Post Your STEAMERS!!!

MasonJar

It's not rocket surgery
I'll have to get one of those to go with my other 6-drivered locos (0-6-0, 4-6-2, 2-6-0, 2-6-2)... ;) :D

Andrew
 

doctorwayne

Active Member
Andrew, I couldn't find a picture of this loco with its lead and trailing trucks, but it always puzzled me as to why they weren't called Hudsons. My favourites were the ones operated by the Boston & Albany.

CN000342.jpg



Wayne
 

oldshutterbug

New Member
An old Baldwin Loco, now situated on the Puffing Billy Railway that runs through the Dandenong Ranges Victoria Aust, this narrow gauge railway is Victoria,s No1 tourist Attraction, this loco is one of many at the location.
Steam07-1.jpg
 

MasonJar

It's not rocket surgery
Wayne -

A Hudson "tank"? ;) I believe they were used for (commuter) passenger traffic, as they could run forwards and backwards, thus negating the need for a turntable at either end of the line. Based on the picture Mike found, it looks like the rearwards visibility might be better than forwards...! :cool:

Andrew
 

nkp174

Active Member
You've asked a good question as to why that isn't a hudson...here's the reason:

Hudson's were developed in 1927 for both the NYC and the NYC&Stl (aka...the Nickel Plate Road). NYC 5200 was built by Alco Schenectaty while NKP 170 was built by Alco Brooks. The designs were based on impoving their respective pacifics, the K-5s and K-1s, by adding the 4 wheel trailing truck's developed by the Lima Locomotive Works and debuted with the A-1 which annihilated a mikado in a direct competition.

The engine in discussion here is a 4-6-0 with the tender attached to the engine frame making it more of a 4-6-0+4. It has a dinky firebox that rests in between the rear drivers. A Hudson has a massive firebox (supported by a four wheel trailing truck) that produces more steam than the engine can use. (hence the ability to sustain high speeds with a large train)

Prior to the advent of Superpower (a four (or six) wheel trailing truck supporting a large firebox), freight trains averaging 15mph were considered impressive. After the advent of berkshires, texases, and such, the speed improved dramatically. Once the four wheel trailing truck was married to 69"+ drivers...the Erie 70" drivered berks....the era of high speed freight was born.

The Hudsons allowed for improved fuel economy while pulling longer trains at sustained speeds (NYC K-5s were limited to 12 car trains...J-1s were a huge upgrade). Currently there are several surviving examples of these magnificent machines...(1) NKP, (5) CB&Q, (2) AT&SF, (2) CN, (5) CP, and (1) C&O. One of the AT&SF survivors is a super hudson. The most famous survivor is ex-CP 2860...the Royal Hudson...Good work to our friends north of the border for saving 7! The CN only had like 5 total!
 

doctorwayne

Active Member
Thanks for all the additional info, nkp174. While my comment about them not being called Hudsons was tongue-in-cheek, it's interesting to note that the site where I found that "flying" commuter loco did call it a Baltic tank-type. In Europe, locos with the 4-6-4 wheel arrangement were known as Baltics, not Hudsons. And despite the list of preserved Hudsons that you've posted, it's still a shame that not one of the originals that put the name Hudson in the motive-power dictionary was preserved. :cry: In my opinion, the NYC J's, including the -2's before they got the bigger sandbox, were among the best-looking and most well-balanced steam locomotives ever built.
Now, since I'm the one who lead this thread astray, anybody else out there got a (model) steamer to post? I have more steamers, but no pictures of them, save for this out-of-focus shot of a retired 0-4-0, fading away in the weeds behind the carshops in Lowbanks.

dieselsontheege051.jpg


The shot is from cn nutbar's last visit, but I'm not sure which one of us took the picture.

Wayne
 

nkp174

Active Member
I too agree that it's a shame that a wasn't saved. But, we do have NKP 170 which was built at the same time (and the first production hudson), had the same tractive effort, the same weight on drivers, the same factor of adhesion, and as new, looked similar to the Js, but only had 73" drivers vs. the J's 79" drivers.

