Gave Up Waiting.........

Nice work Don. Will she draw power from the track or overhead.

Brad

Dallee has just what you're looking for.

http://www.dallee.com/E_Units.htm

Look's great Don. I can't wait until you show us the finished product.

Don is that a scratch built shell or one of you brass shells?  I'm looking forward to seeing this one built.  Thanks Don.

Electric RR has the mini series that might work.

http://www.electricrr.com/

How are you going to slow down the high speed of the K-LINE S-2? Charlie

Brad, all my other electrics run off overhead so she will also. Nick, it's none of the above. I hate to say this but it's a Q Car kit I bought sometime in the 90's and forgot about. I'm still unpacking from our move and finding all kinds of things I didn't remember I had. I also found a smaller brass kit of a steeple cab but many parts are missing. Thanks Stewart and Bob, I'll check those out and see what one fits. Charliez, the brass electric I made with S-2 trucks can run slow if your careful. Thanks All. I will keep posting on my progress. It's kind of slow because the other thing that was missing are the directions. Don

Don did all the K-Line S2's have this type of powered truck?

If so Ebay has a few units under $90.00.  If that's the case I'll have to look for a few at the local meets this fall.  I'd love to scratch build 2 steeple cabs and assign them to the Baltimore Traction Co..  

Wild Mary, those powered trucks are pretty much what RMT uses on it's Buddy.

RMT have Buddies on sale this W/E for $58. That's a cheap kit bash, plus you get lots of lights and an e-unit!

WM, yes I think so but I'm not a S-2 expert. I think I bought about eight or nine of them and they all were the same. I can't use the E unit from the S-2 because of it's size. Don

Dave, do you know if the RMT loco's E unit will fit in a 2x2 inch area? Also where are they that cheap? Don

Thanks for the heads-up Dave.  I'll look into them also.  I've got a few other projects in mind for them.

scale rail...I just checked and you should have received the RMT email about the BUDDY/RDC sale that Dave Allan mentioned. Check your spam folder. I also forwarded you another copy of that email about 1 minute ago.

Thanks.

Walter M. Matuch/RMT

www.readymadetoys.com

Walter got it. I don't see a USPS priority mail listing. If it goes regular mail it takes up to six weeks to get to Hawaii. Can it go "if it fits it ships"? Walter this is some service you offer, your great. Got your E-mail thanks and yes I did sign up. Don 

scale rail...Normal USA shipping is by UPS. You can only select another UPS service. If you want USPS Priority to Hawaii, make a note in comment section of order form and we will try to send that way.

Thanks.

Walter M. Matuch/RMT

www.readymadetoys.com

PS: US NAVY 'Pearl Harbor' Water Tower arrives in early Fall 2012.

Walter, Order is going in. Thanks Don

A 2x2 area is sufficient for the ERR Mini-Commander 2, and you'll have conventional or TMCC operation.

A little more progress. Those hand rails look easy. It took me three hours from start to finish. Hand drilling and filing the brass to fit. Now I have to do the other end. Body parts are not in place yet. The three parts are just sitting there. I'm hoping I can get a small E unit in one end so I can put a full interior in the cab. Don

Nothing is so easy as the job you imagine someone else doing.   They look great, this is coming along very nicely.

GR John, It fun here but as I broke a mini bit today so I have to order them from the mainland. There are no hobby shops here. Ace Hardware carries some brass and plastic strips and that's about it. Before we moved I bought all the things I thought I would need. Yea, right. This is a fun project. Don 

No hobby shop?  Where do you live? On some deserted island?

The steeplecab is looking great!  Reminds me of Iowa Traction motor, ex W&OD in Virginia.

Thanks Bill, It's going to be a Milwaukee switcher though it's a little underweight (50 tons) but it's the closest thing I can come up with. It's very close to this guy that I was around as a kid and got to ride in the 80's. Don

Don, this is off topic to the model but, when I was ATSF Road Foreman at Barstow, the UP brought in a new Road Foreman for the trackage rights.  He was ex-Milwaukee Road, UP took him when the west end closed down.  His was the regular Engineer on the steeple cab electric goat at -- I can't remember for sure -- Deer Lodge(?) when they shut off the power.  My next door neighbor when I was a San Bernardino Engineer was the daughter of a MILW Engineer at Three Forks, and he was in the freight pool then, running Joes and SD40's.  I took promotion to Engineer in 1973 with a Winslow Fireman who had previously worked several years as a brakeman on the box cabs in Washington before coming to the Santa Fe.

The Milwaukee electric zones reached pretty far south by proxy.  That's a nice looking carbody, and I believe you're going to have a slick little goat when you're through with it. Sic 'em.

