Western MD N scale, 1940-1950

[Flatrat]

Greetings,
I've been modelling southern RRs in 1:20 an 1:29 scale and am in the process of building a garden layout at my new home in Asheville.

It has a bonus room in the basement that has an unused corner 8'x 5' space that i wish to build an N scale layout modeling, [loosely], the area i was born and raised in, central MD. I am interested in manufacturers that build good operating steam and early diesel locomotives [40's to 50's]  in Western Maryland 'livery'. I would like to hear other folks' advice about who makes, and the availability thereof, good operating engines for WM as I have not played with N scale trains in close to 30 years and they were kind of 'fiddly' back in those days. I think there has been some improvements since then. I'm currently thinking of a basic set up with track power.

Any thoughts regarding my plans will be most welcome.

Thanks,
Scott

[Bob Bufkin]

You came to the right place for that question.  Got several WM modelers here.  Lee, chim in and give him the info.

[Flatrat]

Thanks.
I am from Westminster MD and WM trains ran just past my Grandmother's lower property line along Liberty St.. My Mother and Uncle grew up watching the Fireball, fast freight, locos pull freight and coal and feeling their house rumble when the trains passed by. My older brother and I used to chase Geeps in circus colors with our 35mm cameras during the early 70's from westminster to thurmont to hagerstown and points west of that.
I am intersted in modelling WM from my Mother's generation with the fireball livery on a layout of rolling hills that represent that area [loosely] for a nostalgic perspective and to share with friends down here what the WM was like... back in the day.

Thanks again,
S

[GaryHinshaw]

Welcome Flatrat.  Lee must be asleep or something, but you might enjoy his "bliggety-blog" in the meantime:

http://wmrywesternlines.blogspot.ca/

-Gary

P.S. Lee, what's with the .ca domain name, eh?

[brokemoto]

There are only two steam locomotives, of which I am aware, that come painted for the WM. 

1.  The Bachmann SPECTRUM consolidated bears a remote resemblance to a class of 2-8-0s that Baldwin built.  ALCo built something similar, in fact it may have  been a copy of the Baldwins.  While the Baldwin builder's plate is visible even to the naked eye on the B-mann, the number belongs to one of the ALCos.  The B-mann 2-8-0 is a very good locomotive.  Later versions come with DCC already installed.

2.  Rivarossi 4-6-6-4.  This is really a UP challenger with WM fireball hung on it.  It is not easy to find, either.  It does not run badly, but the runnability is far below to-day's standards for steam locomotives.  The main problem with it is the limited electrical contact.  Four drivers on the forward driver assembly pick up on one pole, the opposite four drivers on the trailing driver assembly pick up on the opposite pole.  Wiring this to an all wheels live tender would improve its runnability.   I do not know if this is still in production.  I see it rarely at shows.

When dealing with N scale steam locomotives, it is important to remember Miranda's Maxim as explicated by ke:  'The poor performance of many N scale steam locomotives is directly attributable to poor electrical contact'.

You have a larger choice in the diesel department for WM fireball:

1.  The Atlas Baldwin VO-1000 comes painted in WM fireball, in two road  numbers.  This is currently out of production, but if you look, you may be able to find it.  I do not remember if Atlas issued these in speed lettering.

2.  The Life-Like BL-2 came painted for one road number in fireball.  There was a plastic frame and split metal frame version of this one.  The plastic frame was not bad for its time, and is an excellent puller, but the split metal frame version is what is up to to-day's standards of runnability.  There is also one painted in speed lettering.  I suspect that with some work, one could get the shell from the plastic frame version to go onto the split metal frame.  This one is out of production, as well, but these seem to pop up at shows more frequently than many other fireball WM models.  I suspect that at some point, Walthers will re-issue these.  As there were few useers of this prototype, I would suspect that the WM road name would re-appear.  The re-issue might not come any time soon, as the rumour mill has it that WKW is having problems securing factory space in China.

3.  Intermountain F-7.  These are excellent runners and good pullers.  There have been gripes about how the shell rides on the power chassis, but overall, these are good models.  The WM versions are out of production, but I have seen both the fireball and speed lettered versions at shows.  Tex'N'Rails may still have some of these.

4.  Walthers RS-2.  These are good runners, and pull acceptably in pairs.  Due to the size of N scale, it is often difficult to get the prototype's pulling power out of N scale road switchers.   Two road numbers.

Life-Like issued FA-2s in speed lettering, but only in the plastic frame.  When it did a re-issue of FA-2s with split metal frames, it substituted L&N for WM, which was surprising for LL.  LL, at the time, was in Baltimore, and if a road that ran in Maryland had the prototype of a model that it sold, LL would issue it in that road name--as a rule.  Walthers has since bought out LL's model train line.  If you can find the LL WM FA-2s, you can buy any road name metal frame FA-2s.  With a minimum of work, the FA-2 shells from the plastic frames will go onto the metal frames.

