just picked up the old AMT model kit and would like to do her as an old beat up workhouse out West, a nice dusty coat of charcoal grey, etc..
Was the General a unique engine? I've only seen a reference to a sister engine, so I am not sure if it was just a standard 4-4-0 that just has some history behind it.
Anyone have this kit? I've not received mine yet. Curious as to its scale. It's supposed to build up to 25 inches.
thx - craig
Should work just fine, but remember that even old locos were very well taken care of in the days before we evolved into throw-away technology.
Engine crews were most commonly permanantly assigned to a single loco, and as it was "their" loco the crews tended to take a lot of pride in their baby and kept her as clean and shiny as they could manage.
Engineers would quite commonly buy fancy parts such as custom whistles for "their" locos out of their own pockets.
Just a loco that happened to become famous by being in the right place at the right time.
~Pete
Pretty sure it was a standard design with decorations. Such locos stayed in service a long time with lots of detail changes, presumably downgrading fron crack expresses to local branch lines along the way. Probably some still in service around 1950. Scale was quoted as 1:24.
Greg.P. NZ
On 9/10/2010 5:24 PM Musicman59 spake thus:
I'm puzzled; are you saying the *model* is "up to" 25 inches (long? wide? tall?)?
No, he said it would "build up" to 25" long. (Nice example of the vagarties of English. Phrasal verbs (verb + preposition) are utterly illogical.)
That would make it about 1/2" scale, I think.
wolf k.
Here is a very simple way to find most answers on the Intenet and you get a lot of links to store and read.
According to one photo in a CW book by Abdill, the General was originally an external frame loco and modified somewhat after bing shot up some in a battle.
r
How common was this in the US?
Apart from narrow gauge, where the wider frame separation gave room for a larger boiler.
Outside framed engines were common in the early years in the UK, and continued to be built while there was need of them, eg convertibles which had the wheels inside the frame on broad gauge and outside on standard, with locomotives being built to the same basic design for a while after the end of the broad gauge.
?
Then wouldn't the wheels have been *outside* the frame for broad gauge and *inside* for standard, or does "broad gauge" actually mean "narrow gauge" in this context?
~Pete
Wait.
Does the photo show the actual loco with an outside frame, or does the caption just mention that that modification had taken place at one time?
If it's the latter then I suspect that the caption writer was confused, as The General started it's life as a 5' gauge loco -and was therefore rather unlikly to have had an outside frame- and it was converted to Standard gauge later on after the war.
I examined The General (and the Texas as well) up close some years ago on a visit to Gerogia, and it showed no signs of ever having been an outside-framed locomotive, nor did the docent in charge mention anything about such a conversion.
~Pete
According to a recent article in Classic Trains magazine, a majority of the railroads in the South at the time of the Civil War were built using 5 foot gauge. I do not know if the particular rail line where the Great Locomotive Chase actually occurred was one of those, or if it was standard or some other gauge.
wolf k.
Some of Brunel's engines actually had double frames: one inside and one outside the wheels.
wolf k.
Sorry, you're right. I originally had it that way round but "tidied" it up.
Should work just fine, but remember that even old locos were very well taken care of in the days before we evolved into throw-away technology.
Engine crews were most commonly permanantly assigned to a single loco, and as it was "their" loco the crews tended to take a lot of pride in their baby and kept her as clean and shiny as they could manage.
Engineers would quite commonly buy fancy parts such as custom whistles for "their" locos out of their own pockets.
Just a loco that happened to become famous by being in the right place at the right time.
A nice picture from Nashville in 1864 with several different types. Interesting picture.
It *is* an interesting picture, but every loco present -on which you can count the wheels, that is- appears to be a standard inside-framed
4-4-0 "American" type.Not surprising, as by that time they were almost ubiquitous.
~Pete
Double framed locos - Iron plate inside and wood sandwiched between thin iron sheets on the outside. When one replaces the 7'01/4" gauge wheelsets with 4'81/2" wheelsets the outside frames became superfluous. (remember, these locos were designed to be convertable)
Greg.P.
It *is* an interesting picture, but every loco present -on which you can count the wheels, that is- appears to be a standard inside-framed
4-4-0 "American" type. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Sorry, I meant manufacturers. Another slightly different view.
Can't beat those old plate cameras for resolution! This looks like maybe taken on a 16x20.
And, oh yeah, can easily lose a couple days on this site ...
I like this one, there is so much detail.
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