Doug Massie's Northern

[Steve Bratina]

The last run of the season on the Central went to Doug Massie's engine. Info on this loco can be found on the IBLS site. Perfect weather for a quiet "LeMans" run. Now it is back to the shop to work on projects for next season.

[Steve Bratina]

Made a video of the last run of the season. Not the best picture quality but not bad for an old Beta camera. Look up Doug Massie's Northern and it should come up.

[LVRR2095]

Or just click here....
https://youtu.be/ya5u3kxDt7Y

[Steve Bratina]

That sure is a lot easier Keith. But then again, I had trouble switching one car out of a one car siding!

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Hi Steve. I tried to respond to your personal message but was unable for some reason. I had a question about how your engines are set up. Do you use extended controls, or the long arm method. I couldn't tell from the photos. I really don't like the appearance of extended controls so was wondering what you do.
Jack

[Steve Bratina]

Hello Jack,
Any of my 3/4 or 1" engines with a tender around 14" and less in length, the engine is run long arm. Above that, I use a reach rod for the throttle only. All other valves including the Johnson bar are long armed too. None of my throttles have a quadrant so they are simple push pull affairs. On fairly level tracks like PVLS or the old Ridgetown track, I sometimes leave the reach rod off on the alcohol fired engines, set the throttle and control the speed with the riding car brake if I know I will be doing several laps. This can't be done with the Massie Northern or my Pennsylvania G5 as their throttles close on their own if you let go of the reach rod.

[James Powell]

Jack,
We run with a mixture- but as Steve says, 14" or so is about the magic end for how long your arms will be. (unless they drag on the ground, like my Drill Instructor insisted mine must have...).

My Caribou (I) has a plastic tender, inspired by the shorty CNR ones that some of the P5's got. The survivor in Sandon, BC has one like this in real life (no, not made of plastic...but very short). The Brit has a BR1C I think, and again, it measures out at fairly close to that magical 14".

Caribou (I) doesn't have extension controls at all- it's all over the tender to drive. The larger of my kids has driven a little bit with it, it is just manageable as it is setup. Britannia has an extension throttle, which if you are going to run with the cab on, is a good thing. If you take the cab off (which I tend to favor), then you don't need the extension. It is possible to run with the full cab on and the extension off, but it's not particularly fun. I tend to run on the screw reverser anyway, so the throttle is a fairly binary thing (on/off) once away from the stops. That requires leaning forward over the tender to manage, which I could the last time I ran, 3 years or so ago. (It's with dad, awaiting a heavy general, after something in excess of 500 miles of running. The original motionwork was a bit suspect, and is showing that the quartering isn't quite on by some rather thrashed out connecting rods).

We looked long and hard about how to manage with the tender as designed for the Hoffman (J2) Hudson, and came to the conclusion that the most sensible thing was to not build the tender, but to run with a 1 gallon windshield washer jug on the rear of the riding car...

(in other words, if you don't finish the tender before the loco, it's not getting finished !)

The thought process was that when we finished building the trucks (which never happened- though one of the very first things I turned was the wheels for them) that we would build probably a Vanderbilt style tender, with the rear portion being removable to sit on the tender frame and drive. We knew that the Vanderbilt would be wrong for a J2, but not so wrong as to matter for what was a well run engine, not going to be a beauty queen. It certainly would have been more attractive than said 1 gallon water jug on the rear of the riding car and a Players 'baccy tin for coal...

James

[Wolfgang]

When I built my 3/4" scale CPR Hudson beginning in 1985, I too was faced with the long tender size and the running of ol' 2888, as the proposed tender was unsuitable. Turns out that CPR did have a short tender in service, probably on the commuter run from downtown Montreal to the West Island towns of Pointe Claire, Beaconsfield, Baie D'Urfe, etc.
My very good friend James Scott of the MLS dug out the information and produced construction drawings in 1990 or so. I finally got to building the tender in 2007 or thereabouts. This short tender has worked very well in practice as all cab controls may be reached by stretching over the tender.
This locomotive and tender may be seen on my Youtube channel BasementEngineer. Wolfgang

[JBodenmann]

Hello My Friends
Thank you for the info concerning the operating controls. Your suggestions and advice will be very useful when it comes to setting op the J1e. I had hoped to avoid extended controls but it looks like that may not be an option considering the tender will be 27 inches long overall. The Central did have some shorty tenders, like was used on the Lionel 700e. Decisions, decisions...Thanks again.
Jack

[Mountaineer]

For what it’s worth- I’ve spent years running 3/4” scale engines on an elevated line with 6 wheel Commonwealth tender trucks. As long as there was some weight on other end of passenger car it is no problem to sit on very front of passenger car and reach cab controls. Have also done this with a Timkin Four Aces 4-8-4 with a centipede tender. That was a bit of a stretch! This does assume the tender springing is set up for a ‘bit’ of elbow weight...

Mountaineer

[Steve Bratina]

The shorty tenders were on the Lima built B&A hudsons since they didn't have pans on that division.

[Wolfgang]

Forgot to mention, that short tender behind my CPR Hudson has two six wheel trucks, albeit very close together.
On my model there is just enough room between the trucks for a water dump valve.