Hello

Welcome to the forum Davy.

Hi Tom, nice to meet you ,cheers  DAVY

 Welcome aboard Davy.  I to am fairly new here and have started aquirring O scale 2 rail as I want something to run during the winter months when I can't get out to run on my garden railroad.  Nice to also here that you're from Scotland.  I still have extended family living over there, but I'm not sure where as I'm still doing my research.  My grand mother was born in Glassow and moved to the states when she was 14 years old.  Maybe someday I'll get over there.  Keep us posted on what you're doing.

Chuck 

Hi Chuck,

          Thanks for the welcome, I was heavily into garden railroading too. B&O in 1/29th scale Aristocraft etc., G tracks are still downand in place but have opted for O scale 2 rail as I like the better choice of models and quality/realism in O. I live just outside of Glasgow.10 minutes from here to the city centre. If  can ever be of help with your family-tracing let me know. Still feeling my way with ths forum.Once I suss out how to post pictures I'll post some of my G scale pics and hopefully the O stuff as things progress.  Cheers DAVY

Hi Davy!

You are in luck. I can think of 5 people who visit the forum who are also heavily into B&O. Being so far away, I'm curious, what was the draw for you to the B&O? I know I'll get some grief from my B&O friends for even having to ask.

Hi Davy, welcome to the forum.  Looking forward to your photo's.

welcome aboard Davy. nice having you join us, you'll enjoy yourself here.

Cheers.

Welcome Davy! Great to find another interested in the B&O. I know of another Scot who is also interested in the B&O.

For me, the B&O has been a life-long fascination as a number of family members

worked for the company. My own special interest is B&O's New York Terminal operations, as I'm a former Staten Islander.

You say you have a Westside B&O P-7. I do as well and am wondering if yours had been built with narrower than NMRA standard wheel gauging. It's not so narrow as P-48 but falls somewhere between as "PSC gauge." I discovered that in a Precision Scale catalogue. I know of other Westside locos built in the 1970s that had the same gauge issue. Many became 'shelf queens' or stayed hidden away in their boxes rather than being used on model railway layouts.

I reguaged the wheel sets and drivers on mine. The drivers needed washers behind them to take up excess lateral play. After that, the valve gear hanger had to be replaced with a wider one as the rods and valve gear were jamming on each other.

It now runs quite well. There are a number of detail corrections needed and then paint and lettering. However it performs so well now, I'm reluctant to take it apart to do that work. Here it's with a seven car "National Limited" heading east on my layout what was under construction a few years ago.

The B&O traditionally had strong ties to England, since that is where most of the financial capital came from to build it beginning in the 1820s and even up to the 1930s. Also, B&O was an early US railroad that had to invent itself as it was being built. It relied on the most up to date and latest English engineering practices when getting itself established. Hard to think of anything from the 1820s and 30s as being 'modern' or 'cutting edge technology,' but it was at one time!

We B&O people sometimes tease claiming our favored railroad was the "Best & Only." Others in retaliation say it was merely "Beaten & Old." Yet even the fabled Union Pacific was requried to use B&O engineering standards by the federal govenrment

when building the first transcontinental railway line across the US in the late 1860s. 

Hi Guys,thanks to all of you for the warm welcomes.I'm really looking forward to talking trains to you all and sharing knowledge and all the usual stuff . To Chris ., "what drew me to the B&O "? Well it all started a good number of years ago when I started into G scale modelling. I bought an Aristocraft 4-6-2 pacific locomotive and being the curious character I am I started trying to find out what the model was based on. I knew nothing about US steam trains at the time at all. Anyway I discovered that the model was based on the B&O P7 "president" class. Thru researching them my interest in them grew and grew and they are my favourite US steam locomotive class ,especially the modernised P7c variants.In turn I became interested in the B&O scene in general. I don't worry too much about the rolling stock being super accurate but I have a thing about innacurate locomotives I like my locos to look "right".Maybe not to the last rivit,but in basic detail and timescale. To Ed (Bommer), yes Ed that loco in the picture is the same one as I have. Its currently with a friend of mine who is a superb brass scratch-builder. I bought it off ebay and it hasn't turned a wheel yet,but I have no interntions of it becoming a shelf queen.I'll get him to do whatever needs done to it,re-gauged or whatever and it will be getting its B&O blue paint job and decalling.I will also be getting him to fix the rear tender detail because those B&O P7 8 wheel tenders were different from the samhongsa model. They never got the O gauge model right in that department,though funny enough they got it right in their HO model. With the westside model having all box-spoke drivers it will have to be tarted up as 5314 or 5316 because they were the only two P7cs to have all box-spoke drivers in later life if I remember right.And 5316 in its final years sported a 12 wheel tender too. One question you might be able to answer Ed,its a real bug bear for me. As far as I can make out all the P7s are supposed to have been all over blue with graphited smokebox faces and smokestack in their final years.Everything seems to support this However in one case P7c 5308 when it took the number 106 in the last year of operation seems to possibly have gone thru an overhaul and been given a coat of freight loco black. So it would seem on a couple of photos and in a video I've seen but it could be a trick of light /old photographs. ??? Do you happen to know. Also the P7ds 5301 to 5304 Cincinattians,have you nay idea what their final duties were,where and when they finally dropped their last fires?I've seen evidence of P7s on freights ,even double headed on freights,even switching towards the end but always wondered how the 4 streamliners ended up ?Anyway, plenty  more to talk about I'm sure.  Thanks again guys.    Cheers  DAVY

Welcome to the form Davy, from a fellow Scot,I was born not to far away in Ayr, Ayrshire my parents decided however to move whilst I was still a lad to Australia and Ive been modelling in O for over twenty years now. I only have one B&O loco an EM-1 O! and an 0-4-0 Switcher Ive started to scratch build. I think you'll find it quite pleasant here, Welcome again!

