35 ton Davenport

I have finalized the chassis design, and now that school is out for the summer I am prepared to offer them for sale.  The price is $625 for a rolling chassis, this will require a motor controller and batteries to run.  I highly recommend the MU capable wiring harness with a Syren25 motor controller.  See the videos section for two of these chassis running together using this wiring harness.  The front radiator shroud has gone out to production, because of the complex compound curves I am having it molded in black Kydex.  As soon as I have these in hand I can finalize the drawings for the hood and cab and have those sent out to be laser cut and formed in sheet metal.

Special Thanks to Benjamin Maggi for providing excellent photos of one of the last remaining operational prototypes.  All photos copyright Benjamin Maggi.  Also thanks to the Catskill Mountain Railroad for allowing Benjamin to crawl all over their loco, and thanks to Sarah for putting up with it all.

I wanted to do something prototypical and unique without getting over my head on fabrication.  When I stumbled across photos of a 35 ton Davenport I knew I had my candidate.  The problem was that as far as I can tell there are none anywhere in the vicinity of Utah so I couldn't do any in-person research.  Most were originally purchased by the U.S. Air Force.  The Rock Island also owned more than one, and many worked on shortlines and industrial railroads.  The small size is perfect for a starter locomotive but it can haul a decent sized train, combined with a full wiring harness it will be MU capable to add capacity to your railroad empire.  I plan on doing a 3 axle version in the future.

The first chassis undergoing track testing.