For the fallen hudsons...here's my old rivarossi J-3a...which Rivarossi made with 72" drivers!?!? (I broke out my digital calipers) I guess the massive flanges are supposed to give the illusion of 79"s ;-)
 

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skipgear

New Member
I haven't posted here in a long time but saw this thread and had to contribute.

There are some beautiful HO loco's posted so far, now for something a little smaller. This is a scratchbuilt B&O S-1a (Big Six) in N scale. It is based on a Kato Mikado Chassis with and extra driver added. The boiler and most details are brass except the cab, sand domes, and smoke box face which are resin castings.

S-1Painted.jpg

S-1Painted2.jpg

These shots were before I had finished adding the couplers.

S-1Ntrak3.jpg

A shot of the Big Six doing what it was designed for....pulling a long string of hoppers.

This was it's maiden run. It pulled seventy, two and three bay hoppers around the NTrak layout for 40 minutes or so. Only one stall and one coupler failure during the run.

There more shots of projects I am working on here:
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/4676

Next is a B&O P7D (Heavy Pacific streamlined for the Cincinnatian)
I am also looking for some basket case Rivarossi/Concor N scale Big Boy's or random Big Boy parts if anybody has any they would like to sell. After the P7 I am going to attempt a B&O EM-1 (2-8-8-4).

Thanks for looking, Tony
 

doctorwayne

Active Member
Yeah, but was anybody checking for duplicate numbers on that string of hoppers?:rolleyes: :D Nice work, Tony.:thumb: :thumb: No wonder you haven't posted here for a while: you've been too busy working on that conversion.
Classic Trains magazine ran a feature article on B&O's Big Sixes in the Summer 2006 issue. Your model is as impressive as the prototype.

Wayne
 

skipgear

New Member
Nobody checking for duplicates but the kids were trying to count cars. Actually, in the whole train, no number was duplicated more than 3-4 times so it was hard to catch duplicates:

24 Atlas 2-bay B&O (3 each of 8 road numbers)
25 Atlas 2-bay C&O (2-3 each of 8 road numbers with a few at 4 each)
7 MDC 3-bay C&O (1 each road number)
14 MTL B&O and C&O 2-bay hoppers (only 2-3 duplicates)

It was mixed up enough that the dupicates didn't stand out.

Actually, the idea for this loco was born from the Classic Trains article and discussion on the B&O yahoo group.

Here is a shot of it just before paint.
S-1Parts.jpg
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
Wow, that is awesome. I have enough trouble handling the small detail parts for ho scale, the idea of doing something like that in n scale is downright scary!
 

nkp174

Active Member
skipgear, you rock! I forayed into HOn3 when I was in high school, but it was just too small for me...so I am all the more impressed with your work. Simply amazing.

btw, I grew up within ear shot of the CH&D, and when my grandmother was a little girl, her dog was hit by a train on the CH&D...probably one of those 2-10-2s. (CH&D...Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton...a N-S B&O mainline...the final route of the Cincinnatian passenger train)
 

skipgear

New Member
Thanks for the compliments, there are a few things not quite right that I still want to address at a later time. I has the wrong valve gear on it, Big Six's had Baker valve gear, the Mikado that it started life as came with Walscherts (sp?). I need to find a source for the Baker gear other than existing running loco's that I don't want to canablalize. I also want to rebuild the drawbar slightly shorter. Those things will come after I get some other projects done though.

NKP - I am modeling the other side of the B&O from the CH&D, or at least a small part of it where it runs/ran through the town I live in. It is on the Main from Cincinnati to DC just as it crosses the Little Miami river. An interesting interchange between B&O and PRR of dual double track mains, two stations, a river, bridge and other interesting scenery for the focal point. Technically nothing as big as a Big Six or EM-1 ran through here but I won't tell anybody when they are on the layout. There were Sixes on the CH&D and that is close enough for me. The problem is, I'm having so much fun with the loco/car building that I haven't gotten any benchwork done yet.

Tony
 

nkp174

Active Member
skipgear, is that the line that went through Athens? I walked through the Moonville tunnel in Vinton County on that road bed a month ago. A couple years ago I had a nightmarish hike down that roadbed...no bridges anymore that repeatedly crosses a meandering stream!

I live in Cincinnati...are you talking about modelling the Sweetheart of Ohio? Or is that Milford?
 
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