Adjustable valve gear in 3rd Rail steam locos?

If memory serves, the Sunset/3rd Rail C&O H-8 2-6-6-6 "Anniversary Series" model had automatically reversing valve gear.

The 3rd-Rail CB&Q O5 Northern also has manually positionable valve gear.

Rusty

I don't know why this hasn't attracted more attention.  To me it's more important to the looks of the model than more and more smoke units...

I was looking at adding this to my locomotives since I saw it on 3rdRail's new Alleghenies. It would be a cool feature but many people have tried to steer me away from doing it. They said it's a lot of work for little gain I dropped it for now in favor of working on my layout but it's my dream to really go over the top on detailing my locomotives by adding this kind of stuff and adding plumbing between the loco and tender, etc, etc.

It all comes down to where you fall on the model/toy spectrum.  To me it adds a lot to the looks of a model if the valve gear moves as its supposed to and the rods are of correct cross-section, not just stamped metal.

I want models to play with basically haha I look for that blend of durable and detailed.

@BillYo414 posted:

I want models to play with basically haha I look for that blend of durable and detailed.

Well, there in lies a problem, i.e. the durability of such "reversing valve gear" is questionable at best, even though it really looks cool, at least for those folks that even know what to look for.

I would like to take a look at what it might take @Hot Water. I love these kinds of projects. I'm sure I'll get to it in a year or two haha goal number one for me is to get the benchwork complete on my layout so I can run some trains already. The 4x8 loop is getting crowded.

Here's a clip of a WBB 4-6-0 that I re-detailed and fitted with valve gear (too large) from a Lionel 4-6-0.  I pinned the radius bar to the bottom of the expansion link (terminology here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walschaerts_valve_gear), putting it in "forward":

As you can see, it's much cruder than the 3rd Rail referenced at top, but it does give the right motion.  I've run it for years with no problem, but then I'm pretty careful with my toys.  Now, it's only unprototypical if I run it in reverse!

As a kid, yeah I would say I would have broke delicate pieces because I basically made my track an obstacle course. As adult, something that delicate would be no big deal to me. It looks great and would survive my railroad no problem.

How did you go about working with the small metal pieces @49Lionel? Do you have a small machine shop?

I didn't do any riveting at all.  The valve gear is basically exactly as it was from the Lionel 4-6-0.  The only trick is to pin the radius bar to the expansion link differently, but I just bent over a small brad.  Works well enough for me.

Gotcha, gotcha. That's cool. Thanks for sharing @49Lionel. The results are great!

I would be curious to see how 3rd Rail did their mechanism. I also would think that Baker valve gear would be a little easier to do.

I've been doing this to my steamers for some time. I can see the difference as they roll past.

I think the NYC L3b Mohawk that I owned for a while had it. My newest 3rd Rail is my L1s but it doesn’t have this feature.

Big Jim, 3rd Rail simply made the bell cranks moveable on the K4. One can use their pinky or a pick to rotate it. I will keep mine close to center since like most 3 rail trains, the valve rod tends to be a bit floppy since there’s no real valve guide. This makes everything a bit too wiggly for my liking.

Close to the center is where they are at speed.  All the way down in the corner is for starting.

I do my own valve gear - some of it gets pinned permanently; some of it is allowed to "float."

I find the Baker gear hideously complex, and often leave out a pair of levers in the reversing area.  When running, I am seldom staring at valve gear motion - it moves, I am happy.  Good thing, because I have three models with Gresley gear, and I have no idea how to "time" it.

I think the Walshaerts is more visual with the oscillating expansion link. It's very rare to get properly bushed valve rods in O scale though so all the motion is lost in the slop in all the links. I can understand how expensive it would be to get all that motion tightened up though. It makes me appreciate all the work the makers put into these models.