My latest acquisition is a Bachmann Spectrum heavy 4-8-2. I was thinking about getting an IHC Mikado, but I saw this thing on eBay for about $10 more, so I figured, what the heck!..
Anyway, I just got it in the mail yesterday and took it out and test ran it. Everything is looking great so far! Only downside is that it’s lettered for Illinois Central. I don’t have anything against IC, but it’s not one of the roads I model. The model looks great, otherwise, and it’s not a really huge deal to me (otherwise I wouldn’t have bought it). Aside from the “ICRR” on the side of the cab, it looks generic enough to fit in just about any layout (i.e. no square domes like other IC steam [:D])
One of these days, I might get up the nerve to renumber/reletter it for a RR closer to what I model, which is generally the west (CO, WY, UT). If I go to that trouble, I want it to be somewhat prototypical, so does anybody know what western-type railroads used “stock” USRA heavy 4-8-2’s? I’m thinking maybe C&NW, but not 100% sure about that. Are there any good resources on the web for these locos and what RR’s owned them?
If nothing else, I will either replace “ICRR” with “AT&SF”, because the style of the numbers looks eerily similar to ATSF steam. Or, I’ll just be happy with my “leased” IC unit [:)]
Original USRA heavy 4-8-2’s went to two railroads, C&O and N&W.
“Copy” USRA heavy 4-8-2’s went to the Florida East Coast as well as the railroads named above.
Some FEC 4-8-2’s (but not the USRA types) went to the Western Pacific when FEC defaulted on equipment trust payments in the 1930’s. By stretching a point to its elastic limit, you could say that WP acquired your loco at that time.
There were only 52 total locos built to the USRA heavy mountain plan. None of then ever belonged to either the IC or the ATSF.
Of course, if you’re really into kitbashing you could mate your USRA mechanism to a heavily modified N&W class J shell and end up with a Norfolk and Western modernized K-2. The N&W’s USRA 4-8-2’s ended their careers with J-style streamlining.
Chuck, I was afraid you were going to say something like that! [xx(] Seriously, thanks for the info - that’s good to know. Looks like I’ll have to concoct some wacky story about how an “extra” USRA heavy mountain ended up in the hands of the AT&SF (they just wanted to test drive it, of course! Yeah, that’s the ticket! [;)])
Victor - not to worry, it won’t be scraped anytime soon [swg] If you’re serious about seeing a picture of it, there should be a pretty decent stock photo of it on several hobby shop websites (better pictures than I can take with my 1990’s vintage digital camera, at least!). (edit: go to www.bachmanntrains.com and enter the item #82506)
Alright, spare the pureists this one, here’s the story of how my USRA Heavy 4-8-2 (by the way, I love the Spectrum model amazingly!) ended up in, of all places, Southeastern Ontario.
After World War One, the Florida East Coast came into afformentioned financial troubles. As such the New York Central bought a pair at rock bottom prices and designated them L1f Mowhawks (as they were built by ALCo and the L2 series had not been designed yet they fit there.)
The pair were assigned to the (freelanced) Ontario Southeastern & Montréal portion of the NYC System serving as dual-purpose locomotives hauling freight and commuters out of the (freelanced) metropolis of Selene, Ontario. They proved themselves admirably until the (again freelanced) Selenian Lines Commission purchased the two units to use on their newly-built line along the northern coast of Lake Ontario.
They served the SLC until the city of Selene, which controled the SLC, demanded full dieselization by 1959. One of the two was spared as a static display in a public park next to the SLC commuter stop at the suburb of Nell, Ontario. There it stood until 2003 when the SLC again purchased the unit from the city and began restoring it at their Almsphalia Shops.
In 2006 the Mowhawk was offically unveiled as a heritage unit and is now pulling railfan excursion trains around the SLC and the rest of Souther Ontario.
Now you know while I am a freelancer. Some say freelancers are lazy - could be - but I know I don’t have to patch the walls in my house where I put my head through them in moments of absolute frustration.
I browsed quickly through my {i]Guide to North American Steam Locomotives[/i] to see if I couldn’t locate a western road that used USRA Heavy Mountain knock-offs. Weren’t too many roads bought 69" drivered Mountains. Rock Island did but they look like Rock Island. Best I could do.
