Last year I got a conventional Lionel Mogul that never ran anywhere near as smoothly, as slowly, as my other Lionel steamers. I think it had slightly binding gears. Maybe I could have sent it back but I decided not to . . . I put it on static display on my layout (it is very good looking) with a generic tender and used its tender for another project.
Friday another WBB Baldwin 10-wheeler I had ordered arrived (I love them), which I took apart this Saturday afternoon to study the feasibility of using two of the chassis to make a small articulated locomotive (conclusion, very do-able: I'll probably do it sometime this coming winter).
And I was holding the WBB chassis in my hand when I happened to look up and see the Mogul and . . . the result is a really splendid little locomotive, and fun, satisfying project. The detailed Lionel Mogul body grafted onto the WBB chassis without much fuss, although it required about six hours of detail work to fill in gaps, align things, etc., and make it all solid, straight, and tight.
The Mogul body is about 5/8 inch longer so I took its front truck and made it the rear truck here - hence I have a Pacific. I added a bit of detail to the WBB tender (rear ladder railing, front ladder, the lamp from the front of the WBB loco on the rear) and filled in some details on the Mogul to make it look good (ladders up front, etc.). I used the WBB smoke unit (the Lionel fan driven would not fit in the space the WBB chassis gave it without moving a electronics board I judged best to leave alone).
The photo and video show it as completed, but not yet repainted - I've touched up w. flat black where I used sheet styrene to fill in the lower boiler, etc. and the cab floor, etc., but nothing else.
This is a very pleasing little locomotive. The heavier weight of the Lionel body seems to make it sit on the track better and run smoother, and of course the detailed Lionel body looks so good. I was worried that the rear truck I added might not behave, but this loco is handling 36" curves in the photo and it handled switches backwards and forwards with aplomb and switchbacks, too.
