John Mancuso's C-19 Narrow Gauge 2-8-0

[ACL1504]

Well, here I am again off on another one of my adventures. This time it is at the request of a very good friend and charter member of the SBG (Saturday Butty Group) John Mancuso. We all know John as CUSE on the forum.

John called me one afternoon and offered me a proposal I couldn't refuse. He offered me a dozen+ Tortoise turnouts in exchange for decaling and weathering his new HOn3, C-19 Class 2-8-0 consolidation. After speaking with John, I made the decision that the offer he made me wasn't fair to him. I mean decaling and weathering a small loco (and caboose by the way) is a very small task for me.

I decided in order to make the deal fair, I asked John if he wanted the old time FSM passenger station I aquired from Reading Bob. As you all are quite aware, Reading Bob is one fantastic model builder. I had the kit and Bob told me he would take the unbuilt kit for his built one. I housed the station for a few years and now Mancuso is the proud owner of another one of Reading Bob's fantastic builds. Anyway, I'm not sure the station had any drool spatters on it by the time it made its way to John's layout.

Here is a picture of the loco prototype.



Also, John was able to get his hands on a set of decals either from the King, Dave Frary or Bob Hayden. John can fill you in on the details of the decal acquisition. The decals are left over from the Thatcher's Inlet and the Carrabasset & Dead River River Ry.. The decal have to be at least 35+ years old. I'll need to be extremely careful in appling these to the model. Here are the famous decals. NOTE: I had to darken the decal sheet so you are able to view the decals.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

Here is the loco. I sure hope I don't screw this one up!

[ACL1504]

And here is the casboose.







Decal and weathering considerations later!

Tom

[clevermod01]

Thats a very sweet little locomotive.

[ACL1504]

Thats a very sweet little locomotive.

Thom,

Thanks for checking in on the adventure. Yes, it is one sweet little loco. almost makes me want to switch, but not quite. 

Tom

[S&S RR]

Thats a very sweet little locomotive.

Thom,

Thanks for checking in on the adventure. Yes, it is one sweet little loco. almost makes me want to switch, but not quite. 

Tom

Tom

You don't have to switch just add an HOn3 branch line to your layout. It is a great looking locomotive.

[cuse]

Yes. It is a spectacular RTR little beauty! Blackstone is the sole reason I switched to HOn3 from HOn30. The opportunity to get a finely-tuned, well-detailed, sound-equipped backwoodsy little engine trumped all else for me and pretty well addressed all of the operational headaches I was experiencing with my layout.


However, my heart is still in the Maine woods with the rails 30" apart. That's why I wanted to letter my loco for the railroad that inspires me above all others, the late 70's version of Frary & Hayden's Carrabasset & Dead River Ry. My friend David Fugere has several HOn30 cars lettered for the C&DR, so I asked him who made his decals. He told me Dave Frary did! Many years ago, they were both members of a club in New England. I had met Dave at the EXPO and CSS a few times and I had his email, so I asked him where I could purchase C&DR decals. He responded the same night that he had one set left and that he would send them out the next day. I had them within a few days!


I had also reached out to Bob Hayden. When Bob responded, I told him Dave had sent me some and Bob warned me to be very careful as the decals were likely decades old. Coincidentally, when I switched to HOn3, I purchased bulletproof Peco track with sprung points, so I could happily abandon my Tortoise installation burden. The stars were aligned...


Somehow, I came out of this lovefest with a FSM station too


John

[ACL1504]

And, that folks, is the rest of the story from the Cuse himself.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Thats a very sweet little locomotive.

Thom,

Thanks for checking in on the adventure. Yes, it is one sweet little loco. almost makes me want to switch, but not quite. 

Tom

Tom

You don't have to switch just add an HOn3 branch line to your layout. It is a great looking locomotive.

John,

Hhmmmmm!!! The possibilities??? One just never knows.

Tom

[bparrish]

Great loco. 

Over the years I've had pretty good luck with old decals by sealing them with dull cote and then handle as usual.

I use solvaset for putting them down but the stuff has an alcohol base so if you can't smell the alcohol don't use it. Replace it.

Good luck
Bob

[ACL1504]

Great loco. 

Over the years I've had pretty good luck with old decals by sealing them with dull cote and then handle as usual.

I use solvaset for putting them down but the stuff has an alcohol base so if you can't smell the alcohol don't use it. Replace it.

Good luck
Bob

Bob,

Thanks for checking in and offering the advise. I've used the dull coat method in the past with fairly good results.

I'm going to try a decal I won't be using to see how it comes off the paper prior to using the dull coat. I'll report on this later in the build.

Tom

[GPdemayo]

Neat looking loco Tom.....looking forward to seeing your work and a SBG trip to John's to watch it run. 

[ACL1504]

Neat looking loco Tom.....looking forward to seeing your work and a SBG trip to John's to watch it run. 

Gregory,

Thanks for checking in. It will be a fun project and I'm off to a slow start but it will get going soon.

Tom

[gnatshop]

Tell Cuse to not get his panties in a wad!!
You're busy fixin' hot juice problems on your crossover!! 

[ACL1504]

Tell Cuse to not get his panties in a wad!!
You're busy fixin' hot juice problems on your crossover!! 

Gman,

I have an idea, YOU tell Cuse what you said above. Oh, wait, I guess you just did. 

Tom