Its Mallet Monday, post up your Mallet pics. Must be a true Mallet, ie the front cylinders must be a large diameter than the rear set. If both are the same size, then its a simple articulated and not a Mallet. Here are my 2 Mallets. First is from Northwest Shortline brass, Weyerhaeuser’s 201 2-8-8-2. Considered the largest Mallet built for logging duty. Second picture is of my NWSL Rayonier #8 2-6-6-2t. Number 8 runs well but will be getting a can motor this coming weekend. Monster 201 needs her tender redecaled and NWSL gear boxes installed to replace the noisy open spur reduction gearing between the motor and the in frame drive line. Mike the Aspie
Since by specific accord with the inventor’s preference we should use the term ‘Mallet’ (at least unqualified) only for compound locomotives … may I suggest a counterpart for Simple Articulated Saturday (or Sunday)?
I’ve always liked the Rivarossi Y6B because besides looking nice they are very good runners. The SP never owned a Y8B so I did a bit of kitbashing to come up with a close enough for me SP MC-1.
The MC-1 doesn’t fit my era of the 50s so it doesn’t get much run time but it’s a nice looking articulated of the early 1900s. The last MC-1 was scrapped in 1948.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
I also have the Rivarossi. I got it last month and gave it a new coat of paint. I also added DCC, LED lighting and some weight. I agree with Mel, this is a very smooth-running model. And she can pull quite the load! I use it primarily at our club to pull long coal loads from our mine…
Quite a nice steam locomotive, but I must ask why the front is from a N&W steamer and the tender looks to be from a ATSF engine. In my opinion though, I’m still waiting for Lionel or Atlas to make a RDG N-1 2-8-8-0 Mallet. Here’s a picture of the real thing.
I have three more Rivarossi Y6Bs that I don’t run very often. Two have been kitbashed into AC-3 Cab Forwards the third is a stock Y6B, well close to stock. I’ve remotored all of my Rivarossi articulateds with the exception of one AC-12 that was given to me and it remains restored to original condition with all Rivarossi parts.
My two Y6B to AC-3 kitbashed Cab Forwards. The oil tenders are scratch built on the Rivarossi tender chassis/bottom plates.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
Hi Mel: I too have always been fond of big steam. I have recently considered purchasing an older Rivarossi/AHM Y6b, but I recall reading somewhere that the wheel flanges on the pre-1980s models may be too deep for code 70 or code 83 HO track.
I also have no experience replacing motors, and I am also interested in your thoughts as to whether that may be difficult or impossible without access to a mini machine shop (Yeah, I think it would be neat if we could let the guys in the model roundhouse fix the model trains, but the glue seems to slow them way too much!)
It was lettered as an ATSF, but I removed the lettering from the cab. Both the engine and tender are originals from Rivarossi, so I can’t answer your question…
Originally built for transfer service, the 5303 is shown below as a helper on an eastbound. For this assignment, she’s got an auxilliary water tender…
Without the extra tender, she’ll just fit on a 90’ turntable. Built in Philadelphia, at the Bachmann Locomotive Works, she was bought used, and re-worked at the shops in Lowbanks, the town in which the photo was taken.
As mentioned above, we can have Simple Articulated Saturday or Sunday, for those non-mallets like the C&O H-8 2-6-6-6 shown above.
I understand many railroaders and many railfans referred to every articulated they ever saw as being a “malley” or “molley” in the U.S. “English” but that is not actually the case.
I like the foobie as well. Did anybody else notice the front cylinders are slide valve style and the rear are piston valve. Mallet quiz time. How many chuffs does a true Mallet have? 4 beats pre revolution just like 2 cylinder locomotive or more that come in and out of sync with each other? I know, do you? Mike the Aspie
I don’t know the answer either, but previous posts on this topic were divided. Logically, one would expect the front and rear chuffs to be very closely in sync. Other opinions have suggested that the steam pipe between the high-low cylinders could act as a plenum chamber so that the two sets of drivers could be at different places in the cycle. Wheel slippage could also be a factor.
A true compound Mallet sounds just like a 2 cylinder engine, just a bit more “muffled” to its bark. The high pressure steam goes from the rear cylinders exhaust port to the front cylinders intake side. Only after being used again by the front low pressure cylinders does the exhaust go up the stack. So there is no out of sync beat to the exhaust on a compound. A simple, like the N&W class A and some of the smaller logging articulateds have the multi cylinder exhaust beat that comes and goes out of sync as drivers slip and such. Compound Mallets went out of flavor fairly quickly here in the USA, so most all of the famous engines we think of when someone says “mallet” are not compounds but just simple articulateds. Only a few stallwarts ran compounds till the end, Weyerhaeauser and a few other logging roads, N&W and probably a few I cannot remember
