2-6-0 kitbash

[nachoman]

Freelancers in the steam era often face the same dilemma as prototype modelers in obtaining motive power. Every railroad had unique steam locomotive designs, and that reduces realism when your fictional shortline is running locomotives that are obviously models of another railroad's locomotives. It does not make sense to decorate an N&W J or a UP challenger in your home road's livery because they would obviously be out of place. The problem is, models are often of such distinctive locos, and those that are more "generic" are ubiquitous in the modeling community. I have detailed generic steamers before, but face it, a Bachmann 2-8-0 still looks like a Bachmann 2-8-0 with details added. Some of my locomotives are MDC Southern Pacific prototypes - and despite my detailing efforts - their origin is still obvious. Building a convincing freelance steam roster means obtaining locomotive that look unique to that railroad - as was the case in real life.

I wanted a distinctive little 2-6-0 that keeps other modelers guessing as to its origin. The few available non-brass moguls don't capture the look I am after. I want a relatively small 2-6-0, built around 1890, but modernized somewhat around 1910, and still works hard doing switching on a shortline somewhere. This Frisco loco is about what I am looking for:

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I had an IHC 4-4-0, but thought the tender was too big, and it would not run on my code 70 rail. Then I bought a junker MDC old time 2-6-0, used the boiler on an HOn3 project, and planned on using the old-time tender behind the IHC 4-4-0. The problem was, the 4-4-0 looked HUGE compared to that tender, and then I realized it wasn't just the tender that was too big, the whole loco looked to big to be a 4-4-0 (it is actually a SP 2-6-0 prototype with a 4-4-0 chassis). So, I decided to mount the IHC boiler on the MDC 2-6-0 chassis. It fit reasonably well, the boiler looked to big and long, so I cut the boiler shorter.

   

This is where I am at now. I like the overall lines of the loco/tender combo, so I think I will start scraping of the rest of the cast on details and put the thing together.