New Lionchief Plus bashing project: Hudson --> 4-6-6 tank engine

Cool project Lee.  I have one of the K-Line tank engines and I really do like the look of it, it'll be interesting to see how this one turns out.

Sounds like a fun job.  I look forward to seeing your updates.

On a side, I've been eying that K-Line locomotive myself for switching and light industry use.  How does she run?  Does it have a fan or puffer smoker?

The tank engines came with both, mine has a fan driven smoke unit and cruise.  We had a discussion some time back about them, and other folks had one with a puffer.

Lee; do you stay awake at night thinking up these projects???  Seriously though your talents never cease to amaze me.

Looks like a cool project Lee. I'm anxious to read the updates

Interesting topic. Who has the tooling to make the tank engine now.....Paul

Great!

Getting into my sorta things now!  I wanted to take the Semi-scale Pacific's boiler (same casting as the LC Hudson) and graft it onto the 2-8-2 chassis to make a straight boilered 2-8-0... Then put the tapered boiler back on the 4-6-2 frame to make an early ten-wheeler.

Keep us in the loop, your work is great inspiration!

Thanks,

Mario

Nice project Lee

CNR had a couple of 4-6-4T's for commuter service around Montreal.

I would like to kitbash one !

Here's a much smaller one from the LIRR. Only lasted briefly before being sold to the CNJ.

Scotie

It seems to be a mystery.  IF Lionel has it, I'd buy another once released with Legacy. 

Mr. Willis, I must agree with Spence, I am newly retired, and can not for the life of me figure out where you find the time to do all of your projects! You sir are one of the most talented people I have never met, but would love to!

Progress today.  Cut cab off and did some surgery to the underside of the cab so the new, larger truck will fit nicely.  Bisected the tender: rear portion will be grafted to the back of the loco.  I had intended to use my bandsaw but the LC+ castings completely dulled a bladce in about five seconds.  The saw shown did short work of it and was more than precise enough.  Found the three-axle truck I want to use (already has a Lionel electrocoupler on it) and built a beta-test attachment arm to it and tested the loco with it pulling 12 scale reefers and a caboose to make sure it works well.  I will not have a polycarbonate tube for the new, much larger boiler here until Monday.  By the,n hopefully that portion of the tender is grafted on with the speaker enclosed, etc. 

Great Job Lee.  This will be the one to watch.  I am a fan of the LC+.

But Lee, Lee...you apparently already HAVE a 4-6-6...a K-line. I have one, also (runs well).

So, why...? Sigh. You're worse than I am.

But, looking forward to the finished product.

Unfortunately, this got me thinking about a Lionel PW 221 (the "Dreyfuss" 2-6-4; a "Dreyfette", maybe?) boiler shell I bought a few years ago with a tank-engine project

in mind. Never happened. So many projects (two Lionel 4-8-2's on the bench right now),

so little time. And I work more slowly that do you.

THAT is a cool idea.  

Still very rough yet with a lot of detail work to do.  But it is a tank engine now.  Everything works as it should, including the electro-coupler.

Lee, With all the bashing projects you do have you considered writing another book. I ordered your street books which are excellent and just ordered Veranda Turbine:A Life. Thanks for all your posts they are always informative and sometimes whimsical & definitely worth checking out.

Dave Ripp.

I agree, a locomotive bashing book should be next, some very creative projects have come down this pike.

Cool, Lionel's pre-war 225 might work for that, I may have to steal this idea!

Snow.  Only an inch, but that shuts down central NC.  Its a stay at home, nope, a stay-in-the-workshop day.  The first two steps in the painingt on my completed Gemini-Titan rocket and transport cars are drying overnight, so I went back to the big project, this tank engine.  

It is working out so well!!!!  At least so far.  I ordered a 2" O.D. (1 7/8 inside) polycarbonate tube for my larger boiler, and nailed the cuts exactly on the first try.

