Lobaugh Challengers

[bob turner]

After threatening for a decade, Gersh and Howard sent a Lobaugh Jabelmann Challenger down for adjustments. Really nice condition, new gears, good motor, good U joints, missing the front set of side rods. Not all of them; just the ones connecting #1 & #2 drivers on the front engine. They included a package with the proper rods. Did not take long to drill and fit them, and do a test lap around my layout.

I find myself wondering where the original rods went? The rest of the rods were either nickel silver, polished, or plated, with really nicely done black inside the I beam part of the rods.

It really got me going - I really admire the Lobaugh machinery when it is done correctly. Everything is in quarter, and the entire mechanism runs like a Swiss watch. Gersh wants a headlight - a 20 minute affair - and some elephant ears. The model seriously needs a new trailing truck, and I think I have the pieces to do that. It also has one scale foot high boiler bands. I am not inclined to fix those - and an imported Japanese sprung tender that looks pretty darn good, and works on my superelevated curves.

So I looked up my Union Pacific Vol 2 thread, last attacked in August of last year. A lot of the photos I posted have dropped out, although you can still see some, and my friends Maroon and 85TA355SR have some truly worthwhile photos still in there.

But things are slow here, and I am newly fascinated with Challengers, so you get to endure my photos one more time - in a minute or two.

[Jay Criswell]

Bob,

Do you have the correct trailing truck? If not, I can look through my junk stash.

Jay

[bob turner]

Thanks. This one has that unprototypical truck that came from the CLW Northern. The rear wheels were so far back they shorted against the frame cross-member. Lobaugh supplied a too-long truck casting, but then came out with what they called a Daylight trailing truck casting, and somehow I wound up with a bag of those, all matched left-right. They are only correct for the roller bearing Daylight Northern, but a dead ringer for the Challenger.

So I am ok for parts, but appreciate the kind offer.

I am so delighted with this mechanism that I may have to make a video.

[bob turner]

Meantime, here is Peter Cozzen's Challenger. Peter has been gone for a half decade, but he was one of the nicest guys - I am pleased to have been able to finish his project. Note the trailing truck - shorter, more prototypical than you will see in subsequent photos.

[bob turner]

Note how the little heart rocker thing on the truck casting lines up with the frame cross member. Here is what the truck included in the Jabelmann kit looks like:



Might be hard to see the difference, but the crossmember is under the two zeros in the cab number, and really close to the wheels themselves. Note how the front of the truck almost touches the rear drivers, possibly leading to a short circuit on curves. This one is not powered; I have plenty of large articulateds that are powered and yet never get exercised.

The tragedy is that the really good NWSL gearboxes are not quite as good as when Raoul made them, and are really, really expensive. Whoever gets to power my unpowered models will be in for it. A lot of my models do have axle gears and bearings to fit the NWSL, and a few have complete gearbox sets stuffed in the boilers.

PS - I did a short video for Gersh and Howard. We may try to post a link here.

[R.K. Maroon]

Here is a link to Bob's video:

https://1drv.ms/v/c/a9e99a5490ae48df/ETCjtFZOL3pKgLdezRU4mEUBAB-xwURUH6TrQIS1I3fODg

[bob turner]

Thanks Jim - this link works on my fairly recent iPad, but on the big Dell with giant screen and big box full of electronics there is no "run" button.

You can barely see it but the #3 driver on the front engine is lifting off the rails. I added weight and increased the lead truck spring pressure, but noted that the hose connecting front and rear driveshafts had slipped off the front shaft, and was forcing the rear drivers even higher. Always something, I guess. But it ran quite smoothly for about ten laps over three days testing. Tomorrow is another quick test day - in addition to three scheduled flights of an hour each!

[up148]

Whose tender is that Bob......USH or PSC? That can't be a Lobaugh tender.

[bob turner]

Pretty sure it is Max - good detail, but obviously hand pressed rivets. Great castings on the trucks, and interior detail in the coal hopper.

Here is a Lobaugh Challenger I am quite proud of - Lobaugh made Challengers in the prewar period following the UP Fetters design, with slight modifications for the Northern Pacific and Delaware & Hudson locomotives. I have an original D&H, but used UP parts to make my NP version.

