Standard gauge annie

28955 Views 131 Replies 26 Participants Last post by NorthwestGarrattGuy, Jan 13, 2022

lownote

Discussion Starter · May 3, 2012

I've got a Bachmann Anniversary model that I never run. Our layout is mostly 1:29, and the annie just looks out of place. I've thought for a long time that it ought to be possible to make the Annie--which is more or less in 1:22--to look more "standard gage."

So here's an exploration in photoshop

The stock annie:

and some photoshop modification: shortening the firebox, the boiler/backhead, lowering the cab and the domes and the stack, scaling the headlight and bell down a little. Does it look reasonably standard gage?

The challenge, if I remember right, will be shortening the chassis. My annie is in storage at the moment, and I can't recall how much empty space there is under the cab.

Also something looks a little off to me. The cab is maybe too low? Or the domes need to be lower? The annie's boiler has always seemed slightly wrong but I can't figure out why. The whole thing will have to be narrowed, and the cab will be a challenge

The Southern ran trains near where we live, and the Southern had a lot of 4-6-0s active into the twentieth century (http://southern.railfan.net/images/archive/southern/steam/460/460.html). I'll probably paint it as an imaginary loco with a Southern green boiler. That is, if I decide to go ahead. Any thoughts on getting a more mainline look?

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121 - 132 of 132 Posts

lownote

Discussion Starter · #121 · Jul 5, 2012

Thanks very much everyone. It has a decoder installed, and it's all ready to go, but we still don't have power--six days with no electricity here. And it's over 100 degrees. Dominion power says they re coming tonight, between 6 pm and midnight

I'm going to post a builder's log after I test run it a little.

The pilot is way off, I agree. I already lowered it, but clearly not enough. It's pretty solidly attached at this point, too. I'll have to work on it.

Then I've got a set of aristo sierra cars that I plan to cut up and combine into reasonable length, late-period wooden coaches.

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trainbuffjr

· #122 · Jul 5, 2012

Very Nice Job! I am thinking of trying something like this. Very Inspiring!

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PVRR_Adam

· #123 · Jul 7, 2012

One heck of an impressive build! You'd hardly recognize the original without knowing.

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Dwight Ennis

· #124 · Jul 7, 2012

Great job!!

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lownote

Discussion Starter · #125 · Jul 7, 2012

Thanks very much for the compliments--I'm learning as I go.

I made a builder's log of the whole thing and posted it under "Lownote's adventures in modeling."

It runs pretty well, although I didn't give it an extensive test. Our power finally came back on at 4:5 am yesterday morning. The track is a mess, and it's literally 98 degrees in the shade right now. It's like India out there.

Now it needs some coaches.

I took a shot yesterday of the 4-6-0 with two Hartland "long coaches:"

And with two coaches I downsized out of Bachmann coaches, lengthened and lowered:

Somebody ought to make a few 1:29 long wooden passenger coaches--say, 55 scale feet long. Wooden coaches up to 70 feet long were in use well into the 20th century on branch lines and smaller standard gauge roads. I picked up some aristo sierra coaches and am thinking about kitbashing them into longer, lower 1:29 coaches, as Marty Cozad did not long ago.

But I'm also thinking it might be easier to just scratch build the darn things

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East Broad Top

· #126 · Jul 9, 2012

Turned out very nice, Mike. How's it compare to your other 1:29 locos?

Later,

K

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lownote

Discussion Starter · #127 · Jul 9, 2012

Posted By East Broad Top on 09 Jul 2012 12:05 AM
Turned out very nice, Mike. How's it compare to your other 1:29 locos?

Later,

K Good questions--I'll take some pictures of it next to some other 1:29 locos. The problem, of course is the looseness of "1:29." Aristo sells a lot of stuff as 1:29 which really ain't. I have a couple consolidations kitbashed out of lionel atlantics--what scale are they? They aren't 1:24, but the cab is too big to be 1:29. I have an aristo pacific cut down to make an atlantic--I'll try that one, and the Aristo 0-4-0.

If I were starting over, I'd commit to either 1:32 or 1:20.

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lownote

Discussion Starter · #128 · Jul 9, 2012

Some comparison photos:

Here is is next to an aristo 0-4-0. The 0-4-0 has been repainted and "detailed" but is otherwise stock:

And here it is next to an Aristo Pacific which was cut down into an Atlantic. It's basically a Pacific, but shorter by about three inches:

I think it's about right--it's maybe a little too small, but the Ma & Pa prototype was a small 4-6-0. The Pennsy A5 was a pretty beefy 0-4-0. It seems to me it's reasonable by the "eyeball" standard

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Stan Cedarleaf

· #129 · Jul 9, 2012

Very, very nicely done.... Great transformation...... Looks wonderful with the coaches....

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Pete Thornton

· #130 · Oct 18, 2012

I was glancing through a 20-year-old magazine today and stumbled on a couple of photos of a std gauge 4-6-0 that looked remarkably like the Bachmann ten-wheeler. I thought it might be of interest in the future as far as dimensions and proportions are comncerned? (Sorry it's not the greatest scan.) I was struck by the small cab and tall stack.

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Dennis Paulson

· #131 · Oct 18, 2012

Lownote your ten wheeler and coaches are beautiful , well done .

Several years ago , I had lettered my Bachamn ten wheeler for the NYC , and had taken it to an old scale nut model railroader long time friend of mine , .........and his first words were , why is the cab so big ? I wish that I could show him your ten wheeler .