Accucraft's 2-8-0

[nkp_174]

That's a really nice start you have going there. I was just wondering - how wide are your curves? Are you planning on running any really big locomotives like Ks, or sticking with 2-8-0s like C-16 and C-19s?

Thank you.

No big locomotives for that layout (or D&RGW). The only big engines that really tempt me are the EBT mikes (but I'd prefer the prairie) and the Uintah mallets which regularly negotiated what would be 24" radius curves in O scale.

My primary locomotives for this layout will be moguls, and possibly a Porter-Bell 0-6-0, a 2-4-0, and a South Park Cooke 2-8-0.

My plans are to build up a roster based on the South Park of 1884...Cooke moguls, Brooks moguls, Baldwin C56 and Cooke 2-8-0s, Mason Bogies, and a Dawson & Bailey locomotive. Those are mostly for the future layout when we buy a larger home. I also have some odds and ends...a few 1870s D&RG locomotives, a Hawaiian 0-6-0, Colorado Central 0-6-0s, a CC Cooke 2-6-0, a CC 0-4-0, a C&S 2-6-0, a C&S B4E 2-8-0, an EBT 2-6-2, and either a RGS or F&CC 4-6-0. By the number, you can tell that this is the 40 year plan.

My min curve is 27"R, and thank you for checking, since that would cause trouble for the ubiquitous Ks that almost everyone runs. My Cooke 2-8-0 (under construction) is comparable in size to a C-16, with a very similar wheel spacing. The C-16s, C-19s, and all C&S 2-8-0s had either a 4'1"-3'2"-4'1" or 4'2"-3'1"-4'1" wheel spacing...the only exception to this is that BLI's On30 C-16 has a novel 3'4" spacing...and it looks atrocious!

Prior to the modern era of the D&RGW, they had such a variety of power. All D&RG locomotives in my future are probably of the early period...2-4-0s, the 2-6-0s with 4-wheel tenders, the Fairlie, a Class 42 4-4-0s and the not-so-old, never built 3' 2-8-8-2. My least favorite early locomotives are probably the Class 60s (C-16s)...but I'll take one of them over ANY modern Rio Grande locomotive.

I'm just thrilled about Accucraft's Class 60... I'm certain that the Bumble Bee 268 is what they expect to pay the bills on this...but they are the first C-16 producer since Kemtron to offer a 19th century version...another modern C-16 I could care less about...this is the 4th C-16 in On30/On3 to come out in the past 10yrs...so Accucraft Less common 19th century products won't exist until the more popular ones (C60s and C42s) create/demonstrate the market. C-16s/C60s have one other major benefit...they provide a source of drivers for my DSP&P/C&S 2-8-0s and DSP&P Brooks 2-6-0s.

(Clarification for anyone not familiar with the Rio Grande's history...the Colorado/NM portion was originally the Denver & Rio Grande Railway...it became the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad in the 1920s. In D&RG days, locomotive classification was based off of the locomotive's weight...tractive effort during D&RGW days. Class 56 = C-14, Class 60 = C-16, Class 70 = C-17 or C-19. The locomotives of the 19th century were essentially different locomotives from their 20th century counterparts. In general, by the late 30s, most 1880s locomotives had new frames, new boilers, new cabs, new stacks, sometimes new drivers, sometimes new domes, new headlights, new pilots...essentially new locomotives).

Michael