I blame JDaddy - N&W Class A video added
Jul 17, 2020 17:25:57 GMT
dennym57, JKP, and 3 more like this
Post by fabforrest on Jul 17, 2020 17:25:57 GMT
I get these ideas. some of them are crazy. All are more involved than I anticipated. Some are really successful. Some go sideways in a heap. I get help (Harry Hieke suggesting things and me agreeing) and encouragement (PTC saying "do it"), but the ideas are mine. I own them.
This one, however, I am putting squarely on JDaddy.
You might remember he recently started a thread featuring a "mesmerizing" video of N&W steamers pounding around and over the hills in the Virginias. He then added another video of three Class A's muscling 175 "wagons" (film company was British) up a hill. Stacks roaring. Great plumes of smoke. Elegant power.
Well, it was too darn much. I have always had respect for the N&W. How could one not? Designed and built their own steam and in the process delivered the Magnificent Three, the J, the A and the Y. Now I had that "gotta have" feeling. I wanted to recreate that coal drag on my layout (I already had a string of coal hoppers).
What to get? Not a J, too much temptation to build a passenger train and I want to avoid that for the foreseeable future. I have O54 curves so no Y for me.
Start of side rant...
I know Lionel says it costs almost as much to make a LionMaster as it does a scale loco, but the dang things sell. Just try to find one in the after market. I bet they have sold a bunch of LM Big Boys and there is a Cab Forward in the new catalog. Why not a Y6b??? I bet there are more layouts that are NOT O72 than are O72.
End of side rant...
Lionel had made a LM Class A in 2016. No problem, right? Wrong, see side rant above. None to be found. Then I realized that Lionel had made two fantasy versions of the Class A in Santa Fe and B&O. I was able to locate a B&O at (new member) Mariostrains. New in the box. Decent price. I alerted the Prince of Painters (Harry) of my plans and made the purchase. It arrived quickly and I put it on the tracks for a moment just to see if it worked, then off to New Jersey. Harry's task was to convert to N&W, weather for a hard working coal hauler and whatever. The whatever turned out to be new coal load in the tender and curtains for the cab. Since those videos had shown plenty of Auxiliary tenders, I had found one of those and added it to Harry's task list.
Harry finished and sent both packages back at the same time. The water bottle (as Harry called it) went directly south through South Carolina, but FedEx sent the engine north to Philly and then south. Probably because that is where their package whammer is located. When I opened the box, the front engine truck was off, the pilot truck axle was off, there was a body screw rattling around. I managed to get it all back together only to realize the headlight was not functioning. This was not something I could even troubleshoot without taking the shell off. So I called Lionel. As luck would have it, my engine was too old, despite still being new, to be under warranty coverage. Off came the shell. When the front engine truck fell off (screws not tight enough?), a plug connector had one wire slightly pulled out. I could not really repair it, but i was able, using tweezers and needle nosed pliers, to get enough of a grip to push the wire into the connector enough to reestablish contact. Since there is no tension on this wire, I think it will be OK.
Test run. Gee, it seems to accelerate fast and go faster than the speed setting would suggest. Stops suddenly. Is Odyssey off. No Odyssey switch. HUH! It had been my intent to double head this with another steamer like in the second video. Perhaps creating a LashUp would resolve this. I would really have liked to have put my Challenger into the second slot, but Lionel did not give any of their LM articulated's the ability to put an O gauge coupler on the front. I drafted 765 for this duty. Started the process by putting the Class A in, then added 765. Got a message that 765 was incompatible with the engine already entered.
Say What Now???
Off to the interweb where I found a 2017 OGR thread about this very subject. The net of it is that Lionel did not use standard Legacy Hardware in this engine. It is a different board altogether and with a different cruise control system. None of that fabulous Legacy slow speed operation. You can go slow, but it is a narrow range. W.T.F.! There were cited cases of rapid speed build up that caused the engine to leave the tracks in a curve.
Yes, this is one of those projects that got "involved."
I have set a speed limit for this engine. I don't want a grandchild (or ME) to accelerate it to the street outside.
The sounds are typical high quality Legacy Railsounds. Smoke is great. Whistle Steam is great. It is not fond of reversing through switches. It is the widest engine I have and will not go through the Culvert Loader/Unloader without hitting the accessory.
With Harry's work, it looks great.
It is a very good puller. It handles my 17 car coal drag at slow speed up my two curve long grade without a problem.
