Atlas/Micro-Ace 2-6-0 driver size and spacing.

[craigolio1]

Does anyone have one of these locos that they could measure the driver size and spacing for me? Looking for something that would represent a 45” driver.

Thanks.

Craig. 

[Chris333]

I have plans for the real locomotive.

[craigolio1]

I have plans for the real locomotive.

That could be helpful, thank you.

[Chris333]

Of course it is metric. Looks like 36" drivers.

[randgust]

Be aware though, that's one of the strangest adaptations of a prototype to N of all time; it's a 36" Porter done in 1:150 that fits on N gauge track, so what it really is is an 'oversized' narrow-gauge locomotive in N scale.   You don't realize just how much over it really is until you set it beside the Atlas 4-4-0.

I've done three heavy rebuilds of these, one on the stock Micro-ace, kept the original drive but modified the tender pickups and added weight, then a scratchbuilt Lima 2-6-0 where nothing was left but the original frame and drivers (motor moved to tender like Chris333 did) and a rather epic 0-6-4 tank engine that works but isn't still up to my standards; mostly because getting all-metal wheels under it for pickup meant remounting and quartering the drivers, and I never got that 100%.   

So if you need photos or dimensions, ask away.   I have a fourth one just for parts and a lot of leftover stuff.

[craigolio1]

Be aware though, that's one of the strangest adaptations of a prototype to N of all time; it's a 36" Porter done in 1:150 that fits on N gauge track, so what it really is is an 'oversized' narrow-gauge locomotive in N scale.   You don't realize just how much over it really is until you set it beside the Atlas 4-4-0.

I've done three heavy rebuilds of these, one on the stock Micro-ace, kept the original drive but modified the tender pickups and added weight, then a scratchbuilt Lima 2-6-0 where nothing was left but the original frame and drivers (motor moved to tender like Chris333 did) and a rather epic 0-6-4 tank engine that works but isn't still up to my standards; mostly because getting all-metal wheels under it for pickup meant remounting and quartering the drivers, and I never got that 100%.   

So if you need photos or dimensions, ask away.   I have a fourth one just for parts and a lot of leftover stuff.

Awesome. Thank you! This is the loco I’m wanting to build, and it has 45” drivers.



Obviously I’d be building a new everything to fit on the mech, and adding a trailing truck….. so at this point all I’m looking for is a chassis with a close enough driver size and spacing. I had originally bought a Bachman 2-6-2 but it’s too large. So I’m investigating other options.

Here is a drawing of the loco in modelling:




It has 45” drivers spaced 9’ between the #1 and #3 axels.

Craig.

[craigolio1]

Of course it is metric. Looks like 36" drivers.

Thank you  for sharing that. What led me to this loco was an article in the 2009 Ntrack steam book of a Sierra 2-6-2, which was based on this model (and modified for a tender drive). Is that you work?

Craig

[peteski]

Craig, we recently discussed a small-diameter-driver N scale mechanisms for kitbashing in https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=54416

Maybe one of the European mechanisms would work for you?

[Chris333]

Thank you  for sharing that. What led me to this loco was an article in the 2009 Ntrack steam book of a Sierra 2-6-2, which was based on this model (and modified for a tender drive). Is that you work?

Craig

I think so. I sold it on ebay to someone who put Sierra decals on it. This is when I had it:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/A7W5yZJKqRG6PwfU9

[craigolio1]

I think so. I sold it on ebay to someone who put Sierra decals on it. This is when I had it:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/A7W5yZJKqRG6PwfU9

Wow! Outstanding!

[randgust]

OK, I got my chassis out and checked.    Driver diameter is .270 or 43.2", so that's as good as it gets.

Engine wheelbase is 11', axle spacing is 5.6".

Chris helped me a lot with mine beyond the inspiration, specifying the NWSL driveshaft parts that have been so useful.   My project was Hickory Valley Railroad #5, an 1899 Lima 2-6-0 that ran in my grandmother's hometown of Endeavor, PA.    Mine has a 5.14:1 gearhead in the tender, and the tender deck is a shortened Kato caboose frame with 8x8 pickup.  I got the Lima drawings from the California State Railroad Museum.


Link:  http://www.randgust.com/HVR5042%20final%205.jpg

At one point there was an entire build thread on this, probably on the old Atlas forum, in 2010. Lots of photos available on the build.   Everything above the chassis is scratch and parts-built, boiler is brass K&S tubing.

[craigolio1]

OK, I got my chassis out and checked.    Driver diameter is .270 or 43.2", so that's as good as it gets.

Engine wheelbase is 11', axle spacing is 5.6".

Chris helped me a lot with mine beyond the inspiration, specifying the NWSL driveshaft parts that have been so useful.   My project was Hickory Valley Railroad #5, an 1899 Lima 2-6-0 that ran in my grandmother's hometown of Endeavor, PA.    Mine has a 5.14:1 gearhead in the tender, and the tender deck is a shortened Kato caboose frame with 8x8 pickup.  I got the Lima drawings from the California State Railroad Museum.


Link:  http://www.randgust.com/HVR5042%20final%205.jpg

At one point there was an entire build thread on this, probably on the old Atlas forum, in 2010. Lots of photos available on the build.   Everything above the chassis is scratch and parts-built, boiler is brass K&S tubing.

Outstanding! 

Thanks for those measurements. Looks like this is a good candidate for my loco. Can’t get much closer than that. My boiler is a larger one that the stock loco so I should be able to cram quite a bit of weight into it.

Now I need to procure one. Not easy to find just yet.

