The Overland steeple cab is a superb model, but marred by horrible soldering and assembly quality. It would be very difficult to convert to 3-rail without using a trailer, because it uses a typical 2-rail drive setup with a central motor and dual shafts running to the trucks. This doesn't leave a whole lot of interior space. Nonetheless, a friend of mine has actually converted one. As I recall, he used an ERR mini-board for TMCC. I don't know where he put the pickup rollers as I haven't seen a picture of the underside. He posted about it on the Forum a few months ago; I'll try to find the post and get you the link. One issue with the conversion would be the wheels; it uses very large spoked wheels so you are pretty much stuck with scale wheels. OK if you are using square profile track like Gargraves, or if you have a loop with no switches. You could also wire it to get power from an overhead catenary, if you have it. You would also most likely wind up using Kadee couplers or dummy 3-rail couplers; it would be a considerable chore to install operating 3-rail couplers.
My friend has promised to send me some pictures of the conversion; I'll share if I get them.
Here are a couple of pictures of an Overland steeple cab switcher (not mine; the one in the photos is in better shape than mine).
Originally Posted by fisch330:
Bob: That Overland steeple cab: Was it a good replica of the Milwaukee's steeple cabs? I know that they are quite a bit larger than the regular, off-the-shelf, GE "pups" like so many RR's had. I wonder if they could be converted to 3rail operation fairly easily?
Scale Rail has converted some early brass models of the Westinghouse-Baldwin 50 ton steeple cabs, to three rail by using tinplate power trucks under them. I have one of these and i always intended to mount rollers under it for three rail operation. The wheel flanges are a bit larger than NMRA scale and I think the engine would track OK on Gargraves and Ross switches, if I could build in a TMCC command control system. Problem, of course, is that the Milwaukee never used any 50 ton W-B steeple cabs, and that they do look different than the GE variety, so this factor always kept me from getting too excited about taking on this conversion project.
At this point, I own three classes of Milwaukee electrics: an MTH BiPolar, a Weaver Little Joe and an MTH four unit box-cab set. Missing, of course, are the Westinghouse Baldwin massive passenger box-cabs and the lowly little GE steeple cab switchers.
Paul Fischer
