Improving the Tractive effort of small steam locomotives

 The small locomotive curse 

I'm sure a lot of us have been here. You bought a new engine for your model railroad, you put it out on the tracks and find out that it can't pull the skin off pudding. Those grades you put on your layout don't help you either. In the realm of diesel modelers and large steam locomotives, there's a plethora of options to help improve a models tractive effort involving lead sheet, Cerrobend, and tire weights. Of course these models also have the space to accommodate these large weights.  

Those of us who use small steam locomotives don't have many options here though. Our space inside is extremely limited and the small size to begin with doesn't lend itself to providing much weight. 

There's been a few solutions throughout the year, none of which I thought were really practical for my purposes. I refuse to use things like powered rolling stock as I don't intend to do a lot of consisting when switching on the branch. Double heading is always cool, but of course they didn't always have a double header in service. 

"But is this a problem?" I hear some people in the audience say, "those little engines didn't pull that many cars in real life either". This is one of the big myths involving late 19th and early 20th century trains that always seems to get repeated. There's photos of single 4-4-0's moving 30+ car trains, a C-16 running into Gunnison with 23 cars from Sapinero. In Durango to this day the D&S operates heavy passenger consists with single locomotives, only getting into double header territory with 14+ cars, and that's with a 4% grade! On the Falcon branch itself I have photos of two of the ten wheelers at Eastonville with more than 20 cars set to head for Denver. That did involve both locomotives moving the 20+ empties up the 2.5% grade coming out of Parker. The entire thought process of "small engines didn't pull many cars" I believe came about as an excuse by modelers to justify the lack of tractive effort their models had. 

Remember that the locomotives were not rated for a certain number of cars, but rather in terms of tonnage. The C-3E's had a tractive effort of 21,380 pounds, which on the Falcon branch gave them the capacity of about 15 cars. It wouldn't be ideal to run the locomotive at tonnage all the time, but even if we set the target to 10 cars on the model, that's still far more cars than the myth purports these small engines could pull. 

Subject example: Bachmann Ten Wheeler

A bachmann ten wheeler leads a short 6 car train at a Pikemasters setup in Pueblo. This train was almost too much for the locomotive as it stood, it was a struggle for this engine to move 6 cars around the layout.

My first "victim" that I was going to make into a C&S C-3E was a bachmann 10-wheeler from the new blue box run. These models have a die cast boiler, but are somehow lighter still than the original spectrum 10-wheeler model. It's performance in the tractive effort department was, uh, not great. The first show it performed at I found it could barely do 6 cars and a caboose. This was a struggle for it to just perform that task as well, with the locomotive slipping to a stop on some of the curves. 

To say I was a bit disappointed by these results would be putting it mildly. The C-3E was one of the largest locomotives that the branch had in use and I really needed more power than what this locomotive had. I searched for one of the spectrum releases of the 10-wheeler as I knew they were a touch heavier and had decent tractive effort from what I recalled. 

The Bachmann Spectrum 10-wheeler running on Pikemasters. While a better puller, it still wasn't setting any records.

At the first Pikemasters show with the Spectrum 10-wheeler, I did some testing and found out that yes in fact, the Spectrum models do have more tractive effort than the new run models. However it wasn't a night and day difference. Essentially meaning I could now run my 6-7 car trains without wheelslip on the curves. approaching 10 cars was pushing it and this of course was on a flat modular layout, if I wanted to have the grades of the real Falcon branch I'd need to do some modifications.

The steam era guys don't get asked to run the track cleaning car often, and this is why. 3 locomotives to just barely be able to pull the sled around the layout. 

A whole different thing: brass engines

And this is about all 637 would do.......

I had also purchased a New Jersey Custom brass K-2 ten wheeler when I started modeling the Falcon branch. Not an uncommon sight on CB&Q branch lines in Colorado, they did occasionally get borrowed for branchline service on other C&S branches. I rolled with the "might have" card and bought this engine, because who doesn't like a Belpre firebox? 

Of course after all the work to paint the model and remotor it, I came to the sad conclusion that it might not be best suited for operating on the branch. 3 cars and a caboose was about all it could do on the modules, and that was pushing it as well, slipping all the way. 

This all got me thinking "what can I do to help these small engines out?"

