in need of some inspiration, from an alternate merger to a 3d printed 4-12-12-4, show me what fun fiction builds you made!
Hi TractionAction1700,
Welcome to the forums!!! [#welcome]
This isn’t exactly what you were thinking of. It is 30 axles short of your 4-12-12-4, but it is straight out of my head![swg][(-D]
If you study it you will note one serious flaw. I mounted the headlight on the top of the cab roof. It should have been above the front grill. Where it is located results in a shadow from the exhaust stack and it totally lights up the hood which would cause real night vision problems for the crew![D)]
What kind of radius would be needed for a 4-12-12-4?!?[swg]
Dave
I built this one when I was 15.
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It is now one of my most prized items int he collection.
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-Kevin
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LION has always thought that the railroads merged the wrong way…
Pennsylvain Railroad should have merged with the Northern Pacific, and be called the Penn-Northern
New York Central should have merged with the Great Northern and be called the Great-Central
If Norfork Southern should merge with Union Pacific it would still be called the Union Pacific.
ROARING
A few years ago, one of our forum members, Wolfgang Dudler, passed away. He was a fine modeler from Germany. His Westport Terminal railway was an inspiration. l named the small railway handling my carfloat operations after that model.
Find something you already like and riff off it is usually the productive strategy. Not sure where that leaves the 4-12-12-4, but maybe you can figure that out later.
I like the Rio Grande a lot, both standard and narrowgauge. I even wanted some dual gauge, which would normally restrict you to modeling places like Alamosa, Salida, and Montrose. But I let history help me out. Odd as it seem now, but Dunrago was dual gauge back in the early 1900s. At one time, standard gauging the line there from Alamosa was contemplated and the SP was rumored to be interested in expanding north into the coal lands south of Durango. The Farmington Branch was built towards them as a standard gauge line to counter the SP When the notion of standard gauging the Cumbres line was finally abanadoned in the mid-20s, the Farmington Branch was narrowgauged…
But not on my layout. Instead, demand for strategic resources soared after WWII ended with the onset of the Cold War, leading the Rio Grande to extend its standard gauge line down to Moab on into Durango, then south through Farmington to the Santa Fe main, thence into Albuquerque via trackage rights. Thus, in Durango the dual gauge lives on long past when it disappeared in 1:1, along with the Rio Grande Southern.
Also notable is that the “Three Little Lines,” the Mears roads that ran north out of Silverton, continue to serve the mines there. To keep things simpler [;)], I amalgamated them into the Silverton Union RR.
Finally, there’s the Cascade Branch, which leaves the Silverton line at Cascade. While the rest of the layout was built on the notion of an extended and larger than life portrait of the Silverton Branch, none of the locations on the Cascade were actually served by the RR. However, it lets me add in lots of traffic from the other Rio Grande branches not present on the Silverton in 1:1, as well to model the rolling stock and trains this generated elsewhere on the system. Thus, while my concept is based on lots of wishful think
Mike: That is an amazing collection of locomotives thatyou have. I am very impressed, and the story for each one was interesting reading.
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Thank you for sharing. That was an A+ post.
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-Kevin
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Mike is a great inspiration. Sometimes its harder to make the imaginary seem real than to copy precisely what someone else has already built. That’s some great work in making an alternative universe look as real as the real universe.
Nice work Mike!
I have a couple locomotive builds, as soon as PB gets it’s act together, I’ll post.
Sites been down for almost 3 days now. Chatter on social media says they had a power outage, and they are struggling to fix it.
Mike.
Thanks for the kind comments everyone. When the Search function is restored, I’ll look up some past posts that provide more detail on my narrowgauge diesel fleet.
That said, I shouldn’t neglect to mention I have Blackwater and a few pieces of brass steam that are prototypically correct. These locos, while not at all fantasy, provide more of the essential context that help make the diesels and other things I build that aren’t seem authentic. Once again, the most convincing fantasy builds happen within honoring the historical context they are said to exist in.
Many know that Norfolk Southern has heritage units.
I have a fantasy heritage unit, in a ES44 painted as Erie Lackawanna. (They did not make a EL heritage unit, but did do Erie and DL&W as SD70Ace’s.)
This fits in with my freelanced line having former EL and PRR trackage, and having a cast off ALCO repainted in PRR paint.
You’ve done a really nice job of modelling the equipment you needed, Mike.
Outstanding work! [tup][tup]
Wayne
Between Slate Creek Rail and Summerset Ry… Summerset wins.You judge.
Thanks, Wayne! Your work in standard gauge does in some part serve as inspiration for mine, along with such narrowgaugers as the late Jim Vail.
Nice work there, too, Brakie! [tup]