When I saw this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UOFHCzcEko I was quite inspired about that idea. Is this possible or not? Any ideas of how a four wheel trailing truck could be added to this model?
I think that besides the tender the NCY Mohawks look quite similar to the NdeM Niagaras, so they would be a good compromise since the NdeM Niagaras will probably never be done in HO (or any scale).
Usually the firebox area between the boiler and the cab is much linger on an engines with a 4 wheel ‘engine’ truck. You might be able to jam a 4 wheel truck under the firebox/cab area, but the visual results may be somewhat bad. 4-8-4 Northerns wewre designed because 4-8-2 Mountains could not produce enough steam at maximum speed.
Jim
Do you have any idea where I could purchase separate 4 wheel steam engine trailing trucks? Or is there no other chance than hoping to find such a thing on ebay?
You could try Bachmann. They sell a Niagara, which is a 4-8-4, so they may sell you a rear truck. FWIW, the two locomotives are quite distinctly different. The Mohawks had 72" drivers vs. 79" drivers, and of course the trailing trucks were different. They also had different front ends with the only commonality being the elephant ears.
Thanks for the suggestion! Just did some research and found out that NdeM Niagaras had 70’’ drivers. So the Mohawks 71’’ drivers come quite close. Ok, now let´s see if Bachmann even offers selling a Niagara truck seperately. But my first concern is to find a MTH L-1 Mohawk, since they seem to be all sold out on the internet.
By the way: What do you think of the idea of cutting the tender into 3 pieces, then leaving the center piece out and glueing together the 2 outer pieces in order to shorten the tender (and also grinding off some parts on top of the tender in order to make it look more NdeM like)?
I don´t have a clue how the tender of the MTH Mohawk looks inside, and how big the decoder and speakers are and where exactly they are positioned inside the tender…damn that´s a real challenger. And the tender is die cast metal, so it´s gonna be some serious cutting…
If the object is to approximate the NdeM Niagra (no, it’s not mispelled) you might want to extend the firebox a tad to get the appearance right.
My prototype (JNR) actually crammed four wheel trailing trucks under two classes of Pacifics and three classes of Mikes - to improve weight distribution. For whatever reason, all those single axle trailing trucks were carrying more weight than any of the driver axles! Other than adding the four wheel cast steel trailer the locos were visually identical to their unmodified siblings.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
If it is anything like the MTH J class I am ripping apart to go from a 4-8-4 to a 4-8-2 N&W K2a, the decoder in the tender will be twords the rear, under the water portion of the tender shell with the speakers under the bunker. The decoder is really not that big, and you might be able to relocate that card to the coal bunker area. I would recomend to you to use a band saw with a metal blade if you can. Cutting my J apart to shorten it was not easy at all by hand since the metal is around 1/8th inch thick or so. You could also lengthen the firebox by cutting the boiler and frame, spreading them apart to make the 4 wheel trailing truck fit. Greenway Brass makes very nice, and resonably priced Brass trailing trucks if Bachman will not respond.
Actually, the L-4 Mohawks had 72" drivers and the L-1 thru L-3 Mohawks had 69" drivers. AFAIK, MTH only released the L-3 and L-4 Mohawks in HO.
Tom
Thank you very much for the detailed information! I searched about more on the internet and found 3 shops that still have the L-3a Mohawk in that I´m interested in. (I´m surprised that this model still costs almost 400 $ on all 3 websites! I thought they would be cheaper now…) And I´m very lucky about the trailing truck: Bachmann does offer a Niagara trailing truck on their official webiste for only 8 $! Great! Now I seriously think about doing this project!
Wow, you cut ur J apart? Shortening the tender ok, but shortening the engine? That´s really brave of you! I would never dare lengthening the Mohawk, since I think that it will still look ok with the 4 wheel Niagara trailing truck. If you have a photo of your K2a, please upload it here. I´m curious to see it.
Very good! I am glad to hear Bachman could take care of you, and you found some Mohawks!
Yes I did cut her apart. It is a long story as to why I chose this one to cut apart.
