I like doing a lot of odd projects involving model trains of all shapes and sizes. Some of my videos are reviews, some are repairs and restorations, some are kit builds, and sometimes a non-train related video might squeeze its way in. Whatever it is I'm doing though, you can bet something unusual is going to come up now and then.
Fun kit and fun to watch you build it! I really wish you would've de-flanged the middle drivers tho, many prototypes did that bc having the rear drivers flangless throws off the geometry between the engine and tender in the curves. Your solution works tho, and it looks great 👍
I enjjoyed the step by step assembly of this kit and some of the modifications that you did. When you got to the point of having the engine pull some cars, I was struck by the lettering on the New Haven gondola. Was that a factory made car? I would think that the N should be over the H. Was that done on both sides of the car?
Yes, it's a factory painted car from Menards. Are you saying you've never heard of the "Hew Naven" railroad? :O Their seasonal trains are good for the price, but they don't really put too much into accuracy.
@@DarthSantaFe I was a member of the New Haven Historical Society and modeled many New Haven diesels and rolling stock, but I never saw an NH lettering to a piece of equipment with the H on top of the N.
Those Atlas locos are almost top of the range & are supposed to run smoothly & quietly. There has to be something wrong with it to make that noise. Sometimes, the drive shafts are a fraction too long, can make that noise as it appears the trucks run smooth & quiet before they were put on the chassis. They are nice locos.
This is a very nice kit, and relatively easy to build if you take your time to to ensure proper fit. I've built 2 of them, one with the motorizing kit. I look forward to seeing how yours turns out.
I'm an O Gauge collector and runner, just found your channel. Very cool kit, first one I have seen. Lionel Berkshires have the 2nd and 3rd driver wheel flanges removed. Excellent job!
In the 1970s, my family had that same box which contained an HO scale train set. It was the same size and the graphics on the front and sides were the same. The wording on the front described the contents, which were packaged in the standard AHM "True to blueprint" window boxes along with track and a power pack.
Loved the vedio! I have the “Casey Jones” that AHM produced about the same time as this one. I always thought they should have produced models of the “General” as well as the “Jupiter” and the “119”. Someone did produce a 1/25 th scale model of I believe the “General”, that was a nice kit. I’m going to have fun with the “Casey Jones” as some of the smaller detail parts have gone the way of un assembled kits. It’s too bad The only difference inthe 2 kits was the 0-8-0 kit came with metal wheelsets whereas the “Casey Jones” had plastic wheelsets and were to be replaced with sets included in the “power” upgrade kit, I think there were other parts in the power kit that replaced plastic counterparts in the original kit. The real irony was to make the “Casey Jones” an operating model, the power kit had to be added as the kit was assembled. So if you built the kit as a static model, you couldn’t upgrade it.
This 0-8-0 also had all plastic wheels as a static model, so the metal wheels all came from the powering kit. The Casey Jones would be another interesting one to build!
I was originally going to do the middle flanges, but after doing some testing with the plastic wheels and keeping the springs undern consideration, it actually worked better in this case to remove the rear flanges.
I have a less intricate 2-rail/3-rail conversion in my future, but loosely related to yours. Earlier this year, I acquired a UK Class 33 diesel made by Lima, to go with a small collection of UK passenger cars also made by the same company. My planned conversion will employ a pair of standard pickup rollers (part number 2328-173), and an Electric RR Co Mini-Commander command board. Though _really_ expensive considering what I'm putting it in, there's plenty of room inside the loco and it will make for a really neat and highly oddball conversion. While this a fairly lightweight single-motor unit, the cars it will be pulling (Lima's Mark-1 UK coaches) are also very free-rolling, albeit with wheelsets that don't tolerate irregularities in 3-rail track very well (I run 072 curves on an around-the-walls loop), so I plan on cutting discs out of thin clear plastic and cementing them to the back faces of these wheels to act as flange extenders. Oh yeah, somewhere along the line I amassed a collection of almost all of AHM's O scale freight cars (3-4 roadnames across four body types), but those will be pulled by one of my less-exotic 3-rail locos :D. In the midst of this activity I found an Ebay vendor who has conversion couplers made by AHM to address their funky hook couplers (which are the same as those used on Lima and Rivarossi's European O scale equipment) With regards to your 3D-printed coupler, I'd suggest looking into modifying the knuckle portion to make it a little thinner. While your present design works, it looks unusually tight-fitting, which brings to mind an issue I had with Menards' first-gen plastic trucks, that being their couplers were mostly so tight they almost couldn't mate with each other, much less slide vertically relative to each other. I found that slightly thinning the far end of the inner face of the knuckle and slightly enlarging the enclosed area behind it greatly improved their ability to couple with each other, not to mention no longer derailing connected cars in curves. If you google "Tuning my Menard's 24-Flatcar Set", you'll find a post I made in 2015 on O Gauge Railroading's forum detailing (with photos) the fixes I made to early Menards plastic couplers. You'll notice their "before" condition (other than being 'operating') had similar proportions to your design.
