Maybe not foiled! Instead of shooting from the hip, I pulled out a kit for a
Bachmann On30 combine and a T-boilered Shay. Also went through some books
on "ghost" railroads with assorted tea kettles and dinky equipment. I plunked
the two kits down on 3 rail, and they do not look grotesque, or any more unusual
than, say, the East Broad Top cars they used to switch back and forth from narrow
gauge trucks to standard. Above photo of the two tanks now leaves me wondering if the MTH tank is another 99 ton model of a 44 tonner like those from Lionel and Williams.
I also dug out various sets of trucks that would go under the combine, such as
Grasse River short wheelbase arch bars, and old Auel archbars...but think kit's sideframes could be widened if a small diameter wheelset can be found. Examples
of prototype conversions where the road was widened from narrow gauge to standard, and so was the equipment, are in the literature.
The T-boilered Shay has another problem, the bottom of the boiler...would touch
the third rail, unless larger diameter wheel trucks can be used. It would be a much
more difficult conversion, from the rewiring...and converting it to wider, larger flanged
trucks, which is why I would prefer to work with a Heisler.
I will do this combine as my next project, to verify it can be done.