Stephen from Down Under      (cTr...Choose the Right)

Welcome Dave.

Another B&O (and some other roads) Fan here. I am settling into O 3 rail myself as a good compromise. You will find a good number of people here similar to your interests.

Good luck!

I particularly like and two Williams 2 rail USRA supposedly light Mike but these models I've noted aren't really USRA light Mikes at all but appear to be USRA heavy pacific tops mounted on 2-8-2 chassis

The USRA light Mike used, basically, the USRA heavy Pacific boiler. Change the sand box and the position (I think) of the steam dome and you'll be pretty close.

Hi Steven and Lee thanks for the welcome. Aye rex you are right about the Williams mikado but I have a proper westside USRA light pacific (B&O Q3) so they will never look right side by side purporting to be the same thing. So I did the Williams 2-8-2s up as L&N heavy mikes as, apart from the over slim boilers they physically look very close in over all detail. My Weaver USRA light pacific decalled for L&N and one of my two Williams 2-8-2s done up as L&N USRA "heavy" Mike 1795,3rd photo shows the real L&N  J4 hevay mike 1795 in 1948  

Welcome to the OGR forum davy.  You'll have plenty of company modeling the Best and Only.  Cheers!

Welcome Davy! Enjoy the forum!!

The 106 was in a grade crossing accident late in 1956. It was repainted black afterward and retired in 1957.

Also the P7ds 5301 to 5304 Cincinattians,have you nay idea what their final duties were,where and when they finally dropped their last fires?I've seen evidence of P7s on freights ,even double headed on freights,even switching towards the end but always wondered how the 4 streamliners ended up ?

They still worked the Cincinnatian and other trains between Cincinnati OH and Detroit MI into the mid 1950s, then gradually replaced by diesel power.  As they came to be in need of repair, they were withdrawn from service. The 5302 was scrapped in 1956 after a derailment and roll-over, I think. It never was given a low number. The other three were renumbered 109, 110 and 111, then retired in 1957. All looked rather poor by then, some losing their stainless steel striping (which was 1" wide kitchen counter-top edging!) to painted white lines as well as missing some panels from their streamlined shrouding.  Ever cash poor B&O scrapped its steam as it was retired.

EdB

Hi Ed, thanks for your response. Especially the information about engine 106 and her late black paint job. As for which locos had box-spoke drivers ,this is somehitng I have researched quite intently. I'm sure 5314 wasn't the only one with all box spoke drivers towards the end. I'm pretty sure another (5316?) also had box spoke thru out her life. I will check and get back to you . I agree with you about the Samhongsa tender. I'll also get back to you on that. I have the same 8 wheel tender in HO and it looks perfect. I'll send you pics. I also have a good detail picture of the top of the tender at the B&O museum attached to 5300. As for the smokestack on the Samhongsa model; ,no it doesn't look right. Too tall and too thin too.The P7c type seem to have wider squatter stacks. Anyway,its great talkin to you Ed. More to follow  DAVY  PS  Incidentally I read somewhere recently that Sunset are supposed to be doing the P7c at some point ???. 

Hi Ed, yes there was another locomotive had all box-spoke drivers and it was 5316 .

Hi Guys, don't know what I did wrong with this posting but anyway as you can see from the above pictures. This HO version of B&O P7c 5316 has a correct version of the B&O 8 wheel tender as applied to most P7s in their later years. The last photo is of the tender attached to B&O P7 5300 resident at the B&O museum. Showing clearly that the O gauge Samhongsa version by westside got it wrong .

Davy,

Nothing wrong with the posted photos. This forum program does squeeze them somewhat, depending on size. If you double click on a squeezed photo, it will reopen with the correct proportions.

Hi Ed,thanks for that.    Davy

Good Morning Davy,

Take a look in the "For Sale" section.  There is someone selling alot of B&O items in 2 rail. BTW whats the time difference Scotland and the USA?

Chuck

Hi Chuck,

          Thanks for the tip off. The time difference between Scotland the American EST is 5 hours ahead. Sorry for the delay in replying I was away over the weekend.

 Cheers  DAVY

Welcome to the Forum, Davy. There are a lot of B&O people here, as well as 2 rail scale people. This place is quite a font of knowledge.

Hey Davy,

A little off from here but I'm selling an Aristo-Craft 2-8-0 in B&O livery. Brand new in original box's.

Contact me at cncrr@frontier.com

Chuck

Hi Davy....welcome to the forum. The B&O had a huge presence here in Pittsburgh and all of Western Pennsylvania. When I was a lot younger, I off-loaded a lot of B&O boxcars where I worked.

Looks like you have a nice collection of locomotives....check out Weaver Models....they have some very nice wagon-top boxcars, specific to the B&O. Also, Lionel made three cabeese in the wagon-top construction mode....all in B&O.

The best feature of this forum is that you will get an answer to any question you have on any modeling or prototype RR question. These guys (and some gals), really know what they are talking about!

Happy modeling! Tom Shirey

Hi Tom, thanks for your welcome.    I'm lookin forward to getting into O scale. I've actually collected a fair bit of B&O stuff in the last couple of weeks. I'm hoping to start rehashing/rebuilding and detailing locos in the near future and I'll be posting pics and stuff when I get started.  I have a nice Sunset 3rd rail wagon top caboose in 2 rail and a Lionel one in 3 rail which will be getting converted ASAP.  All the best  DAVY 

Hello Davy,

As I am sure you will find out there are quite a few of us from "over the pond" on here - not all B&O fans I am afriad but Hey you can't have everything!!

MIKE