I plan on having an independant shortline on my layout, which is a light-hearted look at a mountain shortline. I plan on using ancient equipment, namely Bachmann’s John Bull and Laffayette.
I plan on re-placing or just shortening Laffayette’s stack and maybe giving the John Bull and new tender and removing the pilot. But, the real question is, where can I add weight to increase pulling power. I don’t expect much. The maximum they will pull will be, maybe 3 cars, probably not even that.
The John Bull is pretty heavy on its own, and shouldn’t have any problem pulling what you want it to.
The Lafayette doesn’t have much room for weight, but you may be able to stick some lead under the frame. Or if you’re good with tools, maybe you can grind a groove into one of the drive wheels for a traction tire. It will never have much traction with the two drive wheels, but I think you can get it to pull two or three small cars.
I’m not familiar with the construction of the locos but, you can try to replace plastic gears with metal ones, same with any wheels that are plastic or lightweight metal. There are products from A-Line called ‘moldable lead’ (some kind of putty) and ‘pourable lead’ (.080" lead balls), maybe you can put these into any small spaces (around the motor, insulate it of course!, fill the cab with it, maybe just below the windows, in the smokestack/domes)? What about drilling holes into any plastic and then fill that hole with solid solder or lead? Replace all plastic with metal (cab, couplers, details, etc). One or two of those might not seem like much, but it all adds up. Anything is better than nothing. If this is an isolated branchline (ie cars dedicated to these locos), make sure the rolling stock it will pull is free rolling and as light as possible.
The biggest problem you’ll have is the short wheelbase. You need perfect clean track, and at that they are not great runners - I have them both + the DeWitt Clinton (no relation to the politicians!!). I did see a DeWitt C at a local train club that someone had put an N scale decoder underneath with dbl sided tape, still had running problems! BTW, forget traction tires - you need all the wheel contact for elect pick up! My [2c]
Well, Dad and I’s Bull went out, needs to be opened up, when you reattach the Tender, I’d give it a more rigid connector between engine and tender. The John Bull’s front could benifit from a nice, heavy, front plow in place of the pilot.
Oh, and for the crews sake, if you’re working in the mountains, give them a nice, dry, cab. (Also a source of weight)
Delray: These engines had no cabs, they were open, top speed of 15.
Yeah, I realized that after I posted. There’s a guy who runs one of those little guys on our modular layout. It encounters a lot of problems due to the rough track work and broken/missing feeders.
Oh, sand one might see about runnign electrical pickuops off the drive wheels, they freewheel, but all you need is a concealed wire from drive to the tender. That will require a permanent conenction between engine and tender