Hi [:)]
Just a small question. I need to letter my new 2-6-6-2 mallet. Did GN ever have a 2-6-6-2 besides their Logger? I have several railroad books but can’t remember seeing one other than the small green logger on Walthers web site.
Keep those wheels a rolling.
Lee
Logger? wouldn’t call these brutes a logging engine…The Great Northern was in fact the first to have the 2-6-6-2 wheel arrangement in their L1 & L2 class articulated’s put to work with good effect in the Cascades in 1906.
The picture is labeled 0-6-6-0 but its obvious there are at least two pilot wheels. [%-)]
Although the front is a little different than mine I’m not a stickler for accuracy so I’ll go for GN lettering.
Thank you.
Lee
I think what you’re referring to is the Mantua / Model Power 2-6-6-2 which is based on a logging locomotive of the 1920’s-30’s. .
Although both Mantua and now Model Power offer it lettered for GN, it’s really not like the GN’s 2-6-6-2’s.
http://www.gngoat.org/gn_steam_14.jpg
I recall someone maybe 15 years ago in MR adding a Mantua Midako / Pacific boiler to a 2-6-6-2 chassis to get a bigger engine. That would be closer to the GN engine, except for not having a Belpaire firebox.
Is the model you want to letter a Bachmann Spectrum USRA 2-6-6-2?? It’s probably closer to the GN engines of the 1900’s, but still not real close.
Stix
Yes it’s a spectrum not sure about “USRA” but close enough.
Thanks gotta run.
Lee
Hello Lee,
The USRA 2-6-6-2 represented by the Spectrum model was built only for the Chesapeake & Ohio (20) and the Wheeling & Lake Erie (10). The Wheeling engines ended up under Nickel Plate ownership when the NKP took over the W&LE in 1949. The 2-6-6-2 was one of the least popular USRA locomotives, and no copies of this design were built after government control of the railroads ended in 1921.
The photos others have posted do show the GN’s 2-6-6-2s of 1906. They were among the earliest Mallet articulateds in the US, and the first Mallets built with leading and trailing trucks. Scale drawings of this locomotive are included in the Model Railroader Cyclopedia, V. 1., Steam Locomotives; see page 235.
So long,
Andy
I can’t wait to see all the money a manufacturer will make when it comes out with a well-made model of a small mainline Mallet locomotive like the Denver & Salt Lake 2-6-6-0 or the real GN 2-6-6-2. Of course, to satisfy my selfish desires, it would be an SP MM-3 class 2-6-6-2, with choice of tenders.
Mark
How naive. Are you also in the market for a Ford Pinto with BMW labels?
Mark
The Bachmann Spectrum 2-6-6-2 is a model of the as-designed USRA “light Mallet” 2-6-6-2 from c.1918. They also make 4-8-2’s and a 2-10-2 from USRA designs.
The USRA 2-6-6-2 was primarily based on a C&O design. Only the C&O and Wheeling and Lake Erie rec’d original USRA 2-6-6-2 engines. Oddly the C&O didn’t like them particularly - by the time they were built, the railroad wanted bigger engines but didn’t have the vertical clearance to get the USRA 2-8-8-2’s…yet C&O used them til the end of steam.
See “Uncle Sam’s Locomotives” by Eugene Huddleston for more info.
Mark
What I don’t do, is buy BMWs for the US roads when a Toyota Avalon will serve the same purpose or designer cloths when I can get better for less. Besides I’m in the hobby to have fun and MY GN can buy any type loco they want.
Have a nice day
Lee
Dang right!
Mark
Came across this while perusing EBay today. GN L-1 2-6-6-2, PFM Crown model.
The link won’t last too long, but here it is:
Andre
Clearly, it’s not really a GN. That made me wonder just exactly what Mantua was going by and I came across this. Great info.
Only 2 prototypes were constructed by Baldwin for the narrow guage Unitah Railway as tank engines, upon abandoment of the Unitah, #50 & 51 were sold to the Sumpter Valley which added the tenders.
Except for the guage, its is fairly accurate to its prototype.
Dave
Right now the only non-brass steam engine that’s accurate for the GN would be the BLI Heavy Mikado, which is a good model of the “as delivered” engines except that the GN “side facing goat” herald wasn’t introduced until 1936…by that time, most if not all of the GN’s USRA Mikes had been modified a bit from their original specs.
There are a couple of engines that are reasonably close to actual GN engines. The big issue, as with the 2-6-6-2, is GN’s use of the squared off Belpaire firebox instead of a radial one as on most steam engines.
As a note on GN HO engines.
I have been following a few GN L1 brass engines on e-bay lately and their prices have ranged from around $1,300 to $1,600. These were not in pristine condition, had been well used and the quality of the paint jobs varied as well.
I have been buying GN engines as I come across them, I lost most bids as I have a ceiling price that most bidders go well beyond. I have however collected a few of the GN F 2-8-0 and 4-6-2 H4/5 engines. Brass is the only option as there are just no other HO engines that even loosely resemble the GN engines and of course the Belpaire firebox.
Well, pretty much. BUT the AHM “Casey Jones” 4-6-0 is a real close match to a GN Ten-wheeler. Mostly you have to remove the clerestory on the cab roof.
Ed
If you buy the recent book on GN locomotives from the GNRHS and go thru it carefully, there actually are a fair number of models out there in HO that are reasonably close to some GN steam engines. Of course the most popular one is the BLI Heavy Mikado which is a good model of an “as delivered” USRA engine and is available in Glacier Park Green…I believe GN had these in the O-3 class.
GN actually had maybe 7-8 types of steam engines that didn’t have belpaire boilers.
I have a number of the GN E series and while there is a slight similarity, wrong headlight, pilot, cab, and the spacing of the drivers is completely wrong and then there is the firebox.
I think the axle spacing on the E-3’s and the E-6’s looks pretty close to the AHM engine. The former had 73" drivers, the latter 63"–I don’t know what the AHM engine’s is, so I don’t know which it would be closer to. Where do you feel the spacing match fails? The firebox looks right to me–what do you feel is wrong?
Looking at the as-delivered photo of E-3 #906 on page 110 of Middleton and Priebe’s “Steam Locomotives of the Great Northern Railway”, you’ll note it was delivered with the same headlight and pilot as the AHM loco. You’ll also note it has a clerestory roof–the same as the AHM loco. You’ll note the cab is almost identical to the AHM loco–the only difference I see is the blanked forward widow on the GN cab side.
Ed