# Rebuilding an Accucraft Mogul for my SPRy



## Gerd (Jan 7, 2008)

Hi,


I found a used Accucraft livesteam Mogul on eBay for a very good price and couldn't resist. This one will become #1 on my Southern Palatinate Railway.


I'll go to rebuild her to the look of the Colorado&Southern Moguls , which are favorites of mine. Therefore I'll add some changes to the tender, which acutally needs a lot of rebuilt, and I'll shorten the wheelbase of the loco to a more C&S-style wheelbase. I found photos on the internet showing such a rebuild and I like it much more than the Baldwin-style long wheelbase.


Here's the loco as she arrived in my workshop this week.









And beside my Bachmann C19. I find the Mogul is a perfect match.



















Gerd.


----------



## s-4 (Jan 2, 2008)

Hi Gerd, Sounds like a fun project! Do you have any photos of the shortened model you mentioned? I mostly model 1:29 and have been wondering about transforming my 1:20.3 Mogul over. I already have a tender, but I've been holding off because I want a more evenly distributed driver arrangement and maybe even an outside valve gear set up. Looking forward to seeing your progress.


----------



## ddrum31 (Aug 30, 2017)

Gerd, Very Interesting! I'll be watching this build. 

Jason


----------



## Gerd (Jan 7, 2008)

Hi,

here's the link to the photo I've seen in the internet. This rebuild was offered by the German Accucraft dealer.

http://www.accucraft.de/body_produk.../Mogul_Nevada_Shortline_modifiziert_small.jpg

This is what I like to achieve when rebuilding my loco, plus some other details here and there.

Gerd


----------



## FHPB (Feb 25, 2011)

I assume this will require cutting completely new frames? Big project, but the results are good.


----------



## Gerd (Jan 7, 2008)

Hello,


no, there's no new frame necessary.


I dismantled the loco down to the frame for the changes on the chassis.











Once the wheelsets are removed, I took a closer look to the frame. You can barely see some marks on the frame, where the axlebearing will be located after the modification.









Now comes the hard part - I cut the new slot into the frame. As it's made from steel, I used an angle grinder for rough cutting and finally filled the slot to proper dimensions. Be carefull to get a proper slide fit for the axle bearing. You have to file away a few millimeters of the firebox-sheet on the inside as well to make space for the lip of the axle bearing.










The steel frame is rigged enough and will keep the axle right in place. If you like, you might add a piece of material to the rear end of the new slot to close the gap, but it's not needed to keep the bearing in place. Once the springs and lower bearing lock are in place, the bearing will suspend and work as before, just on the new location.










I closed the old slot with the original bearing locks and made new ones for the new location.











Last step is to shorten the connection rods. I determined the correct length first and used a lap joint and silversolder to reconnect the halfs of the rod. It still needs some finishing.










And here we are - A 2-6-0 chassis with shortened wheelbase.









Next is to reinstall the brake detail, adding some brake cylinders at the rear and installing a Kadee coupler to the pilot.



Gerd


----------



## ddrum31 (Aug 30, 2017)

Awesome!!! Looks great and didn't seem all that hard.

Jason


----------



## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

Great Job!


----------



## FHPB (Feb 25, 2011)

Well done! It's a very tidy job and looks perfectly natural.


----------



## Gerd (Jan 7, 2008)

Hi folks, 
I found some minutes "between the years" as we call it in Germany (meaning the time between Xmas and NewYear) and did some progress on my mogul.
I reinstalled the brake rigging and added two brake cylinders made from brass stock. All is non-functional. There's a brake cylinder on each side as typical on such engines. 








Here's a view from the underside. Due to all the black paint, the details are not very vissible. 








Next I spend some attention to the front pilot and tried to install a Kadee-coupler. the first attempt with a #830 worked well, but looked terrible. 








So I rebuild the whole pilot again and installed a #835 instead, which turned out perfect. I also installed a brake hose. 








As I have to wait for some parts to continue work on the loco, I'll spend some time on the tender next. 
Gerd


----------



## Gerd (Jan 7, 2008)

Hello,
as announced, I did some work on the tender. My first plan was to rebuild the original tender frame but I got to the conclusion, that it might be much easier to build a new frame from wood instead.










The new frame is longer and narrower than the original one. I'll go to model the new tender to the style and type of the tender on my Bachmann C-19.









From the original frame, I salvaged all detail parts and attached them on the new frame. The bolsters got cut to get a longer wheelbase.









The rear foot board was made from brass.










And here's the rebuild loco so far. I really like the longer tender together with the shorter wheelbase on the loco. It changes the overall look so well.











