Model Railroading > SP 535, The Colfax Motor to Sacramento

These are from Crockett yesterday, fooling around running trains on the Carquinez Club's layout.
At one time the SP had a sizable fleet of McKeen cars that served various local schedules in Oregon, California, Nevada, and Arizona.  SP 535 was the local out of Colfax down The Hill to Sacramento.  It was listed as MOTOR on the timetable.
I picked up this McKeen on EBay about a year ago, advertised as "parts".   The front truck was missing and the motor & drive system was in pretty bad shape- an quite crude!   I found an old Ken Kidder McKeen and it provided the missing front truck.  A self powered truck from Tenshodo replaces the original drive system.  I ordered a couple different ones directly from Japan and (Yea!) one had the correct wheelbase.   I had to disassemble the thing and isolate the tiny motor from the rail pick up for DCC, but it was easier than I'd feared.   I "McGivered" a new bolster to mount the truck- again, easier than I'd feared.   I used a Soundtraxx decoder (Baldwin & Other)   It occurred to me the odds are no one's ever heard a McKeen run*, so I was free to guess.   Soundtaxx's Galloping Goose file sounded appropriately dodgy & feeble, so Goose it is!   The whistle is a Hancock air whistle, I don't think the McKeen had an air horn.
Ta-Da!
SR

*Carson City's is re powered, so it doesn't count

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Very creative! Thanks for the background information.
Regards, Jim Evans

Great story, very unique model and prototype with quite a story.

There's actually two on the west Coast, YT has video of one being moved from alaska to a private collector in the LA / SD area and the one in Carson city that walks and talks and rides. Pretty incredible.:

https://www.carsonrailroadmuseum.org/exhibits/mckeen-motor-car/

+ with additional reading the sound is not original:... " In 1946, the body was sold and used as a diner. Al’s Plumbing Supply, in Carson City, later acquired it for use as office space. In 1996, the McKeen motor car was donated by Al Bernhard of Al’s Plumbing Supply to the Nevada State Railroad Museum for restoration. The project took several years as the trucks and mechanical components were scrapped years ago and had to be refabricated from scratch.A diesel-hydraulic drive was used in place of the original gasoline-mechanical system. On May 9, 2010, the restored car made its debut at NSRM, ...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/26 22:55 by TCnR.

Looking sharp! Lots of work into that model and it shows/runs/sounds amazing!

Javier Cervantes
Castle Rock , CO

That's a pretty unique model, cool video.

Nathan

Love the second video........thats a lot of refurbish work...excellent

Thanks! Now I have to get the Ken Kidder McKeen up and running. It’s a much smaller (shorter length) car and will serve on my fictional Skeena River Railway as crew transport between lumber mills.
SR

That is really cool SR!