I seem to recall that Atlas sold an RS-3 in speed lettering, but I do not remember.  As I do not run anything on my twentieth century pike that appeared after 1955, the only speed lettered equipment that I would have would be the FAs or the two F-3s that the railroad had rebuilt into F-7s.  I seem to recall that WM painted the FAs into speed lettering in 1953 or 1954.  The F-3s to F-7s came back from GM in 1954 or 1955.

Depending on you willingness to paint, or bash, there is more that you can do.  Lee did a nice job bashing a WM pacific from a Model Power
USRA pacific.  The Bachmann SPECTRUM USRA standard tender is available in WM with the fireball herald.  The SPECTRUM tender is all wheels live, which will improve the performance of MP steam.  I seem to recall that WM passenger power did not have the herald on the tender, but I am not sure of that.

There are a few ways that you could do the F-3s-to-F-7s.  You could get F-7 shells from IM and the F-3 fan panel, then swap out the panels.  You could buy Kato F-3s and add F-7 grilles.  I suspect that there are other possibilities.  You could also leave them as F-3s, since F-3s would fit your era, but you would have to paint and letter them.

Microscale sells fireball and speed lettering decal sets, but they are for the hood units.  The major problem is the nose herald for the speed lettering.  You can chop up several of them to get close on the FAs, but there is a fit problem on the F-units.  North East decals also sold WM fireball sets.   That company is out of business, but there are sets out there.  You will need to coat the sheets with Walthers decal film, as they tend to discombobulate with age.

You do not mention how far into the 1950s that you want to go, but I suspect that you do not want to go much beyond 1955, which is why I stress fireball.

[Flatrat]

That is just the kind of information I was searching for on reliable modern locomotives. I have already seen Lee Weldon's excellent website on his WM layout. Great stuff. I recently pulled my old N scale locos out of storage and the old RS-3, Pacific, PA and 0-6-0 switcher amazingly still work. I plan on repainting the Alco RS3 to WM and if it does not perform well it can still look nice sitting on a siding. Probably won't repaint the others.
I'm most interested in purchasing the spectrum 2-8-0 and finding where to buy the Intermountain F7s. If I can find decent WM decal sets I will repaint the F7s. I'm not a rivet counter and fortunately with N scale you can't SEE the rivets anyway. I just want to do an approximation of the Fireball era WM running on a layout that is reminiscent of the Piedmont and rolling foothils found in Carroll, Frederick and Washington counties. I am just trying to capture the feel of the WM from that era not prototypical accuracy.
Thanks for the info.

[Specter3]

Also look a spookshow's locomotive encyclopedia.

http://www.visi.com/~spookshow/locos.html

Ryan

[sizemore]

Both Fireball, Speedscript and Circus paintscheme decals are available through Micro-Scale.

The S.

[brokemoto]

Since you are not averse to painting, you could paint LL FAs fireball.  Ninety one per cent alcohol will strip LL FA shells.  I suspect that your RS-3 is an old Atlas/Kato.  For their day, they were good, they showed that decent power could be manufactured in N scale.  I was never much of a fan of Atlas/Kato  RS-3s or GP-7/9s.  I found them finicky and prone to frequent stalling on anything less than professional grade trackwork.  I did  overcome this by hardwiring a pair of GP-7s together.  If your RS-3 is Atlas/Kato, the shell will go onto the newer Chinese manufactured chassis.  All that is necessary is the removal of one pair of clips that holds the cab onto the body.  I forget which pair it is, but a test fit will reveal that (that is how I learned which one it was).  It will be further necessary to purchase the Micro-Trains pilot conversion kit for this, as the Atlas RS-3 of Chinese manufacture has body mounted couplers.  The chassis of Chinese manufacture runs better than that of Japanese manufacture, due in large part to the use of flywheels on the Chinese chassis; something that the Japanese chassis lacks.  Simply purchase any Atlas RS-3 of Chinese manufacture and make the swap.

I did forget to mention that the Roco F-3 did come in WM fireball.  This is a passenger F-3, of which WM had none.  It appears to be out of scale and is not the best runner.

The Bachpersonn 2-8-0 is available everywhere.  Older version do not have a decoder.  If you get an  older version, try it before you buy it, or be sure of the return policy if you get it on line.  Be aware further that the older versions, at least, require extensive break in.  I do not have any of the versions with decoder installed, so I can not say much about them.

[Flatrat]

Thank you all again for the continued good advice. I plan on using my old MRC Tech II trans for track power and maybe picking up another trans for the inner loop. I don't plan on doing DCC. Just thinking of two basic wandering loops, maybe some over under stuff and a turnout siding or two. Mostly modelling countryside more than trains. No switch yards, etc. Basically set 'em up and watch 'em run their loops through the foothils and fields and over stream and through cuts. Very basic snapshot of the countryside I grew up in.

My old RS-3 I do believe to be the Japanese Atlas Kato. I don't care if the old stuff doesn't work well, may fiddle with them and run them for diversion but plan to get the Spectrum 2-8-0 and the F7s from Intermountain would be nice to find. I think TexNRails lists the WM F7 A/B as backordered. I may call them and see what exactly that means.

I'm thinking of buying Code55 flex track. All I have is older Code 80. Plan on leaving that in the closet.