100 years, it would be interesting to know a more specific period of years that you have in mind. If you are thinking 1920's there may be more available than, say, 1900. For 1920's the already mentioned Spectrum 2-8-0 and Kato's Mikado would be my choices. For a 4-6-2, Model Power's Pacific is recommended by many, especially the traction tire equipped model. Give us a bit more info, if you will. PS: This site will pretty much cover what N Scale locos are or have been available: http://www.visi.com/~spookshow/locos.html And for freight cars: http://www.visi.com/~spookshow/freight/freight.html Ben
First things first... Welcome to the site, and back to the hobby. Second, you can't do that era without running the Athearns Mogul, or Consolidation. These are the best of the best as far as steam out there today. I run the Roundhouse 2-6-0 Mogul (the predecessor of the Antearn) and it by far is the best little steamer I run on my layout, and that includes my Kato Mikes, and Spectrum 2-8-0s. Athearn also has the Overton, and Overland wood passenger cars to match. They also have a nice offereing of wood reefers, and other era frieght. Here is the links to their stuff. Athearn
You got the wood passenger cars part right. Steel heavyweights were only introduced around 1905. But 4-6-2s were also new in that time period, their rise coinciding with that of steel coaches. You're probably looking at a whole fleet without trailing trucks.
Nah, There are a couple trailing truck units you are after if you are modeling 1890-1900. The first can be made by HEAVILY kitbashing the Athearn 2-8-0 into a Mikado [K-27-37 series], but even that might be more appropriate for 1905. The second option is to kitbask the Atlas 2--6-0 into either a 2-6-2, or if you are daring enough, a pair of them into a 2-8-2 or a 2-10-2. ind you, these latter engines would be Small variantes of those wheel arrangements. Hence, anyone really into this era will need to pick up a book on the company locomotives to really grasp what engiens were made in what year! The trailing truck unit you NEED for a proper 1900 railroad is simply not made in N scale - the 4-4-2 ATLANTIC!!! This arrangement was introduced by Baldwin [and probably others in the same time frame] around 1896. But then again, many of these units were then built in 1905-1920. All of the development in the first two decades of the 1900s suggests the era from 1897 to 1927 was a REALLY exciting time in American history - kind of like the period from 1977 to 2007! {yipes? cause we all know what happened next after 1927!}
The interesting part about this article is how SILENT it is about the Steam Eras preceding the Archbar truck [Steam era I, Early Steam Era II]. For you see, by this time of 1880 railroads had already been rolling in this country for a good fifty - seventy five years. Both of those numbers are bigger than the age of my car [46] - go ahead and compare a 2009 to a 1963! Heck, compare a Model T to a 1950 or 1975 Ford - Ya know what I mean??? The problem is most of this equipment is not produced in ANY scale except perhaps as toys or curios. As I know, ONLY bachmann has ever produced trainsets in the modern era of the Early steam eras. Thanks to that, we have the John Bull, the Dewitt Clinton, and the Prussian in HO. Then the next unit in age is the 4-4-0 American, which did indeed make up the bulk of engines between the 1860s and the 1880s. I was going through a "Train Wrecks" book and it was quite interesting just how many wrecks in that book were nothing more than 4-4-0s. And then you look at books of road rosters, and there's a long drag of 4-4-0s...but I digress. If you want to model 1880 or before, you're stuck with not one but TWO [2!!!] choisces. The first is the Bachmann 4-4-0 American and the second is the Atlas/[I forgot the other foriegn company] 2-6-0, which is a darling of an engine.
Great info Wow, yes, lots of great info, and really appreciated. I guess I should rephrase and say the 1900-1910 era. I'm actually really interested in Brooks 4-6-2 K model and 2-8-0 E31 models, but its too much to expect, I know. But all the info has really gotten me on the right track...
