Building Augusta & New Arcadia #16

My first piece of rolling stock for the Augusta & New Arcadia RR was to be one of the narrow gauge steamers going from the city of Augusta up into the mountains.

The inspiration came from the 3D-printing company Shapeways, where Myner Models offers a conversion kit for an N-scale steamer, transforming it to a wonderful little HOn30 locomotive.

The model to be sacrificed on the narrow gauge altar was a Model Power 2-6-0 – a relative simple and not too good looking model of a late steamer.

Nevertheless, it felt rather cruel to take it apart and cut various bits off.

Fortunately, when the 3D-printed parts from Shapeways was testfitted, my bad conscience evaporated, seeing the outline of the future locomotive of the Augusta & New Arcadia RR.

The conversion of the locomotive was relatively easy, the most difficult part being extending the wires from the tender to the motor. I found that by cutting a piece of the frame of the tender, the wires was just exactly long enough to make the new, larger tender shell fit.

With most of the parts in place – I prepainted most of the 3D-printed parts before mounting them – it was time to add a few more details on the cab.

After a coaty of glossy black to tie the model together and provide a good surface for the decals, the markings were added, bringing the model to life.

I had been looking for a place to order decals for my freelanced Augusta & New Arcadia RR for a while, and finally settled for Rail Graphics Custom Decals. The decals took a few days to produce and after a week in the mail from the US, they arrived at my hobby desk in Europe!

Just before weathering, I added an engineeer and some real coal in scale, both made by Noch, as well as glass in the front windows.

The engine was weathered with a couple of dark brown washes followed by a tan highlight. Finally a couple of layers of dark grey weathering powder from Bragdon Enterprises toned down the contrasts.

I am very fond of my new, little steamer, although seeing the close up images shown the numerous inaccuracies and errors of my work. But it is definately not the last HOn30 locomotive that I will build, so hopefully the next one will be even better.

In the background above, a Pennsylvania 2-6-0 in HO scale illustrates the great difference between narrow and normal gauge locomotives.

The next project will be to paint, detail and weather the wonderful small passenger cars from Minitrains, so the railroad can begin its passenger service.

But what color should they be? Green seems to be the most common for narrow gauge carriers, followed by yellow and red. Opinions are very much wanted! 🙂