This is how I re-gauged and back dated a Bachmann Porter using some of the parts from the Backwoods Miniatures Porter "dress-up" kit, strip and sheet styrene plus some detail parts from Grandt Line.

I wanted to finish-up with a late 1890's era, 8-ton locomotive with a wood cab and a small tender modeled loosely after the West Side Lumber Co's. Porter, "Fido" in On3. The locomotive and its tender are described in Mallory Hope Ferrell’s fine book entitled “West Side Pictorial”.

As I started to work on this locomotive it became clear that at just a little over 3" long, working on this locomotive would be a challenge. Why? It was actually smaller than most of the HO-scale loco's that I have ever worked on and also being a mass produced product, it was designed to be assembled quickly once but not to be taken apart.

I have broken my project into four parts. Note that fourth part is under construction as of the spring of 2012:

 Part 1 - Re-gauging the Porter from On30 to On3.
 Part 2 - Adding a "wooden" cab made from styrene.
 Part 3 - Adding a "wooden" tender and provisioning for DCC Tsunami sound.
 Part 4 - Pulling it all together and finishing details.