In the meantime, I got the RC components so I can continue work on the loco as well.
Gerd


----------



## lotsasteam (Jan 3, 2008)

Beautiful conversion build!
Manfred


----------



## Larry Green (Jan 2, 2008)

Now that is how a light mogul should look. 



Larry


----------



## Gerd (Jan 7, 2008)

Thanks Larry, I'm also pleased with the result so far.
I tried to sandblast the tender shell yesterday, but the paint is very sticky to that brass. 



Gerd


----------



## Gerd (Jan 7, 2008)

Hello,

here's the latest progress on the tender body. I sandblasted the tender shell to remove all the paint. This makes any soldering action easier and allows some changes to the tender design. The paint was very sticky and it took me some while to get it off. Parallel to the sandblasting, I painted the tender frame, and let the paint rest to dry.










On the tender, I relocated the rear hand rails from the side, into the bend, just as on the front end. First I soldered new rails in place, afterwards, I snipped the old ones off and filed them flush with the tender shell. Before that, I un-soldered the tender brackets, which will get relocated as well, while my tender frame is narrower then the original one.










Another task was to fill in the holes in the tender shell. I mad small plugs on the lathe and soldered them into the holes.










Then I sanded them flush with the tender shell on both sides. Once these are sandblasted and painted again, they wont be visible.










The fixed tender body does look much better now. Still missing were two new brass sheets to cover the front deck of the tender tank. Here you can see the tender brackets back in place at a right angle to the tender ends.










As the inner parts of the original tender were no longer useful, I removed them and decided to install a wooden interior to the tender. I epoxied two blocks of 1/2″ plywood at the far ends into the brass shell.










Later I added the top from 2mm plywood.The whole wooden part will be hidden by the coal bunker above, so I’m happy with this solution. 










At the rear end of the tender, I placed the air tank, which was originally located under the cab. I use several Colorado & Southern Moguls for inspiration on this project. There are still lots of details missing and paint off course.










Now it's time to get some more progress done on the loco. More on this will next week ;-)

Gerd


----------



## rwjenkins (Jan 2, 2008)

What were the holes in the tender for? I assume that was done by the previous owner, but I can't possibly imagine why.


----------



## Gerd (Jan 7, 2008)

Hi Richard,


yes, the holes were drilled by the previous owner. I've also no idea what they were used for. The ones on the back hat 6mm (maybe for toggle switches) while the one the side hat 8mm diam., maybe for a charger socket.


Gerd


----------



## placitassteam (Jan 2, 2008)

Your bash is looking really great. Looking forward to the finished model.


----------



## Gerd (Jan 7, 2008)

Thanks, I'm also looking forward if all my ideas and plans will work out in the end.


Actually, I'm busy on the loco. Since the early AC boiler had no water gauge, I made the required fittings from brass and installed a home made water gauge.

I made all required parts in one single piece and sliced it into the separate parts at the end of the process.










Shape finished, connecting pipes with threads silver-soldered in place and finally sand-blasted. The elbow will be used on top of the boiler and still needs some drilling and taping.










Here I cut the single unit of the fitting into the top and bottom section, as well as into two clamping flanges.










Here's the finished water gauge installed on the boiler.










Now I'm trying to fit a steam whistle...


Gerd


----------



## Gerd (Jan 7, 2008)

Here's some more update.


After some research, I found some space inside the frame to install a whistle. I had to do some cutouts at the firebox sheets.










Finally I was able to install a long brass whistle here, which will be hidden by the boiler.










Once the whistle was in place, I mounted the boiler back to the chassis. When installing the steam exhaust pipe, I cracked the fragile threaded end of the thin copper pipe. So I took the advantage and made a new exhaust pipe with a homemade chuffer.










Gerd


----------



## ddrum31 (Aug 30, 2017)

Can't wait to hear it! See it run.


----------



## Gerd (Jan 7, 2008)

Hello, now the loco is ready for radio control!


It took me some time to figure out how and where I could place the servos for the radio control. Finally I found the solution by getting rid of the Johnson bar and turning the reversing-servo upside down. The regulator servo is placed upright and is mounted in a self-made bracket, bend from sheet steel. The lever is sticking out from the back of the cab, but this is okay. It allows more clearance between the servo and the boiler. Just beside the servo is the cut out for the reverser servo.










Left of the lubricator is the reversing servo, which got installed upside down. The third servo to the right is for the whistle.










