I have two active steam locomotives, both lacking any details at present, so they are "in the rough" cosmetically, but both are performing very nicely. The Mogul is the Model Power N scale version of an SP M-9, I think, with "conversion parts" from Shapeways. The tender frame is a Bachman Spectrum short USRA with the truck pickups hard wired to the engine for all-wheel pickup. Excellent slow speed performace, and it will pull the paint off the bulkhead. The Forney was made from a Minitrains F&C. The rear frame is just a sheet of .040 styrene with some small angles. The tender truck is either a Bachman, or possibly a Kato caboose truck, I don't remember which one fell out of the box of "spare parts". That truck is also wired to the motor for all-wheel pickup, but I honestly think it may not be necessary if you have live frogs. Right out of the box with the separate tender and "dead" truck, it never stalled on me. The truck pivots on a simple arm like a leading truck on a 4-4-0, also made from .040 styrene. This arrangement has been maligned in a lot of the material I have read, but it has been 100% reliable for me. Here they are nose to nose so you can get an idea of relative size. Front quarter of the Mogul: Rear quarter of the Mogul: Here's the Forney with a "stretched" MiniTrains coach: Stay tuned ..... Respectfully, Bob S.
Just curious- Have you seen any minimal radius of operation for your Forney? From my own viewpoint I believe the improvising is part of the draw for this scale. If a person looks at the Maine 2 footers as a prototype, seems as though they did it a fair amount, so we're just following along. Little locos, big dreamers!
I bet those were a hoot to build and details will make them even more awesome. Please keep us updated. Are they DCC?
Ken: I was using my former N scale test loop, which is Atlas TruTrack with 11" radius end curves. The little Forney had no problems with this, forward/reverse with ot without cars. I did have a problem with 40+ foot passenger coaches: when negotiating the turnouts for the passing track, they would just flop over on their sides. The Atlas TruTrack line has only one size of turnout, with a nominal 12" radius, but with parallel tracks, there is a horrible S curve there. I have since upgraded my test loop/temporary layout with Kato Unitrack, using the No 6 turnouts and 15 radius end curves. No problems with the passenger cars, even if mixed in with 28 foot freight cars. Obviously, the Forney is very happy there, even if it does not need the wider radius. The length of the drawbar for the Mogul tender was set for the 11" radius; for 15 " min radius, it can now be made shorter, that's in the production schedule. Jim, No, no DCC yet. That's on the "to do" list, but not HiPri at the moment, as I am the only operator. Respectfully, Bob S.
Ken, I purchased a Railways Recollection kit that converts a Bachman prairie into a Forney, and it is claimed that it will go down to 10". I have not done anything with the kit yet, but I am interested to see how the suspension for the rear truck is supposed to work. I don't have real high hopes for that one because based on my N scale experience, the Bachman 0-6-0 and 2-6-2 are not good pullers. There is too much weight aft of the rear drivers ... so with the new versions, what did they do to the traction tire ?? .... moved it to the FORWARD driver. Somebody missed an assignment in Statics 101. Maybe there is enough room in the new superstructure for some weight up forward to get it to balance between the remaining two axles. More to come ..... Respectfully, Bob S. P.S. One of the reasons I am anxious to see the alleged new MiniTrains Forney (if they ever introduce it to the US market) is to how they handle the rear truck suspension. As you probably know, the MiniTrains set track is 9" radius and I am pretty sure they would engineer it to run on the track that has been included in their sets to date.
Bob, you need to invest in Cal-Scale or PSC for detail parts. Cal Scale is available through Bowser. How does the Mogul run?
Barry's kits have enjoyed a very good reputation, so hopefully what you bought goes together smoothly. I have one of his Bachmann N scale center cab to HOn30 center cab kits on my work bench. I need to start making some serious progress....
Art, I have a lot of stuff on order and it's starting to trickle in. The mogul runs great. Very realistic slow speed, very smooth with all-wheel pickup, and as I said, it will pull the paint off the bulkhead. I bought several of these when they first came out, but found they were too big (in N scale) to seriously model any of the Green Bay & Western moguls. Then along came Bachman with a nearly perfect dupe of the GBW/KGBW/A&W moguls; and then I decide to pursue Maine two-footers in HOn30. Life has some unique twists, sometimes. Respectfully, Bob S.
Yes. He is still in business. When the economy sagged, he had to take a job and sadly his kits became a secondary occupation.
