Stop me before I kitbash another locomotive!


Right now I am running out of spare parts! If I really get serious about such a beast, I might have to sacrifice some non-kitbashed Mantuas I have. But if the resulting locomotive wouldn't work on my ruling 20" radius curves (Shinohara sectional track), I'd just have a "shelf queen". Got some other, non-model projects pending right now...so we'll see. ;)
 
Didn't Broadway Ltd build such a model?

https://www.broadway-limited.com/49...uminumletteringparagon3sounddcdccsmokeho.aspx

Might find a review that tells us what radius this loco operates on?

UP4122BrassHybridHighRes.1.png


their quote " Minimum Operating Radius: 22 inches or greater " ( I seriously doubt this figure)
 
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That third cylinder sure makes for a weird-sounding steam locomotive. I probably won't do the 4-12-2. I am running out of parts for the Mantuas. My latest effort has been to just build up a Mikado. I bought a "ready-to-run" chassis for a Mantua 2-8-2, including drivers, a gearbox and a can motor, only to find that the cylinde block was for a Pacific boiler. Happened to have a Mikado block, but that meant reconnecting the valve gear, which has the crosshead guide, crosshead, and valve gear rod that have to be installed in the new block, on both sides virtually simultaneously. PITA!, but got it done. Next, I found that the trailing truck wouldn't swing under the rear of the chassis. Lots of elbow grease with files finally took care of that. The motor has wire leads from the motor, so that there is no contact with the frame (in case I want to put in a decode...not likely to happen right now. Connected the leads to a 9v battery while holding the chassis in my hand. Runs fine. Set the chassis on the track to see which wire should be connected to the frame so the right side drivers would pick up current correctly under DC. DEAD SHORT SOMEWHERE! No, not anything readily apparent. Looked at the drivers. All the left side wheels apparently insulated between hub and tires. On a hunch, I hauled out the multi-meter set to R and checked each wheel on the insulated side. You guessed it. Although you could see the white insulation, the third driver showed the insulation wasn't insulating! All the rest were okay. Back to the parts drawer. Two blind driving wheel sets left! Checked them over. Both okay. Swapped the good one for the bad one, and now everything is okay. Bought a couple of pilots on ebay for Mantua's for $30 each plus shipping. Discovered the ladders are meant for the smaller smokebox of the Pacific or maybe a light mikado. A little work made one of them suitable for the Mike boiler. (Still have to drill .020" holes in the outside risers for the Burlington-like handrails. Probably get the thing finished by this weekend. Now what do I do with it? No room on the layout, and even my basement storage track is running out of room. NOT going to try to sell them on ebay. Maybe at a local swap meet July 15th....
Stay well and safe!
 
The only thing I can suggest is try ebay looking for parts for the Rivarrosi/AHM 0-8-0 steam locomotive. I did a quick look, but didn't find anything. You might need to find a parts catalog online and search for the particular part number. Otherwise you might be faced with a scratchbuilding project!
 
Well, I couldn't stay away from Mantua steam.
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Found this little "critter" on my storage shelf. Don't remember where I got it or when. Must be twenty years or more! Bottom of chassis says, "Mantua 3975" on it. I don't recall having mounted the Kaydee couplers on the front and rear, nor adding the coupler lift bar. The boiler and cab are a single cast metal piece. Weighs about 12 oz.! Tried to run it, but it wouldn't go. There was a short between the metal pickup/wipers for the leftside wheels. Tried to fix it, but no-go, so I removed it from between the leftside wheels. Fashioned a new pickup from the brass wire you can see. The screw holding the wire to the frame is a nylon 2-56 with a piece of styrene behind, insulating it from the frame. Blue tubing on the wire between the wheels keeps the wire from shorting against the crosshead bracket. Got that straightened out, but the motor wouldn't run consistently and the rear drivers seemed out-of-quarter. I have the NWSL quartering jig, but didn't have time to mess with it. Went to my parts drawer, where I have a bunch of these open-frame motors taken from other projects that had can motors installed. Replaced the motor. Went to my spare 54" driver set drawer and found one that is more in sync with the front one. Little beast runs great now. There is no headlight or backup light. I could install them, but it would be a challenge because there is no hole in the smokebox as is the case in most of the Mantua models, so the wires would have to be routed some other way. I could also detail it, but don't have the time. Think I'll keep it for some little kid for a starter engine. (Grandkids are grown or not interested in the hobby.)
 
