A few years ago, a dear railroad friend decided to liquidate his collection and he graciously gave me several pieces of equipment. Part of that package was three Kalamazoo 4-4-0s. That friend died several years ago and the Kalamazoos have been sitting on the shelf for almost as long. It was time to do something about that.
Of the three engines, two were dead. This friend of mine had a habit of drilling holes in the gearboxes of locomotives and blasting expanding foam grease in there. Well, that fried two of the motors. The third one was spared and I can only imagine that because the paint scheme was so ugly, it never saw any run time.
I decided to tackle this project for many reasons:
My friend was largely responsible for fanning the flames for my interest in the hobby and of all the equipment he gave me, this engine is one of the few pieces that I still have from him. I don't normally get sentimental over material objects, but I think he'd get a kick out of this kitbash.
These Kalamazoos are virtually indestructible, if you refrain from using expanding foam grease. I was once told that a Kalamazoo set was running in the window of a local toy shop for ten years straight and was only taken down when the shop closed. What they lack in detail, they make up for in performance: smooth, quiet, powerful. They are some of the only large scale trains produced in the the US. As an interesting side note, Bangor Train Factory sent a Kalamazoo set to President Reagan after hearing about his wish to own own a train set: Hail to the Chief
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No one else bothered to make a standard gauge 4-4-0, one of the most important, beautiful designs in American railroad history. I realize that Hartland carried the torch, but more on that later. I've been so frustrated that the reason no one else (Bachmann, Accucraft, ect.) has produced this locomotive is this obsession with scale. A standard gauge 4-4-0 in the correct scale would need to be 1:32, which is quite small and no Victorian-era rolling stock exists for that scale. I think Delton had the right idea to produce 1:24, which is quite simply a nice size, and even Accucraft was on board for their first couple models. But once 1:20.3 took hold, 1:24 went out of style and narrow gauge became the standard for any pre-1900 models. None of this would be a big deal, except that any subsequent 4-4-0 models available were of the narrow gauge variety, which lack the tall, high-stepping drivers that distinctly characterize the proportions of the standard gauge prototypes.
As I eluded to, Hartland largely carried the torch for both Kalamazoo and Delton. It an interesting story that you can read here: http://www.npcrr.com/Articles/PhilJensenStory/ThePhilJensenStory.pdf
Delton toyed with shoehorning a Kalamazoo motorblock under their C-16 body with pleasing results (see picture below) but that never saw production. The Hartland 4-4-0 is not a far cry from the original Kalamazoo and featured some much-needed details, some from Delton, but maintained the build quality. Honestly, that would be a much better starting point for this project, but Hartlands are hard to find and expensive. Additionally, I wanted to give this humble toy a chance of becoming a model.
![Image]()
![Image]()
Of the three engines, two were dead. This friend of mine had a habit of drilling holes in the gearboxes of locomotives and blasting expanding foam grease in there. Well, that fried two of the motors. The third one was spared and I can only imagine that because the paint scheme was so ugly, it never saw any run time.
I decided to tackle this project for many reasons:
My friend was largely responsible for fanning the flames for my interest in the hobby and of all the equipment he gave me, this engine is one of the few pieces that I still have from him. I don't normally get sentimental over material objects, but I think he'd get a kick out of this kitbash.
These Kalamazoos are virtually indestructible, if you refrain from using expanding foam grease. I was once told that a Kalamazoo set was running in the window of a local toy shop for ten years straight and was only taken down when the shop closed. What they lack in detail, they make up for in performance: smooth, quiet, powerful. They are some of the only large scale trains produced in the the US. As an interesting side note, Bangor Train Factory sent a Kalamazoo set to President Reagan after hearing about his wish to own own a train set: Hail to the Chief
No one else bothered to make a standard gauge 4-4-0, one of the most important, beautiful designs in American railroad history. I realize that Hartland carried the torch, but more on that later. I've been so frustrated that the reason no one else (Bachmann, Accucraft, ect.) has produced this locomotive is this obsession with scale. A standard gauge 4-4-0 in the correct scale would need to be 1:32, which is quite small and no Victorian-era rolling stock exists for that scale. I think Delton had the right idea to produce 1:24, which is quite simply a nice size, and even Accucraft was on board for their first couple models. But once 1:20.3 took hold, 1:24 went out of style and narrow gauge became the standard for any pre-1900 models. None of this would be a big deal, except that any subsequent 4-4-0 models available were of the narrow gauge variety, which lack the tall, high-stepping drivers that distinctly characterize the proportions of the standard gauge prototypes.
As I eluded to, Hartland largely carried the torch for both Kalamazoo and Delton. It an interesting story that you can read here: http://www.npcrr.com/Articles/PhilJensenStory/ThePhilJensenStory.pdf
Delton toyed with shoehorning a Kalamazoo motorblock under their C-16 body with pleasing results (see picture below) but that never saw production. The Hartland 4-4-0 is not a far cry from the original Kalamazoo and featured some much-needed details, some from Delton, but maintained the build quality. Honestly, that would be a much better starting point for this project, but Hartlands are hard to find and expensive. Additionally, I wanted to give this humble toy a chance of becoming a model.
Whose wheels are they? I need some for my non-working 4-4-0 (the one with the bad motor and broken bits.)
