Currently I am in the process of assembling a bunch of MT 1015 couplers using the coupler jig that MT sells. Makes the whole process easier and really worth the extra expense. .
One question I've been wondering about is, can the jig be used to assemble the new True-Scale couplers?
I've been installing Z scale couplers on my locomotives. They look much better and seem to work well with the N scale couplers on freight and passenger rolling stock.
This little guy can actually pull over 10 cars quite well. The cab is full of tungsten so there is a lot of weight on the two drivers. Still needs running boards and the tender shell.
The cab and piston/valve/crosshead come from an old Bachman 4-4-0. The drivers from a Kato Mikado. The tender frame is built on a Kato passenger truck with larger Kato diesel wheels. The pilot wheels are modified from old Atlas Rivarossi. A lot of kit bashing and scratch building after sifting through the junk drawer. Bits of brass machined from bolts and brass stock. I have a number of the new Micro-Trains Civil War era freight cars for it to pull.
You are a master -- that is exceptionally cool stuff, Russell. It reminds me of the C&NW's first locomotive, the Pioneer.
Yes, the Pioneer and the first locomotive on the Buffalo Bayou Brazos Colorado RR, the General Sherman, were almost identical. Both were built by Baldwin at about the same time. The General Sherman was bought used in Boston and shipped to Texas in 1853. The model will not be exact as the prototype had the cranks for the piston rods on the inside of the drivers with outside bearing. I am not even going to try that in N scale.
Speaking of early C&NW, this from Trains Magazine. So, for my pre-Civil War freight train, I have to ditch the cupola caboose.
And then build a boxcar with a fella sitting on a crate on the roof! While the other brakeman is reclining in the sunshine, napping. Voils! An early "caboose."
This has all the makings of a Lionel Giraffe car, except in this case the Conductor's head can pop down when overhead obstructions appear.
Russ- Nice research on the ironically named General Sherman. I've been doing some research on the early locomotive rosters of the CB&Q and it involves the Galena and Chicago Union Pioneer and a sister locomotive named Pigeon that are very similar....and might have had the same inside cranked axles as built (both came through the Michigan Central from New York roads). I found the original source for the cupola story, IIRC a letter to the Railway Coductor (conductor's union journal) from Brother Watson. I am not sure that his was the earliest car as there are other early ones that might even be pre-Civil War. A crude glass lookout on one of the M-T boxcars with windows would not be out of place and the terms "Conductors Car" or "Waycar" were in broad use prior to the Civil War. Caboose didn't enter the lexicon until the 1870's. Thought of you yesterday as we were watching one of the reality home buying shows that was set in Sugarland! Best regards, Charlie Vlk