Who's 2-8-8-4 Is This ?

[steamaheadstephen59]

Is it UP I can't find it on the internet??

[up148]

It's definitely a "Yellowstone" design and the gear boxes look like a hybrid MG, but I can't find any evidence of this style loco ever wearing UP logo either. The trailing truck detail/rigging is amazing and in fact all the detail looks much nicer than a MG to me. This is a really nice loco.

[bob turner]

Could it be a modified AC-4?

[steamaheadstephen59]

Yes the quality of lost wax castings, but with the older gear boxes is interesting. So! there were four railroads that used the Yellowstone wheel arrangement according to Google. SP, B&O,NP, and DMIR ???

[steamaheadstephen59]

What about a modified USRA 2-8-8-2 ??

[Chris Webster]

Could it be a modified AC-4?

I think Bob is right - to me, it looks like an AC-4 with a replacement cab, front number boards and bell off a big boy, and the headlight-supporting box on the too-long front (formerly rear) platform. The domes, double stack, air pump on the engineer's side all seem to match the AC-4.

[steamaheadstephen59]

The locomotive in question arrived today, a box with things in it other than the locomotive, and a torn label, and the only legible letters AC-4 so Im certain Bob got this one right, with Chris.

[bob turner]

I would convert that back so quick . . . The Max AC-4 was one of his best models (his AC-12, by contrast, was the worst) and I saw one sell for $2500 at an OSW decades ago.

That may be an AC-9 mechanism with AC-4 drivers - I have seen such a mechanism. I will check the Max bible in a minute.

Nope - not even close. The builder shortened the platform and skillfully added stuff to make it look like a conventional locomotive.

With the Bible open to page 47/48, (Spotters Guide II) all I see changed is the Cab, frame and 4-wheel truck, the rear platform, and the stack. Save those number boards.

[steamaheadstephen59]

So! Bob this arraignment of the AC-4 didn't really exist? So if I changed out the cab and put the tender at the front of the loco, and changed the smock stack, It would be right again?