As if they had anything else back then... I've been looking at old photos of steam engines on the web and have become fascinated with early steam. Also, I have old issues of MR from the 60's and 70's. People used to model early steam a lot more back then. They actually built structures out of wood too! he he I got to wondering what is available in HO scale for early steam. So if anyone has an earlier design steamer and can post factual info on how they run and how they look I would be greatly interested. I've been looking at old kits on ebay such as labelle made. Is anyone actually fabricating shorter than 40' cars anymore? What about trucks for early rolling stock? Thanks, G
I'd say start with USRA Locomotives. Walthers and broadway limited imports have a few in production right now. I wouldn't call 1900 early steam since many American RRs have been around since the 1860's and the DeWitt Clinton started service in or around 1831. If you wanted to stretch to 1927, you could get a Northern Pacific 4-8-4 (thats how "Northern" 4-8-4s got their name) since those where built in the late 20's. If you want to do a branch line you could get away with the tried and true American 4-4-0 since a few of them remained in service at the start of the 20th century. Some of the other 19th century locomotives that survived where ones like the 4-6-0s and 2-8-2s. I have a older USRA 2-8-2 Light Mikado by Broadway and I haven't had any problems with it. Just remember to oil them periodically. For the cars I'm not to knowledgeable. My wife as a few early cars (1890's and so on) that are made by Mantua. The weights alright on them, but they come with plastic wheels.
Athearn/Roundhouse 4-4-0, 2-6-0, 2-8-0. Bachmann Spectrum 4-4-0, 4-6-0, 2-8-0 and others. BLI has steam locos. Model Power sells Mantua steam locomotives. I will let you search for those as the Powers To Be have certain restrictions here for different companies and I can never remember who can be posted and not be posted. Rolling stock. There are wood, resin, plastic models. Some might go into your desired era. 19th Available Century Freight Cars River City Railroad sells the new old stock MDC/Roundhouse plastic freight car kits. They sell 36 foot truss rod rolling stock. The below might fit into your era. http://www.cwrail.com/index.html Just remember to get some good metal wheels for any that have plastic wheels. Kadee sells metal wheels but they are sintered which can pick up dirt. The wheels are somewhat porous compared to machine metal wheels. Powdered metal is compressed to form metal wheels. Machine metal wheels generally do not pick up much in the way of dirt. Bitter Creek sells all metal trucks that will work for your era. NIce for say plastic flatcars that usually are hard to add weight to. Rich
Any 4-4-0, 4-6-0, 4-6-2, 4-4-2, 2-6-0, 2-8-0, 2-8-2, and 2-10-2 delivered prior to your end-date would be a possibility, depending on the railroad. If you look through http://www.steamlocomotive.com/ you are sure to find lots of help there.
Not so much from an HO perspective but from a prototype perspective, an excellent book I know of that has quite a bit on this era is Northern Pacific: Pioneer Steam Era by Schrenk and Frey. There are, I am sure, similar books for other roads out there.
Good point about "early steam". I suppose what I am looking at is old pics of 1880's to 1910-ish. i see mostly 4-4-0 Americans and ten wheelers. I have looked around and have seen many cheap looking 4-4-0 and such. I am becoming fascinated with the idea that old rolling stock was less than 40' long. I have seen numerous discussions on here advocating how someone can build a small layout with 18" radius curves and 40' cars, but a layout set in the turn of the century era could be standard gauge with narrow gauge car lengths. I have been looking at all the scales to see what is out there for this era. O scale offers some engines, the old AHM locos as kits for instance, or ken kidder brass American (yipes one loco costs enough as a small ho or n scale layout) Lexin, good link on the car manufacturers. I spent some time with it. Oregonian, I own a life like USRA 0-8-0 and it runs like a gem. The problem with some of those other brands are two fold: I am picky about how locos run. My n scale fleet got reduced to only Atlas and kato quality for running; and companies like BLI make great runners but they do not bother with small steam. I have found the same problem when looking at O scale models too. Every company makes big steam but not intermediate to switcher wheel arrangements. I did notice that Bachmann is now making a very nice looking On30 loco for the right time period. Cov, I haven't had time to look at the link yet. There is no hurry on getting this layout going or anything, I'm still building my small N scale 70's era layout. Yet this other period has begun to grab me. Especially towns along the great river. Water fronts with barges and or paddle wheelers. Docks, boats, murky brown water, trains... ahhh what a fascinating thing!
