It's official. I'm going to give TTn3 another legitemate attempt tb-shocked:gasp!). I decided on the same railroad but an earlier era--the Pacific Coast Ry. in the I890's**--so I can model those nostalgic 4-4-0's and 2-6-0's built in I88I by Thos. Paul & Son for the PC. (these engines are similar to baldwin narrow gauge engines but with a straight boiler.) The base model is an N scale Athearn/MDC mogul which scales out nicely in TT (I:I20)** and has a correct straight, not tapered, boiler. The new stacks, cabs, headlights, and tender details will need to be scratchbuilt in plastic or brass (no problem for me) and the smokebox will need to be shortened to the middle rivet seam. Remove the first driver and add a Bachmann N scale pony truck (like I did on My N scale SP tenwheeler) and you've got a great looking 4-4-0 that runs a billion times better than the n scale bachmann 4-4-0. And the releases of the mogul under the athearn label have MT couplers--front and rear! Here's a digital kitbash I did of the engines: FULL STEAM AHEAD once I save up some money for these!!! They'll be switching the Harford Wharf in no time!!! (now if only I had room for a Harford Wharf module...at I906** feet long in I895**, it may be a while...) **BTW all of the "1" numbers are typed here as an "I". Old typewriters didn't have a "1" key and I'm trying to get into an I890's kind of mood:tb-rolleyes:
Do you still have pictures of the digital kitbash. I've been playing around with some models in TTn3.5 modelling the Prince Edward Island Railway. The PEIR rostered a large fleet of 4-4-0's. Looking at the wheel arragement of Roundhouse model it's tempting to consider one as a starting point. Thanks Chris
Unfortunately, the TTn3 diagram was lost, but here's an N scale 4-4-0 diagram. The only differences in the TTn3 model would be a larger cab, headlight, stack, and domes (plus other extraneous details per prototype). I'm sticking with N scale, but with college rapidly approaching this fall, I may sell my N scale 2x4-foot layout and build a more portable 2x2 that I can keep in the dorms.
Thanks for posting the pictures. Can the blind centre driver on the MDC engine be easily replaced with a flanged one? I really like the look of this conversion and how close it appears compared to the PEIR engines I'd like to model in TTn3.5. Speaking of TTn3 have you seen the neat models Roy Stevens has been offering on Shapeways.com? I have ordered a set of his coach roofs and can attest that they are simply gorgeous models. I have some car bodies under construction. The roofs are here on the Shapeways site and I posted some photos on my model railway blog too. I see he's also included some TTn3 Rio Grande gondolas. Nice stuff. Thanks for posting the drawings. /chris
