For today I have a few cell phone pics of the Boston and Main tender rebuild. At this point all of the asbestos has been removed and is now considered safe to breath next to. The tender frame seams to be in excellent shape, but still needs to be x-rayed. all the break gear and air lines will be removed and rebuilt soon, as well as the trucks. It's turning out to be a neat little project for the shop here in Scranton.
My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew
Out of the depths of my attic this orphaned old Bachmann tender was salvaged. This tender will be converted to oil bunker, upgraded and later coupled with an WP MT-44.
Riveting the top of the oil bunker.
The top plate was straightened and stabilized.
The cause:
This is a Western Pacific class MT-44. Several years ago i got the chance to purchase this United brass 4-8-2 for little money. It was painted (not very good) and the tender was missing. I had a surplus tender and so this loco was makeshift coupled with this one. In prototype the MT-44 were oil fired and coupled with a shorter tender.
Nice conversion Schraddel. I just finished up one of those tenders for my RDG 2-8-0 build. I have to take a few progress pics of that build and get that tread moving again.
Speaking of progress......
Back in the restoration shop , the brake rigging, plumbing, and other mechanical appliances have been removed from the B&M tender and are being rebuilt.
In this shot all of the removed piping is being stored under the tender frame. It will be reused as a template for the cutting and bending of all the new sections.
Some of the break gear fresh from the paint shop after rebuild.
My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew
For todays installment I have a few pics of a common HO tender that I built a few years back. It's a Bowser/Penn Line PRR short tender. This is one that I redid as one of the L-1's that were purchased 2nd hand by the L&NE.
My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew
I spent the last few weeks working all kinds of crazy hours and dealing with snow ,snow ,and more snow. When you combine with a lack of free time and electricity I have missed posting on several threads. But for this weeks spectacular entry I have a how to on a removable coal load for our subject. I had to do all the forming and photography work on my kitchen table where the lighting is somewhat less then wonderful , because here in the frozen waist land know as the Pocono mountains It's just too darn cold down in the train room. Now that I am so far off topic that the good people at the Gauge should have me spanked,,, I will get started.
This is a project that I have been working on for Toptrain,, and this tender is now ready for some fuel.
I started by lining the coal bunker with plastic wrap and filling the void with plaster. As the plaster was drying I tried to pile it above the coal boards and give it a rough shape.
Here it is after it was dry enough to de-mold. You'll notice in the shot of the underside of the plaster that I placed a paper clip in the plaster when it was pored. This will give the plaster a little more strength.
A used some sand paper and a utility knife to give the load a final shape.
My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew
That coal looks more like culm to me, Steve. Is that tender going behind a camelback, or something else with a Wooten firebox?
This isn't a how-to, shown below, but I used a similar technique to make a load for the tender of this brass 0-6-0...
The coal pocket is very shallow, so I cut a base from .030" black sheet styrene that just fit into the bunker, then took it out and gave it very low sides...a bit less than 1/8" high...made from the same black styrene. I lined the bunker, as you did, with plastic wrap, but used enough so that the entire tender was otherwise covered. I then re-inserted the plastic pan, pushing it into place and filled it with "coal".
After spraying it with "wet" water (hence the need to cover the rest of the tender), I added some diluted white glue and set it aside to dry for a day or two
Removing the plastic wrap lifted the pan and its load of coal from the tender, and when re-installed, it fit perfectly...
I usually model full open bunkers for my tenders, and fill them (or not) to whatever height I want, using loose coke breeze to represent the coal - useful for varying the appearance when taking photos, but otherwise, a little messy. The loco shown was done for a friend, who intends to add sound.
Today I have a request of our members.. I am looking for any info on the steam connections that go from the tender to the passenger cars.
I have a pic of one as an example here...
I was able to dig up a little info on steam heating equipment from this link .
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=UnYWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA782&lpg=PA782&dq=tender+steam+hoses&source=bl&ots=iZpVquhpUx&sig=aJW4oo6KaMiCaYvazIxDVHQD6Wk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwih8YG23ZzaAhXtw1kKHXQPCIA4ChDoAQg8MAQ#v=onepage&q=tender%20steam%20hoses&f=false">https://books.google.com/books?id=UnYWA ... es&f=false</a><!-- m -->
And a link to one in use.
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What I am really after are things like a manufacture name, and how standard they are from one railroad to another.. That kind of stuff.
Any help with this would be wonderful. Thanks a bunch.
My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew