My Mum asked me last night, - ‘What are you doing to that nice locomotive?’ I often work on some of my less messy modelling projects in the living room while Mum watches the telly so I can keep her company. To Mum’s eyes entirely taking apart a nice shiny New Bright loco is little short of vandalism, - especially when what will arise from the sundered parts will be scruffy and unkempt and in need of a good clean.
With great pleasure I removed the bell mechanism and the enormous bell hidden in the boiler, and then to follow up I snapped off the spring steel plink-plonk noise maker strip. The jury is still out on the mechanical ‘chuff’ box mechanism, but if it gets in the way of the new boiler too much it’ll definitely be going!
Having entirely pulled apart a New Bright loco this is what I ended up with.
So what am I building? Yesterday while hunting around the www.mylargescale.com website I found their ‘Masterclass’ Baldwin 2-6-0 project which claimed my full attention for around an hour while I absorbed as much as I could about things Mogul shaped. The Masterworks Baldwin is a firebox-between-the-axles type of Mogul that looks like this …
… which is not what I want as the wheelbase is too long for the curves on a logging tramway.
So I’m going to be building something that looks a lot like this …
(click on the image to get a better look)
On this wee Baldwin Mogul the firebox hangs out past the rear-most driving axle and is nice and deep which is what you want in a wood burner.
So where does the New Bright chassis come in? - as it happens the coupled wheelbase on a New Bright loco is just right for the smallest version of this class of Mogul so long as you’re sticking to 1.22.5 scale.
Annie-I picked up on your thread last weekend while you were eagerly awaiting your ebay New Bright and pondering your plan because I was doing the same thing. I also read the New Bright “bashing”-I take it as a bit of a challenge-of course some of the most common last words are “hey, y’all watch this”…we’ll see. I plan to knock off an approximation of a Norfolk & Western J- mine will be a “j” 4-6-4 vice 4-8-4 due to the configuration of the New Bright donor chassis, I got a complete set with the tank car-which is becoming the boiler, a truck from the tank car fit right on the post that held the draw bar-the leading and tailing 2 wheel trucks will be joined and used for the leading truck. Sheet styrene for the walkway, pilot cover, dorsal fairing etc. I haven’t figured out how to do the electrics-switching/lighting etc-the clean lines of the prototype don’t leave stacks or domes to “hide” switches in-I look forward to following your progress-I don’t have digital photo capability at this time but hope to get some pics to post-Good luck Mark
Annie, you could make up different stories for the store clerks, like you need the pipe for plant holders in the garden or you’re making klaleidoscopes. Since you have a lathe, you can make most of what you need out of metal, wood and plastic. I’ve had very good luck getting excellent metal from a local scrap yard at, well, scrap prices. It’s very hit or miss on sizes and availability though.
I’m thinking of making a battery powered engine in 1:20 scale, probably a 4-4-0 American type. I need to first finish my 10 wheeler, all wood, all scratch in 1:24 for entry in the craft fair this Fall. Anyway, sounds like you’ve got the right stuff to get the project done. Good luck and have fun! Send another picture as you progress.
*** Griffith in Connecticut.
Hey thanks for the nice comments and advice everyone.
Fletch, I’ve had a look at the 2001 finished models and I must say I’m very impressed. Plainly there’s a wide range of skill and ability amongst this group of modellers, but all the finished locos look great and readily demonstrate just how good the ‘masterclass’ concept is in encouraging folk to have a go at scratchbuilding.
A N&W ‘J’ class Mark! - and I thought I was getting daring with my little Baldwin. Any chance of seeing some pictures?
Thanks ***, - I must check out my local scrap metal dealer to see what he has in his bins. Ha ha, I must remember that about the klaleidoscopes, I guess I’m just not very good at being sweetly female sometimes. Your wooden 10 wheeler sounds interesting, - how about a photo?
A little more progress. I’m busy with cutting away excess plastic from the frame moulding so that the springs for the leading drivers can now be properly seen and there will be daylight under the boiler. I’ve carved the footboards away as well except for what is necessary to hold the motor block in place and the next part will involve shaving away most of the rear frames behind the trailing driving axle and then building up the lower part of the firebox along with cosmetic bar frames to support the new 1:20 scale cab… Further changes will be done at the front end to get rid of the more toy-like features between the pilot and where the new smokebox saddle will be fixed in place. Using the ‘masterclass’ Mogul as a guide I’m going to lengthen the pilot mountings and also give the leading pony truck a longer swing radius. I guess folk are going to wonder why I should put so much effort into a New Bright loco conversion; - the simple answer is that it’s very cheap fun and I can’t afford to buy the required Aristocraft parts to build a Mogul.
I must say that the New Bright motor block fascinates me though, - more gears in it than a Dispatch logging tram lokey! I will use the motor block in its standard form, but if it proves to be a troublesome gearstripper I’ll build my own replacement.
I’m planning on using some Ozark Miniatures castings to make life a little easier, things like their #0168 Baldwin smoke stack, #0195 Oil headlight, #0173 whistle, #0189 snifter valves, #0224 bell and #0215 8" air brake pump. They do nice smokebox door number plates too.
I’ve decided to convert the New Bright tender to a 4 wheeler, which is a whole lot easier than trying to cut and shut two tenders into a full sized 1;20 8 wheel tender. Most if not all New Zealand bu***ramway locos that had tenders used 4 wheel tenders, - so I feel quite happy about this decision even if I’m not intending to create a totally faithful copy of NZ logging practice.
Annie- a good bit of my New Bright is in the “maybe I’ll use that later” pile as well. Stripped it down to the frame/drivers/motor block-biggest problem so far was pivoting leading/trailing 4 wheel trucks to make it around 4 ft dia curve-- I had to get “Lionel” on it- trucks don’t pivot within their wheelbase but well forward and aft of it-you’re right- this is good cheap fun. Hope to get some digital pohots this week. Mark
