What 3-rail steeple cab electric locomotives are out there?

ETS Electric Train Systems

Not a steeple cab but Lionel made a NYC S1 in the early 2000's.

Also not steeple cabs  but box cab are the Lionel 520 and the Kline and soon(?) RMT 520 clone electrics.

I am am sure that the scale guys have more options in this realm. There have been various kits of Steeple cabs and parts. Q-car maybe.

Overland made the GE/Mliwaukee Road steeple cab switcher in 2-rail. If mine is typical, they were beautifully detailed but the assembly quality was the pits. One of the power trucks fell off of mine when I took it out of the box and a lot of the detail parts are also rattling around the box due to bad soldering. One of these days I'm going to fix it, paint it, and set it up for 3-rail operation by putting the pickups and electronics in a trailer boxcar. 

Bob:  That Overland steeple cab:  Was it a good replica of the Milwaukee's steeple cabs?  I know that they are quite a bit larger than the regular, off-the-shelf, GE "pups" like so many RR's had.  I wonder if they could be converted to 3rail operation fairly easily? 

Scale Rail has converted some early brass models of the Westinghouse-Baldwin 50 ton steeple cabs, to three rail by using tinplate power trucks under them.  I have one of these and i always intended to mount rollers under it for three rail operation.  The wheel flanges are a bit larger than NMRA scale and I think the engine would track OK on Gargraves and Ross switches, if I could build in a TMCC command control system.  Problem, of course, is that the Milwaukee never used any 50 ton W-B steeple cabs, and that they do look different than the GE variety, so this factor always kept me from getting too excited about taking on this conversion project.

At this point, I own three classes of Milwaukee electrics:  an MTH BiPolar, a Weaver Little Joe and an MTH four unit box-cab set.  Missing, of course, are the Westinghouse Baldwin massive passenger box-cabs and the lowly little GE steeple cab switchers.

Paul Fischer

What I'd love to find is something like this:

This looks like it would weigh in at the 25-35 ton range.

Don't yell, but the much-maligned PW Lionel "44 Tonner" and clones is actually a fair

starting point for a GE (and others) 60 - 80 tonner, at least so far as the body shell goes.

Lionel's original tooling is not inaccurate, but it was mis-named right from the start.

Why, I don't know, as had Lionel said "60 tonner" or some such they would have been pretty close, for their market.

I have also seen this loco converted to a fair representation of a generic center-cab electric.

Getting it to sit down on the trucks can be some work, I imagine. Only the WBB version

with a modern motor would really be worth it. Sometimes these things go for $75 new -

where's the risk?

Rail Baron,

One that I was wanting to build was operated on one of the early short lines in my town. It was, The Tidewater Southern Railroad. It was sold to the Sacramento Traction. It would be an easy one to kit-bash. I can't do it anymore due to my tremors. 

That one is interesting; the car-body looks like it is wood-planked, and spoked wheels too. Those sideframes are locatable in O scale, and the drive is do-able with a center motor maybe. I don't know of anything manufactured that's close, except to hunt around in the brass world.

The WBB and MTH 44 tonners are diesel electric, not steeple cab electric locomotives.

Both are cool, but yes, there are none, except for ETS, little electric motors available. 

Someone at my LHS put MTH trolley power trucks under a resin body kit, and it looked wonderful. I feel there is a market for such things, and would love to see them made available.

I wonder if my best be might be to scratch a new body shell to go over a 2-truck chassis from one of the trolleys available.

If you want to see Baldwin-Westinghouse steeple cabs, they still run on the Iowa Traction Railroad in Mason City, Iowa.  There are many pictures available on line if you want an idea of what they looked like

RJR:  Yep, Been there, done that.  I was out at the Iowa Terminal a while back.  Let's see now;  I believe that it was in 1969 or 1970.  BUT, from your photos, it really doesn't look much different.  Same W-B steeple cabs, same ROW and overhead.  Really a neat place to visit. 

But they don't have any GE steeple cabs, to the best of my knowledge.  I think that the GE's were a bit older, at least of an older design, than the W-B's that these guys use.  I remember when the North Shore had about five or six of them (where the term: "pups" were first used) and they served until the end of service in 1963.  The Milwaukee Roads were used until the end of that operation in 1974.

Paul Fischer

I know it says GE.

I know it has an electric motor.

But isn't the "44 ton" post war a diesel?  

Anyone got a couple of spare scale 1930's ford grills

There really isn't too much out there that I know of. But here's a Nov kit-bash thread you might want to peak at if you bored. 

