I want to build a CPR Royal Hudson... but I need help

[craigolio1]

I have a question on connecting the tender and would appreciate people's thoughts.

In order to mount the new trailing truck I had to cut away part of the from from the area under the original cab location.  There was no way around it.  Unfortunately this included the part that the factory tender draw bar attached to.  So the issue is, once I get the trailing truck attached I'll have to come up with a new attachment for the tender.  My initial thought was to attach it to the screw that will be in the middle of the trailing truck but after some pondering I figured this would be a bad idea.  I'm thinking that due to the light weight of that truck, there is no way it would stay on the rails with the weight of a train behind it.  So, I figure it has to be attached to the loco itself.  The only problem I can think of with this is that the cab sits out behind the trailing truck so it will likely overhang on the corners abit.  I plan to have an 18" minimum radius in visible curves with 16" in some hidden areas and yard tracks.  I would need some way of allowing for the back of the loco to swing out and not have it pull the tender off of the tracks.  The sollution will no doubt be a draw bar attached to the back of the loco, as far forward as possible without fouling the trailing truck. 

I'm wondering what others have done here.  Am I on the right path or is there someother method that provides a nice looking connection but also allows for movement?

Thanks, Craig

[SkipGear]

Chris and Randy need to come up with pictures of the drawbars that they used on the LL Bershire. It suffers the same issue so they relocated the drawbar to the same pivot point as the trailing truck.

I did a similar thing on my 2-10-2 making a copy of the Kato drawbar. One thing you can do to minimize the swing of the drawbar is to mount it as far forward on the tender as possible. If you mount it back on the pivot of the lead tender truck, the overhang issue is exaggerated.

[craigolio1]

Thanks Tony.

    I see the logic in that.  The draw bar won't be fouled by the trailing truck because it will be on the same plane in the curve, especially if it's attached at the front of the tender.  Because of the modification I made to the bottom of the loco, to accommodate the trailing truck, there is lots of room for the draw bar to mount on the pivot as well. 

I'm glad you posted this before I rebuilt the trailing truck.

Thanks again, Craig