A Tale Of Two Brass Tanks CRAFTSMAN/Larry Canaday, photographs by the author
Unique The two locomotives that I made from “near- scratch” were definitely worth the time and ac- quired skills required to create them. They are both showstoppers!
Boistfort & Bucoda’s boss has big plans for his short, narrow gauge rail line. He grabs track, donkeys, engines, and rolling stock being cast off (or sold cheap) by larger lines. Rod or geared en- gines, skeleton cars, or discon- nects — it makes no difference on the gently rolling land of Western Washington’s Chehalis River val- ley. Since coal is mined here, coal or wood burners are equally ac- ceptable. The Boss makes only one demand: no link and pin cou- plers. Asked why, he holds up a left hand with three short fingers. When The Boss heard about
Porter-like kits from across the pond, he knew he needed two of them for his freelance railroad. Backwoods Miniatures has
40 RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
been in business in the United Kingdom for more than 25 years, producing etched brass and cast white-metal railway kits. Some include motors and gearboxes; others are meant to be added to stock or modified mechanisms in many different gauges. In On30 alone, their online catalog lists more than 60 kits, with many available in multiple configura- tions. The brass and white-metal On30 Select-a-kit series are side- or saddle-tank engines made to fit the Bachmann Spectrum HO scale 0-6-0T switcher. Sixteen Select-a-kit permutations are pos- sible, with assorted cabs, tanks, smokeboxes, stacks, and wheel arrangements — you decide when you order. The company’s newer
On30 kits are cast resin. As B&B’s shop foreman, it is up to me to produce what The Boss wants; besides, his wife is the cor- porate treasurer. The following concerns two kits: a wood-burn- ing side-tank 2-6-2T with a rear- entry cab, and a coal-burning sad- dle-tank 0-6-0T with a side-entry cab. Construction photos are pri- marily of the second. Both mod- els received SoundTraxx DSD- 090LC decoders and SoundTraxx oval speakers. (Those are really old decoders, you say? Yep, The Boss got ‘em really cheap.)
Getting started
Instructions with these kits run about 18 pages; my comments will be about problem areas, goofs
BRASS KIT STEAMERS
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