 The game changer: Roundhouse 2-6-0

Roundhouse 2-6-0 with a long train at a Pueblo train show. 

While I was still figuring out a method for tweaking the Bachmann Ten-wheelers to be better runners, I had purchased a stand in locomotive that has been covered in other articles on this blog. A Roundhouse 2-6-0 from the newer runs. I expected the model to be a good runner in terms of smoothness, but what I didn't expect was how much tractive effort the thing had! 

With a fully die cast boiler and chassis plus some traction tires, the little 2-6-0 could easily outperform almost anything else I had. Walking away with more than 20+ cars in tow at one of the Pikemasters shows in Pueblo. It even had a neat party trick where it could "quarter slip" if it was heavily loaded, breaking traction on spot before finding grip again. 

I was really happy with this discovery and I wondered how exactly I could get this kind of performance out of the bachmann models, maybe even some of my brass. 

Solution: Weight, lots of weight, plus some snot.

I figured if I was going to match the Roundhouse performance, I'd need some similar weight in the Ten-wheelers. But where to put the weight? The inside of the bachmann ten-wheelers is already crammed full of a split frame weight. 

I found a solution in 2 things, little rolls of Lead sheet, and Tungsten putty. 

https://a.co/d/jlEZVLs  Tungsten putty at Amazon

https://a.co/d/2Jzcf0g    Lead sheet rolls at Amazon

The lead sheet I cut into pieces that are glued to the underside of the running boards and into larger flat areas, like the cab roof and cab floor. 

The tungsten putty I used on the bottom of the locomotive, filling up every nook and cranny I could find that wouldn't be visible to a viewer. 

Underside view of 312 with the tungsten putty and lead sheet installed. note the added bullfrog snot on rear drivers. 

Side view of 312, nothing visible from this angle. 

The addition of this weight helped out 312 IMMENSELY, with the tractive effort almost doubling. Some experimenting found that moving the weight so the fore and aft center of gravity was over the center driver made much more of a difference than even more weight that wasn't centered. 

312 now could pull much more, but it was also still very slippery, liking to slip at certain points in the track while under a heavy load. This brings us to the final step I performed on the locomotive, Bullfrog snot. 

https://a.co/d/htQQPw2 :Bullfrog snot from Amazon.

Bullfrog Snot is a liquid traction tire (liquid latex I believe?) that you can add to the wheels of locomotives to improve their tractive effort. I remember this stuff was relatively new when I worked at the hobby shop during college, but it works wonders! A little pricey but a single jar will last you forever. 

This stuff is a little tricky to apply and get a nice smooth, even coat. It takes some practice, but it also can be removed easily with a hobby knife if you desire to redo it. 

So now that 312 has the traction tires and the weight, how does it perform?

The Verdict:

After the installation of the weight and bullfrog snot, I took 312 out at one of the TECO shows. I was blown away, 26 cars and a caboose without batting an eye. I started working on implementing the same scheme to my other steam engines in need of aid. 

First up being the brass K-2 ten wheeler. Remember that it could only do about 3 cars before and that was a struggle. 

Now 637 could pull 12+ cars around the layout without issue! 

I'd done it, I'd cracked the solution for improving the tractive effort of small steam engines! 

Give this a try for your small steam, it really does help turn some of the anemic pullers into real powerhouses. 

A Falcon branch combine

C-3E #312 with the combine just south of Denver

One can't look at many photos of my modeled era on the Falcon branch without seeing a combine on the end of the train. The combine assigned to the service appears to be pretty consistent through all the photos. Occasionally a 2 car consist substitutes for it with a separate baggage car and coach, but this seems to become less common through time. However I've never been able to nail down for certainty what car number this combine was.  

A note in the Jim Jones book "D&NO, in the shadow of the rockies" mentions the Falcon branch combine was retired and became the yard office in South Denver. In the "Colorado Road" book, there is a roster at the back of the book of every known disposition of passenger equipment from the C&S. I see that Mail-Coach #327 is the listed as "dismantled 6/44, body to South Denver yard office", so I believe this to be combine mentioned in the book. However the Colorado Road book also mentions that this car was converted to an Outfit Diner in 1923, a full decade before the Doodlebug started running passenger service on the branch. 

