I'd love to have an PRR H-6. There's a three rail one on eBay for a little under $1000. I know these are hard to find in 2 rail. Would the conversion be a reasonable one?
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Three rail to two rail should be pretty easy. Wheels and a quartering tool should do it.
Pete
Of course, one would have to remove the center rail rollers, make some way for the power pick-up wheels to transfer that power to the motor (copper tabs??), connect the motor power wire to the newly made power pickups, and make sure that the tender and other parts are properly insulated to prevent power interruptions.
Chuck
All that is easy-peezy. Find a nice set of drivers before you get too far into the project. Check with Sunset first. Nobody today is machining drivers.
Are they 63"? I may have a set of Sunset 63", but they are not PRR counterweights.
The pedestal width may be important - USH were a metric dimension. If I remember, I will measure this evening.
A grand sounds like a lot for a Consolidation.
Cannot find the Sunset drivers - might have donated them. I have a USH and a CLW right here ready to measure.
There is a CLW H10 on eBay right now - way overpriced at first, but they dropped it lately to the high side of reasonable. If the H10 is close to the H6, you could simply adapt the main frame, use the insulated wheelsets, and sell the leftovers.
Found the Sunsets. No driving boxes. The USH box is .388"; the CLW plastic box is .372, and for reference, a Lobaugh box is .375, or a nice standard 3/8". FIgure the pedestal slots to be a few thousandths wider.
If you have a good lathe (not a tiny Unimat) you can re-tire the Sunset drivers yourself. It is not difficult - it is time-consuming.
An H10 is WAY bigger than an H6. Also, H6 drivers are 52" vs. the 62" drivers on the H10.
Weaver H10s on the left, 3rd Rail H6sb on the right (click on photo for a larger version):
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Bob2,
If you are referring to that Saginaw, it is missing most of its valve gear.
Good catch, both of you. 52" are going to be difficult to find. Call Sunset - they do have spares of some stuff.
mwb,
correct its an H-6sb
The big issue is quartering the drivers in my opinion. The quartering has to be fairly accurate because the side rods connecting the drivers actually transmit the power to the drivers on 2 rail locos. On many 3 rail ones, all the drivers are geared so the quartering is not so important. '
The second issue is putting the valve gear back on accurately. There is a lot of soldering involved with that I think.
The electrical pickups are dirt simple. On 2 Rail steamers, the loco picks up from one rail through non-insulated drivers. The tender picks up from the other rail through its non-insulated wheels on side opposite the loco. Then a wire is run from the tender to the loco generally with a plug connector. The suggested standard is for the loco pickup to be on the engineer side and the tender pickup on the fireman side.
I am intimidated by trying a project like this. I can easily do the wiring but the driver work seems very daunting.
These loco do show up in 2 rail at 2 rail shows periodically.
Jim, 3 Rail steam drivers haven’t been gear driven since post war. Since the OP is looking at a 3rd Rail brass engine, the wheelsets should be easy to remove. I have not compared 3rd Rail two and three rail engines but only assume they have the same frames. Possibly different steamchests as the crossheads could be closer to the frames in two rail. Someone who has converted a 3rd Rail engine can comment on that. I would be surprised if any soldering is required to make the swap.
Pete
It is a daunting project for the novice, but if you have the skill to machine and install tires, quartering is simply child's play. I have done descriptions and drawings in older OGRs on the topic.
Yes, we still use gears in 2-rail, and they can be the same gears as 3-rail - in this case, almost guaranteed.
Sunset 3rd Rail PRR H6sbs in 2 rail are not uncommon. They show up on tables at 2 rail shows typically for around $600. A word of advice to those new to 2 rail - patience - eventually what you're looking for will show up.