I'm sure the conversion will go well! As for my coupler, I might re-print it to a better size eventually, but for now, it is working fine even if the fit is tight. No derailments so far!
Man that was great! I stared at that box art in the 60s and 70s for hours. Loved AHM products and catalog. I remember these kits but was never disciplined enough to put one together. Thanks for allowing me to relive a favorite memory! Just subscribed!
Lord Santa Fe, Very entertaining build video, even though I'm an HO Scaler. It's unfortunate with the decals. I make my own by downloading the images and then tweaking the images to size with Microsoft Publisher, and then printing on decal paper.
What an amazing find! I had no idea AHM made O gauge kits. It's interesting the model was made for 2 rail which is not as common as the 3 rail contemporaries. That may have played a significant role as to why these kits had a short run, or were limited. Your modification was brilliant, and the model is stunning. Secondly, its amazing how you utilize a 3D printer for parts. I love how the bell Infront of the boiler is accented to the side, and linkage on the tender adds depth. Thank you Darth for sharing this magnificent video.
I've seen these around online, but the difficulty and price associated with finding a motorizing kit has kept me from acquiring one so far. That said, I am the proud owner of a different Rivarossi O scale model that also happens to be a 3 rail conversion. I purchased an A-A C-Liner set at a show one year that had been heavily modified. The shells were more or less stock (although repainted), but everything else was modified. They were bashed into the passenger variant with a B + A-1-A wheel arrangement, using Lionel horizontal motor F3 trucks with can motor conversions in front and dummy SD trucks in back. An E-Unit is located in one unit, and a 2-conductor tether runs to the other unit to provide power to the motor. Both units have directional headlights and a blinking warning light on the roof. A whistle relay was wired up to the E-Unit, though at some point I want to convert them to conventional reversing and add an operating horn. If I have a chance to get a powering kit for one of these locomotives, I'll definitely seriously consider it- the Rivarossi O scale models are very attractive.
That C-Liner set should run forever with those Lionel trucks! The original Rivarossi chassis was a single truck drive with their smallest motor, and I’ve heard it could barely pull anything.
Hey Darth, I was wondering if you had any tips for someone wanting to find a replacement gear for that life-like/play art engine? I’m a big playart fan (despite the cheapness) and I just managed to get one of those weird 2-6-0s but mine has the same gear issue and I’m not sure how’d I’d search for a replacement online. Thanks for reading :)
Hi Darth, a really good video here. I have two of these, one RTR from the factory, and one in kit form that I haven’t built. I thought the plastic parts may have distorted over time, so I was reluctant to start. But from your video it seems to go together well. I have a motorising kit as well, but it was in water at some stage, and the zinc plated weights have some corrosion, but the motor has a lot of corrosion, though it turns by hand. I already bought a much bigger NWSL replacement motor, as the original motor seemed really small. The assembly comments you made will help a lot. And I’ll photograph the transfers first so I can make decals if I need. You inspired me to make up my own kit …)
No problem with the decals, but it will probably be two months or so. I plan to follow the IHB prototype design of the main tender emblem in the slightly squared ellipse. I think Rivarossi simplified it into a circle design, but I need to check.
