Long story,
I recently picked up a Williams/Samhongsa brass "USRA" 2-8-2 for a really good price. However, the color of the "Southern" engine doesn't come close to anything I've seen:
and certainly doesn't match a spare Southern Lionel tender I have:
Not wanting to expand my empire to RRs other than SAL and ACL (OK, I do have 1 N&W J and a NPBL 2-8-0), I decided to find proof of SAL or ACL owning USRA Mikes.
I already have 2 Williams SAL Mikes, so figured I'd look for a good candidate from ACL.
Most ACLs Mikes were of an older looking design:
but they did have a small group of 10 engines they acquired when the absorbed the AB&C Railroad.
From what I've been told, the AB&C engines came from NYC, who modified them from 2-8-0 engines into 2-8-2. The little bit of data I found indicated that NYC engines 6035, 6055, 6056, 6061, and 6148 were sent to AB&C as numbers 228, 225, 226, 230, and 231 respectively. That's only 5 of the 11 ACL acquired from the AB&C, who renumbered them by adding a 7 before the other 3 digits (AB&C 235-235 to ACL 7225-7235).
So far, I've found photos of ACL engines 7225, 7226, 7227, 7228, and 7232, but they're all from the engineer's side:
IMO the Williams Mike is fairly close to the ACL engines, a few things like the bell and appliance on the top need to be moved/changed, but the overall appearance is close. Moving the bell, whistle and replacing at least 1 of the domes is easy enough and doesn't require a lot/any Dremeling, but if the running boards are too far off, I can do it but would rather not.
Whew...Here's my cry for help...do any of you NYC fans have a photo of these NYC engines of the fireman's side? The NYC numbers I posted may not even be correct, but they were the only link I could find to the AB&C. AB&C photos of their Mikes are rare.
