Bachmann USRA heavy 4-8-2

[brokemoto]

Mine arrived to-day.

Appearance:  good, what I have come to expect from Bachmann in its SPECTRUM line.

Runnability:  So far, pretty good.  It is smooth at speeds between thirty and sixty SMPH.  It is a bit stiff at speeds between fifteen and twenty-five SMPH, but I expect that, at this point, as it is nowhere near properly broken in.

Pulling power:  A mixed consist of six passenger cars, on MT four or six axle passenger trucks, as appropriate to the car.  The cars were Lima and RR HWs, RR LWs and one C-C corrugated.  It pulled the train up a one per cent grade at thirty five SMPH and showed no sign of slipping.  As this was a preliminary test, after minimal break-in, I did not try more cars.  The locomotive appears quite substantial.

Concern:  the delicate six wires between locomotive and tender.  I had one break off on the WKW 0-8-0, and that with careful handling.

I am running mine on a Kato DC power pack.  That one has no pulse.  The 'smart' decoder is working allright.

I chose a Norfolk and Western.  It comes in what appears to be the 1920s/1930s paint.  The tender is blank sided, there is a road number on the aft of the tender.  There is also a road number on the cab and NORFOLK AND WESTERN spelled out on the cab.  Photographs from the Virginia Tech website taken in the 1920s and early 1930s show that scheme.  Photographs taken in 1941, and later, show the road name on the tender and just the road number on the cab.

I also saw a photograph of a K-1, #107,  with the notation 'converted to oil' (!!!), 1946.  I looked at the tender, and yes, it was an oil burner.  I did not know that the N&W had any oil burners.  Did they run them in forested areas or in big cities that had nasty smoke abatement ordinances?

At any rate, it is looking as if Bachpersonn has a winner, here.  More to come as break-in progresses.

.

[Mark5]

Thanks. Did you get the "as delivered" version? If so too bad it has the wrong tender.

The USRA long tender only came with the USRA 2-10-2, 2-6-6-2, and 2-8-8-2. :



The 1st USRA mountains (delivered under USRA) arrived in 1919 and were lettered as above. Starting about 1920 N&W dropped the lettering on the tender and had only small lettering on the cab as shown on this loco:



The original USRA tenders were quickly upgraded in the 1920s to tenders with 6 wheel trucks of an N&W design.

N&W lettering returned to the tenders around 1941 with the scheme that lasted until the last fires were dropped in May 1960.

[brokemoto]

B-mann sells them with either a Vanderbilt or USRA Long. 

The USRA heavy and light 2-8-2s came with the USRA standard; at least the P&LE's USRA heavy 2-8-2s did.  McKee's Rocks subsequently swapped the USRA Standards for the larger tenders of the underachieving H-8s.  The Tenders on the H-8s resembled USRA Longs.

The photograph shows a rebuilt K-2, as the coal boards appear to have been modified in a fashion that resembles those of the K-2a, which was a 1923 Baldwin copy of the locomotive with a tender that had a more N&W appearing water tank and high coal boards.  Also the road name is on the tender.  Roanoake must have rebuilt these at least once between 1919/1920 and the 1940s.  Now I must go back to the Virginia Tech website to see an older photograph.

EDITORIAL NOTE:  I just went back and looked. Sadly, none of the older photographs of the unshrouded K-2s show a nice, clear side view of the tender.  You can get some good views of the K-2a tender.  the K-2a was a USRA copy,  but Roanoake ordered only the locomotive copied, not the tender.


Hopefully, someone will sell an aftermarket shroud for this.  It looks like the old B-mann Standard Line tender shell will work, but I suspect that the old J  locomotive shell is nowhere close to the dimensions of the K shroud.

[Mark5]

I have an advantage - I have more photos than the Va tech site ... 

The tender lettering in the 1st pic is the pre-1920 or so scheme. N&W certainly would not have added a smaller tender than it was delivered with.

[brokemoto]

Is the coal board modification one made immediately after USRA control ended?  Or is it just something that Roanoake got away with during USRA control?

I did not mean to imply that N&W swapped the tender, it is just that my eyes ain't what they used to be, and the only thing that I can see too good without some magnification is that the coal boards on the K-2 in the photograph appear to be modified.  That it is a rather dark photograph combined with my less-than-youthful eyesight does not help.  Thus, I can not tell what kind of tender it is, except that it appears to be some kind modified USRA tender.  That explains my comments.

