Mark:
It’s at least worth considering the LMB S-2a. They can be found in decent cosmetic condition for ~$200. You’d probably want to install a can motor, and it’s probably 75:25 that a new gearbox would be warranted. If you install one of
the shorter coreless or square motors (the former being more expensive, but strong and potentially higher rpm; the latter being very economical and super strong, but generally lower rpm than a suitable can motor), you will then have enough room to get a backhead
into the right place in the cab. American Scale Models (www.americanscalemodels.com) is the place I go for detailed backheads, and owner Bill Davis is a super guy.
Beyond that, brass is a great medium for super-detailing or modification, and you can elect however far you want to take that, using the now pretty robustly available (direct or on eBay) lost wax castings from PSC. The new owners, the
Prantls, also seem like nice people.
Installing a gearbox requires a puller and a press, and accurate re-quartering of the main driver axle, so don’t go into that process that with your eyes closed. I can recommend a great craftsman who can do the work for you, but he will
not work with NWSL gearboxes any more, and you’d be in for the $60 PSC gearbox price and the motor price, in addition to his labor and the 2-way shipping costs. My LMB S-2a is with him for this work now, so he’d have good processes and dimensions already
worked out if he received one from you to upgrade.
When looking for suitable donor models for a project like the one you are contemplating, I always start at
www.steamlocomotive.com. It is an astonishingly comprehensive databank of steam loco characteristics. With respect to the S-2, you’d look in the 4-6-2 part of the database for Pacifics that had close to the same
wheelbase, driver diameter, and locomotive weight (the latter to address your “beefiness” concern), constraining your search to prototypes for which suitable models have been produced. If a donor model you are considering doesn’t come close in these basic
dimensions, you’d be looking at a huge effort to modify it to suit.
Also beware that many plastic (and even some brass) models were produced with grotesquely large driver flanges. When that was done, the drivers were often correspondingly undersized in diameter to “look right”. To me, it never does, but
YMMV. Trying to swap out drivers in a model is a sure way to make a project cost exorbitant, if not completely impractical.
G’luck!
-Eric
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Hi everyone!
I'm looking for a starting point to model an S-2 Pacific or three in HO scale.
Brass is probably out of the question.
Are there any decent plastic locos (meaning decent running qualities) that would make a good starting point? Something with taller domes to more closely match the S-2, for example. The BLI heavy Pacific is one I wouldn't consider a good starting point - too
beefy looking.
Thanks!
Mark P.
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