Okay, I am a sucker for these little beasts, especially with the Vanderbilt Tender. I am wondering if anyone has tried to use Kato trucks with the electric pickups to wire these for electrical pickup through the tender. If so, if successful, would vastly improve their performance.
They started making them back in the 80s. They take a bit of TLC now to run acceptably, but only pick up power through 6 of the 8 drive wheels. Adding tender pick up would help their running a lot.
It is possible to take Vandy apart, but you would have to add wires from both trucks to the loco and the motor.
I thought Bachmann sold their Spectrum series tenders separately. And those tenders had power pickup, if I am not mistaken. I am going to look at spookshow. Bob Shaffer
You have options. If a Vanderbilt you must have, look for a Bachmann SPECTRUM Vanderbilt. It is all wheels live. You then run wires from locomotive to tender. The B-mann tender is rather large. If you model late transition, you could get away with it. In the last years of steam, many roads were dismantling the facilities that steam power needed for support. As a result, locomotives had to travel longer distances between fuel and water stops. Often, the railroads would fit tenders from scrapped larger power to smaller and average sized power. It was the smaller and average sized power that generally lasted to the end. At the end, the steam was usually relegated to the grunge jobs. The smaller power was better suited for those jobs and was less expensive to operate. As a rule, the larger and specialised steam power found the scrapper's torch first. The USRA power lasted to the end. There is a photograph of a B&O Q-3 (USRA light 2-8-2), taken in Ohio in the mid-1950s. It has this el-HUGE-O Vanderbilt tender behind it. It was taken from a scrapped 2-8-8-0. It was the only one like ot on the B&O,so, of course, when MP issued its USRA light 2-8-2, it HAD to issue it with a Vanderbilt. While on the subject of MP, you could use the MP Vanderbilt. It has only half the wheels live, but that would improve the performance somewhat as you would have more live wheels. I might even have an MP Vanderbilt somewhere; I shall have to look. If you can find an old Con-Cor/Rivarossi Vanderbilt, you could use it, as those are half wheels live, as well, You might find those out there at shows or swap meets or perhaps even on FeePay. The Rivarossi 2-8-8-0s/2-8-8-2s to which they were attached suffered from zirmac rot, even the later editions. I had one recent edition break into three pieces as it was running. Another one broke in two as I was working on it. I had a RR USRA light pacific frame turn to powder in my hands, once. Like the B-mann SPECTURM, the C-C/RR is outsized for that locomotive. If you do not absolutely, positively HAVE to have a Vanderbilt, you can buy either a SPECTRUM USRA standard or long tender or a Kato mikado tender, which also is a USRA standard. The Bachpersonn 2-8-0/2-8-2 is based on a Reading Company I-9 or I-10 (I forget which one, now) 2-8-0. Some will refer to that class as a "USRA 2-8-0", as the first ones did appear during the First World War. The story goes that Reading Company was supposed to get USRA 2-8-2s or 2-10-2s but really did not want them, as they could not burn hard coal. Instead, Reading had the I-9/I-10 (whichever one it was) built. Those did burn hard coal. That older edition B-mann 2-8-2 is really a 2-8-0 with a trailing truck added. This is similar to the B-mann "2-6-2", which is really a USRA 0-6-0 with idler trucks added. (in HO, B-mann went as far as to make a 4-6-0 out of its USRA 0-6-0 by adding a pilot truck. The problem with it was that both wheels on it were in FRONT of the cylinder, not on either side of it as would be prototypical.). The B&O version with the Vanderbilt (oil, although few B&O locomotives burned oil) is supposed to suggest a Q-4, which was B&O's heavy 2-8-2. B&O had most of them equipped with steam lines and signalling devices so that they could work passenger trains, if needed. The gearing on them is actually pretty good, if the gears themselves do not crack. Those old motors in them tend to fry. I fried one, so I took out the thing and was amazed at how it would freewheel with a little weight. I coupled it to a powered box car and used it as a switcher. The SPECTRUM 2-8-0 is actually a far better locomotive. The early runs of it were try-before-you-buy. If you did get a good one, you got a really nice piece. The later versions had most of the early bugs ironed out of them. The latest versions come with factory DCC.
Assuming that you already have a Vanderbilt tender or tenders the first issue may be getting them apart. A lot of them come apart at the front by removing the bunker front and sometimes the coal load or oil top slides out. Using the Kato trucks with the long current transfer tabs is not a bad idea if they fit. Next issue is to wire them. But first you need to cut slots in the bottom of the tender for the truck tabs and wires to swivel. For wires I would suggest buy a cheap pair of earbuds at the Dollar Store. Strip off the outer insulation should reveal some fine insulated wire that is vey flexible. You will have enough wire to do several and then some left over. With just the tender front opened you should be able to reach the wires with some long tweezers and pull it through. You will end up with a pair of wires from the rear truck and the front truck, Cut your wires extra long as you will need to solder the left wires and the right wires into one wire each side, The extra wire allows you to slide the excess into the tender body leaving just one wire lead for each side sticking out. You will need to notch the tender bunker front to get the wires through to the drawbar. The next thing is to attach the wire to the correct polarity sides and solder them. Make sure you have enough wire slack between the tender to swivel good. You may also need to notch the loco or shell or both so everything fits. The Kato trucks whether 4 axle or 6 axle will not be prototype but nobody will notice unless they are a nitpicker. The earbud wire is one of the old modelers cheap tricks and very flexible and cheap and their small size lets them look like proto water and steam lines. I know all this because back in my steam heyday I did it. Obviously the easiest route is to have a spectrum tender and the next one is a Model Power tender. Besides the Kato trucks you could check Bachmann's part site for tender parts specifically tender pick up trucks.