Both the D&H and NP models had incorrect tenders - aspect ratios were seriously "off". I cured the D&H by adding about a scale foot to the bottom of the original sides and ends. I did an all new tender body for John Fisher, many years ago. I don't remember what we did for Maroon's version.

The NP shown here is unique in that both engines are separately powered, with the front driveshaft going straight through the rear shaft. Twin motors are mounted vertically in the firebox. Delrin chain is used for the drop-down, but it is too noisy - someday a tooth belt will go in there.

Oh - and the tender is a wood block. I do have the correct Commonwealth trucks for it, but what you see is what Lobaugh used. The Lobaugh tender was almost an inch shorter, so it sort of fit the shorter Lobaugh castings.

[up148]

That is a very nice model. The piping and boiler detail is fantastic.

[bob turner]

Here is the D&H - this one was only available before WWII. It came to me from Frank Thompson (RIP) of Philadelphia. UPS kinda smunched the cab a bit, and agreed to pay me $125 to fix it.

The tender is genuine Lobaugh, but raised up to match D&H drawings, instead of Lobaugh drawings. It came to me cut up pretty badly for USH gearboxes, but I added metal to the frames, made all axles come out the bottom, and returned it to genuine Lobaugh gears.



If Maroon doesn't post his D&H again, I think I have a photo or two.

[R.K. Maroon]

Here at Bob's request is a reprise of the "Woody" D&H Challenger.

First, here is how the locomotive was first spotted, sitting on Woody Mathews's layout in Seattle:


https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/im35yaedqyl1dfkmyl71t/Lobaugh-D-H-Challenger-At-Woody-s.jpg?rlkey=8utrlf8kcggyxd18mnot9igqr

Here is how it was listed at auction:


https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/uekxgoexxyge179uqv7da/Lobaugh-D-H-Challenger-As-Auctioned.JPG?rlkey=s6ya6lika4ai0pbz31oosglti

Here it is after Dave picked out all the lead shot and Bob completed the salvage and rebuild operation:


https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/kov7vq34zx86d01s5lgbx/Lobaugh-D-H-Challenger-Restoration-06.JPG?rlkey=98lhssnh4qnrsvx468qrd83r0

Here it is after Pete and I finished with it:


https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/t4u99j9z6gb7omtdcq0iz/Lobaugh-4-6-6-4-D-H-1523A.png?rlkey=9w7niyxksy5vqj41uptnbjjzh

And, finally, here it is in operation on Brady McGuire's layout in Sherman, Texas:


https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/0kg5er9xf9kgg0lqmi5bx/D-H-Challenger.jpg?rlkey=gml83dp8nl4v74j9p82d0s47c

It's a smooth runner and solid puller. I have acquired a D&H caboose so hopefully video will be forthcoming sometime "soon". I guess it's a good thing that there is always more video to shoot.

Jim

[up148]

Seen like this, that is an incredible transition...Wow! I guess it's true.....many hands make the work go easier. Seriously, that is a beautiful loco and a super journey to see in photos.

As it was it made a good model for a very minor boiler mishap and would have looked good sitting outside a roundhouse. BUT, it looks super now.

[ScaleCraft]

waren't nuttin' minor about that there boiler mishap.
And that werent the only boiler woodrow so afflicted.

[bob turner]

Yeah. Don't know what he poured in there, but it was surely a lead mix. Took a torch to melt it all out - probably affected my IQ negatively, handling and breathing all that stuff.

Delighted that three folks are actually following/participating. Here comes another:



This is the pre-war Fetters Challenger, as done by Lobaugh. I have maybe four of these, and the only thing I am sure of is that none have the gearbox axle coming out of the top of the frame. When I see that, I drop everything else and screw/solder enough brass in the frame to allow machining of a bottom-facing pedestal. It is just a minor hangup. This one obviously has the 1939 gearing, only direct drive from a can motor instead of the drop-down spur gear arrangement that seemed to be in vogue in the late 1930s.

I have one that I scratch built parked on a shelf at the airport. It has steel cylinders machined by a CB&Q modeler whose name I have forgotten - not Bernie, but one of his friends - and a slightly longer tender - artistic license to present a more balanced loco/tender picture.