Hey, If it's new in N scale steam, a kitbash of ANY type is great. even the "simple ones". I'd like to see it completed! BTW how do the light mountains run? I've considered maybe someday bashing an SP mt-4 (the SD&AE never had any, but the're still really cool) keep up the good work!
SP (ex-b&m) berkshire??? That's EXACTLY WHAT I THOUGHT! Fun Fact: two SP berkshires "bumped" their whaleback tenders to SD&AE c-31's #101 & #102 in 1952, a year before their scrapping date.
An oldy but a goody... My first full on kitbash. Based on a Kato 2-8-2 with a little help and inspiration from Russ. Others that are stalled at various completion point.....
C&O H7. Not in the league with you guys but I enjoyed doing it. Old ConCor 2-8-8-2 and Bachmann tender.
Here is my only effort, a Bachmann Consolidated stretched, I call it "LONG MIKE". It runs fairly well, it has a flywheel. I had fun with this. fatalxsunrider43
Excellent work guys! BTW if you EVER make a steam kitbash, post a thread on everything you did to build it. I just got an offer from Craig Barrow and may have my SP tenwheeler and SD&AE 2-8-0 kitbashes in a 2011 N scale steam book!
What amazing work! I did a number of bashes back in the 70s and 80s, but they are so amateurish by today's standards that I just won't show them. Besides, they are long gone.
Here are some more of 2353 and my other kitbash: SD&AE 2-8-0 #104, an ex-SP c-8 Had some fun with photoshop, too!
Here's one I've been playing around with, making a "radial" tank engine out of some old crud. A radial tank engine is just a tank engine that has a combination of tanks. In this case side tanks and a rear tank. I was inspired by the Adams radial tank engine, with its tiny side tanks and huge bunker: Though to the best of my knowledge, nothing like this ran in the U.S. But it gave me an excuse to cut up some old junky locomotives and make something interesting. I plan on using a four wheel trailing bogie when I finish it, that will also pick up current, and hopefully make this thing a decent runner. The byproduct of this bashing is that I have a rather freakish 0-6-0 for a scrap siding: If anybody needs a working lima pancake motor for their Q1b, let me know. This one's motor ran, but it was missing drive gears. I decided to cut it up because the cowcatcher was smashed, and the body had also warped some.
I bought a Q-1-b for my kids back in the 70's and it lasted about 15 minutes. On the other hand, I bought a Lima built British 0-6-0 tender loco with the "pancake" motor back in the 90's and it still runs like a top! Here are two bashes I did a few years ago. They're a little over-sized because of the "core" locos but, they kinda approximate the looks of B&M class R-1 heavy mountains. They were the heaviest mountains built in the USA. The first is an R-1-a from the first group purchased. The second is an R-1-d from the last group. I started with Bachmann Northerns, shortened the shells, and replaced the trailing trucks and added whatever details I thought might improve the image.
"Fun Fact: two SP berkshires "bumped" their whaleback tenders to SD&AE c-31's #101 & #102 in 1952, a year before their scrapping date. " Tom, Have you got a photo of one of these tenders?
Some paint to make it look a little more cohesive. With an air compressor and a round sand dome I think it would actually look kind of almost like something that might have existed in the U.S. at some point in time. Certainly weirder locos have existed... The other half now: Should look good on the end of a siding. Now if only I had a layout...
I do in my copy of San Diego & Arizona Railway: The Impossible Railroad by Robert M. Hanft ( a great read & research tool, by the way!) I can maybe scan the photo of #102 with the whaleback tender this weekend (I'm not supposed to be on this site during weekdays with homework!! DON'T TELL MOM!:tb-nerd or you can google a picture of an SP berkshire (I think you're most likely to find a brass model of these engines) ALSO, I drew up a whaleback tender of that type tender in my plans for kitbashing the SD&AE c-31's in my n scaler's guide to SP 4-6-0's and 2-8-0's on this site (or in my SD&AE kitbashes album). Not exact, but pretty darn close side and back views I sketched up in windows paint.
Chris did a fantastic job on this locomotive and when I saw it on EBay, I had 'Sierra' on my mind from the get go! I really believe N Scale is missing out on a huge market with engines like this.
Someone said he's like to see my B&M T-1 Bershire with an SP whale back tender. Happy to oblige! I used the frame from a Bachmann "long" tender and bashed/scratched the body using parts from my junque box and styrene.
:tb-biggrin::tb-biggrin:Great work on that whaleback! Thanks for mentioning that it was a long tender. Now I'll know that the medium tenders are too short if I decide to model a post-1951 SD&AE C-31, but THAT all depends on if I decide to kitbash a pair of SP baldwin as-616's. If not--which i'm leaning towards-- I'll model the pre-1951 vandy tender that the c-31's had.