Don can't wait to see the finished product.  Nice work!

Thanks Tom, I never saw the Milwaukee even though I lived for a time in Washington State. Somehow I fell in love with it. I have so many books and videos about the line that I feel like I know it. A few years ago may wife and I drove along the line just to see where it was. Thanks goodness she comes from a railroad family even though it's SP. I spent all my summers as a kid in the Yakima area and watched that little electric work the apple trains. There were two electric motors working. Years later I drove with a friend through the area and the line was still working, though it was part of the UP then. We talked to the crew and they asked if we wanted a ride. It helped that my then girl friend was good looking. They even gave us some tools from the engine house. I still have them. There is something about electric locomotive that really works for me. Thanks for the nice note. 

I had a great client "The Golden Gate Railroad Museum" We shot for years every run of their steam engine. What great fun. The perfect job for me. Don

Nice work there, Don. What were the real ones capable of pulling? In terms of number of boxcars or something comparable.

Bill

Man! I love this forum. In just the last couple of days, here Walt from RMT answers this, and the other day I was talking about Lionel, and Mike Reagan answered.

It's a lesson to those companies who obviously monitor this forum, and don't become involved. GET INVOLVED, HELP YOUR CUSTOMERS, SOLVE LITTLE PROBLEMS BEFORE THEY BECOME BIG PROBLEMS.

Looking good!  Those kits are generally very nice and I think that you can get a lot of detail parts from Q-car for it as well.

Looking forward to seeing what you do with the cab interior, too!

How's your project coming?  Are you going to finish this in YVTC livery?  (They're still running btw but not in active service hauling fruit).  

 Don, try wiring the two trucks in series to slow them down if they run too fast.

Great project, nice work!

Hi Don,

Yesterday, I was looking at a recent issue of Classic Trains, and on page 14 there is a picture of a BCH(BC Hydro) steeple-cab. There is a brief paragraph, accompanying the picture, titled "Long-lived steeple-cab". As a kid, I remember seeing the occasional BCH switcher engine, passing through my area; and I remember the paint scheme being similar, to the steeple-cab in the pictures, livery.

BTW, the engine in the picture is BCH 961; originally built by Alco-GE in 1912 for Oregon Electric; 961 and two other steeple-cabs came to Canada in 1946; and worked in central Vancouver for BCER(British Columbia Electric Railroad).

Eventually, the steeple cab ended up working in Edmonton, Alberta; and, is now part of the Edmonton Radial Railway Society collection.

The BCH scheme looks good on the quirky looking, little electric engine.

Yours is coming along, quite nicely.

Rick

I enjoyed both seeing and reading about this steeplecab project and look forward to seeing it under your equally well crafted catenary wire. Both the lack of off the shelf wire and the steeplecab projects are aspects of model railroading that I have often groused about publically here and I am glad to see you have jumped over both of these hurdles.

I saw another example of a steeplecab, albeit more tilted toward "from scratch", that used two Marx ( inexpensive) slope back tenders attached to either side of a cab placed on a 44 ton switch engine platform. If I recall correctly it was a heavier model, a Class D ..I imagine a Plastistruct styrene cab could be fashioned. I wonder if a Camelback cab may work but finding an odd lot that includes this is pretty nil.

I look forward to another update. After seeing this I may get my Zona saw out of the toolbox.

Electoliner, I'm sorry to say I had to prioritize my time and put the steeple cab project on a back burning. I was doing to many things at the same time. Building my layout had to be number one on my list. I'm building new structures (two right now) and framing. I found I wasn't getting much done jumping from project to project. I really like that little electric and will get it done as soon as I get the layout running. I'm filling almost the entire four car garage so it's going to be a big job. I'll keep you posted. Don

Don. That little electric is looking fantastic. I'll keep watching your progress! Thanks Terry

Don,

I am waiting anxiously to see the finished Steeplecab. What a fabulous build !

Will you paint it the same as the Steeplecab in the photo?

You are the Steeple Man !

Let's get going on pictures of the new layout, professor !!!

Eliot

Don:

Hurry, hurry, hurry!  Gotta get that layout up and running...complete with scenery, of course! 

Actually, folks, Don will have a catenary article in our June issue, so I guess I'm responsible, in part, for taking up a bit of his time.  In Hawaii, though, the concept of "time" is relatively meaningless.

Eliot, it must be painted Milwaukee, even though they used a larger version. It's the closest thing I can find. Don

I really want someone to make that in O. They worked the yards in Deer Lodge, Harlowtown and Butte.