I am a HO guy ,but have kicked around the Idea of a G scale steam project. But I am cheap so brought the two toy like 2-6-0 and tenders used Echo battery powered. I have left over RC car stuff and lipo batteries , so plan on wiring these up for full RC control and maybe change out the motor. Of course some cosmetic improvements with weathering. I love weathering They both were very low priced so not out much money. Am I the only to start out this way?
Update . Using a cheap toy 2-6-0 G scale in hindsight , BAD idea, Motor is in some kind of sealed box that I used a rotary tool with cut off disc to open up some what. Had to surgically remove the chug sound at made a awful clicking sound from a cam on second driver. No way to get at motor unless you pull the drivers off the axles. I still plan on trying to make it RC with some cheap parts I already have and kitbash it into some thing resembling a narrow gauge 2-6-0. I also got a cheap Lionel battery G polar express engine and tender cheap , maybe build on engine out of parts, 2-6-0 cab with the Lionel boiler and change the pilot . Might look a little like the china 0-8-0 2 footers. This engine just seems to taunt me to make it look better. So that is my plan for now ,or I maybe suffering from some kind temporary insanity
The insanity my not be so temporary as I am continuing with this build. The Lionel Polar express engine has a much better drive and the bottom cover comes off with out doing surgery with a Dremel tool. Now starts the build of making it not look so toy like, It is a 2-8-2 but needs much work so I will not be irritated by looking at it. It is a smaller scale so with the Echo engines bigger cab my pass as a narrow gauge 0-8-0 or may add a front truck for a 2-8-0.
The bottom half of the cylinder was missing so they could fit the front truck .I cut and added a small PVC pipe to fix this.