Does it run on C55? C40?

Craig

[randgust]

You've got several challenges there still.

There are a couple out on Ebay, not cheap.   BOLO for an ugly, used, or damaged one.

The Atlas/Micro-ace has slide-valve cylinders and Stevenson valve gear (inside) while yours has piston valves and Walshearts valve gear.   Main rod on yours goes to end driver, Atlas to center driver.   

The reason my 0-6-4 got 'difficult' is I decided to move that traction tire rear driver to the center to improve pickup and turn off the traction tire ridge, that meant pulling the drivers off the axles and swapping them.   I have yet to re-quarter it properly, it still has a hitch.   I don't recommend that.  I had to on a tank engine without a tender.

Swapping out a cylinder set isn't impossible, I did it on my Bachmann 4-4-0 frame for the PRR D16sb thread.  The valve gear however, has to hang on something, so building a support beam to hold the reverser to hold the eccentric rod will be a manhood test.   Look on the Bachmann parts store, all kinds of oddball stuff there for cylinders and valve gear sets.
Edit:  Yep, here's the parts:  https://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=70_115&products_id=12145

Your straight stack is relatively normal in the photo, the wood stack in the drawing is a true oddball.   I turned aluminum rod to make a master for my own stack and cast it in metal, doing it the hard way but that stack was on all the locomotives on my own logger.  That's what's generally called a "Radley Hunter" and that spark arrestor cone fits down over a normal straight stack, so you'll see photos of the same engine in different years with different stacks; you didn't need it in winter with snow cover.

Flanges, I doubt you have a problem but I'll still measure with a mic. 

I got almost all my cast and detail parts from Marshall Thompson, I haven't tried to reorder from the 'new guy' though, but Marshall had about every cast or etched steam locomotive part from everybody, and he'd dig for them.   Those are clearly short Baldwin domes, he had those.

The beauty of the tender drive was that I could add a gearhead, and also load my boiler up solid with poured cast metal.  The motor weight in the tender improved pickup; it's a win-win.   Chris' trick on mounting the worm in the Atlas chassis was what wasn't obvious.  Chris used a Faulhaber, I used a Kato 11-105 motor on a Gizmoszone 5.14:1 gearhead, which is no longer available.

I used this same approach with a more difficult parts-swap build on my D16sb 4-4-0, but the methods were the same, that thread is still here.

[craigolio1]

You've got several challenges there still.

There are a couple out on Ebay, not cheap.   BOLO for an ugly, used, or damaged one.

The Atlas/Micro-ace has slide-valve cylinders and Stevenson valve gear (inside) while yours has piston valves and Walshearts valve gear.   Main rod on yours goes to end driver, Atlas to center driver.   

The reason my 0-6-4 got 'difficult' is I decided to move that traction tire rear driver to the center to improve pickup and turn off the traction tire ridge, that meant pulling the drivers off the axles and swapping them.   I have yet to re-quarter it properly, it still has a hitch.   I don't recommend that.  I had to on a tank engine without a tender.

Swapping out a cylinder set isn't impossible, I did it on my Bachmann 4-4-0 frame for the PRR D16sb thread.  The valve gear however, has to hang on something, so building a support beam to hold the reverser to hold the eccentric rod will be a manhood test.   Look on the Bachmann parts store, all kinds of oddball stuff there for cylinders and valve gear sets.
Edit:  Yep, here's the parts:  https://estore.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=70_115&products_id=12145

Your straight stack is relatively normal in the photo, the wood stack in the drawing is a true oddball.   I turned aluminum rod to make a master for my own stack and cast it in metal, doing it the hard way but that stack was on all the locomotives on my own logger.  That's what's generally called a "Radley Hunter" and that spark arrestor cone fits down over a normal straight stack, so you'll see photos of the same engine in different years with different stacks; you didn't need it in winter with snow cover.

Flanges, I doubt you have a problem but I'll still measure with a mic. 

I got almost all my cast and detail parts from Marshall Thompson, I haven't tried to reorder from the 'new guy' though, but Marshall had about every cast or etched steam locomotive part from everybody, and he'd dig for them.   Those are clearly short Baldwin domes, he had those.

The beauty of the tender drive was that I could add a gearhead, and also load my boiler up solid with poured cast metal.  The motor weight in the tender improved pickup; it's a win-win.   Chris' trick on mounting the worm in the Atlas chassis was what wasn't obvious.  Chris used a Faulhaber, I used a Kato 11-105 motor on a Gizmoszone 5.14:1 gearhead, which is no longer available.

I used this same approach with a more difficult parts-swap build on my D16sb 4-4-0, but the methods were the same, that thread is still here.

Thank you so much for all of that detail. I don’t know much about steam locos and their valve gear. I hadn’t noticed the differences you pointed out.

I have quite a pile of various steak detail parts that I’ve collected over the years so I’ll have a look through there to see what I have that can work. But having those parts available from Bachman is a plus. I actually have a 2-6-2 I could cannibalize from. I’d be modelling it as shown in the photo so with the straight stack.

The first step I guess will be to track down the loco.  As you said, hopefully an ugly duckling.

Does anyone make gear heads anymore?

Craig

[peteski]

Looking  at the valve gear design, looks like Fleischmann  BR80 0-6-0T loco would be a good match.  Out of production, but should be available on secondary market.  The drivers are probably smaller than the Micro-Ace loco's.

https://www.ricardo.ch/de/a/fleischmann-dampflok-br-80-dr-spur-n-gs-1139580160/