Close Couple the Roundhouse 4-4-0


hminky

Member
I have a "what I did" about moving the tender closer to the engine and disguising the connection wires at:

http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/1905/4-4-0_coupling/

4-4-0_coupling.jpg


Thank you if you visit
Harold
 
I tried Sergent couplers and found them a little bit too finicky for my taste. That is where I found the Proto HO:Accumates. The Sergent's sell their coupler with the Accumate draftgear box. I tried the Proto:Accumates and I really like them. They couple automatically and look better than the Kadee and McHenry "scale" couplers because they don't have a knuckle spring

Harold
 
Hi Harold
A nice modification, a really great looking improvement. You're a brave man, I just couldn't see me trying out something like that on one of my steamers as an experiment :D Thanks for sharing your experience and methods. As always it's a pleasure to visit your pages.

Cheers Willis
 
I tried Sergent couplers and found them a little bit too finicky for my taste.
Very true. I'll stay my ground on them though. I like the fact that you have to think to couple. No more "slamming cars togeather" for me. However adding them to some of the undersized boxes is an issue.
 
Can you give me a breif review of the looks/perfomance? I notice that you bought the B&O and stripped the lettering. Like you I am modeling SP late 19th century (or maybe you're not). Do you find that that engine style most like what SP would have run? I was thinking of going with the unlettered.
 
The B&O is my second one, yet to be stripped, the unlettered is the first. The unlettered are hard to find. The closest prototype locomotive I could find was a Baldwin built B&O Class M-60/68 of 1893, most 4-4-0's have a wagon top boiler.

I think the locomotive is great, I base that on performance, appearance is secondary. I have had several brass locos that looked great but were lousy runners, or the Bachmann ten-wheeler that won't pull it's on weight. It runs perfectly around the dirty track and electronically challenged Atlas turnouts of the Pacific Coast Air Line Railway.

It has traction tires on the front drivers and picks up electric on all the tender wheels and the back drivers. Mine pulled a train of 3 On30 Bachmann Passenger cars and 18 On30 Bachmann freight cars, I don't have enough knuckle coupler equipped HO cars.

The locomotive runs well on DCC and DC. The sounds are good for an HO locomotive, but that is subjective. I benchmark that against my On30 locos with a Soundtraxx Tsunami and two 1-1/2 speakers. A seperate controller operateds the DC sounds. There are enough chuffs and whistles to find one that is plesant.

The appearance is retooled MDC. The details on the boiler are seperate so it can be detailed without any problem. I find the detailing good.

I really like the locomotive and run it as much as I can.

I don't model the SP so I don't know if it matches any of their 4-4-0's.

Just a thought
Harold

P.S. Don't try to get one from RC Planes and Trains on e-bay, I had to go through Paypal to get a refund. First Hobby has the best price.
 
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