I would buy one of those to bash a Big Six. B&Os had sixty four inch drivers. For some reason, B&O preferred that extra inch. The Q-4s and Big Sixes had them. No one will notice an inch in N scale. Of course, as soon as I bash one, someone will issue a Big Six. It is the only ten coupled that I would buy, Big Sixes worked 29, 30, 31, 33 and 34, which were mail and express trains (in addition to the 4-8-2s and Pacifics. In fact, when B&O ran Pacifics on those trains, it had to double head them). The Q-4s worked Washington, Baltimore and Pittsburgh commuter trains when they pinch hit for the P-3s and -4s. Almost all of the Q-4s and many of the Big Sixes had steam lines and signalling devices.
I hope I did not come across in my OP as a "RtR whiner". I am anything but, I assure you. My mods run from simple: A C&O H5 with a correct cab: To extensive; My C&O K3, built from a Kato mike with parts from a B&O H4 body, scratchbuilt cab and bashed pilot, and many other details: And I am currently adding can motors and DCC to a pair of Key brass NYC mikes; an H6 and an H10a. This is a complex project, as the original motors simply had an extended shaft in place to hold the worm. To add can motors, it is necessary to add mounts worth the worm: As a famous detective once said, however, "I cannot make bricks without clay". Hence, we need mechanisms - including those boring old 2-8-2 and 4-8-2 (and yes, large drivered 2-10-2s) to work with. And besides, if someone does want an RtR heavy pacific, for example (We have not had one since the terribad Atlas/RR model of the 80s) their voices matter as much as anyone's.
I had to hit both Drury and Sagle and Staufer on this one. The only B&O H classes that I could find were old classifications on swallowed roads for consolidateds or eight wheelers. B&O did re-classify all of those into its own system. Did you mean C&O H-5 which was the USRA 2-6-6-2 (B-mann)? Those are USRA domes on that 2-8-2. As the K-3 was a 1924 ALCo (Richmond) product, those domes would make sense. Nice work, all the same. I like to see the work of those who can re-work the steam locomotives extensively or even build them. I am not a big fan of ATSF, but the work that the Santa Fe guy has shown on this topic is pretty good; far better than my skills permit me to do. The most that I ever have been able to do is minor bashing or some customer-supplied quality control/upgrades.
Ack, I did mean C&O H4, as a parts donor. My bad. I am doing B&O in HO as well, and got my somewhere and Ohios backwards! I used the smokebox front and a few other bits on the boiler of the K3, and the cab from the donor H4 was put on the H5 model. My original plan was to do C&O and NYC in N scale on the NF&G in West Virginia, but am unsure now. The domes on the K3 are just the ones that the Kato boiler shell came with. I debated changing them a bit as there are some differences in the size of boiler courses in the USRA heavy and the K2/3/3a, but decided that "close" was quite good enough in this case. This loco has been equipped with DCC and is by far my best running N scale steamer!
Related to the tenders on the Bachmann 0-6-0: B&O used what looks like a standard USRA medium tender on theirs. Since Bachmann already makes those with DCC and sound, it should not be too much effort to make the B&O specific version of that USRA 0-6-0.
It is not difficult. I did one with the newer, smaller motor. It runs very nicely and creeps as a switcher should. I do have to change the number, though, as the one B-mann put onto it is not correct. B-mann sold it as a 2-6-2; a wheel arrangement that B&O never had except for perhaps one or two on a swallowed road (...even then, I would have to check Sagle and Staufer to verify that.....). I swapped out the stock tender for a SPECTRUM, I did perform the surgery required, as, you must invert the drawbar to get the whole business to sit properly. Our own @skipgear made a very nice B&O D-30 out of the last version with the large motor that stuck out the back of the cab but the newer frame. He put curtains on the cab to cover the end of the motor. It was very nicely done.
Brokemoto The Mogul frame does give 63" drivers but they have a wide spacing. The 84"fvm drivers fit perfectly which meant i could reuse the mogul siderods. The axles were luckily the same diameter so i was able to install the mogul bearings on the fox valley driver axles. As for the boiler, it is a casting of a key santa fe northern that's been cut down and modified. The 3463 is about 30min from my house and ive driven by it many times when i work on the Topeka sub so I'm very familiar with it. Im a signal construction foreman for BNSF drasko
............point well taken, yes, they are spaced a little wider than you would expect, but SP 2-6-0s did have wide spaced drivers (the MP looks like a crossbreed of several SP M classes, the only thing that MP seems to have altered is the cab and the loop of handrailing on the smokebox cover that screams SP!!!!). Regardless of driver diameter, off-center-but-on-diameter-line is just that, so, it would make sense that you could re-use the main rod. You had enough to do to fashion the valve gear, as it was. I did not think about that, but, yes, it makes sense about the driver spacing. The original MP design was built in Korea. Was the FVM built there, as well? That might explain the same size axle. Thank you for the reply. I was curious.