So, here are some photos followed by a video of the train negotiating that grade. I know I should have all N&W hoppers, but I like variety in road names. The first 5 are Lionel Die Cast hoppers, well detailed and heavy. The remainder are Menards. All the coal loads are by Don Kane, Jr.
This one, however, I am putting squarely on JDaddy.
You might remember he recently started a thread featuring a "mesmerizing" video of N&W steamers pounding around and over the hills in the Virginias. He then added another video of three Class A's muscling 175 "wagons" (film company was British) up a hill. Stacks roaring. Great plumes of smoke. Elegant power.
Well, it was too darn much. I have always had respect for the N&W. How could one not? Designed and built their own steam and in the process delivered the Magnificent Three, the J, the A and the Y. Now I had that "gotta have" feeling. I wanted to recreate that coal drag on my layout (I already had a string of coal hoppers).
What to get? Not a J, too much temptation to build a passenger train and I want to avoid that for the foreseeable future. I have O54 curves so no Y for me.
Start of side rant...
I know Lionel says it costs almost as much to make a LionMaster as it does a scale loco, but the dang things sell. Just try to find one in the after market. I bet they have sold a bunch of LM Big Boys and there is a Cab Forward in the new catalog. Why not a Y6b??? I bet there are more layouts that are NOT O72 than are O72.
End of side rant...
Lionel had made a LM Class A in 2016. No problem, right? Wrong, see side rant above. None to be found. Then I realized that Lionel had made two fantasy versions of the Class A in Santa Fe and B&O. I was able to locate a B&O at (new member) Mariostrains. New in the box. Decent price. I alerted the Prince of Painters (Harry) of my plans and made the purchase. It arrived quickly and I put it on the tracks for a moment just to see if it worked, then off to New Jersey. Harry's task was to convert to N&W, weather for a hard working coal hauler and whatever. The whatever turned out to be new coal load in the tender and curtains for the cab. Since those videos had shown plenty of Auxiliary tenders, I had found one of those and added it to Harry's task list.
Harry finished and sent both packages back at the same time. The water bottle (as Harry called it) went directly south through South Carolina, but FedEx sent the engine north to Philly and then south. Probably because that is where their package whammer is located. When I opened the box, the front engine truck was off, the pilot truck axle was off, there was a body screw rattling around. I managed to get it all back together only to realize the headlight was not functioning. This was not something I could even troubleshoot without taking the shell off. So I called Lionel. As luck would have it, my engine was too old, despite still being new, to be under warranty coverage. Off came the shell. When the front engine truck fell off (screws not tight enough?), a plug connector had one wire slightly pulled out. I could not really repair it, but i was able, using tweezers and needle nosed pliers, to get enough of a grip to push the wire into the connector enough to reestablish contact. Since there is no tension on this wire, I think it will be OK.
Test run. Gee, it seems to accelerate fast and go faster than the speed setting would suggest. Stops suddenly. Is Odyssey off. No Odyssey switch. HUH! It had been my intent to double head this with another steamer like in the second video. Perhaps creating a LashUp would resolve this. I would really have liked to have put my Challenger into the second slot, but Lionel did not give any of their LM articulated's the ability to put an O gauge coupler on the front. I drafted 765 for this duty. Started the process by putting the Class A in, then added 765. Got a message that 765 was incompatible with the engine already entered.
Say What Now???
Off to the interweb where I found a 2017 OGR thread about this very subject. The net of it is that Lionel did not use standard Legacy Hardware in this engine. It is a different board altogether and with a different cruise control system. None of that fabulous Legacy slow speed operation. You can go slow, but it is a narrow range. W.T.F.! There were cited cases of rapid speed build up that caused the engine to leave the tracks in a curve.
Yes, this is one of those projects that got "involved."
I have set a speed limit for this engine. I don't want a grandchild (or ME) to accelerate it to the street outside.
The sounds are typical high quality Legacy Railsounds. Smoke is great. Whistle Steam is great. It is not fond of reversing through switches. It is the widest engine I have and will not go through the Culvert Loader/Unloader without hitting the accessory.
With Harry's work, it looks great.
It is a very good puller. It handles my 17 car coal drag at slow speed up my two curve long grade without a problem.
So, here are some photos followed by a video of the train negotiating that grade. I know I should have all N&W hoppers, but I like variety in road names. The first 5 are Lionel Die Cast hoppers, well detailed and heavy. The remainder are Menards. All the coal loads are by Don Kane, Jr.