You just had to show me that, didn't you? Would you offer a shot of whiskey to a reformed drunk? ;) I doubt seriously that I will mess with the valve gear, but I might add some details. The toughest one might be making the headlight active. Bell, whistle and maybe some air tanks and piping. Depends on how much time I have, and what details I can find...probably CalScale. Not much room inside the solid boiler, and since it runs great now, probably won't put in a can motor. As to the trailing truck...have to see what I can gin up. Have to keep the wheels on the left side insulated of course. I thought the short wheelbase might have trouble running over turnout and crossing frogs, but so far, it doesn't hesitate! Thanks for posting these pics and the link.
 
beiland said:
That fellow did a pretty nice job of it,..
Click to expand...
He sure did! Right down to the pipe couplings and the brackets holding the air tanks. Even if I can find the valve gear pieces, it would have to include the rivets, which have to be carefully peened over on the back side or they will bind up! (Guess how I know that!) Wonder how he installed the headlight bulb. Have to drill a hole in the headlight and another up from the bottom of the smokebox to intersect it (which all of the other Mantua steamers I've encountered already have. Be real nice to also install a backup light, possibly with a diode to shut it off when the engine is running forward. Not sure where to get a suitable diode since Radio Shack near me closed. :( There is a fair amount of room in the cab should I add a decoder (I have both DC and DCC capability on my layout. Not sure about a speaker... Uh, oh, here I go again!
 
I've got a few small steam switchers,...and a couple of the Broadway Trackmobiles. I plan on making them DCC and likely some sort of keep-alive,...BUT sound, I don't think so.

There was a fellow up in the Wash DC area when I lived up there, that would take various plastic engines and add brass/metal details like this to them. When I first saw this loco his work came to my mind immeadiately
 
I've got an 0-4-4-0T that I purchased several years ago. It appears to have been made from two Lindsey 0-4-0Ts.

I've been looking for someone to convert it to a can motor and DCC. My efforts wasted a bunch of $$ and accomplished nothing.:mad:
20180507_132657a.jpg
 
I understand your frustration. I see that the front engine of this articulated is not powered. The difficulty in powering it with any motor is connecting the front engine to the motor. There are two reasons for this: 1) attaching the rear set of cylinders and its chassis to the boiler, requires a screw up from the bottom of the rear cylinders/chassis. It gets in the way of an extension of the drive shaft to the front engine; 2) even if (1) can be overcome, there has to be sufficient clearance from the top of the front engine for it to swing under the smokebox. I ran into a similar problem creating several Mantua 2-6-2 Prairies into a 2-6-6-2 articulated. Just had to leave the front engine unpowered, with a traction tire to aid the front drivers in turning.

Converting this to a can motor will require creation/addition of a gearbox with the motor drive shaft connected to the drive worm, probably by some type of universal shaft. As far as a decoder is concerned, it would depend on how much room is available in the cab and boiler. If the boiler is plastic, it might be feasible. In the case of my 0-4-0T, the boiler is diecast metal, and it would take a bunch of "hogging" out of metal to provide clearance. If the beast had a tender, it wouldn't be much of a problem. But these tank engines don't provide that luxury...unless you added a tender on the pretext that the jobs the locomotive has to do requires more fuel and water that the tank would provide.
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This is NOT DCC or can motored. Front engine is not powered.
 
Great job on the Prairie conversion!

The body on the 0-4-4-0T is pretty narrow, so I think only the rear truck could be powered. Even so, the articulation messes with the available room. I think there's enough room in the coal box to put a small decoder. Either way, I don't have the talent to do it. I'll gladly pay if someone is willing to convert it.
 
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