(this is red & black, a color shot is in the link)

 https://ogrforum.com/t...e-let-seethem?page=1

It is in WAG paint at Lake Shore Railway Museum in North East, Pa

A plating-over job on the radiator grilles and a pantograph would approximate the Canadian locomotives on the Niagara Junction railway.

I am building this one to use on a Williams 44T chassis. I will have to mill the fuel tank off and scratch build the truck side frames.

Yes, this is the route I decided to go also, except I will be using an old Lionel 44 tonner as the base chassis. I will probably just do a plasticard body shell and just leave the trucks as is.

-S

Just thinking about asking once again if some company would build a mass produced small electric. I have (like others) to build my own. My short mining line has two working and that's all it needs so I just sold my last of three extra brass shells. My little electrics run with K-line S-2 diesel power trucks and electronics. Don

I have this guy running on the Seattle & Yakima RR

MTH issued the L5. Here is mine:

 Pat, what a monster!

Does this count?

Moonson,

Absolutely gorgeous engine! I think, technically, that's a boxcab. A steeplecab or center-cab has the cab in the middle. The photo is of two Pennsy P5a's the front one. a P5a modified is a steeplecab and the rear one is a P5a Boxcab.

Let me stir the pot. 

If the modified P5 is a steeplecab, then why not also the GG1?  To me, a steeple cab is when the cab rises above most everything else so the those in the cab have a 360 degree view, and is centered in the loco

Good point RJR. The P5a Modified uses the GG1 design so by my definition, the GG1 is a steeplecab although not usually thought of as a steeplecab. 

Wikipedia gives this definition:

A steeplecab design has a central (or nearly central) driving cab area which may include a full-height area in between for electrical equipment. On both ends, connected to the full-height cab areas, lower (usually sloping) "noses" contain other equipment, especially noisy equipment such as air compressors not desired within the cab area. When overhead lines are used for power transmission, the cab roof usually supports the equipment to collect the power (either by pantograph(s) bow collector(s) or trolley pole(s)), although on some early designs (such as the North Eastern Railways Electric number 1 -- later known as an "ES1") a bow collector might be mounted on one of the bonnets (or "nose hoods")instead.\

Steamlocomotive.com in it's description of the GG1 and the P5a has this statement:

 As a result of the accident the remaining 28, P-5a locomotives were redesigned to include a steeple cab. 

I vote for the GG1 being a steeplecab. What do you think?

There have been several imported in brass (Overland, Custom Brass, etc.) and you might be able to track one down at the East Penn meet that held every other year - 2017 next.  There were quite few others beyond those both imports and some kits that were designed for 2-rail drives (Wagner or Q-Car), but none recently.  But none in 3 rail.....

Q-car still listed bodies and full kits on their web site last I looked - resin bodies.   But, you're on your own for a 3-rail drive

The one body shell that's still pretty readily available is the one that was imported by IMP that you can find on eBay just about once a month, if not more frequently.  I still have 3-4 of those about in the project queue to restore and re-motor.  These were actually imported in both 2- and 3-rail configurations.  Finding one with a decent functional drive in it might prove challenging.

Thanks for the feedback, Pat Kn. Good to know.

FrankM.

I am just starting to work on that same shell in two rail to represent JW&NW's 400

C.M. did you buy that shell from me? I have sold three of them in the last month. Don

I believe so! I just put Archer rivets on to the shell!!!

Philadelphia "PTC" had some of these that were used  to service the trolly lines (MOW) They looked like the one above however the old memory is not what it used to be, thank god for GPS or I never find where I live at times.

 I believe that this was yours; thank you so much for offering it for sale. It is coming along bit by bit....

Iowa Traction #50, once known as Washington & Old Dominion #50, ran in "my back yard". 

Here's a couple of Standard Gauge ones.

Steve

my preference always favors steam, but the AmFlyer 1218 is one electric outline locomotive i own...

most commonly seen in black, they are not that rare despite being from the 20's.

cheers...gary

Farmer Bill, didn't know you were a local boy, or that old.  W&OD horn used to wake me Sat morningswhen I first cane to this area.

Some progress on my efforts using an old Lionel 628 engine chassis.

Still a ways to go, but I'm happy with how it's coming along.

S

http://imageshack.com/a/img901/4944/hBMM06.jpg

For many pictures of steeplecabs, and many other locos, see:

http://members.trainweb.com/be...ndloco/btphotos.html