As there was no space left for the receiver (the gas tank will take place on the firemans side), I moved the reveiver to the tender. The nine wires of the servos were wrapped in some heat shrink and bend to end under the cab floor in-between the frame.










Here I installed some simple PBC with a 5-pole socket and I combined all red wires to pin 1 and all black wires to pin 5, while pins 2-4 are used for the orange signal wires.










The tender got the matching cable with plug at the end.










To connect the cable with the receiver, I installed the typical plugs at the ends. So it’s easy to change channels if necessary. At least I installed the power switch and made a battery pack ready. Usually I install a charging socket as well, but I won’t carry the large loco to the charging station each time. So I made the battery pack removable by plug & socket.










Beside the Rc components, I installed a T-connector with whistle valve between the manifold and the pressure gauge. Unfortunately, I missed to take photos from the progress, but the finished parts are shown in the 3rd photo above. I also swapped the pressure gauge to a 1/2″ diam. gauge. At least I installed a new safety valve. Unfortunately, the weather is bad outside, so I was not able to do test runs yet under steam, but on air, everythign worked fine so far.


Gerd


----------



## placitassteam (Jan 2, 2008)

Very neat installation. I used the same servo installation for the reverser on my Accucraft C16 and it works very well. Your method to cut down on the wires running from the tender to the locomotive also works very well. I used that method on our coal fired K27. You will have a very nice loco when you re done.


----------



## Gerd (Jan 7, 2008)

Thanks, here's the latest progress on the tender rebuild.


First I added some U channel to the front end of the tender body to add wooden boards which will hold the coal load in place.












The coal bunker on top was made from wood and is hold in place by a push-fit. This allows easy access to the receiver and battery inside the tender. The water hatch at the back was made from brass and copper, together with some Ozark parts.












While adding more details to the tender top, I painted the main body and mounted it on top of the chassis.












To model the coal, I used some decoration pellets which had the perfect size, but the wrong color. But this got fixed quickly with some paint.












And here’s the finished tender together with the loco. Still missing is the rear head light and lettering as well as some details.












That’s it for today, Gerd


----------



## rodblakeman (Jan 2, 2008)

Looking good Gerd, very nice work.


----------



## Gerd (Jan 7, 2008)

Hello, here's the final report on this project.


Since I was not able to get a second headlight which matched the already installed one, I decide to make two new headlights from stock. The parts are made on the lathe and mill.










To mount the headlight on the tender, I also made a small pedestal from sheet brass.










I also added the lettering to the tender and some detail parts like the re-rail frogs. Now the tender is complete and I can start the final tasks on the loco itself.










First re moved the paint from the cab to fill in all the holes and cut-outs made by the previous owner. I started with screw-holes on the back. I soldered pieces of brass wire into the holes and filed them flush.










Some more work was needed on the larger cut-outs.










Here I inserted larger segments of brass sheet. Once sanded smoth and painted, they will be barely visible.










Once all repaits to the cab were finished, I spend another sand-blast and painted the cab black on the outside and green on the inside.










The roof got also repainted. And here’s the finished loco, fully assembled.


























































Cheers, Gerd


----------



## ddrum31 (Aug 30, 2017)

Gerd, It turned out Awesome!!! 

Thanks for the log build 
Jason


----------



## placitassteam (Jan 2, 2008)

Very nice conversion. It will be a great addition to your railroad. Thanks showing how you did it.


----------



## lotsasteam (Jan 3, 2008)

To bad that i sold my Mogul a few years ago,i would have copied you modificatons!Great Build.Manfred


----------



## Gerd (Jan 7, 2008)

If you're interested, the loco is for sale on eBay.
Due to personal reasons, I had to quit my projects on Colorado narrow gauge.


Gerd


----------



## ddrum31 (Aug 30, 2017)

Sucks! I've been through things that lead to years (10) away from the hobby.. Sure enjoyed all the builds Gerd! 

Jason


----------



## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Love it! Sorry to hear it's on the block (and even sorrier that I don't have the money lying about to purchase it), but you did a knock-out job on it, and someone will be very happy with it.

Later,

K


----------



## FHPB (Feb 25, 2011)

Beautiful work, Gerd! Your locomotive is really beautiful.


----------



## Gerd (Jan 7, 2008)

Thanks for the feedback. The loco is sold and will travel to it's new home soon.
In some seconds, it makes me sad that I've sold the loco and Colorado rolling stock, but at least, I can't model everything and now it's easier to me to focus on my actual projects.
Gerd


----------



## lotsasteam (Jan 3, 2008)

Na Gerd,das macht man nicht,so ein schoemes Spielzeug!
Manfred


----------

