The Story -  By the early 1920s the Allegheny Valley's small fleet of 1880s Baldwin 10-15E Consolidations were showing their age.-  #19 had been wrecked in 1914 and removed from regular service. The other four sisters had struggled valiantly through the teens and the WWI surge - often doubleheading just trying to keep the traffic moving, but it was becoming more obvious almost weekly that they just couldn't maintain the punishing pace. Something heavier was needed. 2-4-4-2 Mallet #8 in 1918 was a first, rather failed, attempt at superpower on the line. It's dismal early performance meant the management was even less inclined to try any more unorthodox, or unproven designs. However, all that didn't mean that they were going to be any freer with the purse strings!

The first (larger class) 2-8-0 delivered in 1921 was a replacement for wrecked #19  - now in MoW service as #5. -- The new #19 was a big brute. An outside framed 2-8-0 rebuilt for the AV by Baldwin from the boiler and cylinders of a nearly new but wrecked standard gauge ten wheeler. With her larger size and modern superheat technology, she soon proved to be able to handle nearly double the tonnage of any of the five sisters. Her Baker valve gear was easier to lubricate and required less maintenance than their old style Stephenson's link reverse as well. The AV's brass hats were quite simply tickled with it's performance -- even if the MoW supervisors were annoyed because she pounded the rail more and quite a few lineside structures and signage needed to be moved back to accomodate the wider loading gauge.

#15 would become the second locomotive of the class. Built to the same chassis design as the 'new' #19, but with a still larger boiler from a slightly heavier donor wreck, she was delivered from the standard gauge interchange at Oil City on a snowy February day in 1923. 

Typically, the AV chose to save money in odd places and have her built with old fashioned slide valves - as the boiler donor's piston valve cylinder casting was broken when she rolled over. #15 would enter service Mar 2 of that 1923, and the original #15, eldest of the five sisters who had served the AV so long and well, was temporarily renumbered #21 until the replacement for #16 was ready in early 1925, at which time both she and #16 were traded in to Baldwin, and presumably scrapped.

The Model - One of the persistent minor inconveniences of anchoring your pike in time is, well... time.  MOST things have a limited service life, that's why you don't often see a woodburning 4-4-0 pulling double stack intermodals in the real world....

Sooner or later I simply had to address the simple fact that an 1880s 2-8-0, no matter how well loved, maintained, and even reboilered, would be unlikely to still be in regular service after WWI, let alone into the summer of 1960. So the quest began for the 'next' class of freight power on the Allegheny Valley. Several avenues were explored; Inside frame, outside frame, 2-8-0, 2-8-2, 2-6-6-2, etc. I was actually leaning in another direction altogether when I ended up with a fixer-upper Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0, popularly called a "Connie".

It had the predictable Bachmann 'undocumented special features' of this particular model - a stripped axle gear, a broken - then marginally repaired - tender truck frame, loose screws everywhere.... But it was fairly inexpensive. Northwest Shortline offers an improved replacement gear for the broken one -- and the rest would be addressed as we went through it during the rebuilding process anyway.

There was only one really major problem with it from the start. The 'Connie' is this huge pig of a thing in 1:20.3 scale and my AV is +/- 1:24 I knew from reading several forums that others had downscaled them before. It was just going to take a little meatball surgery....

I decided that the simplest way to justify the thing was under the same kind of story as what the Rio Grande did when they built the K-37s - take an older standard gauge boiler  and fit it to a new narrow gauge chassis. Finding a suitable alleged 'donor' locomotive was actually pretty hard. Most pictures show few locos of that vintage with both a straight boiler AND slide valves... Piston valves may be an eventual change.

I didn't care for the way the domes were arranged, so I moved them and shortened everything. - resulting in a very husky look. I also shortened the pilot by about 1/2". The factory piping, while visually interesting, made absolutely no sense. So it was stripped and re-routed in a more prototypical manner.

A cab from an original battery powered Bachmann Big Hauler changed the scale, and made it look even beefier.

The Connie tender trucks got narrowed by about 1/8" on both sides, and strengthened. This eliminated the flex feature, but should keep them from breaking ever again... Left is stock, right modified.

The 1:20 tender body was just way too large to use as well. It was replaced with later Big Hauler items left over from my #12 build. I built an extended coal bunker as well since this engine was intended for mainline service.

I decided that this was going to be the grubbiest freight hog anybody ever saw.... and the weathering here wasn't even finished!  I also modified the 'cowcatcher' by grafting half a broken off Aristo 0-4-0 pilot step on each side. I also reinforced it on the back side with brass strip since it was broken in half.

Nearly ready for service..... as soon as we get that gear changed and couplers mounted!

This page is under construction... check back later!