Here’s one I’ve been working on for a while! It’s an 00 scale model of the LNER U1 2-8-0+0-8-2 Garratt made by DJH! Aside from a few cast white metal pieces (such as the boiler and water tank sides), the kit is made almost entirely from etched brass. It’s complicated to build, but I think it turned out excellent! Garratts were never used in the USA, so Santa Fe definitely never had one, but I painted it that way as a fun “what if”. This one’s been waiting on the shelf in an almost finished state for months now, and I just happen to get a few good days to paint, so it seemed like a good time to get it done.
Very nice! I have a Rosebud Kitmaster Stirling Single which is coming along nicely. I took off the molded handrails and replaced them with wire and stanchions as you’ve done, but I’ve also powered it using Markits drive wheels, a small coreless motor and some nice CD drive gears from the ejection tray. The rest of the wheels are by Scalelink. Those scale 8’ drive wheels move it along in a hurry even with the slower gearing!
Impressive model and workmanship that compliments such fine material. You don’t happen to have a pic of the box full of parts, do you Darth? That might provide some interesting perspective!
While no B-Gs ever graced the rails in the US, we certainly had suitable terrain to run them on.
Westside imported a small run of HOn3 “American-Garratts” based on K-27 chassis and boilers. Definitely an unexpected treat when one of those pops out of a tunnel.
Looks can be deceiving, but I’ve always wondered about the design of those locos. It APPEARS that the weight on the drivers is goign to fluctuate widely as the fual and water is consumed, whereas on the typical articulated locos familair to the US, the weight is fairly consistent unless you (foolishly) run the boiler dry, at which point the loss of tractive effort is the least of your worries. This loss of adhesion was an issue with the Erie Triplex, with the third engine under the tender, where the wight over that last engine would continually be reduced as fuel adn water were consumed. That and the boilers didn’t have enough capacity to feed three engines. Granted, a B0G design also suspends the boiler and firebox fairly equally between both engines, so there is some consistency, but with the fuel bunker and water tank out on the extreme ends that’s got to cause a change in the weight on the drivers.
mlehman, I didn’t get a picture of this one, but the packaging is basically the same as the 0-4-4T I built last year. It just had a lot more etched brass. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaDbVM7ZnaY
rrinker, I suspect these would have a similar problem to other tenderless tank engines, but a large boiler like that on top of 16 drive wheels will have a lot of traction regardless. They would just have to make sure the load behind it could still be pulled with low fuel.
Almost forgot, I actually did get a few progress photos including one of the chain drive! Grandt Line shut down not long ago and was purchased by San Juan Model Co. I’m not sure if they have the chain and sprockets available or not.
ATSFGuy, it doesn’t have sound, DCC or headlights. British steam wasn’t required to have headlights, and I decided to keep with the original detail instead of adding American parts. There’s a video link in at the end of the first post.
Firstly, thanks for sharing another well done “different” build, Darth.
The Bears brief bulletin on basic Garratt design, as he understands it!!
The original criteria for the Garratt design was for a powerful locomotive with low axle weights spread over a greater distance than a comparatively powerful rigid framed locomotive; that could run-on narrow gauge railways with tight curves, light rail, less well constructed road bed, and lighter constructed bridges.
The Garratt design allowed for a larger diameter boiler of shorter length with corresponding shorter tubes and a bigger firebox which meant raising and maintaining steam was “easier”.
The Garratt could run well in both directions, which mean turntables were not required and in areas with a lot of tunnels could run cab first.
Later development saw standard and board gauge Garratts built.
Thanks for the in progress shots. The one of the gears helps a lot, and the others really shows then craftsmanship of the kit itself, and your work. Pretty cool! Dan
