PRR B6sb Kitbash build

[peteski]

  I'm sure it's a Kato motor.
I had one and I'm thinking it came from a early electric loco.
I'll see if I can find it.

Maybe that type of motor was used in Kato electrics, but this one only has a single shaft (the other shaft has a flywheel (similar to how the motor is set up in Kato Mikado).  I'm thinking that a motor for electric loco would be a dual shaft.

EDIT:  It is unlikely a Kato motor.  Kato's SM-5 motor looks to be very similar in size and shape, but there are distinct differences.



That motor is probably from another Japanese model train manufacturer.

[Lemosteam]

Thanks Pete, yes very different

Continuing to work on the B6sb. Chopped off the cast headlight and drilled a loooong passageway for the LED wires. Used a Keystone Details headlight and bracket with a pre wired 0201 LED glued into the housing and mounted the light to the bracket. Had to square up the hole to accept the bracket boss. After threading the fine magnet wire through the bracket and shell, I mounted the assembly to the smokebox front.



I tried to gently drill out the cast smokestack but I destroyed it instead. I replaced it with some flared brass tubing, with a smaller diameter tube soldered inside for the mounting pilot. I tapered the stack in a drill using a file. On the tender, I replaced the walkway railing with phosphor bronze wire, with additional wires for the mid supports, then a touch of solder to both finished it. Added the front corner grabs too. I tried to ream out the original backup light but it ripped off, so I used another KD light housing with another 0201 LED inside.




Here are some poses for proportions. Drawbar is next.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Are you concerned with light leaks with the headlights? It's a thing I'm dreading on my SRC 89 build.

[Lemosteam]

Yes and no.

I am planning on painting the print in two coats of silver, with black over that. I MIGHT leave the number boards on the headlight white with a brush on clearcoat first and add road number decals.

I have done this in the past and the numberboards light up well, pardon the crappy finish.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

That's pretty good. Yeah, it's that silver coat that's so key. I'm not less scared about my own attempts.

I forget, you've got the PRR steam parts back up and into production, right?

[Lemosteam]

Not yet- next on the agenda, but it is quite time consuming and I am not quire sure how I am going to package their sales- likely independently as opposed to a big detail kit.

Anything you see here is old remaining SW stock from my own stash.

[bbunge]

Are you concerned with light leaks with the headlights? It's a thing I'm dreading on my SRC 89 build.

Ed, 

I recently did something similar with a print (that was light grey in color), I painted two coats of Tamiya silver on the inside of the headlight and then Tamiya black on the outside.  I did run a wire through the hole in the back of the light and painted the silver before installing the LED.  I did have light leaks in the back where the wires came out of the headlight before they went inside the boiler.  A couple of dabs of black applied while the light was on did the trick. 

[bbunge]

The tender looks low in the front.  Personally, I like this.  You see this sort of thing not only in photos of the protos in service, but in photos of PRR switcher 643 at Williams Grove. 

Bob

[Lemosteam]

Current B6sb status.

Updated the chassis with some PB wire wheel wipes so 4x electrical pickup. Turns out the OEM pcb board screw hole is 00-90, so I added a nylon screw with thin nylon washers on each side and brass hex nuts to solder the wire to.



After this I scalloped the shell to clear the wires and avoid shorts. I also added another mount to the shell using the cylinder screw to solder a tube to. The shell has a smaller threaded tube and a screw thru the new smokestack. Also added a bracket and screw to attach to the back wall. Unfortunately, I had to replace the headlight after it broke whistle grinding inside the shell. After she ran around few laps alone with just the pb wire pickups, the chassis deserved her tender.



After wiring the Bachmann tender chassis trucks, I fashioned a drawbar, which pulled the tender nice and close to the locomotive. The OEM drawbar pin just drops into the front hole of the drawbar.





Next step was to wire the chassis to the locomotive, so I hardwired from the motor to the pB wires, drilled some holes on each side under the cab floor to meet in the center, just above the drawbar and one hole above the drawbar in the tender chassis to connect to the trucks.





Wired it up and drove her in for an hour. This motor is SMOOTH, but I could not get it to run backwards for some reason.

 

Turns out the screw I used to mount the back cab bracket, was contacting the motor flywheel in reverse due to the worm gear backlash. I ended up grinding a chamfer to clear the screw, and that solved the problem. She runs smooth in both directions.

[Dave V]

Has anyone tested whether the re-released Bachmann 0-6-0 mech would work?

[mike_lawyer]

That looks awesome!  Nice job.  Would be cool if that pewter boiler were commercially available to purchase, I would really like to try it with a Bachmann 0-6-0 chassis like Dave suggested.

[Lemosteam]

The proportions of a Bachmann chassis are way far off with the rear overhang. Might get the front end to work, but that a$$ end tho.

Everything I am doing here can be done with a standard Trix B6 and Bachmann tender trucks. I do wonder if one could convert the linkage to Bachmann.

[garethashenden]

The proportions of a Bachmann chassis are way far off with the rear overhang. Might get the front end to work, but that a$$ end tho.

I agree that the Bachmann model looks odd, but I just looked at a bunch of pictures of USRA 0-6-0s and they look odd too. The Bachmann model is missing the ashpans under the firebox but otherwise looks broadly correct. There are drawings of both in Lynn Westcott's Steam Locomotives, the B6 is 33' long where as the USRA is 34' 9.5". Both dimensions are for the locomotive only. However, the distance from the rear wheel to the back on the engine is only 2" different.

[Mark5]

Looking good John!

I'm guessing the Minitrix tender frame won't allow moving that rear truck closer to the end.



https://www.loco-info.com/view.aspx?id=10495&t

[eja]

Beautiful work. Congratulations !

But I must say that in the photos, the first thing my old eyes notice is the rather large flanges on the drivers.  Are you planning on trimming them down?