# 0-8-0 Saddle Tank from a Connie



## jaug (Oct 18, 2011)

This is my latest makeover of Bachmann's versitle Connie. I purchased this Connie as a basket case, no gear box, pilot truck missing, neumerous detail parts missing, like air compressor, sand dome top, whistle, and a lot of the piping plus the boiler section was in bad shape and the smoke box top was cracked at the smoke stack and the tender was not included, so figured, why not? She"s a free lance model so you rivet counters can have your say. The tank is a section of 3" PVC pipe split and widened and wrapped with a thin plastic sheet with hand embossed rivets, I added a second Bachmann steam dome and put lids on both, a new whistle, compressor with regulator, generator with base made from tin, built the walkway from brass and plastic and the ladder from brass, added a water hatch, relocated the bell and head light, added a rear light, cut the pilot down, made a new rear end cill and Kadee couplers fron and rear, gland hands and hose, the cab was completely modified and there are full cab and back head details using Trackside Details parts, including injectors, lubricator, steam turret, brake valve, new throttle, reversing mechinsim, oil firing valve (she's converted to oil and has a new oil tank thanks to a Bachmann 2-6-6-2), steam/air and oil/steam gauges, all related piping was added, a new cab LED light, electrical box, etc. All piping was made from brass rod and or tube. A TAS Smoke unit and Phoenix sound with reed switches mounted in each cylinder for chuff inputs. Airbrushed with Scalecoat 2 Loco Black (Matte)


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

very cool! I love it..
the most unique Connie yet!  well done..

Scot


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## placitassteam (Jan 2, 2008)

Great bash! Beautiful details.


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## MJSavage (Dec 27, 2007)

What a beauty! Well done.


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

Very excellent, I wish more drivetrains like this were available.


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## jaug (Oct 18, 2011)

Thanks for the approval comments, they are heart-fully appreciated. I think the Bachmann Connie is a great bashing loco. I emailed Bachmann a while ago with a suggestion, that being most of their 1:20.3 line has been discontinued why not take the remainder of their parts and put together kits of their locomotives for modelers to assemble. There would be no cost of assembly for them only packaging and they're selling off the parts anyway. No reply as yet. I do have a little problem with the TAS smoke unit in this loco and others, not much smoke unless full throttle. I've tried changing the resistor but no better results, I plan to convert all my motive power to DCC soon so I believe the low smoke output problem will be solved when there is a constant track voltage. The other issue is my use of magnetic reed switches inside the steam cylinders. I had to isolate the sound chuff from the smoke unit pulse smoke as they did not work connected to the same contacts, I use the rear axel contacts for the smoke unit. For the sound unit I glued small rare earth magnets to the ends of the piston rods and installed reed switches in the covers, they work great as a chuff input, giving the loco a double chuff synced with the pistons, but the reed switches fail very quickly, they are normally open contacts and when they fail they do not close, just exhibit a high resistance around 3.3 meg and this is enough to cause the sound unit to sense a sustained closed contact and go into auto chuff. I ordered some heavy duty reed switches to see if it will solve the problem if not I'll fall back on my other attempt, trying to fit a couple of slotted optical switches into the steam cylinders, like the Bachmann K27 has. My next bash will be converting my Bachmann K27 into a more EBT type Mikado, I freelance my locos for the most part but try represent the prototype to include the correct mechanical details for equipment and piping


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## rdamurphy (Jan 3, 2008)

Awesome loco! Where did you get the detail parts for the cab?

Robert


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## jaug (Oct 18, 2011)

All of the detail parts for the cab are brass and are from Trackside Details. Some of the other details are cast metal and are from Ozark Miniatures


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Very, very nicely done. Excellent detail..... Looks wonderful....


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## up9018 (Jan 4, 2008)

Nice, I have often thought that loco would make a perfect 0-8-0T. Really like the work you did.

Chris


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