In fact, the only form of combine I see that lasted long enough to make it to the end of the Falcon branch was Baggage-Coach #278, which lasted until 12/1940 in that guise. This car was a Pullman built car of correct dimensions from what I see in the photos, it started life as a UPD&G mail car which also lines up with its use on the branch. 

Photos of the grounded car in South Denver don't particularly help identifying which car this was, as the windows have been traded out for building type windows that don't match anything on any combine the C&S had. 

The particular combine used on the Falcon branch also has a unique quirk that makes it stand out in pictures. It has a blunt front end and an actual platform on the rear. Finding models that matched this proved tricky as you'll see in a moment. 

If you have any additional information about the Falcon branch combine, I'd love to hear more about it.

The Model

I plan to have a total of 2 models of the combine. "Why?" I hear you ask. This was a decision I made to help accelerate getting some more accurate trains operating and for photos. I purchased a LaBelle kit to be my combine but knew it would be some time before I got around to actually building it. Later at one of the TECO shows in Colorado Springs, I found another pre-assembled LaBelle combine, this one was not an exact match for the Falcon combine, but it DID have the blunt front end, and an enclosed vestibule on the other end. 

My thought process for this combine was to cut off the vestibuled end of the car and make it just an end platform, while leaving the blunt end alone. This would get me the look I was looking for, even if the windows don't quite match the individual ones on the prototype. Someday I might modify this car to have individual windows, or maybe I'll just build the other kit I purchased at some point and just switch to using that all together. 

The car sat around for a few years before I bought a pair of Central Valley trucks for it at yet another TECO. With a TCA show fast approaching (Spring 2025), I worked on getting the car up to speed for the show. I replaced some missing glass material from the inside of the car and also installed a pair of Tomar marker lights on the rear of the car. For the time being these are battery powered, but someday I'll equip the car for track pickup with a capacitor. 

I hacked off the entire end wall of the car and proceeded to fabricate a new end beam for the car. It's still a touch oversized but I'll get a better file to it here at some point. Some railing from a MDC parts car completed the end look of the car. 

The combine sitting on the bench after the modifications. 

Now with lights!

The Combine running on the tail end of my train at the TCA show, April 2025. The brakeman on the rear deck is actually a 3d print of myself, I got scanned for the print at TCA a few years ago.

At some point I'll get around to getting some people inside of this car along with some interior lights as well. This combine will serve me well until I get around to building the more accurate combine from the LaBelle kit. 

B-4R Build part 1

B-4R #605 Build

What started the C&S project

In the beginning of 2022, I had found the C&S Falcon branch through Jim Jones's "In the Shadow of the Rockies". I had initially dabbled in it with N scale, however that did not entirely go to plan, the lack of available small steam in that scale coupled with my fat fingers and Micro-trains couplers didn't go over very well. Around April was the TCA show in Denver and I had usually operated on the Colorado Rail Link layout in the past. I was on the verge of deciding what to do with these model plans when my friend Leighton mentioned he had some C&S steam for sale. Specifically it was a BLi 2-8-0 that had a cooked decoder, along with a short C&S passenger train. He gave a good price, so I ended up buying the 2-8-0, a BLi SD7 in CB&Q colors, and the short passenger train from him. 

At the time I wasn't entirely sure what era I was going for that early in my modeling of the C&S,  I knew the locomotive was a touch bit modern for the branch but the Burlington logo and C&S sublettering was actually something I was planning on doing at first. My initial plans were to model the branch as it was in its last few years of operation leading into 1935. These plans would change, but for the time being #638 was my only bit of C&S steam motive power. It would be joined in the Fall of 2022 by C&S #312, my first bachmann 4-6-0 rebuild.

#638 running on Rail Link at the April 2022 TCA show. Running behind it is the short passenger train I bought from Leighton.

#638 operating at the first ever Pikemasters Freemo setup in September of 2022.

Passing the water tower at Granger, October 2022 PMRA show in Pueblo. 

After the October 2022 PMRA show in Pueblo, I acquired a few other locomotives to operate with #312 that were much more era appropriate. This moved #638 to sort of back burner status. I displayed it on my shelves along with the Zephyr Connection passenger train as it was the only largish locomotive that could go with the passenger cars. 

