Articulateds

[Oldddudders]

Our leader in this Group, Essex-boy Pete, is no slouch – he’s already seeking active participation by members on specific subjects. He asked me whether I’d start a thread on US articulated locos in model form. It’ll be vague, sketchy and awash with waffle – but here goes!

 

My first experience of US modelling – other than the occasional layout in Railway Modeller, probably by Peter Haddock – was at the August show in Westminster in 1971. A club called the Capital Model Railroaders were there with a large-ish HO layout, and I was terribly impressed. In contrast to many of the lovely finescale UK-prototype layouts elsewhere in the hall, their trains just ran and ran! No stuttering though pointwork, no hesitating when setting off – it all looked far more realistic in that aspect alone.

 

Among their substantial stud of power, both diesel and steam, were a few Rivarossi articulateds - a Union Pacific Big Boy 4-8-8-4, a Southern Pacific 4-8-8-2 Cab-Forward and a Norfolk & Western Y6b 2-8-8-2. I was entranced! These essentially slow, lumbering beasts crept along with so much happening below the footplate, yet steady on the rails, with long-enough trains behind.

 

Fast forward to the mid-80s, and a new job introduced me to a colleague with a passion for US stuff – he loaned me books and I was hooked, starting a new layout in our loft. Rivarossi were still producing basically the same fare, but I had my eyes on diesels by this stage, where detailing appeared to be more up-to-date. Thus it was only the late ‘90s, when Bachmann introduced their first Spectrum steamer, the 2-8-0, that saw me investing in steam. I now have three articulateds, and will describe them in turn.

 

First is the Athearn Genesis Challenger 4-6-6-4.

 

 

[Edited to try & provide pic which includes the pilot - cowcatcher to us Limeys! Hey - success thanks to Andy Y's new editor!]

 

This is a lovely model. 3804 was one of an order for 6 Union Pacific locos diverted by the War Production Board to DRGW in 1943. In truth, they were less successful than the existing Rio Grande 4-6-6-4s, being a bit lighter and having smaller tenders, so they only stayed until 1946, when they were passed on to the Clinchfield. Runs beautifully - but has a truly awful MRC sound decoder, which not only sounds dreadful, has non-standard commands compared to the rest of the market, but also manages to ignore the emergency stop command on my throttle! That said, I got it at a stunning price new from the US on ebay - in the heady days when the $ was weak and postage was cheap.

 

More to follow.

[trisonic]

Great start, Ian! Thanks.

 

Best, Pete.

 

Our Beloved Leader

[gordon s]

One of the things that attracted me to the 'dark side' was those glorious artics and their effortless ability to haul everything thrown at them. Regular trips back and forth to the US and Canada invariably gave me time in a few model shops and bit by bit a few exotics were purchased to run on Eastwood Town when no one was looking.

 

The usual suspects such as a Challenger, Big Boy, Cab Forward and USRA were joined a couple of years back by a retiement gift from my girls in Canada. With more wheels than you can shake a stick at, pride of place now goes to a 2-8-8-8-2 (Yes, three sets of 8 drivers!) from MTH. Although not an artic another odd ball has also joined the fleet, another MTH, but this time a 4-12-2 with Gresley inside valves that makes it sound like an A4!

 

They will all make appearances just as soon as I get this layout up and running,,,

[JWB]

Here's an MTH Erie Triplex, which is quite a good runner:

The prototypes lasted (I think off the top of my head) from 1914 to 1927 or so, which means they lasted longer than either version of the UP gas turbines. However, they definitely weren't in territory that many rail photographers went to at that time.

 

Here's an Oriental/Powerhouse Little River logging Mallet: This lasted into the 1950s.

[F-UnitMad]

My first experience of US modelling ...was at the August show in Westminster in 1971. ... their trains just ran and ran! No stuttering though pointwork, no hesitating when setting off – it all looked far more realistic in that aspect alone.

No change there, then, in all these years!!! :lol:

 

I got it at a stunning price new from the US on ebay - in the heady days when the $ was weak and postage was cheap....

Oh happy days...!

 

Articulateds are certainly impressive, and are probably what non-enthusiasts would think of in terms of US Steam, along with the mile-long freights they pulled....

[Ozexpatriate]

The old Rivarossi articulated models tempted me over to the dark side, that and living on the old C&NW (now UP) mainline in the western Chicago suburbs, and I ended up with a display case full of them.

 

Since then there have been a superfluity of H0 articulated models, large and small and some On30.

 

In addition to my West Country interests, I've been collecting SP items so in addition to the old Rivarossi SP Cab Forward (the original of which is in the California Railroad Museum in Sacramento, which I highly recommend) there have been Cab Forward models by Broadway Limited, Intermountain and MTH.

 

The MTH AC-6 version is very nice with both flat and chamfered cabs in both "Southern Pacific" and "Southern Pacific Lines" liveries. It's a recent release and starting to be hard to get. Broadway Limited/Paragon is re-releasing their AC-5 Cab Forward with a graphite boiler. It looks nice in the catalogue.

[Allegheny1600]

Well, after the last hour playing around on GIMP - I've just discovered that it's no easy matter, photographing a black loco with LOTS of detail, indoors under artificial light but here goes;

THIS is why I've nick-named myself "Allegheny" - ;

What an awesome front end;

And an overall front 3/4 shot;

Apparently, the heaviest steam loco ever built at around the 600 ton mark (controversy does still rage over this!) and certainly the most powerful at around the equivalent of 7500Hp.

Sorry, Big Boy lovers but the big Alco only made around 6000 horses!

