Finally I've gotten back to the modeling bench. The first order of business was to finish up the narrow gauge locomotive I was working on. Besides a lot of clean up, I fabricated a short stack and small boxes on each side to conceal the part of the body I had to grind out for clearance. I'm very happy with the final appearance - not too small like a lot of HOn30 locos - large and industrial looking. I will be buying at least two more of these body kits and the Bachmann MDT N-scale three axle drive unit. I anticipate my total narrow gauge fleet to consist of three of these locomotives, one Grandt Line GE 25 Tonner, a converted n-scale 44 ton mechanism, plus an old Roco diesel and AHM steamer, probably sitting at the shop. My ultimate goal is to have at least one narrow gauge operator as part of the overall operations scheme.
Toward that goal, I need a lot of narrow gauge cars. These cars need to do two things - haul ingots and haul scrap for the electric melt shop and the open hearths. You may remember that early in this series I built a small two axle car for these purposes. The car was as I wanted it, however, the wheels didn't roll that great and I hadn't as of yet installed couplers. To make assembly easier and the operation of the cars smoother, I decided to base the car on a tried and true truck/coupler assembly made by Atlas. These trucks cost around $5 a pair and I anticipate no more than $1 each for casting each car for a total cost of around $6 each. Something I can handle when building a large fleet of these. The car in the photo is nearly complete and the trucks were mounted to test clearances,...etc. After some cleanup tomorrow I should be able to make a mold and start casting bodies. The car is shown with Ken-Ray 7' Scrap Boxes. This same car will also carry two ingots in the 4-7 ton range. I will be making the molds for these also.
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