Believe it or not, this came to mind lastnight as I lay there wide awake at 4am in the morning. Yep I just could sleep. Anyway, I said to myself, SELF, what would be the most outrageous “Narrow Gauge Locomotive”. Well I thought & thought & thought and even did some thinking and came up with an SD70 MAC or newer models in 3 foot narrow gauge, 2 foot was out of the question as I don’t think it would sit upright on the tracks even if there wasn’t a breeze blowing. Anyway, I know what you’re thinking, no wonder he can’t sleep, that’s sick[:D][:D][:D], ya I know, but at my age, a sick sense of humor is at it’s best. What’s your most outrageous “Narrow Gauge Loco”? Come on, don’t be shy, jump in, tis the season for this nonsense.[:D][:D][:D][:D]
a narrow gauge Big Boy. That would be weird.
I had given this some thought before too. My twisted mind was going older though. How about a 3 foot gauge Baldwin Centipede? Or maybe a narrow gauge GG-1? My personal favorites would have to be the UP turbines, U50D, and DDA40X all as narrow gauge!
I think I may have to try and build something like that one of these days, there’s always room for a little 3 foot trackage…
I think the Beyer-Garretts are pretty weird and they actually made them in narrow gauge!
Enjoy
Paul
I don’t know about anyone else, but the most outrageous narrow gauge locomotive I’ve ever seen is a photograph of one of the Rio Grande’s early narrow gauge engines–it’s a British contraption called a “Farlie”, and it’s a double-boilered 0-4-4-0 with the cab in the middle. Really STRANGE looking little critter, but kind of cute, anyway. I suppose you might call it the Rio Grande’s first Mallet, or something like that.
Tom
hmmm a triplex maybe?
There’s a tourist line up in North Wales that still uses these - take a look at www.festrail.co.uk/locos.htm for pictures - the preservation group that operates the line has actually built two “Double Farlies” and a “Single” as well as the originals they own.
EMD did build a narrow gage SD45 for a South American RR.It rode on DD type trucks.
Speaking of nonsense…I was just thinkin of something funny, Imagine trains not in their normal environments, Like a big boy on the el in Chicago, or a PCC car on the Tehechapi loop, or a shinkansen in the rockies…
a big boy on the el huh? how about a big boy in the NYC subway system?
Hmm, coal smoke pouring from those vents on the city sidewalks. Now that would be interesting. Too bad all your passengers would suffocate - or are you also proposing making the subway freight-only? In which case the train crew could wear masks and tanks. [:D]
–Randy
Big Boy on San Fransisco’s cable car tracks.
Narrow gauge 4-8-4
Narrow Gauge TA
SD70 on the Northwest Oklahoma Railroad ( a 5 mile long, one industry, 44 tonner using line )
This is the one of the best things about MS Train Sim - the ability to drive anything anywhere. I’ve driven DMUs (British version of the RDC, but far more diverse as many different companies built them, plenty of info at www.railcar.co.uk ) over Japanese mountain routes and along the Marias Pass - these units have a 4-speed transmission with manual shift so need some care to get the best, getting moving on a grade can be interesting as well. Only snag is top speed is around 70MPH, so cruising along the Northeast Corridor can be a bit tedious when your full speed is less than any of the restrictions!
Narrow gauge tunnel motors,or a narrow guage cab forward.Narrow guage SD45…oh wait! Someone already did that!
A Big Boy running on the old trolley line in Detroit MI. Or a Big Boy on the Chicago elevated Railway.
Somebody actually built a model of a narrow gauge cab forward; there used to be photos of it on the Yahoo HOn3 group’s webpage.
OK, it’s not narrow gauge, but I remember a number of years back (a NUMBER of years back) there was an article in either MR or RMC about a “small” cab forward. They took an 0-4-0 switch engine, turned it around, closed off the cab with a brass part made for a ‘real’ cab forward, then added a small vanderbilt tender and some other detail parts. I don’t recall whether leading or trailing trucks were also added, but the whole thing actually turned out well. (Although this is one time when the word ‘cute’ might really have worked)