From the CM, MT & SL's Old Colorado City shops, Colorado Midland Modeler's custom locomotive and rolling stock thread

[Colorado Midland Modeler]

Inspired by the number of great back shop/building shops threads on the forums I decided to start my own. I hope everyone enjoys it.
Alrighty, let's get the ball rolling with my latest creation. First I started with a Mantua 0-4-0 similar to this one that was missing its tender, but was otherwise complete.

I converted it to all wheel pickup, as can be seen in this post completion photo.

Next, I added and modified a new cab since the original was damaged, and I also built a box-saddle tank out of styrene.

Since it ran well on my workbench test track, I added the rear coupler and painted it.

Unfortunately, testing on the layout revealed an annoying tendency to buck and sway, often causing electrical contact issues. To correct these problems, I added a trailing truck that started life as the pilot truck on a 2-8-0 that succumbed to zinc rot, creating an 0-4-2T. Due to the nature of the the problem and the solution to it, (which will ring a bell for anyone familiar with the Rev. Wilbur Audrey's Railway Series books) I made name plates and christened my creation "Skarloey".

I now have a unique and useful little shop goat that does surprisingly well in the yards. Until next time, I hope you've all enjoyed this thread.

 

[Kusojiji]

Wow, that's awesome! Pretty neat that the lead truck fit to fix the problem. I was wondering about that since that rear deck overhang is more than the front.

 

[Colorado Midland Modeler]

Wow, that's awesome! Pretty neat that the lead truck fit to fix the problem. I was wondering about that since that rear deck overhang is more than the front.

Thank you! I believe the long overhang on the rear was the cause of the bucks and bounces. I'm thinking that the larger cab and coal bunker on the rear of it was just enough to change the center of gravity, despite the fact that both pieces are made of plastic. Here's a couple more photos of it, I hadn't added the name plates yet when I took the front end photo.

 

[logandsawman]

Really ingenious! I love the looks of it. Clever solution to get better electrical pickup...

Dave LASM

 

[Kusojiji]

Well, I bet the crew are much happier with the extra space!

 

[Colorado Midland Modeler]

Really ingenious! I love the looks of it. Clever solution to get better electrical pickup...

Dave LASM

Thank you! It's certainly a unique little engine. The electrical contacts are something I had salvaged. I don't remember what they came off of, but they get the job done.

Well, I bet the crew are much happier with the extra space!

They probably are! That cab came off of a Mantua 4-6-0, it had some damage on the rear overhang, but everything else on it was fine, so I modified it for this engine.

 

[Colorado Midland Modeler]

For this installment, I'm covering Colorado Midland 22, a project that I did shortly after I moved into my current house, so that was about three years ago.

My version started out as a beat up old Mantua 4-6-0, as you can see by these photos. The original cab eventually made it's way onto the shop goat in my first post.

I started by moving the rear drivers forward a little bit and modifying the rear side rod segments.

I also added a new stack, found a suitable pilot truck, reattached the headlight housing, added an exhaust pipe for the dynamo between the domes, and built a custom cab from styrene. I added an air tank to the running boards and sand pipes as well.

After the modifications to the engine were done, I worked on the tender. I built a new coal bunker and toolbox on the tender deck.

After I was satisfied that everything was working right, I painted and lettered it, I also added the coal lode.

After adding decals, the letters and numbers didn't show up as well as I had hoped, so I painted them gold and red with a toothpick. Here is the result, as well as a photo of the actual CM22 for comparison.

There are two additional modifications I made within the past year, which are a Sagami can motor upgrade and an LED headlight. It's a good runner now, the only issue I haven't resolved yet is it can't pull much up my 4% grades because the traction tire fell apart, and I haven't found a suitable replacement yet. I know they can be bought, but I'm exploring the possibility of better finding a better options. So, for now it double heads with CM 39. Thanks for viewing!

 

[Kusojiji]

Very ingenious! How'd you move that last set fwd? Drill press? That first shot looked like it lost the fight with a grizzly.

 

[Colorado Midland Modeler]

Very ingenious! How'd you move that last set fwd? Drill press? That first shot looked like it lost the fight with a grizzly.