It appears that the K-2a tender could be bashed from the B-mann auxiliary water tank, a USRA tender, some C-C hudson trucks or LL Y-3 trucks and some sheet styrene.  I would  doubt that the hudson trucks would be close to correct, but the Y-3s might.  I suppose, also,  that  you could use the Y-3 tender and the auxiliary tender.  It is just that the Y-3 tender ain't easy to come by, you must buy the whole locomotive, whereas you can buy the USRA Long separate from Bachpersonn and the C-C hudson trucks can also be had.

[Mark5]

The tender on the K2a is an N&W 16000 gallon design while the LL Y3 represents the Y3 in later life with a 18000 gallon "fishbelly" tender. The Pilchner trucks on the Y3 tender would be correct.

[Mark5]

The photograph shows a rebuilt K-2, as the coal boards appear to have been modified in a fashion that resembles those of the K-2a, which was a 1923 Baldwin copy of the locomotive with a tender that had a more N&W appearing water tank and high coal boards.  Also the road name is on the tender. 

The loco sure as hell aint rebuilt, as the paint scheme as shown was gone by 1920 or so never to return to N&W locos. Clearly the coal board was modified. The N&WHS has builder photos and we already went through all this on the Bachmann HO Heavy Mountain (which also had a wrong but different tender).

[brokemoto]

As you stated, you have an advantage, you have photographs that VT ain't got.  I did not know that paint scheme was around in 1919/1920, as I did not see any like that from that time period on the VT website.  To be sure, I did not look at all the photographs there.  I had assumed that it was later, as the old photographs that I saw did not show the road name on the tender.  Thus, I was not aware, or maybe had forgotten (from earlier visits there to look at nineteenth century power) that there was time before the 1940s when the road name was there.

Thanks for the edge-uh-mah-kayshinn, or reminder, as appropriate.

OK, the trucks are good, the water tank on the B-mann auxiliary has the proper shape, the coal boards on the USRA are a start, a little strip styrene would cover the necessary modifications.  Too bad that LL does not sell parts.

I did not see the debate on the Horrendiferously Oversized version of this.

[Robbman]

Message deleted

[brokemoto]

Was it just Ks that they converted, or were there Ms, Es and/or articulateds that they also converted?

Did Roanoake change them back to coal when the strike ended?  Did the conversion consist of simply shoving an oil tank into the coal bunker and some modifications to the fire box and cab? 

New York Central had some oil burners that ran on the Ulster and Delaware and other Catskill lines that could run on either, depending on the season and conditions.  When conditions called for oil, the shops simply cleaned out the coal bunker, shoved in an oil tank, added nozzles and other appurtenances to the firebox and the cab.

[Mark5]

Note that the Bachmann steam era auxillary tender also has trucks that would be appropriate under most N&W six wheel truck tenders.

You can see a pic of sister k2 #120 here circa 1935 with appropriate tender:

http://rlhs.org/rlhsnews/htms/nl23-2.htm

Here's 122:



The scheme on 121 previously posted above is pretty much the same as on this 1902 loco:



So in a nutshell:

Turn of the century (how far back I'm not sure) to about 1920:

"NORFOLK & WESTERN" on tender, number on cab.

1920-1941

Nothing on tender, N&W and # on cab.

1941-1960
"NORFOLK AND WESTERN" on tender, number on cab.

[Mark5]

I did not see the debate on the Horrendiferously Oversized version of this.

Debate? There is none - it has the wrong tender. The error wasn't as obvious on the HO version though. In HO they did not foist the USRA long tender on customers, just one with wrong trucks IIRC. I should dig up the N&WHS review...

I guess this means you don't read the Powhatan Arrow then ... 

[Mark5]

Question about the loco itself - as the light and heavy prototypes shared the same size drivers is this chassis materially different from the Bachmann USRA light mountain?

[Mark5]

Did Roanoake change them back to coal when the strike ended? 

Yes.

[Chris333]

http://spec.lib.vt.edu/imagebase/norfolksouthern/full/ns949.jpeg

I don't know about you guys, but this is one sweet looking locomotive.