Pete, Where do you intend to place the third truck? That is a wild piece of equipment, the kind of contraption that I would mesh together! Russ
The third truck goes right in the middle. It will have to slide from side to side to make even 18-inch radius curves. Truth be told, I can't find it amidst all the boxes of stuff that won't run on my C55! I know it's out there somewhere. I seem to remember that my versions had the motor mounted right above the trucks-no drive shafts. Out to the train room! Now, where'd I put that monster?
Hey Pete, why not put two idler trucks, one dummy "floader" next to each power truck, a la CC U50/Veranda Turbine chassis. That would be more typical of North American practice. JNR has a fondness for B-B-B trucked locos, but they need a large radius, and that never caught on here, except for some of the logging locos like Shays, Climax's and Heislers. I have a box with your name on it that I think contains the spare old issue Alco parts you need to do that. Keeping with Alco terminology somewhat, I'd like to suggest that a pair of 1600HP FB2s on a span bolstered, B-B+B-B undercarriage might be called an FB-2/2, or if you want to pretend it has a pair of 1800hp prime movers, how about an FB-4/4? (or FB-22 - FB44) Whatever you come up with for the official name, how about a little back shop graffiti like someone has marked it with chalk, "Pete's Folly"? Or something like that? I saw a large yacht when we were on the coast last time, and across the stern in flowery script was the moniker, "Ambergris" and I cracked up! Part of the fun of having something like that is thinking up a name. If I think of a good one, I'll let you know.
Geez, I wish I could find it! It's someplace in the mess that is my house. I did find the two Delaware & Hudson (?) engines that absnut sent me while looking. I'll find it--sometime!
Well, as always------ It was under my nose! It was sitting under my monitor, with a bunch of mechanisms from LL GP-20s. I knew I put it someplace where it would be safe! It's running on the test loop now. It's already blown the circuit breaker on the MRC Tech 4 250 after about 4 minutes. Boy, it is noisy. I think I'll let it run a while. . . Well, lubing it didn't help at all. I think I'll have to take it apart tomorrow. It's now reversing itself about every other loop, but that's probably the MRC circuitry. This is going to be a blast! I truly wonder what's inside this beast.