Tractive effort, I can't remember but it was substantial enough to drag an 11 or 12 thousand ton coal train from the Allegheny mountains (for which, they were named!) to the shores of lake Ohio and indeed, only required two of these monsters to drag same train over the hills. If one was needed as a banker, it was always cut in ahead of the caboose, I wonder why? :lol:

Number series ran from 1600 (the class engine and second part of my nickname!) up to 1659 on the Chesapeake & Ohio. The Virginian had 8, numbered from 900 to 907 and it was the delivery of the Virginian ones that caused the controversy as they were told that these locos were too heavy to transit (I think!) the C&O, upon which the Builders (Lima, Ohio) had to admit the C&O series were actually heavier still!

The model is by Rivarossi and dates from about 2000. Rivarossi said at the time this was the state of the art in modelling, sales of the model seemed to prove it as I had a real struggle to get one in the UK! This one actually came from a large dealership in NY and even with shipping and import duty was still cheaper than what I could have paid here!

A few years later, Hornby came along and did number 1629 and I believe they now do a sound version, mmm! Want one!

Cheers,

John E.

[Prof Klyzlr]

Dear Mallet Fans,

 

I have fond memories of running on a friend's logging show layout with a Mantua 2-6-6-2 tender mallet. Following directions in an old MR, it had both tender trucks replaced with Kadee Andrews trucks, the leading and trailing wheelsets replaced with Kadees, and the drivers carefully turned down. Extra pickups were added down both sides of the drivers, resulting in a mallet with 6-wheel-pickup-per-side, plus tender pickups, that was deadset unstoppable, and yet could crawl at 1-sleeper/min if it had to...

 

A 20+ car log train snaking it's way over the layout behind the Mallet was a sight to behold...

 

Happy Modelling,

Aim to Improve,

Prof Klyzlr

[Mike Boucher]

THIS is why I've nick-named myself "Allegheny" - ;

What an awesome front end;

And an overall front 3/4 shot;

Apparently, the heaviest steam loco ever built at around the 600 ton mark (controversy does still rage over this!) and certainly the most powerful at around the equivalent of 7500Hp.

Sorry, Big Boy lovers but the big Alco only made around 6000 horses!

Tractive effort, I can't remember but it was substantial enough to drag an 11 or 12 thousand ton coal train from the Allegheny mountains (for which, they were named!) to the shores of lake Ohio and indeed, only required two of these monsters to drag same train over the hills. If one was needed as a banker, it was always cut in ahead of the caboose, I wonder why? :lol:

 

Where's the "Like" button? IMHO, this is the epitome of Lima superpower, nothing compares to it.

 

Here's a few numbers about tractive effort: The loco weighed 778,000 pounds, with 22.5" diameter x 33" stroke cylinders, 67" diameter drivers, and 260 psi boiler pressure. That means 110,200 pounds of tractive effort. Two engines would push 140 car trains up a .57% grade for 13 miles.

 

And that 7500 hp was at 40 MPH. They were designed to pull 5000 ton trains at 45 mph, but the C&O used them pulling trains more than twice as heavy at only 15 mph.

 

You can see a video I took of an O scale H-8 at

(starting at about the 2:20 mark), and one of a gauge 1 version at

 

BTW - I thought they were mainly used to move trains heading east to tidewater ports in Virginia, not west to the great lakes...

 

Ever been to Baltimore or Detroit to see the real thing?

[Tony_S]

Here is a little 2-6-6-2.

 

[Allegheny1600]

^^Thanks Mike^^!

I need to re-look at my 'bible' - Gene Huddleston's "The Allegheny - Lima's finest", they probably did only go east to tidewater, I must have been thinking of the rigid framed 2-10-4 30xx series they were slide ruled from! (I thought I could remember a picture of one crossing the bridge at Sciotoville/Limeville).

Unfortunately I've never been to see the real ones - I should certainly love to, thats for sure!

You don't know of any films/dvds with one in do you? I have only the briefest clip on one of my films but it certainly sounds RAW!!!

John E.

[CraigZ]

^^Thanks Mike^^!

I need to re-look at my 'bible' - Gene Huddleston's "The Allegheny - Lima's finest", they probably did only go east to tidewater, I must have been thinking of the rigid framed 2-10-4 30xx series they were slide ruled from! (I thought I could remember a picture of one crossing the bridge at Sciotoville/Limeville).

Unfortunately I've never been to see the real ones - I should certainly love to, thats for sure!

You don't know of any films/dvds with one in do you? I have only the briefest clip on one of my films but it certainly sounds RAW!!!

 

John E.

 

The H8 engines certainly went to the tidewater/Norfolk area...the Virginian had 'em and saw to that! Their Class AG were essentially identical to the C&O engines, and were purchased to run between Roanoke VA and Sewall's Point in Norfolk, VA. According to Richard Prince's N&W book's chapter on the VGN, the AGs were rated to handle 14,000 ton 165 car trains eastward out of Roanoke and more than that from Victoria, VA to Sewall's Point, Victoria being east of Roanoke and the grade heading east out of Roanoke.

 

It's a curiosity to me that there's so much fascination in the US and abroad with Big Boys. I suspect Kalmbach's author's love of the Western roads has something to do with this. Sure the Big Boys were, well, big. But leaving out one off prototypes (like Triplexes) and so forth and looking at steam engine superlatives...the Big Boys were not the heaviest - the Allegheny was. Nor did the Big Boy have the most tractive effort - that was the Virginian's Class AE 2-10-10-2 Mallets that had 176,600 lbs when starting in simple, and 147,200 lbs in compound...with 48" low pressure cylinders! Did the Big Boy have the most HP? Nope. As a class, the Pennsylvania's Q2 4-4-6-4 duplex turned just shy of 8,000 drawbar hp on the dynometer at Altoona. Big Boys are handsome...but the observant will notice that all three of the 'biggest' steam engines came from east of the Mississippi...and two of them from the southeast, a region apart from the N&W that was long ignored by Kalmbach's authors.