The Pogoshock Creek RR is proud to present its latest addition...A 2-6-0 engine! She is a consortium between Steve King's 7/8n2 Railway Equipment Co. and the Pogoshock Creek RR shop. The chassis and boiler are Steve's while the pilot, air compressor,cab and tender are from the PCRR shop. The engine weighs in at 12 lbs and the tender with battery weighs in at 9 lbs. She is radio controlled using an Aristo mini on board receiver and a 4AH 12-vdc battery. The engine will undergo further detailing, adding plumbing, sand pipes etc.

The engine comes in kit form and can be purchased in a number of ways, I chose to buy the chassis assembled and tested along with the boiler, domes, stack and light, which came unassembled. The cab, pilot and tender I elected to make myself. Assembly of the boiler, stack and domes was easy following Steve's instruction sheet. All screws etc came with the parts. The chassis came assembled and tested, all parts assembled together fairly easy. The frame had to be loosened at the rear to accept the firebox then tightened to lock it in. It was my choice to add a 2 lb lead weight in the boiler as opposed to batteries. I am not sure that it was necessary as the engine weighs in at 10 lbs without the weight. My tender with batteries weighs in at 8 lbs. I am still experimenting with battery configurations to reduce weight and still provide the needed power. The engine draws about 2-3 amps under load and up hills.

As Mother Nature would have it, my track does not stay perfectly level crosswise or otherwise. I also do not have a level spot anywhere in my garden, so the engine must negotiate all sorts of obstacles including 3 percent grades and (at this time of year) LEAVES. The engine performed well over the entire track towing five cars. I even tried pushing a car coupled to the front using Kadee couplers and it worked pretty well. The front Kadee coupler may need to be stiffened a bit. My minimum radius is ten foot. I tried the engineon a small section of five foot radius and it did not work, however it was close so I imagine the engine could possibly negotiate a radius down to aboutseven oreight feet. 

The single car train shown below is 78" long.  This is Maine style railroading at its best!

Carl Brummer