Make your own Challenger!

That is cool!  

Forgot the pair of steam cylinders for the rear drivers!

what boiler top do they use to put the 2 engines together?

Alan Mancus posted:

what boiler top do they use to put the 2 engines together?

 

The boiler looks like two boilers spliced together.

Did Bob Gale (of Bob Gale's Super Classics) ever make a 4-6-6-4?

---PCJ

I think I saw this several years ago, and I just now realized - that's a 2-6-6-4, not a 4-6-6-4.

Yeah he spliced two 2026 shells together.   Cut the boiler with a bandsaw I believe. He calls it a Challenger,  but true, it is missing two extra pilot wheels.

I remember seeing a lot of these way cool "Frankenstien" creations made by a fellow whose name is Gary Anderson a few years ago on You Tube.He made quite a few "prototypes" out of old Marx and Old Lionel stuff. They were all one of a kind items. 

He even did a Pennsy T-1!!!!The guy put a lot of work and creativity into the stuff he did.Look up Gary Anderson on You Tube,and some of the videos should come up. It was great to Checkout his creations. I believe someone else posted the videos of his creations,but if you look they are on there.

Alive and running!!!Everything he made Ran, Mr.Anderson had small radius track to top it all off,so he could not get a lot of his creations to take a curve.Had he had some "096" or even "072" they would have probably been able to take those curves.

Everything he made RAN   GREAT!!!!! For this to work on smaller radius curves,you would need the type of motor setup Lionel used on the Flying Yankees,where the "BALL" or "PIN" on top of the motor would act like it's own articulation setup.I have thought ALOT myself about fashioning up one that way,maybe this winter

I will try to make a couple like these in the winter,  just for the purpose to see if I can make something that;s a FREAK and different from everything else out there.  Thanks for sharing your find.I am sure where there is a will there is a will,there is a way to make them to where you could use them on tighter curves.-kennyb         

P.S.-It is Two shells "spliced" together,he shows the process he did on the You Tube Videos, Mr.Anderson seemed like one heck of a nice gentleman,there was a lot of work involved into doing something like this,but he seemed to love every minute of it

I have done some of that.  I converted two Berkshires into an MC-6 SP 2-8-8-2, and a Challenger into a Big Boy with two pairs of drivers and some silver solder.  Photos maybe later.

TrainMan1225 posted:

I think I saw this several years ago, and I just now realized - that's a 2-6-6-4, not a 4-6-6-4.

As it has only 1 engine (a set of cylinders, pistons, rods, valve gear is an "engine"; real Challengers and the like have 2 engines), it is not a 4-6-6-4 or a 2-6-6-4 - it is a 2-12-4. The first 6 and second 6 drivers must be inside-connected - if this were a real 2-12-4. No outside rod is showing connecting them. But then it couldn't be "articulated".

I have always thought that such projects were a very legitimate way to use up and enjoy all those common PW steamers. This one is so-so (per the above), but I do like the effort. Quite legitimate-looking steamers can be made from Lionel (and Marx, and AF, to a lesser degree) PW equipment. Some of the boilers - as on the small Santa Fe-type Hudson (2055 and clones) - are actually quite scale-girthed. The reliability of the machinery is well-known, assuming that you don't start with junkers.   

Here are my conversions:

I wish I had the talent, time and tools to execute such a project.

First off I'm going to be critical of another man's work, something I don't care to do. But it lacks the necessary second set of cylinders for the rear drivers. While a visual distraction from the reality of engineering the real thing I can suppose this to be a compromise for O gauge's tight radius curves.

A possible solution that has some resemblance in reality would be to build one of these as a Santa Fe flexible boiler Mallet (see this link for a picture http://www.douglas-self.com/MU...lexmallet/mallet.htm

You'd have to devise a frame link, if using a pair of 2026's do some wiring to run both motors off one reverse unit to keep then synched, and devise a flexible filler at the boiler joint (perhaps a stack of washers and O rings RTV'ed together). This would result in an engine that is visually correct to the necessary engineering of a prototype while solving the problem of getting such a long wheelbase around O gauge curves. Given the size of the prototypes built in the late 19th to early 20th century these as O27's would actually be pretty close to scale O when completed.

There is a model train swap meet coming up at Lynden, Washington on October 7th I think I'll shop around for a pair of 2026's and start to tinker, like I need another project. 

Bogie

Yes, this is probably the only way l will get a 2-4-4-2, and as commented above, another project to add to the bottom of the list.

I enjoy projects like that. Years ago i did a PRR O1 box cab electric from a Lionel 0-4-0 switcher. Currently am doing a New Haven EP3 on a KLine GG1 chassis. As the fall train show season starts i need to look for a couple Lionel junker steam engines under tables as i've always wanted a SAR Beyer Garrett!

modeltrainsparts posted:

I enjoy projects like that. Years ago i did a PRR O1 box cab electric from a Lionel 0-4-0 switcher. Currently am doing a New Haven EP3 on a KLine GG1 chassis. As the fall train show season starts i need to look for a couple Lionel junker steam engines under tables as i've always wanted a SAR Beyer Garrett!

Cool, lets see that O1.

kennyb posted:

I remember seeing a lot of these way cool "Frankenstien" creations made by a fellow whose name is Gary Anderson a few years ago on You Tube.He made quite a few "prototypes" out of old Marx and Old Lionel stuff. They were all one of a kind items. 

He even did a Pennsy T-1!!!!The guy put a lot of work and creativity into the stuff he did.Look up Gary Anderson on You Tube,and some of the videos should come up. It was great to Checkout his creations. I believe someone else posted the videos of his creations,but if you look they are on there.

Alive and running!!!Everything he made Ran, Mr.Anderson had small radius track to top it all off,so he could not get a lot of his creations to take a curve.Had he had some "096" or even "072" they would have probably been able to take those curves.

Everything he made RAN   GREAT!!!!! For this to work on smaller radius curves,you would need the type of motor setup Lionel used on the Flying Yankees,where the "BALL" or "PIN" on top of the motor would act like it's own articulation setup.I have thought ALOT myself about fashioning up one that way,maybe this winter

I will try to make a couple like these in the winter,  just for the purpose to see if I can make something that;s a FREAK and different from everything else out there.  Thanks for sharing your find.I am sure where there is a will there is a will,there is a way to make them to where you could use them on tighter curves.-kennyb         

 

P.S.-It is Two shells "spliced" together,he shows the process he did on the You Tube Videos, Mr.Anderson seemed like one heck of a nice gentleman,there was a lot of work involved into doing something like this,but he seemed to love every minute of it

I have two of Gary’s customs. One cab forward and a “Challenger”. His Challengers were also 4-6-6-2’s. Mine is on the bench right now getting a K-Line power chassis so it will have much better pulling power. I also have a rear truck in the mail to correct the wheel configuration. Gary has made 19 so far, most Challengers but I think 3 cab forwards. He makes them from Marx 333’s. I put many of the videos on you tube for Gary. 

Steve

Hmmmm...l am not the only one making creations out of Marx power components....

"His Challengers were also 4-6-6-2’s."

Oh, but that cannot be.

=============== 

bob2 posted:

Here are my conversions:

Very nice-looking. I just love those ugly early cab-aheads with the whalebacks.

2RO apparently. Conversions from what, exactly?

Is model RRing the only endeavor where "ugly" is a good thing to the practitioners? (No, wait - dog breeding, for sure.) 

Frames in the " Back-Up Malley" are Lobaugh Berkshire.  The Big Boy is a stretched Lobaugh Challenger.  Yes, 2-railers are lurking . . .