At some point in Early 2023, I redecaled 638 as #605, a B-4R which the BLi model was much closer to. #605 also has the morbid curiosity bit of being the locomotive present at Ludlow. I still didn't know exactly what I was going to do outside of the decals, though I did 3d print a headlight and bracket for it. 

#605 at TCA in April 2023. Now sporting the re-decaling treatment. 

#605 on the Eastonville wye at TCA.

I had no definitive plan for #605 outside of occasional backup power use at shows until I saw a very nifty post by Tintic Range Railway on Facebook about a bachmann 2-8-0 that had been backdated  to represent an early 20th century locomotive. I had the inspiration at that point to do the same thing to #605. 

First was to come up with a plan, I figured to make a more accurate 605 I would need to do the following. 

    -Replace the cross compound with a single stage

    -Install some inserts to make the cab windows arch topped

    -Lower the running boards to bottom of cab height

    -install a wooden pilot 

    -build a tender insert to simulate wood extensions 

    -Install an older headlight. 

    -Swap the large tender watch hatch for a smaller one. 

    -Put a spoked pilot wheel on the front of the locomotive. 

I started with the basics; the air compressor before the PMRA show in October 2023

now with a single stage compressor. 

On the Falcon wye at the PMRA show. 

After the show I installed a wooden pilot. This took some trickery to get right, the coupler had to get swapped to a long shank to get the entire coupler head to clear the pilot when it was installed at the correct height on the pilot beam. I may come back and tweak this at some point, but for the time being, it's installed! I also found a spoked pilot axle in my stash of spares and installed it. 

Mocking up with the new pilot. Note spoked wheels too. 

Now with a painted pilot.

I need to swap the headlight over for a box headlight at some point to really sell the look, but just the pilot swap by itself really backdates the locomotive. At some point I'll go back through the list and get more work done on 605, but for the time being it really is looking the part. 

stay tuned for part 2 when the rest of the detailing work is completed. 

A stand in locomotive; B-3H #251

 B-3H #251, a Stand in

Concept

The Falcon branch was primarily operated with the C-3E class of ten wheelers, and a handful of smaller 2-8-0's during the 1920's in my modeling era. I have some other locomotives that sort of fit the bill of "could have been" or that are historically tied to the branch. Case in point is 101, my 4-4-0 that would have been D&NO #5. Its entire life at the beginning would have been on the Falcon line trundling between Denver and Pueblo. Post merger would have seen significantly less of the locomotive on the branchline, seeing these lighter 4-4-0's assigned to flatter territory north of Denver. I wanted to have a representation of the D&NO power, so I made a model of #101 (subject for a later article) for some historical representation. 

My primary backup power for train shows also fell into this category as well. One of the first purchases into the realm of C&S stuff after I decided the Falcon branch was for me was a Broadway Limited 2-8-0 done up as C&S 638 with the Burlington herald. I had to replace the electronics, but the locomotive was a good "Guarantee" for train shows with the freemo. If the smaller cantankerous locomotives wouldn't play, this one would. It lived up to the troublefree locomotive status, being the only locomotive in service for a chunk of the October 2022 PMRA show in Pueblo while 312 was out of service. However this locomotive looked "out of place" with the older 20's rolling stock. Sure I ended up backdating it to be C&S 605, but it still looked too large for modeling a branchline. I started looking for something that would be reliable and more era-appropriate, as I wasn't happy with 312's performance consistency. 

C&S 638 at Pueblo still in the Burlington lettering

C&S #605 after relettering and backdating. Looks better, but still not correct

Roundhouse 2-6-0

I worked a year at a hobby shop in Colorado Springs out of high school (2012-2013) and I remember that we actually had a nice collection of smaller steam being made around that time. Roundhouse had the 2-6-0 and 2-8-0, the mantua mallets were really nice runners...... So I set out to keep an eye out for one of the Roundhouse locomotives to be a good bit of backup power. One night while searching on ebay I found a Roundhouse 2-6-0 of the new run for the nice price of $60. I threw a bid on it, not expecting to win, but I ended up with it in the end. 

