Wow!  

Wow!  

Double Wow

I'll second that. Please show how you animated the bell!

Fantastic!

That looks really good.

Really nice

Beautiful

Fabulous work!  Tell us more about the engine, please.  

Spectacular!

Incredible work, Ross!  I didn't think it was possible, but this engine looks even better than the Manzanita.  How about a pic of the two together near that beautiful new depot of yours?

A real gem!

An FED Spartan turned into a jewel! One superb locomotive!

Thanks!

Thank you for all your kind remarks!

I doubt if I can remember everything, I leaned heavily on other peoples work, and worked at my normal glacial pace. If you go to YouTube and search for "slidevamr" you will see short videos of most of the major steps during construction.

First problem was the drive, the NWSL tender drive was never going to cut it. Years ago on the Yahoo HOn3 group I saw where Dave Krembs (sp?) had used the NWSL 50:1 gearbox and a Samagi motor to repower his Spartans and have the new drive in the loco.

After I had that running smoothly I just couldn't get over the undersized drivers, I saw a ad for a white metal kit from  Keith Wiseman that had the correct drivers. A quick email to Keith and soon I had a new set of drivers headed my way. So I tore the drive apart again and rebuilt it with the new drivers, now she looked right!

Next detour was how to detail the frame. I ended up making a master and casting frame overlays with fenders built in. You can see the article on how I did that in the 2013 HOn3 Annual.

Now the engine looked right, but the tender was too long. After getting up my nerve I shortened the tender by a little over a scale foot. Now the classic lines were really coming together! Next I turned the custom stack and steam dome and gathered up the appropriate commercial casting to complete the details.

Laurie McLean MMR from Australia wrote up how he added a working bell to his Blackstones in the 2012 HOn3 Annual and he helped guide me in getting my bell animated. Since his article came out TCS released the WOW decoders that could drive the bell motor direct without an additional decoder which made this feature possible.

Last major component was the sugar cube speaker that was small enough to fit in the smoke box. 

Just about the time she was headed to the paint shop Joe and MRH came to the rescue with the painting guides for replacing Floquil paints. So, she is finished with Vallejo paints with the final gloss coat being the only Floquil product used.

Craig Hoefer printed the custom decals for me.

I'm sure I've forgotten something.... But five years is a long time to work on a project!

Ross A

Photo request

Chris,

Thanks! You are too kind.

I am off to the NNGC so I will try to get your photo taken sometime after I get back.

Ross A

Great work

We learn so much from this forum.  Thanks to all for sharing such thoughtful and helpful posts and responses.  

Superb work. Bravo!   Andre

Superb work. Bravo!

Andre

A really great work!

A really great work! Congratulation also from Germany!

Congratulations Ross !!

Congratulations to Ross who just won First Place in the Rod Loco category at the National Narrow Gauge Convention in Augusta Maine !! Way to go Ross!

Have fun! 

Here is where you really want a "like" button...

Congratulations, Ross! 

Congratulations Ross!

Well deserved.

Yes I agree

Good Job!

Robert

Dittos. . .

You Tube Videos

First - Ross - Beautiful locomotive.

Just did a search in Youtube using 'slidevamr'.

Youtube auto changes the search to 'slide bar' and many unrelated subjects come up and none are yours.

BUT!!

Do a search with 'HOn3 4-4-0' and your videos are the first hit.

Again great locomotive and thanks very much for taking the time to create the videos.