Re: Remember the Western Railway Preservation Society?

SMITTY Wrote:
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> Hi Tim,
> Is the CD&M RR 701 built on a speeder chassis with
> 20" speeder wheels?
> Thanks,


Hi Smitty. You know the motor car stuff far better then I but I believe you are correct about the wheels. However, the frame was custom made. The locomotive was built by Charlie Myers back in 2001. It started as a German-made Holder AM-2 articulated, four-wheel-drive tractor. Here is Charlie’s description of the creation of the #701.

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As Holder tractors are known for being articulated, changing this was the most obvious modification that had to be made for the tractor to be used on the railroad. A channel-iron 'frame' was constructed to hold the two axles in parallel. When the body was added, a system of operating the controls from the cab was needed. So, I constructed a system of linkages and levers to operate the forward/reverse gear lever, gear-shift, clutch, brakes, and throttle. The starter switch and other electrical gear was routed into the dashboard of the cab. The majority of the body work was performed by myself (Charlie). A small amount of sheet metal bending was performed by the local machine shop. The painting was performed by our good friend, Kevin. A small air tank and compressor is run from the PTO in order to sound the horn. The light was constructed from scrap, and welded and ground to shape. For those of you eagle-eyed viewers, you may notice that the reflector behind the bulb looks exactly like one of my wife's stainless steel mixing bowls! Marie contributed more than her best cookware, though! She also upholstered the arm rests in the windows.
We've found that this locomotive can easily pull our 12-person passenger car, which is very impressive, once you realize we have a roughly 4-5% grade with a 25-degree curve! Traction is limited with the light wheels. A modification with much heavier wheels is planned so as to increase the tractive effort.
And why Number 701? It was finished in July, 2001.

As you can see, Charlie never did get around to changing the wheels. We may want to do this at some point in the future but the little 701 works well as it is now so this is not a priority right now.

During construction before the sheet metal was added


Just after being Completed


Inside the cab