The C&S only had a handful of moguls that made it past the 1906 classification system on the standard gauge; 250 and 251 in class B-3H, and 252-254 as class B-3J. The rest of the 2-6-0's were either off the roster, or converted to 0-6-0's by that point. I have been unable to find any photos of 252-254, and only one photo of 250-251. From what information I have, 252-254 also ended up 0-6-0's before long. So that leaves 250-251 on the table. Both are smaller than the Roundhouse 2-6-0, probably better to have a ken kidder base or something like that to start with for accuracy. In this particular case I was more concerned with operational capabilities than accuracy. I chose 251 as the number since I had a photo of that particular locomotive, albeit a scrap line photo. 

The model as it arrived, CN #412

On the test rollers, it turned out to be a VERY smooth runner.

This motor was a bit of a surprise on a modern DCC-ready locomotive, but it runs so smooth and draws so little power. Who am I to complain?

The model arrived, a CN 2-6-0 with a DCC plug in the tender. So what was the first thing I hacked up to make it more C&S like? Er, well...... nothing. See, my end goal with this particular project was to make it #251 in lettering only, maybe some headlight upgrades. I wanted this to be my turnkey backup locomotive, when the bachmann ten wheelers don't want to play, this thing can come out and look somewhat era correct. 

I started with my usual solution of soaking the solvaset into the decals on the model until they start to come off with a little scrubbing. However these decals/pad printing were a little bit stubborn. I ended up getting as much off as I could without causing too much mechanical damage to the paint, and then just painting over the remains with a flat black paint. The boiler jacket also received a coat of flat black. 

Post decal removal and before the jacket was painted.

Comparing the Roundhouse 2-6-0 to the old 2-8-0 kit. 

I didn't do much with the project outside of installing a spare loksound V5 decoder in it and a mega bass speaker. I was trying to knock out more projects before I got too far into this one. In April of 2023, the Pikemasters setup a small layout at Library 21c for the makers fair. I decided that this would be a good test for a still unlettered 251. 

#251 heading up a short train at the 21c maker fair

rolling through a curve during the event. 

I was expecting 251 to give a good performance at the show. I was wrong, it gave an EXCELLENT performance during the show. I had eliminated the notion in my head that it needed a keep alive of some kind about an hour in, as the thing did not care. dirty track? switches? it just powered on. Tractive effort was also remarkable thanks to those traction tires. Eventually I sent 312 out for some laps so I could say that 312 operated at every Pikemasters show in our first season, but 251 was the star of the show. 

At this point I knew this was going to be the backup locomotive, no questions asked. So it got moved higher up the priorities list. Decals, here we go. 

Decaled, awaiting dullcoat.

After a quick coating of dullcoat.

The finished product

The 251 had a flat sided cab versus the inset one the model had. So some filler was applied here. It's not going to be award winning putty work there, but the decals hide it well. 

I put some thinfilm decals on the model and then hit it with some dullcoat. I was super impressed with how it all turned out. 

I have some 3d printed headlights and class lights in the pipeline for this locomotive that will just slot into the holes the factory lights go into. This will give this locomotive a C&S flair without too much surgery. In the end I wanted the minimum amount of modifications to this model so it can function as the trouble free backup, and I'm more than happy with the end result. It's not an accurate #251 by far, but it will allow me some more correct looking motive power than the large consolidation at shows. 

This whole concept may have been for naught in the end however. After I initially purchased this locomotive, I acquired another bachmann ten wheeler of the older spectrum run. This became #310 and was a stellar performer. #310 ended up doing the bulk of the running at TECO before I installed DCC in #251. #312 now had a reliable running mate that was a correct locomotive class at that. Another spectrum 4-6-0 is also due to join the fleet before long. These locomotives have proven to be excellent performers at the TCA show in early April. 

I'm sure #251 will still get plenty of use, however I don't think I'm going to rack up as many miles as I thought I would after #312's miserable PMRA performance. It does however give me a mogul, and that's cool enough for me!

250 and 251; interesting tidbit

In the process of doing some research on the 250 and 251, I found out that these 2 moguls were leased along with a Colorado Midland rotary plow to the Denver, Northwestern and Pacific in the early 1900's to reopen Rollins pass. These engines sure saw a large portion of the state in their travels!

