My Model of 1624 Is Getting Closer!

[johnb]

I have always loved trains, and some of my earliest memories are going to The Orange Empire Railway Museum and watching my dad turn into a kid as he got to ride Hollywood Cars and the Blimps on the main line and the LARY PCC cars around the “city” loop. My eyes always turned towards the freight equipment, especially anything in Tiger Stripe, like the ALCO S4 #1474 (I have an Atlas model on order). My favorite piece in their collection has always been 1624, to me, it just looked cool.



1624 was built by the Torrance Shops in 1924 (1619-1631), as a close clone of the Baldwin Westinghouse 1601 class Freight Motors (especially 1616 and 1617, the last of the Baldwins, built in 1920) . The steelwork was supplied by Llewellyn Iron Works of Los Angeles, and the trucks were almost identical to the trucks on 1616 and 1617. The Pacific Electric turned down Baldwin’s bid to build these locos, and to add insult to injury, they even used General Electric equipment! For as tiny as they were, the two C-75 compressors and 251-A motors (205hp) meant that these locos were rated to pull 60 cars! The home built locos were the pride of the Pacific Electric electric freight operations, outliving their Baldwin brothers. With the exception of the Santa Monica Air Line, electric freight service ended on December 1, 1956, and it finally ended some time in 1958. We were lucky that 1624 did not get scrapped like the rest of her sisters.



As mentioned before, I won an auction for a pair of Baldwin Westinghouse freight motors that are designed to fit a modified Bandai Shorty B chassis. These have not been made in 6 years, I was fortunate to have tracked one down. They are compact and the trucks like to fall apart, I might wind up gluing them closed. After looking at what parts I got in the auction, I know now that I will need to order another set of truck frames to make a second unit (seriously looking for another chassis). Tomorrow, I am going to start prepping the Shapeways parts for paint, and I am hoping to prime them Wednesday and shoot them on Thursday. I have everything needed for this build except for a pair of Micro Trains 2004-1 couplers.



To say that these locos are small is an understatement, these locos are straight up tiny. The prototype has a 25′ total wheelbase, and a 40′ boxcar makes them look small.



If I do build the second one, it will most likely be 1622, the second to last survivor, which was scrapped in 1959.

[randgust]

Is that the chassis I gave up on?   Glad you could make use of it!

[sd45elect2000]

Is that the chassis I gave up on?   Glad you could make use of it!

I think I got that one Randy

[brill27mcb]

John, the sideframes in your photo are upside-down.

Rich K.

[Jim Starbuck]

That’s the shell I modified to build Milwaukee Electric L-4.
I also used the Bandai 3 chassis and other than installing a decoder, didn’t make any modifications to the chassis and it built into a dandy little switcher.
Looking forward to following your build John.

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[johnb]

John, the sideframes in your photo are upside-down.

Rich K.

I noticed that this morning, so glad that was just a test placement!

[johnb]

Is that the chassis I gave up on?   Glad you could make use of it!

no, but it looks like I have another lined up

[johnb]

That’s the shell I modified to build Milwaukee Electric L-4.
I also used the Bandai 3 chassis and other than installing a decoder, didn’t make any modifications to the chassis and it built into a dandy little switcher.
Looking forward to following your build John.

(Attachment Link)

THAT IS INCREDIBLE!!!!

I hope that I make my handrails look like that

[Jim Starbuck]

THAT IS INCREDIBLE!!!!

I hope that I make my handrails look like that

Thanks John,
They’re made from soldered .008” phosphor bronze wire. They took a few tries and some colorful language but I think they’re worth the effort.

[johnb]

needs couplers, a pole and handrails…The good news, I do have all of the needed Shapeways parts for the second loco, and I decided that it will be numbered 1627 since those numbers are all together in the decal sheet.

[Jim Starbuck]

Looks great John!

[johnb]

Looks great John!

thanks Jim

[JoeD]

love it...

[johnb]

It's not the size that counts...

[peteski]

It's not the size that counts...

But it does:  The smaller the better! 
Nicely done!