Well I do have one of the Spectrum 2-8-0s and it is a fine runner as mentioned. I also have 3 of the trainset 2-8=0/2-8-2s, 2 are the Vandy tenders and I have found pics of many 2-8-0s with Vandy tenders. This is what got me to thinking about such a project. The locos themselves have had a bit of TLC and run decently, but the short pickup area is a drawback. Looking at Kato passenger trucks got me to wondering. I do appreciate the thought put into the suggestions, as I wondered if such a project was feasible. I am gonna have to look closely at the tenders. If any of you do have extra Vandy tenders, I would be happy to give them new homes.
The Bachmann Vandy was never equipped with tender pickups, the Model Power one is. I have a Bachmann Vandy that was kitbashed to run with an old Rivarossi 2-8-2
There was. It is very difficult to find one. I had one. I decided that I was not going to do the project for which I had acquired it, so I sold it. I got far more than I paid for it. It got a snipe war going, in fact. I actually listed it at what I had in it. It is a long coal Venderbilt. Almost all of SP's consolidateds had Vanderbilts. The MP Vanderbilt is based on a Harriman prototype. One thing that you should not do is swap out the USRA standard tender on the SPECTRUM consolidated for a MP Vanderbilt, unless you make it all wheels live. Several posters to this forum learned that one the hard way.
Oh no, the Spectrum 2-8-0 is already lettered and decaled, it is getting no further mods except very light weathering.
I did just that, by modifying the MP Vandy tender to use Bachmann's all-wheel live tender trucks (even fitting Tsunami Steam 2 decoders in the Vandy tender). I have one behind a Bachmann 2-8-0 and another behind a Bachmann ten-wheeler.
Crab Orchard and Egyptian, GOODNESS! .............a mid-twentieth century railroad with a name that seems more like the mid-to-late late nineteenth. Nice job on the Uncle Pete consolidated. Does the MP Vanderbilt seem outsized on the B-mann ten wheeler? The USRA standard does seem outsized. I tried swapping a USRA switcher tender for one but the performance was not as good, so I put back the standard. My problems disappeared, so I blamed the tender. What is funny is that I did not see the same problems when I put that tender behind the latest version of the Bachpersonn USRA 0-6-0. Once I did the SPECTRUM swap-in there, the thing turned into a real gem. The pulling power is not all that great, but it creeps very nicely. Why Bachmann never made that modification to its 0-6-0/2-6-2 always shall remain one of the minor mysteries of N scale model railroading.
It doesn't look too bad (IMHO)... as it turns out, both the tender and the loco are about 3-5 scale feet too long for the prototype... but I decided it was too much trouble to try and shorten them, so here it is: "Modelers license" used to convert it to an oil-burner, and added the working back-up light. The Bachmann Spectrum USRA short tender looks pretty good with the ten-wheeler: Both have Soundtraxx Tsunami2 Steam2 decoders and sugarcube speakers in their respective tenders. Both are great runners... tho' they have lost a little pulling power as their traction tires have aged (each will pull 8-9 MTL 40' freights up my 1.8% grades on 17" radius, down from the original 10-12 freights).
Nice job on those ten-wheelers. The USRa switcher tender does look the best. The Vanderbilt does look better than does the USRA standard. When I did a swap of the switcher tender for the standard it adversely affected the performance. Did UP not have oil burners with box tenders? I remember the big fuss when MP was going to issue its eight wheeler. The SP version was supposed to have a Vanderbilt. All of the SP modellers fussed and told MP that SP eight wheelers had box tenders. MP then made a change and issued the eight wheeler in SP with a box oil tender. I found a photograph of an eight wheeler with a Vanderbilt taken in Oakland in one of Harre DeMoro's books.
The U.P. did have at least a few oil-burning ten-wheelers, including #1585. #1243 and #618 (the connie) were coal-burners throughout their U.P. lives, tho'. #618 is now at the Heber Valley Railroad in Heber, UT, about 45 min from where I live in SLC. I have ridden behind it many times over the years, but it has been out of service for more than 10 years now, getting its boiler rebuilt and certified, and being converted to an oil-burner. I assume they will be putting an oil-bunker into its original Vandy tender, but we'll see!