WOW this is so great ... You have brought back History ... this is so great ... you are a kid again back in that day when this first came out ...Thats how I see it ... This is like Christmas
I actually HAVE this kit!. But..finding the motorizing kit is like finding a needle in a haystack , and when you do find one, it's expensive as heck. GRRRRRR
I'm just curious how did you come to the decision that the rear wheel was the best one to file the flange off of? I know a lot of Lionel steam locomotives to this day their Center drivers typically don't have any flanges.
After looking things over, I determined that it wouldn’t sit well on curves with blind center drivers since the rear axle is lightly sprung. It also would’ve taken twice as much work to do those.
A very nice build video, maybe in future this engine could get a larger motor and maybe a blunami board for both direction control and smoother running.
I didn't know you worked on O scale too! I recently discovered O scale 2 rail and I like the vintage engines that have 7 pole motors and tons of weight!
My collection includes N, HO, O, G and Standard Gauge. :) Of all my stuff in O, my American Flyer prewar Royal Blue might be the most dense for weight. Not only is it all metal, but they filled every last space inside with solid lead!
I’ve always been intrigued by these models as they were the basis for many a kitbash of a heavy 2-8-0 as shown in the hobby mags. I’m pretty sure AHM offered them right up to the IHC days but probably not past the mid eighties.
The blue tape worked perfectly when masking my plastic models. It did not like my metal engine and tender. Major disaster. What are the other tapes you mentioned?? Good video, btw!
Some paints don't hold well to metal, so you might want to start with a good quality primer coat. I had the same problem with my Athearn metal RDC, but after trying Tamiya spray can primer, the blue tape didn't peel off even a flake of the colored paint.
Wow those prices are cheap, i just started getting into HO strains. I went to my first train shop and all the train engines were selling between 200$ to 450$. But almost all were over 300$ not including tax. I honestly couldn’t believe the prices. Plus they didnt sell used train engines, only the box cars with only wheels. I even trying looking at the really small trains thinking they would be much cheap, nope they’re the same price as the larger😮. Im going to try to fine a place that sells lots of used stuff including engine trains. Anyway is this a very expensive? Im thinking of building everything on a table thats about 5feet by 5feet and using the ez tracks.
New models have been expensive for a while. About the cheapest standard diesel you can buy brand new for under $70 is the Walthers GP9M. You can save a lot by getting used and old stock models and still have a reliable train on a full layout. Model train shows and eBay are good sources for that. You can often find Athearn diesels in good running condition for around $30, and decent freight cars for under $10 each. You can save a lot on track by getting old stock in lots instead of piece by piece. Scenery and buildings can also be found in lots or by making some things from scrap supplies and other things, such as grabbing twigs from a tree or bush and wrapping green foam or other material around them.
Technically it should have run on DC without removing the motor electric magnet. The only problem I could see when you opened it up was the reversing mechanism was missing.
That was actually all there (I forgot to hit the record button), but it wasn’t working at all when I tested it, so I took the AC reverse mechanism out and put in the permanent magnet to simplify it.
Super. My railroad never used C-Liners, but I operate other locomotives with the same drivetrain, and with heavy maintenance, they can operate quite well, just not as quietly. Also, just so it isn't just a C-Liner, this could be a Fairbanks Morse CFA20-4. C = Consolidation Line, F = Freight, A = cab unit, 2,000 hp, 4 axles. The infamous Atlas N scale 5 axle C-Liner is an FM CPA24-5, C = C-Liner, A = cab unit, 2,400 hp, 5 axles. Hello from the Tracy Mountain Railway in Colorado. 💙 T.E.N.
The weights up top make it look like it will tip over. I own a couple of tenshodo brass models and I can't stop singing their praises on how detailed tey are even the ones built 60 plus years ago. They have always run smoothly for me and are easy to maintain.
Gotta leave it to a jewelry company to make some of the best model trains! The weights on top aren't quite enough to cause any instability, so it's a good and smooth runner. I just need to get some more flexible wiring so that it won't struggle around curves anymore!
They're supposed to be included, but since these are all old stock, sometimes a kit will be missing parts. The assembly screws are all standard 0-80 and 2-56, but you might have to improvise with the siderod screws.