Before-
I have always wanted a K2a, but the only ones I can find are brass. I cut the boiler, frame and skirts down a 1/2 inch (roughly). I also moved the motor forward as well, since the motor would have to be in the cab after I was done. I also installed a more accurate freight tender with dog house. The K2a I am doing is 126. I also moved steam domes, pop off valves, whistle… Here is where it stands now. I just have not painted the tender yet.
and here is the split area-
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DeLuxe, I have two MTH Mohawks for sale. #3117 L4a has about 1 hour of run time. Also have #3037 L-3b available. Might have 2-3 hours run time. 3037 has some light weathering 3117 is still as new. Either one available for $325 . Let me know. ---- Ken
@ Norfolk Fan:
Wow, I´m impressed by your job! Your K2a looks good! I didn´t know about the different tenders the K2a´s had. Always thought their tenders where identical to the J´s. By the way: how did you manage to remove the decoder and sound speakers from the MTH tender and put it in that Rivarossi/AHM tender that you wanna use for your K2a? Was it complicated or rather easy? Were the decoder and sound speakers screwed to the tender floor or glued to it?
@ Ken:
THANK YOU FOR YOUR OFFER! I will take the L4a, because the L3b has that Elesco feedwater heater which is not so good if you wanna make a NdeM Niagara out of it. Weathering is nice, but in my case I think it´s better to have an unweathered engine because I will need to repaint the engine since I must apply “NdeM” on the tender and other engine numbers on the cab. Probaly I will need to repaint the complete engine, so that the black color looks the same everywhere on the engine and tender.
I will send you now a private message!
Thank you! The tender floor is still MTH, I just mounted a AHM Y6 tender shell that I had laying around to it since the K2a used a tender similar to that of the A class (a 22 series tender with comonwealth trucks). The big difference is the 22 series tender on the K2 was rivited, while the J had an all welded, smooth tender. The speakers are screwed in to the floor, and the decoder was sitting in a small tray, held in by clips. Since the electronics are fried in this locomotive, I will put a Tsunami card in and re-use the MTH speakers.
Thanks for the information! So I guess I it will be quite easy to remove the decoder and speakers since they are not glued but only screwed and clipsed in. Now I just hope that the band saw job will be successfull so that I have smooth cuts in order to make the cutting line as little visible as possible once the 2 outer tender pieces are glued together and center piece being left out. I will also try to saw off the coal load on the top and make a smooth surface to resemble an oil tank. It´s seems really like a challenge to me! Wish you good luck with your K2a and please post a photo once it is completely finished and painted/decaled.
I have a hard time believing you actually plan to do this. Surely there must be another model that would be a closer match. The valve gear is wrong; the domes are wrong; the turret & cab would need to be replaced; the tender would need to be replaced; and I’m just getting started. If I’m not mistaken, I think there must be other engines that are closer to your goal… A Cotton Belt 4-8-4 comes to mind (Hallmark?), although I haven’t examined the dimensions of the NdeM nor the SSW engine closely. I’m not criticizing your goal. I hope you get the engine model that you want. But it seems that there must be a better and cheaper way to get to your goal.
By the way, NdeM wasn’t the only road that used a 4-wheel trailing truck where a 2-wheel truck would suffice. On the NKP, their USRA Mikes and copies used a 2-wheel truck, but their Hudsons used the same boiler and firebox, supported by a 4-wheel truck.
I decided that the Mohawk is THE right choice for me since it is a compromise anyway. If I wanted all details to look like the NdeM Niagara, I would build one by myself or wait till one manufacturer releases one (which is VERY unlikely to happen!). And I would never buy a brass engine, since the costs would double the costs of that Mohawk purchase. Because adding a new 5 pole motor, cablight, headlight, smoke and sound on such a brass model would cause huge extra costs and work. And I also love the fact that the MTH steamers have traction tires, what the brass models surely don´t have. My mexican passenger train that the Mohawk is supposed to pull consists of 10 brass heavyweight cars (6 sleepers, 1 diner, 1 observation & 1 combine with 6-wheels trucks and 1 baggage with 4-wheel trucks), so it surely needs the traction tires to pull that load. You can forget moving such a train with a 4-8-2 or 4-8-4 without traction tires! Believe me, purchasing that Mohawk will be the cheapest and most satisfying way for me: I will add the Bachmann Niagara trailing truck, repaint it, decal it, shorten the tender and smoothen the top of it to make it look like an oil tender, change some details around the headlight and add a bell on top of the smokebox door and I´m done and satisfied!
Interesting info about the NKP Mikes and Hudsons! Never knew they used the same boilers and fireboxes!
To each his own. I do hope it works out for you.
You are welcome De Luxe! I will post up pictures once I am finished and happy with the K2a. I also look forward to seeing your work on the Niagra!