Thanks for your kind remarks and for your interest, too.
This loco started out as the Santa Fe version, with a very long 8 axle oil tender. The main reason I bought it was because it was the first affordable Northern that I had ever seen. It had the infamous pancake-style motor and eventually suffered from out-of-quarter drivers (corrected before it went to a friend), but it looked decent and ran not all that badly when I first bought it - Hobbies For Men, in Beacon, New York, by mail order, when those locos were first released.
I realised that making it into a Canadian National locomotive was beyond my skills, especially since CNR’s 203 Northerns were comparatively small locos. Instead, I chose to redo it for my freelance Elora Gorge & Eastern.
The vestibule cab is .015" sheet styrene - I filed and sanded any three dimensional detail from the original cab’s sides, then simply cemented the new pieces over it. Once the cement had cured, any of the original cab which showed through the windows was trimmed away with my X-Acto. I had previously removed the cab roof, which allowed me to add sliding windows and window “glass”, and the roof was modified to be a snap-on fit, allowing access should any be required.
The front end got a Cal-Scale GSC cast steel pilot, air pump radiator, new headlight, Mars light, and front-mounted bell, plus a new steamboat-style whistle.
The tender was actually more work than the locomotive. I first cut a section out of the body to make it a more reasonable length, then removed the oil bunker’s top and added a more-or-less fully modelled coal bunker - I use loose coal in all my locos, and the bunker can be shown anywhere from full to almost empty.
For the pedestal-style frame, I traced the pretty-much full HO scale photo of one from an ad for a brass loco in an issue of Model Railroader, then cut it out, transferring the outline to .030" sheet styrene. Next, I sliced up
Well remember these and Hobbies For Men!
And must say this engine turned out to be a fantastic transformation !!
David,I have many bachmann engines steam and diesel and all are great sounding and run smooth after a break in period. Once and a while you will get one that doesnt run right,just keep your receipt and send it back to them. Make sure it runs good on your test track because the new warranty is for one year. The detail is not as good as on my broadways or athearns but look at how much more they cost. I have one bachmann diesel engine a gp50 with dcc i use every week to help clean my track and its about 10 years old… May God bless ,[:)] the old train man
Thank you old train man And to all that has posted. Bachnmann makes some fine locomotives and sure will give them a try on my new layout.
Some of their stuff has problems right out of the box but it is ussually something to do with the harness, guess it gets out of place somehow, but an easy fix.
I have a few Bachmann steamers with and without DCC and I agree with the general consensus that they are very nice, especially for the value. One bit of advice. I tuned a 2-10-0 feedback loop with instructions that I believe I may have found on the Soundtraxx website and it went from being an OK runner to being a really terrific runner.
I have one of their Spectrum 2-6-0s and from the beginning, it was problematic; the sound would start before the locomotive moved, it would stall on turnouts, even those with powered frogs. A closer inspection revealed the problems:
- One of the pairs of power wipers behind the drivers were bent and not making good contact.
- One of the trucks on the tender had been assembled with all of the powered wheels on the same side of the tender.
Once those problems were addressed, it turned into a great runner. I had bought it at a train show, so, I can’t fault Bachmann for those issues, not knowing the history of it. My guess is that a previous owner tried to “fix” it, failed and got rid of it. I paid $50 for it, so it’s turned into a good investment.