First, I cut and ground down various domes, protrusions, etc.  It took only fifteen minutes.

Two inch polycarbonate tube is available in many sizes.  This is two inch, represented roughly another scale foot of boiler width and, the way I will install it, height.

Measured carefully, took my time (about half a hour, and cut the tube just right.  Note the notch and how if fits around the stack. 

The loco runs, although not well: without the rear truck installed (the one I made is in a safe place during this phase, it tilts back enough on its wheelbase that it does not get good contact on the front center pickup and sometimes stalls.  

Boiler height and diameter are almost exactly the same now as on the scale B&A 4-6-6.  

tomorrow, a new cab.

Lee, only the last image shows up.  Something is different in the image properties of the missing ones.  Looks like they got lost in the upload process,

Missing file info:

https://ogrforum.com/sendTempFile/fileUploadProcessOid/230613256/fileUsageType/ATTACHMENT/uniqueOid/40849089924444461/imageType/MEDIUM/inlineImage/true/Presentation1.jpg

Visible file info:

https://ogrforum.com/fileSendAction/fcType/0/fcOid/40849087560559842/filePointer/40989964088351078/fodoid/40989964088351057/imageType/MEDIUM/inlineImage/true/Presentation12.jpg

Well, I deleted and re-uploaded the four photos.  I don't know if that helped.  This website has been strange to me all afternoon.  Its the only website that is acting up, too, so I don't think its my machine, but I rebooted just in case. 

Hope you see them now.  

They're there now Lee, don't know what happened before.

Thanks Gunrunerjohn.  

One photo did not make it in the second upload.  Here it is: had a bit of fun with it.  

The new one appears to have the weight advantage.

The conversion to a tank engine is done.  As you can see I have a lot of cosmetic work to do, but all the surgery on the loco itself is done, and now that really fun detail, make-it-pretty work can begin.  The cab you see here,  white styrene reinforced with repair putty where it ultimately won't show, is entirely structural: in time a slightly larger and taller and hopefully very handsome cab made of thin plastic, with rivets, windows, sills, doors, hatches, etc., will fit over that, as will domes, pipes, and assorted equipment on the boiler and a real coal load behind the cab. 

As it did before the surgery began, it runs superbly (video below) and this particular loco smokes up a storm once I give it five to ten seconds to warm up.  

It is roughly the size of the Boston and Albany tank engine but not of the "high-boiler" design, which I don't favor, handsome as that engine is.  It is a tiny bit longer and with its final cab and domes and a boiler that is actually slightly larger diameter than the B&A's,  will have a lot of gravitas, I think.

Here it is next to my gold standard for "does it mix with scale, the Lionel scale Atlantic.  

The rear truck is the longest three-axle truck in my spare parts boxes.  It turned out to be fairly complicated to build so that it works smoothly, supports the loco well, and pulls a heavy load (15 scale reefers is the most I tested).   It is the rear truck from the tender of a Legacy ATSF Northern 3751 I had that left over after I moved that loco's chassis to an old MTH 2900 Northern body I love, and all the guts of t3751's tender to that loco's eight-axle tender).  I thought hard about if I wanted to use up this wonderful tender on this project, but the long rear truck really makes the appearance of this loco.  Note I added a third center pickup to this loco.  It's in that rear truck.  It helps this lrun smoother a lot.  

Interestingly, this loco will not run without the rear truck in place.  With the diecast tank engine rear added, and the speaker, etc., back there, the loco actually teeter-tooters back so its lifts its front truck and center pickup off the rails.  I had to design the rear truck with a low friction slide underneath the rear body to support it smoother as it turns, of just the right height.  Shades of factory-engineering: it took several days to get right. 

Here it is in action.  It runs as well as it ever did, just as a long tank engine now. . . 

That's great Lee, I'm sending you a bunch of neat projects that I never get around to, you obviously have the talent to do stuff I'd never get done!

Nice work Lee