 

Modeling the Colorado and Southern C-3E class part 2

At the end of part 1, we had picked out our candidates for the C-3E class modeling, the bachmann ten wheeler coming out on top of the list for a starting point. Since that article was published, I've built 2 C-3E's and have a 3rd on the shelf of unlikely origin. 

#312, the first victim, er uh, candidate

The first C-3E started out life as one of the new bachmann 4-6-0's in the blue box. This particular one was a NYC ten wheeler I purchased from Amazon. Nothing too fancy here, just the basic model.

#312 started out as NYC 1238

A quick soaking of the old lettering in walthers solvaset left me with a locomotive sans decals. 

#312 now without decals next to K-2 ten wheeler #637

One of the first things I wanted to do was create the headlight on a bracket that the C-3E's all had. I first tried this with a PSC mason bogie bracket and wasn't that impressed.......
 

Mason bogie bracket, not quite what I'm looking for

While thinking on the headlight situation, I proceeded with the sound install. This locomotive received a soundtraxx megabass speaker in the tender along with a Loksound V5 Nano decoder. The speaker is so large I had to do quite a bit of milling on the tender frame and the nano barely fit back there with the speaker. My plan was (and still is) to place the keep alive under the coal load. I also added some coal board extensions at this time. These were done off memory of how I "thought" the boards should look, they never looked right to me and we'll come back to that shortly. At this time I also hit the model with a can of Walschaerts-be-gone (pat pending) and removed the valve gear. This would receive some tidying up before long, I ended up having to order new hardware for the main rods from bachmann, as the normal eccentric crank acts as a washer so a smaller screw can be used to hold everything together. Without the crank the main rod would just fall off, I ordered the larger hex head hardware for the 4-4-0's that don't have valve gear and it was a perfect fit!

312 on the bench with the coal boards and the lack of valve gear.

Around this time, I figured the best way to get the unique headlights for the C&S was to design and 3d print them. So out came 123D and I made up some headlights. I based 312s headlight on the real 312's round style headlight, at the same time I made a box headlight on the same bracket that some of the other locomotives had. I printed these headlights on my Elegoo mars resin 3d printer. They came out very nice, not 100% accurate, but they definitely are recognizable as C&S lights.  

the 3d printed headlight test fitting on the smokebox. Note I've also filed some of the extra valve gear detail off at this time.

With the headlight out of the way, now it was time to work on some other details. When I designed the headlight, I also attempted to design the unique cab that 312 received in the 20's but decided to hold off on that for now. I may revisit this at some point, but I decided having all the C-3E's in their late 1910's appearances would be easier to do. As they later started having odd drivers and tender swap galore occurring.  I also designed a tender bunker that would be a little more accurate than my attempts at building the coal boards. 

#312 posing next to #429 with the other style of headlight. #429 will be subject of it's own post at some point!

In September of 2022, the Pikemasters freemo club hosted its first ever setup at the TECO show in Colorado Springs. I managed to get 312 decaled up on one side with microscale C&S decals before the show and it ran around showing off a short mixed train for the show. 312 did just fine with the 6 car train on this layout, only issues arising were due to some bad trackwork on the return modules and the occasional mis-thrown switch. 

#312 crossing Mike Maline's bridge module.

#312 passing a small 4-4-0 on Mike Malines stock yard module. 

#312's bare side at the show. 

Parked on the spur at Granger on my module.

One thing that bugged me was the decals didn't look quite right. Nobody really makes a C&S decal for standard gauge locomotives pre-burlington lettering that I knew of. But It looked better with the lettering that without it, so a short time later I decaled the other side of the locomotive. 

Now decaled on both sides and with a painted headlight to boot!

I didn't have long to wait until another pikemasters setup bought #312 out to play again in October. This time 312's performance was hampered by a rather stiff grade on the modules, account of the ramp the layout was setup on. 312 spent a fair amount of time in front of 638 showing off my work until, it stopped working about halfway through day one of the show. I sidelined the locomotive on a spur to keep showing it off, at least I could still show the work. On a random chance later that day, I selected it again and it ran. Maybe it overheated or had a fluke? who knows, so I ran it. The next day, same problem, this time straight out the gate. What I was able to determine was there was either a bad connection or a bad spot on the commutator in the motor, as tapping around the motor on the outside of the shell would get it going again. I have heard mixed opinions on the new bachmann ten wheelers because of poor motor quality, so this could be the culprit. Either way, 312 was relegated to double heading for that show because of the grades. 