Interesting suggestion. The WP had six USRA heavy 2-8-2s on their roster, all of which were eventually reworked with typical WP appliances and features. A might-have-been WP USRA 4-8-2 would be a very handsome engine, I reckon! [:)]
Interesting info, everybody. Thanks again for all the replies.
I think we have a winner… WP it is! (based on the fact that they had the 2-8-2’s… maybe they were shipped a 4-8-2 due to a typo on the order form? [;)])
I found another thread on the forum where someone was decaling WP steam, and mentioned that there is a Champ decal set for this. I just checked their website and it appears the WP steam decal sheet is on back order [:(]. Not sure exactly what that means, so I’ll wait until next Tuesday to give them a call (website says they only answer the phone Tues - Thurs). No rush - I have plenty to keep me busy between now and then.
Seems to me the Rio Grande had something similar, I thought they were USRA heavies (or copies), but maybe they were light ones - or maybe just similar but not USRA-based engines?? I know one of them was sold to the W&LE and on the way was intercepted and leased for a year by the Missabe. I think it was 1952.
BTW before repainting the I.C. one, I would check with Bachmann to see if you can buy undecorated tender body shells and cabs for the engine. Always easier to start with undec, doubt it would cost much to get the undec parts assuming they’re available.
Bachmann has a photo of the IC engine on their website. But don’t worry about it; they screwed up the IC version royally: wrong font, wrong size, wrong COLOR, and even a wrong road number (they used 2981, which is the number off one of the 2-10-2s. Early IC 4-8-2s were in the 2400 series)
With a lot of work, one of the Bachmann engines CAN be kitbashed into an IC Mountain, and is a project I’ve got planned for the future (once I wade through all of my other steam conversions!). I’m also planning on converting one of the Bachmann heavies into a NYC/P&E L-1a, which will be another very involved project.
The D&RGW had a couple of classes of 4-8-2s. The ones sold to the W&LE (six total) were built by the N&W in 1926, and don’t look much like anything the USRA cranked out. The engines were rare design failures for the N&W, and were passed around between at least five roads (N&W, D&RGW, RF&P, W&LE, NKP) before finally being scrapped by the NKP in 1954.
The DM&IR couldn’t have “stolen” one of the Wheeling’s ex-N&W engines, as they were shipped via St Louis, not farther north. The W&LE received them in 1944 and the road was merged out of existance in 1949, being leased by the NKP. Besides, the War Transportation Board would have looked at a stolen engine VERY closely.
I would be interested in how you can convert this model into any IC 4-8-2 without starting over completely if you have plans or ideas on it.
The 2400 series is the closest, since they had smaller boilers that the 2500 and 2600, which used the same boiler as the heavy USRA 2-10-2’s and had box pop drivers. I got to ride on several 2500 and 2600’ss at Bluford Illinois when I was growing up and they are always on my list as favorites. The heavy USRA 4-8-2’s used the light 2-10-2’s size boilers if I remember correctly, but the 2500 class used the larger boiler size bein rebuilt from the Heavy 2-10-2’s. The 2600 class also used the larger boiler size, but were built new.
I have some of the 2500’s from Hallmark and they are OK, just not great in detail.
It is always my wish for someone to offer the 2400 series built by ALCO but no one stepped up and took a chance on them.
Since you model the Nickel Plate and the IC crossed over the NKP tracks in several places, the IC engines would be a good example to model.
How close is the USRA Heavy 4-8-2 to the Boston and Maine Mountain R1a class?
I tried this a few months ago myself as I am a huge B&M fan. I am not real familiar with the engine itself, but the tender is all wrong. Every picture I have seen of the R1d tenders show them as having Centipede wheel configurations. The Bachmann mountain tender does not…
If you are not a rivet counter, go for it. It’s your railroad after all…
Stix–the Rio Grande 4-8-2’s were built by ALCO and Baldwin, and were unusual in the fact that the main driver was the 3rd (like a Mikado) instead of the 2nd, as is usual on a Mountain. They did acquire some N&W 4-8-2’s during WWII, which became their 1550 series, but again, the main driver was the 3rd. Rio Grande never had a USRA Mountain.
However, during WWII, railroads were borrowing motive power from each other like crazy (Pennsy locos turning up on Santa Fe and vice versa–Missabe 2-8-8-4’s turning up on Rio Grande, UP 2-8-8-0’s turning up on SP’s Shasta Division, etc.) so if anyone wants to model that era, just about ANYTHING will work.
Tom