Recently, I purchased a Bachmann On30 Colorado and Southern Baldwin 2-6-0 locomotive. As soon as it arrived, I set about back dating and converting it to 3' gauge.

Adding a few brass PSC detail parts such as the diamond stack, air pump, fluted domes etc. and also shortening the smoke box was easy but, re-gauging it was another story. I used the Grandt Line On3 axles and side frames with mixed success. The main problems however were electrical pickup and preventing the loco from "waddling" down the track. The latter was eventually diagnosed to be a) a sloppy axle fit on all three of the driver axles in the die-cast frame and, b) eccentricity in the drivers (and not just the owner). More about this later.

I also totally re-built the tender with a shorter, scratch built under frame and wooden deck (not shown in the photo opposite). I used San Juan 3-foot gauge C-16 trucks, added a wood load, fence, tool boxes and also a SoundTraxx DSD (DCC sound module).

More coming soon, please stay tuned...