I am getting ready to order scale track and turnouts and experiment running
scale locos and rolling stock through them. If successful, I will build
my (modular) layout with scale track. But I sure wish I could convert my
American Flyer Hudsons to scale. Maybe my AF Northern also.
On Sunday I was a volunteer at Nashville's Adventure Science Museum ( a
really fine Children's Museum) for the 24th annual Whistlestop Weekend. For
three days they have model train layouts operating in about every scale
imaginable. The S layout consists of two large ovals of S Helper sectional
track and the track is powered by two AC transformers. Nothing but AF and a
couple of AM Baldwin switchers had been used on Friday and Saturday. On
Sunday I took a couple of AF Hudsons that were recently upgraded with can
motors and electronic reverse units. I took 9 custom painted AM heavyweight
cars for it to pull. The RPO car had a knuckle coupler on one end and a
Kadee coupler on the other end. The other cars had Kadee couplers. . . . . .
. I never felt like the Hudsons were inferior even though they lack the
detail that most scalers have. . . . . . . . I took some scale locos for
display only but could not operate them because they were either DCC or DC or
need the Locomatic Controller. But I was very happy with the attention
that the Hudsons received. The children love the choo choo sound and smoke,
even though these did not smoke as much as I would have liked. . . . . . .
. Most people probably did not notice the scale couplers, but this may have
been a first for public operation of scale rolling stock in Nashville.
I sure wish we had the scale wheels to convert the Hudsons to scale . .
At next year's Whistlestop Weekend, assuming I am not out of town at a
trade show, I hope to run some DCC scale with custom painted passenger trains
for L&N and Southern.
Is anyone from Middle Tennessee reading this? Would you like to help with
this project to set up a scale track layout for next year's Whistlestop
Weekend?
- Earl Henry, Nashville
In a message dated 11/15/2010 6:00:24 A.M. Central Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:
Dick has a point: If one wants steam, then an old AF steamer is one low
cost possibility. Of course, AF has at least four railroad specific steamers:
the UP Northern, the Reading Atlantic albeit with extremely low drivers
compared to the prototype, the New Haven Pacific, and the PRR K5. Not much
can be done to rework them to look like a prototype for another railroad.
Well, maybe the Northern could be redone to look remotely like a Milwaukee
Road S-1, possibly a D&H Northern with smoke lifters, or maybe a Rock Island
Northern. Any of those reworkings would require a change in the tender.
Ooops, I forgot the NYC Hudson with low drivers.
That is another problem, the low drivers. The one that could be kitbashed
possibly is the Pacific--I'm not AF literate--that came out with a C&NW or
a MILW emablem on the tender. It's crude, but one might rework the front
and add detail to the boiler. One thing the tenders AF used looked more
generic than all the Lionel tenders back in the day when every tender they
produced except for those on switchers which were always PRR switchers had a
NYC-look to them.
Tom
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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