General Locomotive 4-4-0

[enginemaker1]

Am looking for plans to build the "General" American 4-4-0 locomotive.

Can anyone help?

Tom

 

[GWRdriver]

Tom,
It would be helpful to know the scale/gauge you plan to build in, but probably the short answer to your question is nothing is available except a small scale general arrangement drawing in model magazines. If you want the General specifically, rather than a General-type locomotive, in larger scale live steam the only scale model General I know of was built in 1" scale by Leo Myers (now dec'd) of St Louis and although I'm certain drawings would have been done for that project, and its companion locomotive the Texas, because they were built in a commercial machine shop, whether they survive or not is another question altogether. Currently the closest thng to the General I know of are drawings and castings for the President Washington a mid-19th c. 4-4-0 in 4.75"/5.0" gauge, from Reeves in the UK.

Of course the General is preserved, as is Leo Myer's model, and there may very well be enough technical documentation of the full size engine available through various sources, to develop a live steam design and drawings for such a project.

 

[bearcar1]

Try this site Tom, there is also another site I saw listed here on HMEM by another member that advertised locomotive plans of several different engines. The 4-4-0 engine drawings were something like $400 but were 100+ pages of professional drawings.

http://www.railroadsupply.com/4.4.0.html

BC1
Jim

 

[cfellows]

Don't know if this place sells plans, but they do sell castings for a 1.5" 4-4-0.

http://www.littleengines.com/

Chuck

 

[ianjkirby]

There was a supplier who advertised, in Model Engineer magazine (UK) a few years back, plans for 1" scale and 1.5" scale 4-4-0 simply called "NYC & HR 4-4-0". I drove a 1.5" scale version several years ago, and can attest to the excellence of the finished model. Not "The General", but a very good 4-4-0.
Regards, Ian.

 

[deverett]

Tom

Have a look at Reeves 2000 (a UK company). They have several American engine designs in 5" and 7-1/4" gauges.

https://vault1.secured-url.com/reeves2000/shop_home.asp

Their Washington design in 5" / 4-3/4" gauge is a very detailed loco and was written up in ME in vol 166 (mid 90s, I believe).

Dave
The Emerald Isle

 

[Buddpig]

This site has castings and plans, we get castings from Roger Goldman, they are good quality, we are currently fitting one of the steam chests we got from him with a Lil Engines frame for a Pacific with only a few modifications.

http://www.livesteamlocomotives.com/

Cheers

 

[awalker1829]

Anyone wanting to replicate the General, Texas or Yonah has a lot of research to do. There were drawings done by Mr. Myers for his locomotives-all of which were intentionally destroyed by him after the locomotives were completed. His designs were based off of measurements taken from the locomotives, photographs, engineering drawings and information provided by the late Wilbur Kurtz.

 

[nfk]

Hi,
I`m sure this is not the right place to ask but here it goes anyway...
What do you mean when you say 4-4-0 when talking about locos? :hDe:

Norberto

 

[bambuko]

The answer is simple ;D
type 4-4-0 into google images and it should be obvious.
So you have four wheels on the front bogie, four coupled wheels and zero trailing bogie.
And just to confuse matters - in some countries they count axles not wheels.

Chris

 

[Maryak]

Loco wheel numbering refers to :-

Front bogie
Drivers
Rear bogie

i.e. 4-4-0 = four front bogies, four drivers and no rear bogies...............oo OO -
e.g. 4-6-2 = oo OOO o
4-8-4 = oo OOOO oo
0-4-0 = - OO -

Hope this helps

Best Regards
Bob

 

[mklotz]

The answer is simple ;D
type 4-4-0 into google images and it should be obvious.
So you have four wheels on the front bogie, four coupled wheels and zero trailing bogie.
And just to confuse matters - in some countries they count axles not wheels.

Chris

Gee, I don't know. I typed 0-2-0 into Google and I didn't get any pictures of locomotives. What did I do wrong?

 

[terrywerm]

I'm with you, Marv. I tried 4-8-8-4 and got -16. ??? The math is correct, so at least that part worked right.

Of course, when I typed "4-8-8-4 locomotive" the results were way different and more predictable. :big:

 

[bambuko]

...What did I do wrong?

What you did "wrong" was to go to google "everything" option instead of "images" option.
You didn't follow instructions - I said "google images" not "google".

Chris ;D

 

[mklotz]

Chris,

It was a joke. A 0-2-0 locomotive? Think about it.

 

[bambuko]

Like I have said in my original post - some countries count wheels, other count axles, so 0-2-0 is perfectly sound wheel arrangement if you are in France, Switzerland, Turkey, Poland etc, etc
Here a fine example of 0-2-0 loco:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/humanoide/3488239888/
and yes I have found it using google ;D

You need to widen your horizons :big:

Chris

 

[nfk]

Hi,
Thanks for your answers, now i got it
A few minutes ago i start looking using different numberings and i`ve got amazing results! I even found the GE locos i see running on my local train station

Norberto

 

[xo18thfa]

Here's an 0-2-0, courtesy Bruce Bates, Birdwater and Raspberry

 

[thayer]

How cute is that?
Thanks for sharing.

Thayer

 

[shred]

Worse yet, such things as 0-3-0's : exist in the Whyte classification system.

http://www.lartiguemonorail.com/index.htm