PRR D16sb research for a build

[peteski]

Very nice!  I still chuckle that this beautiful model hides the fact that internally it is the crappy Bachmann 4-4-0!

[randgust]

The surviving parts that are Bachmann are only the worms and cup universal, the barest remnant of the plastic frame, side rods, and the axles.   It most closely resembles Johnny Cash's approach of 'built it one piece at a time' at this point.....

And your contribution was abandoning the Rivarossi pilot truck wheels for something I admit looks far, far better on the wheels.

[randgust]

OK, so for the record, I'll post this here as well - this was shot outside on the Trunkeyville T-trak module.   This is, by no coincidence, on the final route of 1046 on the last scheduled runs of it in 1937 between Oil City and Olean.    Trunkeyville is just a dead-end road to fishing cottages today, but was the original terminus of one of the first oil pipelines.  The white house is still there and so is the remnant of the PRR concrete bridge.   Penn Central abandoned the remaining part of the Salamanca Branch in 1976, and I ran a GP38 through here as a kid in 1975.



And just to prove, yes, it runs......pay no attention to the Arizona scenery.....

The video is a tad choppy, the locomotive isn't at all.   That 'coming up the hill' lead shot shows just how steady Mark G got the wheels, because it's really a short, heavy locomotive balanced on a very short wheelbase, and until he improved my workmanship, pitched and rolled like a great lakes steamer in a November gale.

[Dave V]

Wow.  Just wow.  Another classic "best of the Railwire" build right there.

A perfect capture of the classic design from America's Broad Way of Commerce, the Standard Railroad of the World...the mighty, the late, the great Pennsylvania.  Oh, and she runs like a dream too!

Let us make the sign of the keystone, in the name of the Curve, the Slope, and the Four Track Main, amen.

[Chris333]

That turned out great! and a unique piece of equipment that no one else has.

[mmagliaro]

Nicest photo you've posted of it to date, Randy.  Very nice.
I enjoyed the video (and the background music...)

[nickelplate759]

Hard to believe that buried deep inside that gem are parts of the old Bachmann 4-4-0 I donated.  I remember how poorly that ran, and am astounded that it could be incorporated into something that works so nicely.

<edit> I just remembered that I didn't actually donate it - @randgust  was kind enough to offer me a more-than-fair price for it </edit>

[glakedylan]

super work, Randy . . . it is a great thead to follow.
the results are wonderful!

thanks for sharing...you work never disappoints . . .

sincerely
Gary

[peteski]

Hard to believe that buried deep inside that gem are parts of the old Bachmann 4-4-0 I donated.  I remember how poorly that ran, and am astounded that it could be incorporated into something that works so nicely.

I mentioned this in reply 150. I didn't know you were the donor of that loco (and I use that term loosely).   

[nickelplate759]

I mentioned this in reply 150. I didn't know you were the donor of that loco (and I use that term loosely).   

And it was a really OLD Bachmann 4-4-0 - I bought it new around 1985.  I'm so pleased it is part of something good.

[randgust]

And that was the first case of Railwire to the rescue on this one, because I already had a very old junk 4-4-0 and had started to use the parts, only to discover I'd lost the screw that holds the metal axle retainer plate to the plastic frame......   Getting that junker donated worked out even better when my ill-fated attempt at grinding the Bachmann axles down to fit the Rivarossi drivers didn't work out well and I needed another whole set of axles to let Mark try it.   That junker saved the day.

The Bachmann 4-4-0 wouldn't be all that bad if the tender wheels/pickup were improved.   It's unnecessarily soured a lot of tender-drive ideas, and now that I've done two of them with tender drives and gearheads, I'll never fight stuffing a motor in a boiler again.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Randy. GTFO with this thing.

Seriously. Nuts.

I love it man!

[EdKap2]

Absolutely AMAZING!!

[peteski]

The Bachmann 4-4-0 wouldn't be all that bad if the tender wheels/pickup were improved.   It's unnecessarily soured a lot of tender-drive ideas, and now that I've done two of them with tender drives and gearheads, I'll never fight stuffing a motor in a boiler again.

As far as the design of that model goes, I prefer calling it "motor in the tender" "or "tender motored" rather than "tender drive".  Why? Because there are many N scale European models (mostly by Fleischmann) which have the motor in the tender driving the tender wheels.  The tender pushes the dummy loco (and pulls the train on the other end).  To me that is a true tender drive.