The Fitzgerald Locomotives

Once again the Cotton Brute is in my possession. This time it requires no repairs. Instead, it is being operated, possibly for the last time (at least for a while), at the Danville Rail Days event in honor of late NRail President John Wallis. John had decided to retire the locomotive due to its age and relative fragility to prevent it being damaged or lost. It was destined to be put on display at a place yet to be determined.

As you may recall, Cotton Brute was restored for the NRail 50^th Anniversary celebration that occurred in 2023. The refurbishment was done at the direction of President Wallis in late 2022 and the restored and updated locomotive was run for the first time at the Danville Old 97 Rail Days (Danville has since dropped the “Old 97” designation) event in 2022. It seemed only proper that she should make her last appearance there before being retired.

But this story is not about that locomotive.

Along with the Cotton Brute, Jim Fitzgerald also built two other locomotives; Cotton Boss and Cotton Beast. The current whereabouts and disposition of Cotton Beast is unknown, but Cotton Boss is now also in my possession.

When I asked current NRail President Andy Zimmerman about the possibility of featuring Cotton Brute at Danville, I also recalled that John had mentioned having Cotton Boss for possible restoration. I asked him about this project and he replied that he did not know what the condition of the locomotive was yet, since both Beast and Boss were in possession of one of the club members helping the family sort and process all of John’s extensive collection.

Contacts were made, appointments were set, and both locomotives ended up in my hands. Cotton Brute was briefly tested to ensure its operability, and I finally set my eyes on Cotton Boss for the first time. The intent was to evaluate the condition of the locomotive for restoration and repair.

What we found was promising. The construction of the Boss is radically different from the Brute. Just like the Brute, the center section of the locomotive has been custom-built, but as far as I know there isn’t any depleted uranium in its construction. 

The ends of the locomotive are from a donor chassis, tapped and drilled to accept a series of screws holding it into the custom built center section. The trucks on this chassis are 4 wheel, not 6, so unlike the Brute the donor was not a U30CG. I suspect they, and the chassis ends, are from a Minitrix F9; the construction of the trucks, complete with the finger wipers at the truck ends, certainly suggests they are, but the rest of the mechanism does not exactly match photos I have found online. The Minitrix F9 is the closest I have been able to find, and it would only make sense that the trucks are from the same donor as the chassis ends.

The top of the locomotive consists of a series of three plates; two short ones on each end for spacers and one long one across the top that holds everything together and also holds the Sagami can motor in place. The locomotive ends slip over the center section that includes the tank in its construction. The inner two screws fasten the top plate to the center section. The two short plates are fastened to the end pieces and the long plate is fastened to the short plates with the two outer screws. The Sagami can motor hangs from the top plate with two screws, but in an interesting arrangement there are three set screws in a triangular formation that are used to adjust the motor orientation. This is necessary because there are no drive shafts; the ends of the motor shafts are fitted with one coupler end that fits into the other coupler end attached to the end pieces. There is no play to this arrangement, either it is right or it is wrong. I suspect this rigid requirement is the cause of what I found next.

The ends of the locomotive were loose and had quite a bit of movement. It was a quick job to remove the outer screws from the top plate, and the ends with the shorter plates attached slid out of the assembly. The short plate screws were then tightened down and the now solid ends were reattached to the center plate, making the entire chassis solid once more. It is my belief that if the motor is even slightly out of alignment, it will cause a vibration that will loosen these screws over time.

The wheels were cleaned and the mechanism lubricated, and then the locomotive was placed upon the rails of my humble 2x8 foot oval layout. Power was fed to the rails (DC only) and for the first time in who knows how long, the mechanism moved. I ran it several times around in each direction and it performed flawlessly. I did note a bit of vibration, indicating that perhaps the motor alignment could use some adjustment, but this was beyond the scope of my investigation so I left it alone.

I searched through the N Scale Locomotive Encyclopedia (I am ever grateful for this fantastic resource) and determined the shell is from a Lima FP45. This model did not have porches molded to the shell, they were instead a part of the chassis. The sides of the shell do not completely cover the chassis so about an eighth of an inch of the chassis shows beneath the bottom sill of the shell. There was the remains of one porch, without a doubt from a Minitrix U30/U28 due to the similar appearance to the Cotton Brute porches, that looks as if it was attached to the bottom of the shell. Glue remnants on each end of the shell indicates there was a porch on each end. The porch pieces were reassembled and re-attached to the front of the shell.

Amusingly, in the same box, were the missing air tank end pieces to Cotton Brute’s tank. As you may recall, those air tank ends were replaced with solid ends because donor air tank ends could not be found for the one end that was missing them. They are un-needed now, but it was interesting to find them in the box nonetheless.

President Zimmerman was apprised of the condition of the Cotton Boss, and I received the clear signal to complete the cosmetic restoration. I have the parts to replace the missing porch and end railings and refresh the paint on the tank, but since the Boss will likely not see any operational service she will not receive any of the mechanical upgrades that her more famous sister did. It will instead be restored cosmetically while her mechanical components remain operational on analog power only.

The restoration will, of course, be documented here.