I have long been intrigued by the fact that Gilbert included the bracket for hanging an eccentric rod on the Reading Atlantics with the four-piece die-cast boiler. To the best of my knowledge Gilbert never included full valve gear for this locomotive (even on the pre-war O-gauge version). Wondering what the locomotive would look with an eccentric rod I finished cutting out the casting and drilled and tapped a hole for a Gilbert screw. I modified a reproduction eccentric rod from an 0-8-0 switcher and installed it on the Atlantic. Although it worked it looked a bit strange all by itself so I bought some reproduction drive rods and modified the valve gear rods so the locomotive would have a full set of Gilbert-style rods with valve gear. The overall effect turned out very nice. I painted and numbered the locomotive to match the Reading's locomotive this engine was modeled after.
Joe's custom Reading 4-4-2 pulls the train of beer reefers on the ACSG Tidewater division layout during the Trains and Planes show at the Military Aviation Museum on November 25, 2011. (26 sec.)
Here is the Reading Atlantic pulling Glen's Rio Grande streamlined passenger train on the ACSG Tidewater Division S Gauge layout at the NMRA show in Virginia Beach, September 15-16, 2012. (46 sec.)
