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!