Good News: This morning, I found a roster of the Cailifornia Western Railroad and found that some of their motive power in the year 1917 I already have: an 0-4-0 which was their first engine and an 4-4-0 Hinkley which was their #5 engine. Their main motive power in 1917 was 3 2-6-2 Prairies that they bought new from Baldwin in 1913-1914.
Bad News: The only people making a 2-6-2 Prarie right now is Bachman Plus (with real smoke)
Good News: I have a 2-6-2 Prarie by Bachman Plus (with real smoke) that someone gave me a couple months ago.
Bad news: I’m running DCC. Installation can’t be pretty.
You got some tips?
I don’t have one, but it can’t be that tough. If it’s like some of the other Bachmann and Bachmann Plus steamers it’s a split-frame design with everything in the loco, tender is just there for the ride. There’s plenty of room in the tender for a decoder, that’s probably how I’d do it. Some careful tape placement should isolate the motor.
Forget the smoke, I’d just disconnect that. It puts out a great bit of smoke running at DCC track voltage, but it also burns out when it runs dry. I have a 2-8-0 that will need DCC at some point - go figure, but years ago bachmann made a 2-80 that is a perfect Reading engine, but they slapped every road name in the book on it. They later redid the same loco with detail changes that make it NOT a Reading loco, but slapped a Reading name on it. That one I know is self-contained, silly as it looks, you can run the loco with no tender attached.
Probably more trouble to get the shell off than anything.
–Randy
Chip;
You may or may not want to know this, but MDC makes a somewhat larger 2-6-2 kit. It came at one time in 3 versions. A harriman/SP type boiler, a ATSF type boiler, and a PRR, (belpaire firebox). Appropriate tenders also came with them. I still see alot of these at various train shows.
Actually, I did see those kits, and right now I am overwhelmed by kits. I have two 0-6-0’s to build and a 4-4-0 I just got. Plus I have 12 Muir wood models, 4 Campbells and 3 Sudyams. Not to mention 30-40 rolling stock kits. The idea of another engine kit was mind boggling.
I could have sworn I saw an IHC Primier a couple months ago, but no one has one.