In Australia, we imported the Baldwin Mikado and it operated on the NSWR as a 59 class. Here is a picture of 5901. Which model in 3 rail looks like it? I would like to get one.
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Here's some more pics on it's Facebook page of 5917.
The highmount headlight screams "pennsy". K line made a nice one, the tender is not that short however.
K3680-9628CC
Originally Posted by RickO:
The highmount headlight screams "pennsy". K line made a nice one, the tender is not that short however.
K3680-9628CC
This actually looks more like a B&O engine to me...
Mark in Oregon
PRR prototype:
B&O prototype:
Unfortunately, there is very little choice of Mikados in the 0 scale market. Basically you have several versions of the USRA Mikado (mostly the light version, but Lionel just added the heavy to its latest catalog), and a Lionel scale Mike that is based on a Southern Railway prototype. That engine comes with a very long twelve-wheel tender. There's also one or two Pennsylvania RR Mikados on the market, but these have Belpaire fireboxes which make them look even less like your photo than the USRA models do. Sunset/3rd Rail has made short runs of several Mikados in brass, but I haven't seen one that looks like your photo.
Your photo shows a locomotive with a straight boiler and the sand dome just forward of the middle. The Lionel Mikado mentioned above does have a straight boiler, but it comes with that very long tender. You are not going to find a match for that short, European style tender in U.S.-market 0 scale.
Here's a link to the Lionel page for their Mikado with a straight boiler. It is not currently in production but is easily found on eBay in a variety of roadnames.
Your best option might be the K-Line mentioned above. It has the wrong shape boiler, but it does have the high-mount headlight and as short a tender as you are going to find. K-Line also made a B&O version that had the high-mount headlight. Other versions of that engine had the headlight in the more common location in the middle of the smokebox.
Classic Pennsy would have had a Belpair fire box with the honched front corners. I can not tell if your Australian Mike has a Belpair fire box. Not all Pennsy had Belpair Fire Box designs.
Weaver Pennsy L1s Mikado.
OK - after looking at the Wikipedia page on the NSWR 59 class, a sentence stuck out
(and assuming that it is accurate): "the design is a variation of the USRA Light Mikado".
Well, there you are. K-line and MTH have made nice USRA Lights - and I just got a good
deal (theBay) on the K-line PRR version with high headlight, TMCC, cruise.
Start there. Build a tender or shorten the original (hacksaw; electronics still fit?). Fiddle
with some details (the fun part). A Delta trailing truck would do a lot for the look. Not to
mention the buffers (and a Janney coupler too - all your bases covered, I see).
It's a compromise, but as the 59 was apparently a USRA-derived loco...and I know that it's out of style around here, but life is all about compromise.
Check out K-Line 3690-0000CC. Tender may be short, but has TMCC - Legacy.
Thanks guys, good info and observations.
K-line made a black version with no road name. Very hard to find but you can make any road you want. Don
True, but that may or may not be better, depending on what features the undecorated one has versus the features you want. K-Line detailed those engines according to the railroad they painted them for. I think the undecorated one was the Southern Railway version, which had the headlight in the center, rather than elevated as on the Australian engine and the PRR and B&O versions. I had a chance to pick up an undecorated one at a good price, but I bought a C&O one to repaint for Milwaukee Road because the undecorated one had the wrong builder's plate and the C&O had the correct one.
Dave: You may want to check out the Legacy K-Line site (Legacy K-Line) for pictures of each individual variation of the K-Line scale Mikado.
Originally Posted by scale rail:
K-line made a black version with no road name. Very hard to find but you can make any road you want. Don
Does anyone know if the loco with the straight boiler was ever oil fired? I'm pretty sure the Mikados that came to Australia were originally oil fired before mostly being converted to coal.
Photo: Top, Lionel decorated as Southern #4815 USRA Heavy, bottom K-Line Lima-built decorated as AGS #6611.
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This actually looks more like a B&O engine to me...
Many of the B&O engines had high headlights, especially in the Ohio area.
Williams made a nice USRA style mike years ago in brass. They are found pretty cheap and make good kitbash material.
The highlight is pretty common on a number of roads besides pennsy. All the B&O stuff I havae seen have them.
The USRA lights seem like the best starting place. The straight boiler has nothing to do with oil firing. It could be straight or belpaire. They change out stuff in the firebox for oil, but I think much else. Pennsy actually used to convert some summer to winter. In summer they ran to some resorts and wanted to run on oil to save caol
