LGB's new Forney locomotive impressed me so much I bought one. It runs very well and I like its squat posture on the rails. I dislike its being a 1:22.5 scale model of a two foot gauge Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes prototype running on (3 foot 4 inch) Gauge One track. Besides, I own no Sandy River rolling stock so I decided to turn the Forney into a freelance model.

FIRST, THE ELECTRONICS...

I did some research into the Forney to find a possible three foot gauge prototype. After consulting my library, Uncle Russ, and Harald Becker, it appeared most Forney locomotives ran on the New England two foot gauge roads and a few obscure backwoods logging lines. I decided to add some details to the model, repaint it, and work it into my logging roster.

As with all new models I work on, I completely disassembled the Forney to see what I had to work with. When I removed the backhead, I found a 1 3/4 inch cube of lead inside. Removing it left a large firebox area. Since the firebox hangs down close to the rails between the two sides of the frame, I added a Hillside Railways flickering firebox light for drama. Hillside's owner, Dennis Kleisen, had no specific product for the Forney but he explained how I might be able to modify one of his kits for the LGB 2015/2017 locos instead. He sent the kit along with some extra components to separate the bulb/socket assembly from the circuit board.

I carefully cut out the firebox door and cemented it in an open position. Then I drilled some 3/8-inch diameter holes in the bottom of the removable firebox piece and glued the bulb portion of the circuit board into the backhead cavity. I airbrushed the interior of the backhead and the firebox piece with Floquil Bright Silver to enhance light reflection inside the cab and under the firebox.

I also noticed the floor under the tender section had an indentation for a speaker cutout. I took advantage of it to fit one of PH Hobbies' new small board sound systems into the Forney's tender. That proved to be quite a challenge! I finally fit the speaker and circuit board into the tender, four "AA" batteries into an oil bunker I scratchbuilt from .015-inch thick sheet styrene, and the volume control inside an Ozark Miniatures water hatch. (When you lift the hatch, you can reach the knob.)

Since the tender was then full of sound system components, I had to mount the firebox circuit board on the cab's back wall. Since the cab is completely enclosed, if you paint the circuit board flat black it will be almost unnoticeable from the outside.

...THEN THE DETAILS...

Then I detailed the exterior. Since I like the way LGB had included a lot of weight on the Forney (it is heavier than a Mogul), I added turned brass domes to compensate for the backhead weight I had removed.

Trackside Details' C-16 sand Dome fit nicely with only slight modification to its base. I had to turn a new steam dome from brass. It extends 5/8-inch into the boiler. I also replaced LGB's capped stack with a Trackside Details brass stack and added a brass generator, bell, and whistle, all from Trackside Details.

I mounted a large Precision Scale air compressor on the left (fireman's side) running board, added appropriate plumbing, and completed the boiler detailing with Trackside Details washout plugs.

I traded the molded-on ash cleanouts on the smokebox for Trackside Details castings and replaced LGB's number plate with Trackside's etched Baldwin plate. Then I mounted a large Trackside Details headlight bracket and exchanged the LGB headlight for a urethane casting a friend had made for me. I used the large arc headlight and large compressor to make the boiler seem smaller. That intensifies the locomotive's squat impression.

LGB did a very nice job on the cab, with its operating doors and woodgrain detail. My modifications consisted only of removing the light from the roof and "tarpapering" the roof with strips of 400 grit wet-or-dry sandpaper.

I mounted Ozark Miniatures marker lights on either side of the cab and smokebox, illuminated them with grain of wheat bulbs, and fitted Kadee® Number One scale couplers front and rear.

...FINALLY, THE FINISH

I primed the entire model with Floquil primer. After it had dried for a couple of days, I sprayed the cab and tender with Floquil Engine Black, the cab roof with Grimy Black, and the handrails with Bright Silver. The cab interior is Floquil Dark Green. I brush painted the smokebox with a mixture of Graphite and Old Silver. I prefer brush painting the smokebox because that, along with the rough texture of Floquil's Graphite paint, gives an appearance of many years' buildup of scorched coatings.

I sprayed the drivers and rods with Krylon Semi-Flat Black and highlighted them with Polly S Oily Black. When you dab the water based Polly S paint with its lumpy texture irregularly around the running gear, the effect is that of globs of grease.

Chuck Allen, the owner of Chuck's Custom Cars, had built a beautiful wooden logging caboose for me and lettered it for the Caspar Lumber Company. I lettered the Forney for the Caspar Lumber Company with Larry Larsen dry transfers so I could run it with the caboose. Its road number is 8 because Caspar's actual roster included only seven locomotives.

I now have a charismatic little "might have been" to pull a string of logging disconnects. Oh, had I forgotten to mention those wooden disconnects? Well, Harald Becker and I will have to explain how we built them in a future issue.