The OTHER Minitrix Decapod to PRR I1sa kitbash

[Lemosteam]

I finally tore into my kitbash using a later, now available, Keystone Details pilot and detailing kit. The images below are the highlights of the build, and the official step by step instructions are linked below.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5Mgu2ihaFUg1jafB6

The kit includes the replacement pilot and pilot truck frame, full standard PRR boiler details (sand dome, whistle, marker lights, safety valves, reversing cylinder, headlight, headlight bracket, boiler support rod steps, generator, smokestack, tender water scoop), and both versions of the feedwater pump. Other details were fashioned by me



Readying the replacement pilot for installation:


Pilot installed, readying replacement pilot truck assembly:


Chassis on the track:


Dummy coupler fit with the MT coupler height gage. This coupler is the same one that @eric220 requested for the BLI M1 pilot for double heading


Side view of dummy coupler and MT height gage.


Lengthened tender drawbar:


Tender drawbar, chassis & shortened boiler shell:


More pics to follow now that the hard part is complete.

[Lemosteam]

Some more pics on my photo track.

[wm3798]

I'm diggin' it!
Hopefully you can make it to Altoona and we can compare and contrast between yours, @randgust and mine.

I wonder if BLI or anyone will bother to release a new model since there's got to be 11 million of those Trix monsters still in circulation...

Lee

[Doc Frankenfield]

don't want to sound dumb but is this the russian decapod?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

don't want to sound dumb but is this the russian decapod?

Nope. The "Russian" decks were ones originally made for Russian railways by Baldwin but weren't delivered (I think due to the Bolshevik revolution). Baldwin made some modifications to "Americanize" them and then sold them domestically.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_locomotive_class_Ye
https://www.steamlocomotive.com/locobase.php?country=USA&wheel=2-10-0

It's important to note that these differ from the Baldwin "Catalog" 2-10-0s, the most notable of which is Strasburg #90.

The engine John's working on here is a PRR I1s 2-10-0 (nicknamed "Hippos"). The I1 was a megachonker of a locomotive. The type of behemoth that only the Pennsy would build and then widely use.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Railroad_I1_class

They were BEASTS. There's one remaining one in New York, and it KILLS me that people are spending millions of dollars to build a giant toy T1 while it sits unloved and rotting.

[Lemosteam]

This kit is for folks that want an I1 on the cheap. This is nowhere near the size it needs to be, but it at least provides the illusion of one.

My next Dec will be more along the lines of the Russian decapod, as the DT&I (local to the Detroit area) had a few.

[Lemosteam]

I'm diggin' it!
Hopefully you can make it to Altoona and we can compare and contrast between yours, @randgust and mine.

I wonder if BLI or anyone will bother to release a new model since there's got to be 11 million of those Trix monsters still in circulation...

Lee

Altoona is pretty much an annual impossibility for me unless it’s a family trip, but I want to get there someday.

[delamaize]

Zombie thread again, I know i have a bad habit of digging these up...

Hey @Lemosteam how do I order one of these kits? I tried your site, and it was down....

[pmpexpress]

Zombie thread again, I know i have a bad habit of digging these up...

Hey @Lemosteam how do I order one of these kits? I tried your site, and it was down....

Just checked the Keystone site and found the kit was no longer listed as it was formerly sold through Shapways.

[Lemosteam]

Instructions are on my product discussion post as are the latest product announcements.

[delamaize]

Instructions are on my product discussion post as are the latest product announcements.

Thanks, I'll go check out the form, and order, if youre printing these still.

[randgust]

I have all the stuff I need for a second one, got another functioning motor, so I could use a second set even if I'm short of all those Primo GHQ castings.   First one is set up with all sound and DCC, this one would be "Plain 'ol DC'.

The only thing on my first one that I wouldn't do again is that lead truck, it might look clunky but the scale-flange one constantly derailed on Ttrak.

[delamaize]

Ive started scratching mine to fix the issues with a stock I1SA. I shifted the boiler back amd found some cylinders in my parts box that fit the bill. Although, nothing I have done would prevent me from using John's kit if he decided to allow a few to be done on special order.

[Bill H]

Really like what you have done with the headlight at the top of the smoke box. Super. I am modeling the B&O steam, almost every engine needs the same mod excepting angled number boards. How well do you feel the headlight is attached? Nothing meant by it, but have always worried that if I tried a similar mod, if I could find the headlight, that it might be rather fragile.

Kind regards,
Bill

[bbunge]

Really like what you have done with the headlight at the top of the smoke box. Super. I am modeling the B&O steam, almost every engine needs the same mod excepting angled number boards. How well do you feel the headlight is attached? Nothing meant by it, but have always worried that if I tried a similar mod, if I could find the headlight, that it might be rather fragile.

Kind regards,
Bill

Bill,

I've converted two center headlight locomotives to B&O style fronts.  I 3D print the boiler front. 




This is a BLI Mikado.



Here it is unpainted.  I have a slew of extra fronts that had one minor defect or another, or just extras.  I'll be able to send you a couple, you can cut the headlight off and glue to your locomotive.  I ended up making the mounting a little larger and more solid in the back in order to make it stronger and less likely to break off.  There is a hole in the back the light that is angled down and the inside of the light has a slot that will fit the 401(?) LED.  I've done the BLI locomotive and a Yulim brass Mikado.  They have slightly different boiler diameters and I know the BLI pacific has a 3rd diameter so I wouldn't count on my extra prints fitting what you are working with. 

I also have some extra "early" versions, with just the number boards beside the headlight not the one below.

Bob