I’m aware Southern Railway had a fair number of these. So getting right to the point, were these USRA types, or close copies thereof? Is there an HO scale version? Something affordable? What would be a reasonably close stand in? I saw a model the other day at Ye Olde LHS, and it got the ol’ rusty gears in my head turnin’. I want to say it was a Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-8-2, unlettered (probably a USRA design), and wondered how close of a match it might be.
By the way, my layout has 22" radius curves, and in my current location, wider curves aren’t really an option, but I’d like to pursue this even if it’s a shelf model (or maybe a future club runner).
The Southern never owned any of the USRA articulateds,PSC made several runs of the Southern RR LS1 and 2s but their really high end brass models in the $2000 range and they won’t even come close to running on a 22’’ radius.
The Proto 2000 seriesN&W 2-8-8-2 is probably what you saw at your LHS and would be as close as you’ll get for a stand in…should run on your radius though it might not look pretty doing so.
Southern had both compound and simple 2-8-8-2s. In that the USRA design was a compound (with both high-pressure and low-pressure cylinders), the Southern Class Ls-1 would likely be the closest. These were delivered by Baldwin between 1918 and 1926, bearing numbers 4004-4026.
The USRA mallets had 57" drivers; 56" for the Southern (not a noticable difference). The USRA locomotive is much heavier at 531,000 lbs than the Southern version at 432,000 lbs for the class Ls-1. The USRA cylinders were 23" & 39" x 32 while the Southern locomotives had 25" & 39" x 30". The “classic” USRA 2-8-8-2 had the “second” sand dome located quite a bit further forward than the Southern, where the second sand dome was not far forward of the cab in the Ls-1.
Southern started a rebuild program to transform the class Ls-1 into simple articulated. Only #s 4018, 4021, and 4025 were rebuilt before the onset of the depression stopped the program.
According to Richard Prince’s Southern Railway System Steam Locomotives and Boats (1970 Revised edition), some of these locomotives weren’t retired until 1951-1952.
Properly numbered, the USRA 2-8-8-2 could likely serve as a stand-in without most noting the differences… and who wouldn’t want to watch all those drivers turning?
When compared with the N&W Y3 and later, the SOU machines were downright scrawny! Also, the early photos show paired sand domes, Southern valve gear and other unique spotting features.
The simple locos were apparently given double stacks as part of the rebuild. Also, somewhere along the line some, at least, seem to have been fitted with Baker valve gear.
Bashing a superstructure to fit on the N&W mechanism could be one way to duplicate the look.