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Reply to "Anyone builid a brass locomotive kit and convert it to 3 rail?"

Now you are getting very specific.  If you are happy with a USRA Mikado in Southern Pacific, then the Williams is the way to go.  If you want a Harriman Mikado - an MK-class like the MK-5, then right now the Stevenson Mike is the only option, other than a scratch-build.  Occasionally you will see a pre-WWII Lobaugh Mike offered for sale - they are a bargain at $500, and reasonably rare.  It would be close to blasphemy to 3-rail one, unless you just add rollers.

The Sunset version is slightly inaccurate - the boiler is straight!  Easy mistake; I made the same one on my first SP Mike.  As you can see from the stunningly good photo above, you have sand dome choices.  If I were to buy a Sunset, I would have to replace the boiler, the sand dome, the tail beam, and the trailing truck.  Stevenson has all those parts, I believe, for sale individually.  There were 75 boilers made for the 1950s Lobaugh "Lost Wax" Mike, and I believe Bob Stevenson inherited them all.

The tender - that Eastern coal thing above is about as close to an SP Vanderbilt as the Williams USRA is to the Harriman Mike.  So, you need to evaluate what sort of inaccuracies you are willing to put up with.

I note that the Stevenson Mike above is one of the best looking kit built SP Mikes I have yet seen!  I am sending a link to Bob Stevenson right after I finish boring you with all this, and (AWK!) my SP Mike collection.

What the heck - I have an hour and a half before I have to pull the Stearman out of the hangar for today's serious entertainment - so here they come!  Well, some of them . . .

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