Post by AJ Kleipass on May 31, 2014 11:08:54 GMT -5
Finally, after much planning and scheming, I've started work on a model of the AV-16. What's that? You've never heard of one?! Well, allow me to explain....
In 1956 the New York, Ontario & Western found a buyer - a savior, really. The new company was called the Oswego & Weehawken, thus keeping the "O&W" name alive for a few more years. It also saved the cash-strapped company from having to reletter any of its equipment. Over the following decade, the new company's owners bought / leased several neighboring companies (M&U, LNE, NYSW) and won leased control of the ex-DLW line from Binghamton to Buffalo as part of the Erie-Lackawanna merger. In the late 1960s, all of these components were finally merged into a single corporation: the Lake Ontario & Hudson River Rail Road.
In the mid-1960s, there was a derailment that wrecked three former LNE ALCOs. An FA and an FB were total write-off. They were sold to the Lehigh Valley for use as trade-in fodder, and two LV units (FA-2 #588 and FB-2 #583) were bought as replacements. The third unit, an FA-1, suffered cab and frame damage, but was kept as a parts donor.
As we enter the 1970s, the LOHR's management noticed what the Santa Fe was doing with their old EMD F-units. Short on cash, shorter on serviceable motive power and unwilling to risk one of their veteran cab units on whim, the company's shops in Middletown, NY, (whose telegraph sign was AV back in the NYO&W days) decided to use the parts donor FA as its testbed for rebuilding a cab unit into a road switcher.
And so, it is January of 1972, and on the backshop floor the company's first (and possibly only) AV-16 - a 1600-horsepower road switcher - is taking shape.
Reality:
I'm using an RPP CF-7 shell and frame, Cannon & Co. Dash-2 cab / 81" nose / sub-base, the donated trucks and innards of an Athearn blue box F7A, and Athearn AAR type-B side frames for the locomotive. The roof details include 4 34" F-unit fans, a 48" dynamic brake fan and grid for a GP/SD, but it'll lose the sheet metal cowling for a more box-like look, and a more ALCO-like exhaust stack. Hancock air whistle and hood-mounted bell round out the details I can think of at the moment.
Photos from day 1 (May 30th) cab/hood construction, and day 2 (May 31st) old nose removal and dry fitting of parts, follow...
In 1956 the New York, Ontario & Western found a buyer - a savior, really. The new company was called the Oswego & Weehawken, thus keeping the "O&W" name alive for a few more years. It also saved the cash-strapped company from having to reletter any of its equipment. Over the following decade, the new company's owners bought / leased several neighboring companies (M&U, LNE, NYSW) and won leased control of the ex-DLW line from Binghamton to Buffalo as part of the Erie-Lackawanna merger. In the late 1960s, all of these components were finally merged into a single corporation: the Lake Ontario & Hudson River Rail Road.
In the mid-1960s, there was a derailment that wrecked three former LNE ALCOs. An FA and an FB were total write-off. They were sold to the Lehigh Valley for use as trade-in fodder, and two LV units (FA-2 #588 and FB-2 #583) were bought as replacements. The third unit, an FA-1, suffered cab and frame damage, but was kept as a parts donor.
As we enter the 1970s, the LOHR's management noticed what the Santa Fe was doing with their old EMD F-units. Short on cash, shorter on serviceable motive power and unwilling to risk one of their veteran cab units on whim, the company's shops in Middletown, NY, (whose telegraph sign was AV back in the NYO&W days) decided to use the parts donor FA as its testbed for rebuilding a cab unit into a road switcher.
And so, it is January of 1972, and on the backshop floor the company's first (and possibly only) AV-16 - a 1600-horsepower road switcher - is taking shape.
Reality:
I'm using an RPP CF-7 shell and frame, Cannon & Co. Dash-2 cab / 81" nose / sub-base, the donated trucks and innards of an Athearn blue box F7A, and Athearn AAR type-B side frames for the locomotive. The roof details include 4 34" F-unit fans, a 48" dynamic brake fan and grid for a GP/SD, but it'll lose the sheet metal cowling for a more box-like look, and a more ALCO-like exhaust stack. Hancock air whistle and hood-mounted bell round out the details I can think of at the moment.
Photos from day 1 (May 30th) cab/hood construction, and day 2 (May 31st) old nose removal and dry fitting of parts, follow...
