0-4-0 #6 'Old Reliable'
The summer of 1885 saw a need for a yard switcher and light road locomotive to handle moving cars at the Allegheny Valley's servicing center at Phillipston, and some other local work at East Brady.  The lowest bid was not from H.K. Porter & Co., but they could supply it soonest. In fact, due to Porter's innovative manufacturing process, the little switcher arrived only 7 weeks after the order was placed!
#6 would soon prove her worth,  in 1886  the little loco saved several of her larger sisters when the buildings at Phillipston burned down. The following winter she was also fitted with a cut down pilot plow to help clear the yards - to supplement the usual method being having the track gang repeatedly shovel the snow into a gon and then pushing it into the river to float away.- She was really much too light for plowing more than a few inches, but it freed up some of the track gang for other duties.

After the business car "Kimberly" was acquired in 1897 #6 was also sometimes called to 'haul the brass', pull visiting investors and dignitaries, on short tours within a few miles of the yard. As seen in this undated photo:

By 1910, however, the little locomotive was proving TOO small to handle more than two of the larger steel cars when loaded, and was relegated to occasional yard service. In the fall of 1922 her fires were finally dropped and she seemed destined to be scrapped. For whatever reason, the railroad never got around to it. A well to do railfan purchased the little engine in 1948 and lovingly restored her, including her plow. And now she makes occasional appearances on her old line for fan trips and photo ops.

The Model: Bashing the LGB 2017D

I've loved almost everything about this little engine except it's looks. The LGB 2017 is great for a small layout, is well engineered, quiet, will creep along at very slow speeds, is drop dead reliable and can nearly pull stumps. It just looked..... well, odd. With an American style kerosene headlight, diamond chimney and a big red cowcatcher stuck on what is a very obviously German style locomotive. I hope we can improve it. We won't be following any particular original builder's practice, but rather just making it a bit more like something that could have been made here in the States. Let the butchery begin!!!
Stage I - Winter 2007
My 2017 on my layout before starting the bash


Boiler with the cab removed and domes cut off.


New  steam and sand dome courtesy of a Bachmann Porter



Compromise cab with new front wall pieces fabricated from the old side tanks


Test mock up...it now looks a little more like a US built locomotive, doesn't it? The bell is Aristo off a c-16


I also added new basswood running boards and a LGB engineer
A new coal bunker with basswood "hungry boards" changes the whole character of the tender


Ready for more paint, some detailing, and lettering... but it looks like a whole different loco!

Test shot on the layout, still needs final paint and decals


Stage II - Winter 2008
I kind of just stopped on the project for almost a whole year, simply running the engine in black primer. An electrical gremlin (just pinched wire) caused me to have to take the loco apart. So while I was at it I decided to address all the details and stuff I had been ignoring. --  I was never particularly happy with the compromise cab, I decided to try to modify one from an Aristocraft C-16 to fit. I had to remove a bit of material from the front wall to accomodate the boiler as well as opening up the back wall since this loco has a deck.. (I also got a better camera, lol)


Test fitting the new cab...oops it is a LOT shorter than the old one. Now it looks kind of funny.


Shortening the smokestack about 1/4" helped a little. Doing that isn't for the faint of heart.
Only time will tell if I messed up the smoke unit (It didn't, luck favors fools). It's kind of hard to see, but I also added the old tool box from the tender to the running board on this side. The vent on the roof is actually the old coal hatch from the original cab.  Yes, I know, I still need to plug the hole in the side of the boiler where the air pump was originally mounted.


Hole now plugged with a bit of styrene. Ozarks miniatures air tanks added, and first coat of final color. I kinda like the green boiler jacket....


Piping for the air pump and turbo generator is just some brass wire bent to fit. but it looks better than having them just hang there. No a  generator AND kerosene headlights doesn't make sense... unless you assume that the old headlights were retrofitted with electric bulbs in the early teens


Here it is almost ready for decals. I didn't like the Bachmann whistle off the donor Porter, it looked more like a safety valve.... So, I changed it to a brass one from an Aristo c-16 and made a lever from a bit of plastic. I also carved away some of the extraneous cast in piping for a cleaner look.  I painted the valve gear since it was starting to rust anyway (They aren't really as grey as the flash made them look, rather a different "shade" of grey/black), and blacked out the tires on the wheels and the skates. Yes, the colors are a bit bright. My "weathering" process will mute them considerably, subtle color differencess at this point would be lost on the final result.


I  realised why the boiler still looked "odd". The firebox was simply too short. I started to make a cardstock template to make the extension pieces out of styrene, but decided to just use the cardstock since this area is protected anyway. Yes, I know it is seriously lacking in rivet and staybolt detail, but from 5 feet away it isn't all that noticable. A washout plug casting will cover the remaining mounting hole behind the toolbox.

Still awaiting the decals and weathering, but otherwise pretty much done.


Decals applied. A big thanks to Stan Cedarleaf for the custom printing job (and for selling me this much loved/hated 2017 in the first place, lol.) The cab roof has been removed to mask the windows for weathering and I will probably paint a bit of the interior while it is off as well.


Here is a rear view of the cab. Nobody will ever see it, so it's kind of minimalist, just a shelf and oil can added to the German one and some paint. The clunky plastic windows were removed to be replaced with thinner mylar ones after weathering (easier to put masking tape on the inside than mask each window separately, anyway).  .



Stage III - Weathering
Some people swear by chalks for weathering, I've never had much luck with them. Instead I use a "secret recipe" of primer paints from rattle cans to get that old, run down effect. here we are all masked and ready for weathering...

Step one: overspray with primer brown...


Step two: overspray with primer grey...

Step 3: overspray with primer black (oops, the pic didn't turn out! Sorry)

Ready to do the same combination with the tender. I use index cards to help mask large areas.


All done and ready to go back to work - consist is Lehmann toytrain, they work really, really well with R-1 curves and the realities of a small indoor layout...plus they are (or were before the big meltdown) cheap.  They are also pretty much indestructable.


Stage IV Sping 2009
Never one to leave well enough alone. I found a snowplow and straight stack on ebay..... I may redo the tender tank as well...
I also built a power tender with a cut down tank from an Aristo-Craft C-16 for another project.


Since I didn't end up using it for that project, it got donated to #6 - where it looks right at home in he spring of 2010

Of all my locomotives #6 gets run the most. We call it "Old Reliable" because it has survived several long falls, a dunking, numerous derailments and crashes, yet you still know that all you have to do is plop it on the rails and turn on the power and it will go.

Other Building Projects

Kitbashing is kind of contagious once you start, you'll have all sorts of ideas..... A custom loco deserved a custom consist
While I was waiting on the decals for the 2017 I got bored, so I built an interior for my caboose out of cardstock. Stove is Aristo, I think...


Finished caboose and a couple boxcars. They were also weathered with the paints.


Lehmann "Cattle Car" to gondola Bash
I got a pair of these Lehmann cattle cars rather inexpensively.  I thought they were hideous, but rairoads can always use a couple more flatcars...


I was just going to toss the ugly sides in the trash but I happened to notice how well they nested together. Then at 3AM an idea bit me and after about 20 minutes with a pair of sprue cutters and some glue I had this...


A bit of paint some decals, and the same weathering process later, and we have a rather homely but quite useful gon.


I'm sure there will eventually be more revisions, and new upgrades to see.
Y'all stop back soon!

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