I have been working on reviving the WSL, unsuccessfully at present, and found that my Bachmann C&S 2-6-0, fine loco that it is, does not like 12" radius curves on old undulating code 70 track. I could fix the trackwork but that is another story.... I thought instead 'What would a good four-coupled passenger loco look like? What could be done with the Bachmann 2-6-0 to make it more "curve-friendly"?' Here, my friends are the results of those ruminations, done without ever a razor saw coming to plastic, yes I took 15 minutes with Windoze Paint and came up with this little beauty:

Isn't she cute? I know, I know, trains aren't supposed to be 'cute', but I guess I am influenced by my wife's opinion of them.

I think the trailing truck could be moved back a little, but other than that, she is perfect(I am talking about the loco, not the wife here, though both are pretty nice)! I even shortened the tender and tender trucks a little to make it look right.

After that successful outing, I decided that my 18" gauge passenger coach couldn't wait, so I tried to digitally cut, past and generally 'spindle, fold and mutilate' a photo of the beautiful Bachmann GN car, then put it together with the original for this comparison:

Cute or what? It represents my planned coach for the train around our ranch; 24' long body, 8' tall overall and about 5' wide. I didn't change the truck or wheel size here, but they would have to go down to HOn30 trucks and about 14" wheels to make it sit low enough. It probably is more the height of a two-foot gauge coach, but I didn't measure anything. This is just a quickie from a stock photo and it came out looking good enough. What do you think?

Posted10.02.2002
Edited 30.09.2002