I have started using bing to find images to find links... This is an interesting manufacturer: Silver Crash Car Works I think it's funny that they say it only takes three hours to assemble the kits. I wager their three hours would be my three days. he he he I recall how years ago I bought a hon3 boxcar kit that needed to have holes drilled for the grab irons. I drilled so many holes. That car kit stopped being fun after a while.
Fol older wooden railroad cars I got to wondering what is available in HO scale for early steam. For 34' Overton coaches http://www.roundhousetrains.com/Search/Default.aspx?SearchTerm=overton&RN=CPR For 50' Overland Coaches, Old wooded railroad cars, wooden cabosses, etc In short for your older rollling stock http://www.roundhousetrains.com/Products/RollingStock/Default.aspx
Speaking of Roundhouse, I actually had one of these roundhouse locos for N scale. It ran like a gem. Possibly the finest running loco I have ever owned, and I'm picky. Too bad they don't make the same thing in HO scale. Of course a good 4-4-0 can be found in G scale. Hartland Product Catalog - Steam Locomotives Here is the Bachmann On30 4-4-0 too bad they don't make an ho sale one. Well they do make one but...
They do. Although a current issue isn't available, there are enough "Old timer" 2-8-0's still NIB that can be had. I would check with several online shops to see, I bought one less than a year ago. Plus in talking to the Athearn reps at the WGH show recently, they said they would be bringing back out an upgraded old timer, but couldn't say when.
Bremner, I have been oggling those "modern" 4-4-0's. They do look nice. CJ, Thanks for the lead. An upgraded 4-4-0 is really what is missing for 1880's to 1910 layouts. Even O scale has seen some beautiful releases. I must say that O scale is way out of my range price wise. I do already own a USRA loco, but have been thinking of shopping around for something earlier than USRA design.
Man, that photo you posted on the previous page is enough to whet anyone's appetite for the turn of the century(last one, not this one). It's a great lakes port without a doubt. Wooden freighters of that design weren't used anywhere else. On the subject of HO motive power, some old Mantua/Tyco engines may also be available but will need some serious upgrading. They used to make a model of Sierra Ry. ten wheeler #3 (prototype built in 1891, given a steel cab after a wreck in 1918) that makes a pretty good looking engine, but the technology and detail are pretty old school. IHC also made an American and a mogul that might be representative of 1910 or so and Bachmann makes a good looking 4-6-0 also. Bachmann also has some usable old time cars-I particularly like their wooden gondola, although the truss rods are too thick. Someone also posted about a source for the Roundhouse line of old time car kits-there's no beating them except for scratchbuilding or wood craftsman kits and you can use them to build up a nice old time fleet quickly. Good luck and above all have a good time. It's a great era to model. Speaking of Mantua, I just saw this thread http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=130520 Worth checking out.
I don't know about IHC and their locos. I have a 4-6-2 by them and it doesn't do slow or have enough weight to have any real track effort. Its only good for 3-6 properly weighed cars, after that it starts to slip (badly) and when it tries to stop the cars' momentum pushes it.
Hmm... Not very good at all. I have their American and mogul, which admittedly are'nt the best I've seen for low speed performance, although not terrible, and their consolidation, which is not bad at all. Sounds like more weight would help the pacific, but the low speed performance could be a problem to fix.
RailMix, I got obsessed with older era trains because I was looking for river shots with barges. searching tends to lead you all over the place. Just now I was looking for an old image by Lewis Hine and came upon this image. I like Hines shots because he really focuses on the people who lived with the railroads. I have switched to using bing.com when searching because they have a nicer thumbnail view than google. As I searched today I stumbled on other old pictures such as this trolley shot. And even this weird shot of flood victims using rails to cross water. Wrong era but hard not to be fascinated by it. The stuff that is out there on the web can be pretty amazing.
How about this steel mill shot... The Inferno: 1900 | Shorpy Historic Photo Archive If you open the shot in a new browser you can use "ctrl +" or "ctrl -" (apple + or -) on a mac to zoom it. It is a huge image. The more I look at this shot the more I see!
traingeekboy, Your trolley photo has me missing home. It looks a little like the Steel Bridge in Portland, only the steel bridge has two levels with UP on the bottom level and the MAX lightrail and 99W on the top. Most versatile bridge in the world.
