Ten Wheeler

[bob turner]

We need a new topic.
I was kind of eyeballing Carey's All Nation offering on eBay this week. I think it has closed this evening, so I am not going to feel bad about discussing it. It was an All Nation 4-4-2 in the process of being converted to a ten-wheeler. Being somewhat intrigued, since Lee just sent me an A-N Atlantic, I tried it with a couple of bored holes in the Atlantic frame, converting it (maybe) to a ten-wheeler.

Did not work. The firebox is too deep, and hits the rear drivers. So now my inclination is to look at firebox modifications to see if this really is a viable conversion. The boiler is a Babbitt, shorn of such things as running boards and piping, so modifying it further is not something that would bother me - maybe a nice Wootten firebox? (sp?)

Anyway, I am loaded with ten-wheelers, mostly of Harriman extraction, and will happily move some photos here, if there is any interest in lots of ten-wheelers (especially ones you have seen before).

[ScaleCraft]

I have a couple....including the one from Joe with lead (?) boilers, longer, required rear frame extension....and has an NW2 cab back.

Maybe another set of photos up and someone can figure out where boiler came from.

[R.K. Maroon]

Ten-Wheelers are good for me. Here is a pre-war Scale Model Railways model of a CGW prototype:



As with all CGW models offered by SMR, this one was developed by Bill Lenoir. Joe Foehrkolb found this particular model at a train show -- I remember him posting it here in its "as arrived" condition. He two-railed it and otherwise fixed it up, including refinishing the tender, which was in sorry shape. Like many old entry-level steamers, this model is set up with the worm on the end of the motor shaft and unsupported on the other side -- clearly visible in the photo below. This is a problematic setup but the smoothness with which it runs belies this fact. I don't know if Joe has some magic touch, but it is clear he wears his experience well.



Note that my brother Pete just posted to the "What's on Your Workbench" thread a diesel he is dolling up for a CGW train he has in progress. The CGW ran ten-wheelers into Chicago well into the 1950s, so I am hoping this little ten-wheeler gets some run time with Pete's train.

Jim

[bob turner]

Now that basic boiler is really close to the AN Atlantic. I would need to cut the firebox lower sheets completely off and start over, but I could have one of those. I should check the Reading prototype as well.
Ed Bommer did a green B&O Atlantic that really looks good. I captured a photo, but will have to check with Ed before posting it here.

[De Bruin]

The downtown club has one of these SMR ten wheelers too, I posted this here a few years ago. I think they look great too though the motor in this guy sounds like a vacuum cleaner it does run well.

[ScaleCraft]

Ten-Wheelers are good for me. Here is a pre-war Scale Model Railways model of a CGW prototype:

As with all CGW models offered by SMR, this one was developed by Bill Lenoir. Joe Foehrkolb found this particular model at a train show -- I remember him posting it here in its "as arrived" condition. He two-railed it and otherwise fixed it up, including refinishing the tender, which was in sorry shape. Like many old entry-level steamers, this model is set up with the worm on the end of the motor shaft and unsupported on the other side -- clearly visible in the photo below. This is a problematic setup but the smoothness with which it runs belies this fact. I don't know if Joe has some magic touch, but it is clear he wears his experience well.




Jim

Not quibbling, or finding of fault......can you see the angle of the superstructure in relation to chassis and track?
ALMOST looks like the back is not mounted down onto the chassis, but it might also be the front at smokebox needs to come up?

Might be an optical illusion, camera angle, anything.

[R.K. Maroon]

Dave, I believe you are correct. It does seem to be tilted a little forward.

Here is a link to some raw (unedited) video of the first run after arrival. The video doesn't play well on my phone, but maybe the problem is the phone.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/t4by0v1jfuvebdx/smr%204-6-0%20slow%20running.mp4?raw=1

I will check when next in front of a computer

Jim

[ScaleCraft]

A little jerky, but usable. First section couldn't tell second section sure looks like a rake to it.
That plate under the cab to the two screws/bolts on the frame......if the motor clears the backhead, cut and re-drill.

I asked Pete for a side shot of his, he doesn't have a good one right now, but I'd bet that's where the problem is, and may have been missing when last owner resurrected it.

[steamaheadstephen59]

Enjoyed the video, all things considered this little ten wheeler runs quite well I think. I would think quit satisfying to own and run.

[ScaleCraft]

Enjoyed the video, all things considered this little ten wheeler runs quite well I think. I would think quit satisfying to own and run.

the "jerky" comment was the video playback.

[R.K. Maroon]

I found another video, also unedited, showing the CG4-6-0 pulling a string of passenger cars on the DFW O-Scale club portable layout. The cars belong to brother Pete, who brought them to the 2015 Southwest O-scale meet, then in Ft. Worth, Texas. It's a NYC streamlined consist, so I have to believe that I coupled up the ten-wheeler just to test its pulling power. The video seems to indicate that the little locomotive wasn't having to try very hard here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/949w6hl8u38yzi9/SMR%20CGW%204-6-0%20at%20SWO%202015.mp4?raw=1

Did you catch some of the passenger cars tilting through the curves in the first part? This section of the layout was originally built for trolleys. It was later replaced with new modules to straighten out the alignment and provide a two-track mainline. The legacy modules were then repurposed and are the core of the present club portable traction layout.

Jim

[steamaheadstephen59]

Another satisfying video. I dont have a ten wheeler, but Im enjoying the sharing, and I was thinking that in HO Bachmann make a nice ten wheeler, that would look great in O, and I have some ten wheeler drawings from a past MR that I always liked too. In time I guess I will get to it, this is all good motivation.

[ScaleCraft]

Another satisfying video. I dont have a ten wheeler, but Im enjoying the sharing, and I was thinking that in HO Bachmann make a nice ten wheeler, that would look great in O, and I have some ten wheeler drawings from a past MR that I always liked too. In time I guess I will get to it, this is all good motivation.

I didn't have any 4-6-0's until I ended up with Joe's about...six years ago?

Botchman? I have enough experience with that wholly-owned subsidiary of Kader Heavy Industries that i will NEVER purchase anything from the again.
25 years. Split gears, worn chassis, non-quartered drivers, plastic hubs for driver stubs that shatter, motor that spit their guts out, regrind, regrind, regrind.

I have bags and boxes of split parts from regrind issues.

Give me a 40's vintage doorstop first.

[bob turner]

Well, this Atlantic is not really a 1940s doorstop, but I remain tempted to do the ten wheeler conversion.

[bob turner]

Upd@te: cut the firebox off, attached narrow mudrings, and re-did the smokebox wrapper. Maybe photos when I get back from the airport. This one will go in the pile marked “locomotives worth a hundred bucks.”