#312 double heading with #638 at the October TECO/PMRA show.

#312 on display after it stopped running, it ended up cycling in and out of this pocket until the end of the show.

Two more? #310 and #309

One thing I haven't mentioned at this point in the article is I acquired 2 more ten wheelers towards the end of Summer. In August, one of our former members at Pikemasters passed away and his family donated a bunch of items to the club. Included in this I found a brass Gem/Olympia Maryland and Pennsylvania ten wheeler. What I didn't know up until that point is the Bachmann ten wheeler is loosely based on the Ma&Pa ten wheeler. It was a basket case, with some valve gear missing, no drive train, and lots of loose parts and bodywork that needed to be soldered back on. I decided that this would become my #309. Since these photos I have removed the remaining valve gear on this one as well 

#309 next to #312 for comparison. 

Not long after the October show, I ordered a Bachmann Spectrum 4-6-0 from the original run of models. This one a UP model. This would become my #310 and would allow me to put to use some of the methods I had figured out with #312 to practice. First thing that occurred was to equip this one with a sugar cube speaker and Loksound V5 micro.

#309, 310 and 312 all together. 

One of the things I wanted to do at this point was change out the pilots on the locomotives, the Gem model had a a different small style of cow catcher with steps that was very close to what the real 309 had, so I decided this one could stay as is. The other 2 locomotives had bachmann's wide running board across the front, not exactly prototypical for the C&S (or for many roads for that matter....). So I searched for a solution. What I found was PSC #2962 brass pilots were pretty close to what the C-3E's had in some photos. I ordered 2 of these pilots and set about swapping out the pilots. 

310 mocking up one of the pilots. Looks like I'm going to have to remove that cast coupler pocket part......

#310 now equipped with the pilot and a kadee scale head coupler installed. I don't use trip pins, so this will couple to just about everything.

#312 with the new pilot. I think this actually made a decent addition of weight to this thing..

The pilots went on nicely, I had to remove the bachmann metal coupler box to make them fit and look right. I'll make a 3d printed draft gear part to sit here to look the part. I also painted the pilots at this time, and while I was at it, I painted the smokeboxes silver to match the prototype. 

Both locomotives now sporting new pilots and painted smokeboxes. A huge improvement!

One thing I mentioned earlier in the blog is that I wasn't happy with how the decals from microscale looked. I ordered sets from several manufacturers and found the ones from thinfilm were just about perfect! To top it off, they were actually silver, which is correct for the post 1908 era versus white. I destroyed the first set, turns out thinfilm decals don't like solvaset....... But I managed to salvage enough to finish #310. This was a HUGE improvement. I went back and removed the lettering off 312 and replaced it with thinfilm decals as well. 

310 with Thinfilm decals. This set I ruined with solvaset.

312 and 310 showing off both styles of decals, 310 with thinfilm, 312 with microscale. 

Both engines with the thinfilm decals

What's next?

Ok, so both engines look pretty good at this point. What's next? Well there are a few items on the list I'd like to knock out.

    -Redo the coal bunker on 312 and make one for 310. 

    -3d print a headlight for 310. 310 had a rather unique headlight I still need to design. 

    -Install keep alives in both 310 and 312 (insert your brand of capacitor if that's not your cup of tea)

    -backup lights for both engines, 310 had a rather large box headlight, 312 I don't have any clear shots of, but it seems to be a more modern round design. 

    -Install linkage for the unmodeled Stephenson valve gear on all 3 engines. 

    -Repower and repair #309, it needs some real TLC!

    -design and print a draft gear box to cosmetically complete the front of the locomotives. 

    -add crews and piping detail. 

    -add class lights

Whew, that's been a lot of work done in the article at this point! I have an offer from a friend to purchase one more of the spectrum 4-6-0's, which will become #317 in my fleet, this one will be equipped with the large pilot snow plow. 4 of the C-3E's allows me to pretty much accurately model the Falcon branch comfortably. 

Until next time, keep on modeling!

J. Patterson