I bought a pair of RS-11s from Hobbies For Men (mail order) for, I think $15.00 apiece.
When they arrived, I found that the handrails were an integral part of the body casting, and about the same size (thickness) as the rails on which the locos would be running.
The locos, from LifeLike (Proto-no-thousand) had one powered truck each, with the motor mounted atop it. To start them moving required a current similar to that used for an electric chair, and speed options were jackrabbit or dead tortoise.
I quickly decided to make them into dummies (related, apparently, to the guy who ordered them), replacing the handrails with Athearn stanchions and some piano wire. I also shaved-off the cast-on grabirons, replacing them with wire ones. By the time I had them done, they were actually better detailed than the two smooth-running Atlas RS-11s that they were slated to be operating with...
(Click on the photos for larger views)
...and one of the Atlas diesels...
When I backdated my layout to the late '30s, the powered/dummy loco pairs were sold-off to two different buyers.
I also had one of Bachmann's early Consolidations, the one with the pancake motor. I made some modifications to get rid of the Wooten-style firebox and was in the process of re-detailing it when Bachmann announced their Spectrum Consolidations.
Here's the older one with the pancake motor, but missing some details...
...it was, and still is, a fairly decent runner, although not as nice, nor as powerful as my modified Spectrum Consolidations....
The 26 survived a 3' face-meeting with the layout room's concrete floor, and the 49 had a similar appointment with the floor, but after a 5' drop. Both still run well, although the 49 is generally not on the layout, as I have five Spectrum Consolidations in-service, and another three awaiting modifications into models of three specific CNR prototypes.
Wayne
