The OTHER Minitrix Decapod to PRR I1sa kitbash

[Lemosteam]

I finally tore into my kitbash using a later, now available, Keystone Details pilot and detailing kit. The images below are the highlights of the build, and the official step by step instructions are linked below.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5Mgu2ihaFUg1jafB6

The kit includes the replacement pilot and pilot truck frame, full standard PRR boiler details (sand dome, whistle, marker lights, safety valves, reversing cylinder, headlight, headlight bracket, boiler support rod steps, generator, smokestack, tender water scoop), and both versions of the feedwater pump. Other details were fashioned by me



Readying the replacement pilot for installation:


Pilot installed, readying replacement pilot truck assembly:


Chassis on the track:


Dummy coupler fit with the MT coupler height gage. This coupler is the same one that @eric220 requested for the BLI M1 pilot for double heading


Side view of dummy coupler and MT height gage.


Lengthened tender drawbar:


Tender drawbar, chassis & shortened boiler shell:


More pics to follow now that the hard part is complete.

[Lemosteam]

Some more pics on my photo track.

[wm3798]

I'm diggin' it!
Hopefully you can make it to Altoona and we can compare and contrast between yours, @randgust and mine.

I wonder if BLI or anyone will bother to release a new model since there's got to be 11 million of those Trix monsters still in circulation...

Lee

[Doc Frankenfield]

don't want to sound dumb but is this the russian decapod?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

don't want to sound dumb but is this the russian decapod?

Nope. The "Russian" decks were ones originally made for Russian railways by Baldwin but weren't delivered (I think due to the Bolshevik revolution). Baldwin made some modifications to "Americanize" them and then sold them domestically.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_locomotive_class_Ye
https://www.steamlocomotive.com/locobase.php?country=USA&wheel=2-10-0

It's important to note that these differ from the Baldwin "Catalog" 2-10-0s, the most notable of which is Strasburg #90.

The engine John's working on here is a PRR I1s 2-10-0 (nicknamed "Hippos"). The I1 was a megachonker of a locomotive. The type of behemoth that only the Pennsy would build and then widely use.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Railroad_I1_class

They were BEASTS. There's one remaining one in New York, and it KILLS me that people are spending millions of dollars to build a giant toy T1 while it sits unloved and rotting.

[Lemosteam]

This kit is for folks that want an I1 on the cheap. This is nowhere near the size it needs to be, but it at least provides the illusion of one.

My next Dec will be more along the lines of the Russian decapod, as the DT&I (local to the Detroit area) had a few.

[Lemosteam]

I'm diggin' it!
Hopefully you can make it to Altoona and we can compare and contrast between yours, @randgust and mine.

I wonder if BLI or anyone will bother to release a new model since there's got to be 11 million of those Trix monsters still in circulation...

Lee

Altoona is pretty much an annual impossibility for me unless it’s a family trip, but I want to get there someday.