The General 4-4-0, The Real one and the Model

Nice job!

Peter

Very nice, Charlie.  I don't think your pictures are all that bad.  I was at this museum about a year and a half ago.  It is a great museum with lots interesting exhibits.

Choo Choo Charlie posted:

In a recent vacation to the southeast USA we visited Kennsaw, GA and the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History.   That is home to the General 4-4-0 of Civil war fame.

Here a few pictures.  I am dismayed that my pictures did not turn out very well.

 

 

I was pleased to see how close my cheapo Lionel 8005 DC powered engine is in looks after I modified it.  I had to install bridge rectifier to get it run on AC and installed a switch in the back of the cab to provide for reverse and forward.   I also painted it black replacing the gray.  Weight was also added to the boiler and gold striping was added (from gold Christmas wrap).  I bought it mainly to get the civil war passenger cars that came with it and to have another 4-4-0 to run with my Lionel 1862.  The Great Locomotive Chase reenacted !

 

Lionel 8005

 

Lionel 1862 background and Lionel 8005 foreground

I enjoy modifying cheap locos/cars and not be concerned with ruining the value.  In the case of the 8005 DC at least I can now run it on my ac layout.

We also went to the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, NC, the old Southern RR main repair facility.  The old main building is now used as a museum but several sections of the huge roundhouse are used to repair steam and diesel locomotives.  The turntable still works.  The Texas 4-4-0 was recently repaired and rebuilt here last year and the Texas is in storage in Atlanta until the new Atlanta Cyclorama and Civil War Museum building can be built to house it.

Charlie

Great photos!

The first photo is underexposed because the headlight was affecting the camera's meter telling it there was more light than there actually was.  Most digital cameras have a bracket mode that will take a 3 or 5 exposure bracket if you set your camera for a 5 step bracket and a 2/3 stop increment  one of the exposures would have been right. Or just take a look after each shot and adjust the exposure manually.  If you review your pix in the camera you can delete the poor exposures as your day progresses. The other big problem is the camera is moving in each photo you need a tripod or at least a monopod which is about 75% as effective as a tripod, much easier to haul around and less likely to have someone tell you not to use it in their facility. If you cannot use a tripod or monopod try and brace the camera against a pole, wall or railing.  I drug you first pix into an editing program and lightened it a bit "better" but not as good as a proper exposure to begin with. Depending on how much Light is shining in the photo or in snow you have to tell the camera there is not as much light as it thinks by increasing the exposure compensation.   John

I would like a cheaper option for a scale 4-4-0 of the same era. But until then I will modify the Lionel loco which as you say......is easy to find and cheap. My Toy Story version....

Biggest mod is Cab front and tender load. thx

Awesome. I should look into the progress on the Texas, the engine that pursued the General. Last time I looked I think they had begun to take stuff off(removing the boiler?). Been a bit since I checked. It would be cool to have that restored and have both engines reissued by the manufactures.

Has anyone ever had any success shortening the body to get the wheels under the cab where they belong?  My understanding is that the body and cab had to be lengthened to fit in the original pullmor motor.  The body molding still appears to be the original even though a can motor takes up less space now.  I've looked over some junkers I have but have never been able to figure out a way to shorten the body and the frame without doing major surgery and I'm not sure if the end result would be worth all the work.

John

Thanks for the photo hints and for working on lightening up my photo.  I saved you upgrade.  It is lightened in my Picasa saved file picture but copied to OGR as original.  I am not very good with computer picture editing.

My camera is good quality point and shoot Canon Powershot A720 is.  I like it as it is smallish, has an optical view finer for bright outydoor shooting and a screen and uses two replaceable 2 AA batteries  ( I  find Panasonic eneloop pro to be the best by far).

The loco building was not very bright and my cameras built in flash is small and good for 10-15 ft.  Also the loco room is small and my wide angle made it hard to get far enough away.  The main problem here was the camera was on the wrong mode selection and I did not find out until we left.  Most of the other pictures of the trip were much better.

Charlie

Nice work on the Lionel model.

SMR Trains did an accurately-scaled model of the "General" and the "Texas" (the one they pursued the stolen General with -- in reverse yet). They were out of my price range at the time, but they were beautiful.