I didn't like the look. It's that simple.
- The operation was technically a success, that patient lived through the surgery, it all went according to plan, etc.
- But the loco didn't have the powerful-in-a-small-package look I wanted. Somehow the esthetics were slightly off: the three-axle truck didn't quite work given the very long rear section s and short driver wheelbase, etc., or something. But whatever: it just didn't look right to me.
- I'd painted it satin black, but it turned out far too glossy.
- I didn't like the white stripes. Yes, the B&A 4-6-6 tank has them, and I;m not sure I like them on it, either.
- It would not pull well - only six cars max. This is something I discovered only last night. I had cut the original metal tender in half and grafted its rear half to the loco. It was a HEAVY tender, and thatlong half sticking out the back moved the loco's center of gravity to right over the rearmost set of drivers. Any substantial load pulling on it tended to rock the loco back enough so that the front two sets of drivers lost almost all their traction. It was wheelspin all the time with more than six cars.
So, it went back to the operating table where I removed the rear section (everything behind the cab) and built a new shorter but taller rear section, just big enough to house, with a bit of squeezing, the speaker. It is very lightweight plastic. The center of gravity is now where it should be, right over the center set of drivers.
- And I painted it flat black when done.
- I mimicked the shape of the B&A coal load area. That, the shorter rear section, which allows the rear truck to be moved about 1/2 inch forward and yet that truck still looks long enough now, all seem to make the esthetics work for me . I love its look. It's just very handsome, very complete in its appearance now. And it pulls up to 15 scale reefers - probably more but that was all I had set up for a test.
As was my goal all along, still it fits in around scale locos, and particularly it "mixes well" with Lionel's scale Atlantic, Legacy 0-8-0s and small Pacifics like the Southern Crescent. It looks like it belongs, and is as handsome as any of them.
I liked this project so much I ordered another LC+ Hudson so I can do another project. I plan to spend an hour or two tonight looking through E. d. Worley's Iron Horses of the Santa Fe Trail to find something I can make the Hudson into a scale model of. But it will be fun, whatever it is . . .
James
