Tuesday, April 8, 2008

New Forney Kit from Railway Recollections

Railway Recollections (see links list) has released a resin kit of Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes RR No's 20, 21 & 22 both late and early. This is the late version with air brakes and steel cab. Please note that the assemblies here are only test fitted and the gaps will disappear when fully assembled with screws. This is a nice resin kit with accurate parts that fit together well. For what it's worth I recommend this kit for any HOn30 Forney lovers out there. It runs on the recently released Bachmann N scale Prairie 2-6-2 (Bachmann # 51551). This chassis ran well on my N scale layout for twenty minutes after the middle driver was removed. It might fit on the older Bachmann 2-6-2 or 0-6-0 but why take that chance that all your effort will be negated by a poorly running mechanism?
This kit is just begging for super detailing and many of the parts are not hard to find. The bell and handrail stanchions at left are prime examples. I'll also add pop valves, a whistle, a compressor (hence the hole in the running board) and piping.
This is a well-thought out kit. The pieces scale well against drawings for No 20 that I enlarged to full size HO. The wheel base is also right on.
Extra weight is added in the cab, but since the Bachmann split frame remains this is not really needed.
The Bachmann chassis shown here has been prepped for use except the original pilot and pilot deck and the leading truck have not yet been removed. The manufacturer provides an HO scale pilot to replace the existing N scale one.
One other good reason to try this kit is the trailing truck suspension. It slides from side to side and will take a 10" curve per the manufacturer. I believe it, based on how far it swings. It provides vertical suspension as well, keeping the drivers in better contact with the track. Not included, but recommended by the manufacturer and shown here are Kato N scale passenger trucks with electrical pickup. I got a used Kato N scale passenger car cheap just for the trucks. B & F Hobby has had them for sale as parts in the past. These will compensate for the limited eletrical pickup due to the short wheel base and lack of tender. The combination of the good running chassis, the rear suspension and trailing truck pickup means this will be a good runner. I'll update this as I complete this kit.
As a disclaimer I have no financial ties or interest to the manufacturer or this kit. I just want to share a good thing. This should be available from any of the three sources in the links section: Trains & Things, Train & Trooper and B & F Hobby.

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