@Tony E. posted:Just got my Legacy ATSF 2-10-4 #5011. Pretty pleased with the model, but I was wondering if anyone also had this observation:
To the rear above the pistons and at the top of the start of the running gear, there appears to be a significant gap between the boiler and the wheels through which you could see straight through. I did my best to make out the details on photos of the prototype online, and there does not appear to be such a large gap. Instead, the boiler appears to slope downward towards the wheels as it does on most steam engines.
The strangest part is that on the model above the rear drivers and start of the firebox, the boiler visibly slopes downward as it should. For some reason, Lionel did not also do that for the front of the boiler where specified above, and instead left a noticeable gap where the boiler would normally slope down.
Has anyone also made this observation? Would anyone have an idea as to why the model was constructed this way? It does not affect its functionality, nor does it take away from all the other great features - I'm mostly just curious about the gap.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Tony E.
"The youthful never outgrow playtime - their toys just get more expensive" 😂
Prepare for a long winded response.
So the real Santa Fe 5011 class 2-10-4 was built at the same time as the 2900 class 4-8-4. Both were built by Baldwin in the 1943-1944 time frame. They were both visually almost identical. The shared the same tenders, with the visual differences (besides wheel arrangements) being the 5011 class being 2 feet longer and having a wider boiler.
The Lionel model is tooling purchased from MTH. The tooling started life around 1995 in the form of the Santa Fe 2900 class 4-8-4. In the early 2000s MTH tooled up a 2-10-4 chassis to sit under the 2900 class 4-8-4 chassis (since the two locomotives are so visually identical) creating the 5011 class on the cheap, since it only required new tooling for the chassis. Since the MTH (now Lionel) model uses the 2900 class boiler, the 2-10-4 5011 class chassis under it can look a bit odd at different angles vs. the real life locomotive. The boiler is narrower, so it doesn't extend down as close to the driver's as it should. The 2-10-4 is also about 1/2" shorter then it should be as well.
The only fully accurate Santa Fe 5011 class 2-10-4 in 3 rail was made by 3rd Rail in the early 2000s. It is mechanically inferior to the MTH (now Lionel) model and does not run nearly as well. That being said I own three MTH Santa Fe 2-10-4s and two MTH Santa Fe 2900 class 4-8-4s. The visual inaccuracies of the MTH (now Lionel) 5011 class don't bother me enough to cause grief.
