I'm planning to make a model of an Arkansas & Missouri Alco T-6. I was at the GAT Show at the Orange County Fairgrounds yesterday, and picked up S1 and Rs1 shells to start the kitbash with. I think the S1 shell may be Model Power. The Rs1 is from an old lifelike toy. I plan to use an old Athearn sw7 body for the walkways and the sw7 drive fitted with a can motor.
First parts for the T-6
- Thread starter Russ Bellinis
- Start date
I prefer the table saw, sharp carbide tipped blade, high speed and move very slowly 
Still got most a muh fingers!
Still got most a muh fingers!Russ, I'm not familiar with the T6. Can you post a photo? BTW, I never know when Jon's serious, and I think he was just now!
Gary
Gary
I don't know how to move a photo from one site to another but if you go here railroadforums.com/forum/index.php and go to the Regionals and Shortlines forum you will find a post by me titled Arkansas & Missouri request. There is a pic of the locomotive I want to model there.
From what I see in that photo, an S1 and C424 or other "century" shell would be needed, rather than the RS1 shell. I must say I have always liked those indented upper corners on the Alcos. I look forward to seeing Russ's loco.
Gary,
I agree, but those indented corners are not easy to scratchbuild. I did, to convert the Rivarossi C420 to a high short hood, but it wasn't fun. I don't know if Cannon has done one of these ends or not. They seem to have concentrated on EMD.
Pete
There is a typo in the original post. One one came up missing. It should have read Rs11 shell. I missed it when I proofread the post before hitting the submit button.
I think Cannon pretty much concentrates on EMD. In addition they only do original production. If a railroad does a rebuild and uses some custom parts, Cannon won't do them. I also think they pretty much concentrate on contemporary equipment, nothing from the Alco era, but I may be wrong there.
Hi Russ, I printed the photo and took it downstairs last night to check it against some Alco models and came to the same conclusion you did, RS11 is the one. Can't wait to see it when you're done.
Thanks Gary. Looking at the hood for the Rs11 on the model in comparison with the S-1 or 2 that I have, the hood on the Rs11 has a distinct "arch" at the top. The S is flat with slightly rounded corners. It would appear from the photo of the T-6 that the nose has an arch in the hood directly in front of the fan. Behind the fan the hood appears flat, and it seems to transition right in the area of the fan. Am I right?
It also appears that the end of the fuel tank is a flange mount rather than a curved corner one piece tank. The site that the t-6 #14 came from also has a pic of A & M T=6 #12 from the other side. Both pics are found on rr-fallenflags.org in the "A misc" section under Arkansas & Missouri. The Pis of # 12 shows the other side of the tank to have an even mors distinct flange end.
I cut off the front ends of both shells, and removed the grilles from the Rs11 and cut them down. I've glued the Rs11 front to the S body. The hoods matched up! I've started filling in the cracks and putting in filler pieces. I think it will come out good, if I don't screw up the details too badly.
I don't have a web site to post pics to. Can I post directly to this forum, or do I need to e-mail and enclosure to someone on the board and let them post for me?
Russ, you can post to this forum. The file size has a limit, but that isn't to hard to work with. When you post a reply there is a spot to attach file. Hit browse and go to the file your picture is in and go from there. Pretty easy really. When you hit Submit Reply, it will do the rest. Looking forward to seeing your pictures.
Greg Elems
Greg Elems
I pulled out the Sw7 that I'm using for running boards and for a drive. I found out my first attempt was too long to fit the running boards. I started to plan a longer frame for it, but when I look at my Alco book, the overall length of the T-6 looks similar to a S. I cut off the nose and removed a bit more material. It is now just the right length for the Sw7 frame and running boards. I'm going to let the glue dry overnight before I put the cut down grilles on.
I think the model I got is an S-1 since I noticed in my Alco book that the S2 has the vertical ribs in the grille. I think the round fan in the nose may be a little close to the nose on the T-6 than it is in the Rs11, but I'm going to call it good enough. As soon as I have the grilles mounted and the spaces filled in and smoothed out, I'll try posting a pic. I'm going to need to do some radical cutting down of the frame, and I'll have to find a can motor for it because the motor in my Sw7 is one of the W-I-D-E Athearns
I think the model I got is an S-1 since I noticed in my Alco book that the S2 has the vertical ribs in the grille. I think the round fan in the nose may be a little close to the nose on the T-6 than it is in the Rs11, but I'm going to call it good enough. As soon as I have the grilles mounted and the spaces filled in and smoothed out, I'll try posting a pic. I'm going to need to do some radical cutting down of the frame, and I'll have to find a can motor for it because the motor in my Sw7 is one of the W-I-D-E Athearns
Russ,
There are repower kits for the Athearn switchers, I believe A line
makes one that would work. The Athearn sw1500 has a scale width hood, and that motor might also work.
Pete
There are repower kits for the Athearn switchers, I believe A line
makes one that would work. The Athearn sw1500 has a scale width hood, and that motor might also work.
Pete
I'm debating about what to use to power it. All of the newer Athearn locomotives use a narrower motor. When Athearn came out with the narrow motor, they put it in all of their locomotives, even the ones with wide hoods. The Sw motor is just shorter than the standard motor. A-line also markets a Mashima can motor to fit, and I think Alco offers a "Helix Humper" motor to fit as well. I'm not sure that the performance of a can motor is enuogh better than a well tuned stock Athearn motor to justify the cost difference. The lower current draw of the can motors is nice when running multiple powered units together, but I'm only planning to model one T-6, and it will be used by itself for switching.