Thoughts on how to put a 6 axle tender on a B-mann Heavy Mountain?

[Walkercolt]

I have three of the B-mann Heavy Mountains, painted for the Frisco but the little tender ruins it for me. Splicing the four axle tender doesn't look like it will look right, and I can't find any "long-range" tender that looks even half-way close. Any ideas out there? I have a mental block, I think.

[SkipGear]

The tender the Heavies come with is the extended range USRA tender -



If you want bigger....You buy one of these -



Use those trucks with the frame from your stock tender and then bash an old MRC or Rivarosi Berkshire tender on to it.

[Mark5]

The tender the Heavies come with is the extended range USRA tender -

Which is incorrect for a heavy USRA Mountain - they came with USRA Medium tenders. At least thats what the builder's photos say.

Is this the class you are aiming for?

http://thelibrary.springfield.missouri.org/lochist/frisco/friscoline/images/photos/p01556.jpg

http://thelibrary.springfield.missouri.org/lochist/frisco/friscoline/images/photos/p01411.jpg

Mark

[reinhardtjh]

The tender the Heavies come with is the extended range USRA tender -

Which is incorrect for a heavy USRA Mountain - they came with USRA Medium tenders. At least thats what the builder's photos say.

Is this the class you are aiming for?

http://thelibrary.springfield.missouri.org/lochist/frisco/friscoline/images/photos/p01556.jpg

http://thelibrary.springfield.missouri.org/lochist/frisco/friscoline/images/photos/p01411.jpg

Mark

Although both of those examples have 6-axles and the Bachmann tenders only come with 4.  I don't know how easy it would be to switch them out.

[SkipGear]

Very easy, they use the same screw and end axle pickup wipers. You may need to remove the stirrups from the tender frame to clear the trucks, but that would come with swaping to a longer tender shell anyhow.

If it is a problem, you could aways use the floor from the N&W tender but I was thinking about how to maintain the lightboard and Decoder from the Hvy Mountain.

[chessie system fan]

I don't think Frisco locos came in much larger tenders.  The "stuffed and mounted" Frisco mountain that's right down the road from me looks like those in Mark's pics.  To me, changing the tender from coal to oil is a bigger detail if you don't want to change out the trucks.  Using the 3-axle trucks from the C&O mountain doesn't look like it would be too hard though.

[SkipGear]

The 3 axle trucks on the Vanderbuilt are actually a pain in the posterior to re-use. The pickups Z bend inward to help hide the pickups and get them in closer to the center of the water tank on the tender....



You can see them a little here. They wouldn't be a direct drop into the USRA tenders without bending the wipers so they go straight up and then shortening them as needed.

[David Leonard]

I put six axle trucks on the Bachmann large USRA tender. Because I didn't want to cut the steps off, I moved the bolsters toward the center a bit (using pieces of styrene with holes drilled) and lengthened the slots where the tabs stick through. I also had to bend the tabs toward the tender ends so that they maintained contact. Not a very elegant solution, but it seems to work. Bachmann sells six axle trucks separately, but at the time I had to take them from a six axle Vanderbuilt which now I have no use for. Because I used the tender for a Kato Mikado, I had to make a new drawbar as well, but that shouldn't be an issue with the Bachmann heavy Mountain.

[SkipGear]

David,
 That looks very good. That could also pass for stand in of the Santa Fe six axle tenders. 

[David Leonard]

Thanks, Tony! Funny you should mention the SF 6-axle tender. My next steam project will be an SF Mikado. This time I have both Kato and Bachmann 6-axle trucks to play around with.

[squirrelhunter]

This is an encouraging thread. I was thinking of getting one of the Model Power 4-6-2's painted for the Katy, but I wasn't sure how to go about building one of the 6 axle oil tenders they had in the 1940's.

Quick question- Is it difficult to hook up a MP loco with a Bachmann tender?

[Walkercolt]

I was aiming at the 1512 Class because it's basic outline isn't too far off the B-mann. I've messed around with the MT Buckeye trucks (which look pretty good) but pick-up/relocation etc., etc. convinced me there must be a better way to skin the "Coon".  The four axle trucks on the tender really hurt the overall effect for a decent "stand-in". Biggest problem with any 6 axle truck I've tried, is the "bolster pin" is badly in the wrong place. All the model ones have a more-or-less "centered" bolster pin, the bolster pin on the Frisco trucks appear to be between the first and second wheel (on the front, 2&3 on the rear). Am I making sense here? ???

[SkipGear]

You could always use trucks from a Con-Cor Hudson. They have an offset bolster pin which would allow you to use the same pin location on the stock tender frame. The only problem with them is you would need to move the pickup wipers closer together on the tender floor. The wipers are inside the wheels on the the Con-Cor, pretty much the same result as the bent wipers on the the Bachmann trucks. The Con-Cor trucks really need to have a leaf spring wiper to work right. Without the leaf spring, they won't make good contact with the axles.

I used the Husdon tender frame and trucks under this tender. I had to splice it in the middle and each end to change the length and truck center but having the offset bolster turned out to be a plus as it keeps the trucks from interfering with the steps. The trucks took a lot of work to get them to roll free and they still don't roll as well as the Bachmann or Kato truck.




When it comes down to it, if I find a truck that looks right, the bolster pin location is the least of my worries. Nobody will notice if the truck pivots in a little different place on the model.

[Walkercolt]

I didn't make myself clear(back prodedure earlier). The 6 axle trucks interfer with the tender on anything but like 60" curves. I'd rather not use those old Con-Cor trucks either. I may try my hand at major surgury on an MT truck, moving the pin position and adding electrical contacts, but I was hoping for another option I hadn't thought of. As far as the outline, the B-mann loco will pass for a Frisco, but the 4 axle trucks just look "wrong" under that tender to me. : :-[ Thanks for your ideas. I was hoping I was missing an easy answer.