Thank you! I don't have a drill press, (really want one!), I took a LOT of measurements and very carefully drilled out the new axel slot with a Skill cordless drill at low speeds with ever increasing bit sizes until it was almost to size, then I did the rest with files until it was aligned and rolled freely. It definitely didn't look to good when I got it, I think I only paid about $10 for it, which is good. The funny thing about it is the full sized CM 22 was often in similar condition, and yet it always got rebuilt and even outlived it's railroad.
Case in point.

And, this is it in storage when the CM closed. I can't remember off hand, but I believe I got most, if not all of these from the Denver library's site.

 

[Kusojiji]

By hand, more impressive! Looks like CM22 cleaned up pretty good. I like the proportions as she looks well balanced. You getting these from fleabay?

 

[Colorado Midland Modeler]

By hand, more impressive! Looks like CM22 cleaned up pretty good. I like the proportions as she looks well balanced. You getting these from fleabay?

Thank you! CM 22 did clean up pretty good, despite being in so many accidents over the years. I read in the Colorado Midland books I have that the crews called it "the hoodoo", due to the fact that it seemed like it was always in some kind of trouble. I believe I read that it was involved in at least three head-on collisions with Rio Grande engines, burned three times, (once while being rebuilt when the shop building it was in burned down, once in the aftermath of one of the head-on crashes, and once when it and CM 17 came around a blind curve, couldn't stop in time, and fell through a burning trestle), it demolished a caboose, (surprisingly, everyone was OK) and had many derailments. The odd thing about it is it almost always got into trouble while pulling freight trains. As strange as it sounds, the 22's notoriety is why I chose that engine to model, because while it was often damaged, I'm convinced it was virtually indestructible. I'm also convinced that it may still be around somewhere, because it's fate is unknown. CM 22 and its fellow class 104 siblings were well balanced from what I read, one of them is reported to have hit 60mph on a fairly level stretch of track. The Mantua 4-6-0 was/is a pretty good match for the CM 104 class, my books have the specs, and the scale-foot length of the Mantua is very close, especially when you factor in the drawbar being longer on models to get around curves. Also, I did indeed get these two off of ebay. That's where a lot of my stuff comes from now, since there are absolutely 0 hobby stores within 100 miles of me that I'm aware of. So, I look for bargains and beaters to fix up.

 

[Kusojiji]

Wow, bad luck, eh? I was about to ask if it survived. That's too bad it got lost in history.

Thanks for the info on thte model and source. Will have to take a look. I've been looking at pre-owned stuff as well. I have remotored some (my own included) with coreless or slotless motors. 3D printer helps a lot with this.

Yeah, the hobby shops have a hard time competing with the interweb. And I imagine they're retiring as well.

 

[Colorado Midland Modeler]

Wow, bad luck, eh? I was about to ask if it survived. That's too bad it got lost in history.

Thanks for the info on thte model and source. Will have to take a look. I've been looking at pre-owned stuff as well. I have remotored some (my own included) with coreless or slotless motors. 3D printer helps a lot with this.

Yeah, the hobby shops have a hard time competing with the interweb. And I imagine they're retiring as well.

Yep, no one knows what became of it. Actually, there's a surprising number of CM engines that are unaccounted for. I think, according to the most recent book I have, that there are somewhere around 15 engines listed as "Disposition unknown". Where I lived before, there were two model railroad related stores, but the owner/operator of one died just before I moved here to WY, and the other one retired.

 

[Kusojiji]

I kinda do the same thing as you, modify locos, but not at your level. I change motors and add lamps. The UK stuff doesn't come with head/tail lamps since they used portable lamps in real life, so no standard. Their lamps are placed on the loco depending on what it is doing. I just put mine where the US stuff normally goes, in front of the smoke stack.

So what you do is very interesting to me.

 

[Colorado Midland Modeler]

I kinda do the same thing as you, modify locos, but not at your level. I change motors and add lamps. The UK stuff doesn't come with head/tail lamps since they used portable lamps in real life, so no standard. Their lamps are placed on the loco depending on what it is doing. I just put mine where the US stuff normally goes, in front of the smoke stack.

So what you do is very interesting to me.

Modifying and improving them is usually a lot of fun for me. I'm glad you're enjoying this thread.

 

[Kusojiji]

So much so that I just bought a Mantua 0-6-0 Tender haha. Will see what I can do with it.

 

[Colorado Midland Modeler]

So much so that I just bought a Mantua 0-6-0 Tender haha. Will see what I can do with it.

Please post pictures when it's done, I think a lot of us like seeing kit/scratch-bashes.