New "Old No. 12"

Hello all,

Some of you may still remember my first foray into model-bashing - when I posted pics of a Bachmann "Big Hauler" that I converted from 1:22.5 to 1:20.3 scale and called a "Medium Hauler." Here's a photo that may help refresh your memory:



I made many mistakes with it and lots of stuff didn't come out the way I had hoped, but it was a good learning experience and really got me into a "bashing" frame-of-mind. Also, that was back when I was still using track-power DCC. So for those reasons and others, Ol' No. 12 was sent to the rip track a while ago for scrap.


In its place (and sporting many of its salvaged parts, including Slim, the fireman,) there is now a new "Old No. 12" - bashed from a B'mann Mogul running on battery power and R/C controlled. I wanted to try something new this time, so I decided to try my hand on a pilot-mounted snow plow. The results are shown below:


First, the official builders photos -





Since Ol' No. 12 is (theoretically) the oldest loco on my mythical Dulles & Reston Garden Weeds Railroad, it is now relegated to a maintenance-of-way role and occasional light passenger duty. Hence, the pilot-mounted snow plow - which often comes in handy in both applications.






Other major additions, besides the plow, are a dynamo, a different air compressor, smoke stack, head lamp and number plate - all salvaged from the old Ol' No. 12.






Building the snow plow from sheet brass and mounting it securely turned out to be a considerable challenge - and lots of fun. I couldn't figure out how to use an Accucraft coupler in front but I had a Kadee with a long shank so I used that. The breaker bar arrangement would work if the coupler actually had a lift-pin.




I designed the two halves of the plow blade on a CAD system on my iMac (actually, only one blade and a mirror image,) printed it full size then transferred them to light cardboard for test fitting and adjustment. The final result was used as a template to cut them out of .040 sheet brass.




I don't have a roller, so I had to curve the blades by hand in a vise, bit by bit, working from the top, and checking my work frequently. The curve in each blade is simple (as opposed to compound, thank goodness) but the radius varied so I had to go "by guess and by golly." Once they were right and the two halves met in the middle they were silver-soldered together with a mini-torch.




Here's a close-up of the running gear and (working) Stephenson valve gear, which is fun to watch as she rolls along.






I probably did more to "bash" the tender than I did to the engine itself. The trucks have shortened safety chains and leaf springs swapped for the original coils. The air tank on the rear deck is from an old Delton C-16, the water trunk (hatch) is from Trackside Details, the feed water hoses, working breaker bar and coal bunker bulkhead are scratch-built. There's a 14.8 volt Li-Ion battery pack, a speaker, an AirWire receiver/decoder, a Phoenix P-5 sound card, volume toggle switch and a programming jack inside, as well. Also, a recharging jack and on-off switch hidden in the water hatch.





Well, that's about it. As usual, your comments and questions are welcome. This guy is going to have his debut this weekend at Roger Cutter's annual Fall Stock Run on his fabulous (and newly revamped) RGE East layout north of Baltimore. I'll take some pics and post 'em in the Large Scale Events forum next week.


Thanks for looking.

P.S. BTW, Greg, this new editor is terrific!!