Hello. Does anyone know where i can buy a HO scale “slug” or train booster? Any help would be welcome.[alien]
[#welcome] first of all!
It has been a while ago, but I have seen a Athearn Road Slug in Santa Fe colors.
Cuda Ken
This coming July I will celebrate my 50th anniversary in this, the world’s greatest hobby. In all those years I do not recall ever seeing a “slug” offered commercially; virtually all “slugs” are conversion projects by the railroads themselves and XYZRR “slugs” may differ significantly from the slugs on the PDQRR. . If you want one you are most likely going to have to DIY. Although not particularly numerous there have been how-to-do-it articles in the hobby press.
There are several types of “slugs” in service and their physical appearance is, to a great extent, dictated by their service; could you perhaps clarify just exactly what it is that you are looking for?
And by the way welcome to the forum.
The type of slug you have can depend on your era. An example would be the slugs used by the KCS back in the 80’s. These were for the most part retired F units that had been converted to slugs by EMD. From the outside they looked like any other F unit. Inside there was a massive block of concrete or iron where the prime mover had been. Like any other slug it’s traction motors got their power from the ‘mother’ unit it was coupled to. This was also done by other roads with geeps and SD’s convertyed to slugs but appeared to the rest of the world as any other cab unit would. Other roads also had slug units cut down to half their height with the interior crammed full of weight. While not generally used in fast freight service slugs are great for use on slow drags as extra traction power without the use of extra fuel. That for the most part is their appeal to the railroads.
There’s a nice article on how to convert a diesel into one type of slug in the May issue of MR.
Joe
Great article and Gary did an excellent job. Do note that milling the chassis to drop the motor for clearance could be a problem. Gary damaged the walkways during this. There’s nothing like those Smokey Valley cast brass stanchions and brass .015 wire.
I kitbashed a B&M road slug from an Athearn GP-7 dummy. I have not seen any factory made slugs; the MR article mentioned above is a good source. You do not have to do a powered one, just use a dummy. (A road slug is one that is used by road locomotives, instead of switching or hump yard slugs used with switching locos.)
Athearn had some SW-7 calf boosters that would go with their SW-7 locomotive. The last time they did a run was 2001, so they probably would be difficult to find.
http://www.athearn.com/Search/Default.aspx?SearchTerm=calf&CatID=THLD&PageSize=72
Yep, that’s the major issue with model slugs.If you want a powered slug, model drivetrains are awfully tricky to lower enough to get the hood height down where it is on the prototype. For the 1:1 guys, it’s easy enough to just pitch the diesel and chop the hood.
That’s why doing it as a dummy makes a whole lot of sense if you’re modeling a slug, unless – like on the prototype – you actually need the extra traction.
Thanks for the idea. I just need to figure out what model of slug i am going to make.
There was an article in MR August 1988 about the MATES…Motors for Added Tractive Effort.
Built by GE for use with the U Boats that SCL used .
Here’s 2 that could be powered, but with some work.
Built from old VO-1000s and VO-600s
http://www.trainpix.com/BN/BALDWIN/ET/ET-2.HTM
Built from SD7/9s
http://www.trainpix.com/BN/BALDWIN/ET/ET-2.HTM