More Bachmann early locomotives – the "De Witt Clinton" and the "John Bull"
Entry posted by Ian Simpson in 1840s loco
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In addition to the Norris 4-2-0, Bachmann produced models of two other early US locomotives, the De Witt Clinton and the John Bull. Unlike the Norris loco, both these models have tender drives. Second-hand models frequently turn up at affordable prices on eBay (affordable, of course, if you don't have to use the US postal service 
).
The De Witt Clinton was built by New York's West Point Foundry, running intermittently on the Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road during 1831-32 before it was broken up as a failure. I can only assume Bachmann decided to model it because it was the first locomotive to work in New York state.
Despite the prototype's shortcomings, the model itself is decidedly cute. Small and primitive in design, it is ideal for any 1820s/1830s industrial setting (quarry, coal mine, early gasworks, canal feeder, etc) or a freelance local line.
Personally I think the De Witt Clinton is worth buying just for its powered tender, which is the smallest 16.5 mm gauge power unit I've ever seen. (Actually Bachmann's Gandy Dancer is even smaller, and it was used by Andy Young as the tender drive for his model of Locomotion. But its tiny disc wheels make it less suitable for conversions.)
The distinctive yellow Clinton tender body is plastic and it can be easily prised from its metal chassis with a small screwdriver, revealing a four-wheel power unit that is just 25 mms long with a wheelbase of 16 mms.
Malcolm Carlsson realised this wheelbase exactly matches the tender from Dapol's OO Rocket kit. He trimmed the tender down to HO proportions (but failed to give any details; I suspect he merely filed homeopathic quantities of plastic from the top of the tender to salve his conscience), extended the chimney slightly and added buffers before writing up the conversion for the July 1983 issue of Scale Trains.
The photos below illustrate my take on his tender conversion. I used Blutack to temporarily hold the body in place for the photos; this worked okay, and I suspect this could even be a long-term fix if you take a bit more care than I did to place the blobs where they won't show. You could also cover the sides with paper to produce the smooth tender sides that became fashionable a few years later, or simply build a flat-sided tender from plastic card or cardboard.
The photos below show the loco and Dapol tender with a couple of cut-down Smallbrook Studios cauldron waggons, perfect for any layout where the train can trundle across a bleak Northern or Cornish moor. Peter Seviour's Pockerley Wagon Way shows early scenic layouts don't have to be large to be attractive!
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The John Bull locomotive was built by Robert Stephenson at Newcastle in 1831 for the Camden & Amboy Railroad. He didn't include a tender so the local engineers built their own, which was basically a shed on wheels to carry wood and water. (New England didn't have much coal, but it did have an awful lot of trees and a hunger for newly-cleared land.) The leading bogie with its prominent cow-catcher was added the following year to help the loco navigate the railroad's sharp curves. Later in its life it also received a cab and a large smoke-stack chimney.
Removing the bogie and other American features such as the large headlamp and the bell produces a loco similar to Stephenson's “Samson” class goods locomotive, and it could also be converted to a Stephenson “Planet” 2-2-0 by replacing the front wheelset. But John Bull's haystack firebox is not typical of the locos that Stephenson built for British railways - it could be replaced fairly easily with a more traditional firebox top made from card or thin plasticard.
The tender can't be converted to an Anglicised version without an incredible amount of work, because the motor fills the complete tender up to roof level. 
It would be much easier to build a replacement British-style tender (perhaps using the Dapol kit?) and then convert the John Bull's tender to a primitive van that can run immediately behind the replacement tender. In fact, turning the tender through 180 degrees makes it look rather like an early brake van (although that over-hanging bit of roof, now at the rear, will still have to go). The tender is sitting a bit high in the photo below because I used the OO wheels supplied with the Dapol kit, instead of using smaller 10.5 mm diameter HO wheels. BTW the train in the photos below, including the 5 and 9 Models wagons behind the van, is exactly 12 inches / 30 cms long.
Or I guess you could always model the St Etienne and Lyon Railway, where at least one of the locos had a similar tender...
For more information on all the prototypes modelled by Bachmann plus other fascinating early American locos, I recommend Smith H Oliver's The First Quarter-Century of Steam Locomotives in North America, free to read or download at www.gutenberg.org/files/51976/51976-h/51976-h.htm
Special thanks to Nigel Hill for drawing my attention to Malcolm Carlsson's article, and for all his support and advice. And for Nigel's own suggestions on the John Bull tender see this blog entry.
Update 3/4/18: the Bachmann webpage that held service sheets for these locos doesn't seem to be working properly. As a result I have copied the diagrams from these two sheets below for reference so that modellers can see how the parts fit together:
Edited by Ian Simpson
Reloading photos
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