ATSF 4-8-4 or 2-10-4

I know no one makes these except for rare brass imports and the poorly detailed bachmann 4-8-4, so the best bet for a nice one without spending brass coin would be what? Maybe modding the bachmann and detailing it? If this has been done before does anyone have any links?

Thanks

 

Con-Cor 4-8-4 Northern

This is from the spookshow N scale encyclopedia.

 

The Bachmann Santa Fe 4-8-4 isn't a half bad runner, if you get one of the latest run. Stay away from anything that came in the white carboard box or flip top box. The detailing is clunky but you can clean that up. The biggest issue is to strip the shell of the overly thick paint and repaint it. The detail is there, hidden under too much paint. From there you can add appliances, shave and replace the hand rails and generally clean things up to get it to look better.

As far as running better, adding pickup to the tender help quite a bit and is not hard to do. My biggest complaint with the mechanism is that it is geared too tall. It is a difficult frame to squeeze a gear head motor into though to improve the gearing. YOu can also improve the pulling power by swaping the traction tired driver from the #3 location back to the #4. The only issue I have found with doing that is if running on tighter radius, pulling 40-50 cars, the loco want's to lift the nose off the rail and derail. More weight up front could fix that.

There has been a member on here "Drasko" that has done some worth with the frame, and even created a 2-10-4 out of a pair of Northerns.

Here is my simple home made solution for tender pickups -


Richmond controls also offers a pickup kit for them if you don't feel like scratchbuilding it.

 

here i am skip!!
ok, the 2-10-4 wasnt fun to build and it didnt run like id like.
And now for the 4-8-4, i can make you a very nice running 4-8-4 with a gs4 chassis and bmann shell. its alot of work and there is MAJOR cutting of the frame to make it work. ill see if i can get some pictures up later this week. I also make UP FEFs out of them with concor s2 northerns as my start. if you get on the atlas forum, search for drasko and you will find some pictures on there of my locos.

Also, im going to email kirk about a possible article in NSR on the bashes

 

No disrespect, but the Bachman AT&SF 3776/2900 class Northern is just godawful; it was awful in the early 70's when it first came out, and despite mechanical and cosmetic improvements, it's still awful today. It's clunky and out of proportion and no amount of detailing is going to fix that. The tender rivets are like 6" diameter and the smokebox has vertical sides below the radius line for god's sake. If there ever was a candidate for a complete redo, this is it....the HO version is so much better proportioned. The Con-cor 4-8-4 is much better, but it is a completely different locomotive; the only thing in common those two have is the wheel arrangement. I own several fenicky AT&SF brass Northerns by Hallmark and while they are a bit heavy also, for now they are a much better representation of the Santa Fe Northerns, pic attached. I wish Bachman would do a Spectrum redo of the 4-8-4 on par with the heavy USRA Mountain and I'd buy a half dozen...)
Regards, Otto

 

Yeah, I don't know what to do. I really like ATSF 4-8-4s and 2-10-4s. I figured I might give kitbashing some stuff together a go and see how it came out. I like doing that kind of stuff. I just recently put some surface mount LEDs in my IM F7s. I got a white one and a red one in the top for the mars light, so I can do either regular mars or the warning one.

 

I would love for BLI to some out with a 3751 class northern in N like their HO version... But I would be drawing my pension before it was actually released. I honestly think that this would be a good candidate for Athearn as the prototype is located up the road a bit from them. Nothing like getting measurements and sound recordings off the real thing.

 

Put me down for another six.

If they did their 2-10-2 in N scale I might think about an even dozen. I think my bank account will be quite safe though.

 

I had original-issue white box Bachmann that I heavily redid the mechanism on, removing the traction tires and putting all the pickup on the locomotive. Got a second locomotive just for parts. Removing the drag on the tender trucks helped and I filled the entire boiler full of lead. Overall, the end result pulled like 20 cars and was electrically reliable; still noisy but wasn't bad. Appearance-wise though, it still looked pretty bad.

So I found a deal on an auction for a Hallmark 3751 class and got it. Just the opposite, it looked great, needed a lot of work on the mechanism - had to blind two center drivers, redid the pickups, added a flywheel... finally got it to the point that it worked as well or better than the rebuilt Bachmann.

So I think its a matter of prioritizing appearance or performance. Either way, if you really want a grade-A locomotive, you're going to do some work. But when you get one done, its a big dog, and it is a surprisingly effective puller and smooth operator.

 

I cheated and went the brass route.

Great pullers and smooth runners, though I am not sure if they had been worked on before me.

This was one of my brass units on the Peninsula NTrak layout at the Rail Fair days in Ione CA last year. Couldn't get the shot I wanted, but there are 88 cars behind this locomotive.

That alone sold me on brass and the detailing is just the icing on the cake.

I have three 4-8-4's and a 2-10-4 all in brass, and they are all big time runners. I am about to put DCC decoders in them and see about matching them for a lashup someday.

 

For anyone interested, the current issue of "Classic Trains" (Fall 2010) has for its cover story an article about the various 2-10-4 locos that were made for US and Canadian railroads. It mentions that Santa Fe's 2-10-4 locos (except for the first which was an oddball) all had 74 inch drivers, which were larger than the case for all the other 2-10-4 types listed.

 

I'm beggining to think we've seen all we'll see from BLI in N scale ...

 

otto, i agree that theyre god awful out of the box but my northerns have been completely shaved down and redone. it wasnt fun doing the detailing but with alot of work, you can get a bmann shell to look good and kinda close to brass! ive had mine confused for brass on numerous occasions while sitting next to my brass veersions!!! ill get some pictures up shortly

 

drasko, were you able to make the squarish part of the bottom of the boiler/smoke box round? I looked one over in my lhs the other day, and I felt like I could probably clean up most of it, but that looked to be a big challenge.

 

the easiest way to hide it is to cut the firebox side off of the body and mount them straight to the mechanism or reglue them to the bottom of the shell but moved in a little and with a slight angle. it helped alot with the square look. you also should cut everything off of the sides the should be see through and add your own piping. its major surgery but it works!!!

 

Were you still going to post some pics?

 

sorry, been trying to get ready to back to seattle for work. im taking my models with me so ill snap some up there but to tied you over heres a link to my FEFs i built and my 1st atsf northern thats a bit crude my comparison

 

Why doesnt BLI or Athearn Genesis make anymore new steam? Is there an economical issue or somthing??? :mwacko:

 

you built a 2-10-4 from Bachmann's 4-8-4? you have any pictures of it??