Climax A conversion notes

I've had a number of people ask me that. I'm assuming you're targeting an F-7 chassis or something like that. When I first looked at this project, I really wanted to do it as Nn3 because the majority of Class A's were 3', not standard gauge. Some were up to 9' though, if you can imagine that.... I really wanted to do an accurate model. There was already a very innacurate Class A out there, built on an 0-6-0 chassis, with non-turning trucks, for a LOT of money. I couldn't figure out how they did it until I realized it is an 0-6-0 with the center axle taken out and two end axles - unpowered, floating on each end in fixed-trucks. They way that one is designed, on the 0-6-0 chassis, might be modifiable down, but you're going to pay $500+ to find out. I wanted the proportions right, trucks to turn, a true, normal, round tank where it belonged, etc. All that ruled out any normall B-B switcher-type mechanism. The Kato critter has exceptional electrical pickup characterics, and after they got rid of the dropping resistor and used a true 12v motor, has pretty darn good performance. They get that through frictionless end-axle pickups, which also means you can't narrow the trucks down, either. For the price of my kit you could probably afford to expiriment. I have a square tank option and a round tank. The part that just wouldn't fit is the front boiler, it just barely makes it over the pivoting Kato truck tower as it is. If you make a bigger boiler to hide that, the whole character of the locomotive is messed up and you end up with something that looks like the HO MDC "Class A Climax" built over the boxcab mechanism, and that doesn't even resemble a real Class A. The vertical boiler kit can be assembled so that the cab is TOTALLY OPEN. In that option the driveshaft is right out there in the open, not hidden at all, but it is so small you hardly notice it. But you sure do notice that the entire cab is open and it looks just impossible to be self-propelled in N. You can see the front of the motor, and the driveshaft near the floor, if you look. As far as for how they pull, the front powered truck has a friction tire. The more imbalanced you get the weight over the front truck the better it works. On my kits the 'woodpiles' are cast metal weights with one thin layer of split wood on the top. The boiler on the 13-ton vertical is cast metal. On the 18-ton, the entire cab has a removable cast weight stuffed in it. I've pulled seven 50' boxcars, some pretty heavy, on the flat. The only thing I ask it to pull on the HV layout are short trains of log cars, and it can manage a 4-5 car train, about the same as the prototype, up 4% grades. I've expirimented, almost successfully, with doing a cast metal boiler on the 18-ton. I never did get one that didn't have holes in it, but I made one that had few enough holes to work for me. If I was doing it over, I think I could do it now. Any further conversion ideas will probably have cast boilers.

Here's the one I've been working on lately. This is the early 18-ton with a wood frame. I made it by cross-kitting the 13-ton with the 18-ton. One of the major differences on this test was to use a cast metal boiler, which let me keep the cab open and use the vertical engine casting from the 13-tonner. I'm not sure I'm up to making any more metal boilers though. This one took me seven tries, and no, there is no visible difference. It just let me have the open cab option.