Scratch built Vandy Tender.
#1
Here is Tender I built, I think it is a B& O prototype. All I remember was seeing the plans & a picture of it in a MR magazine & I fell in love with it! The prototype had barber freight truck on it , I put on freight trucks when I first built it & it looked SILLY. Kinda like King Kong on a set of Barbies legs!! So I know it has the wrong trucks but I don't care.
To make matters worse I built this to put behind an Arbour 2-6-6-6 kit that I salvaged from a garbage can! It had no tender but was mostly there , boy what a POS kit it was !! I built a new pilot deck & had to scratch about half the valve gear because it was very poor & fragile pot metal.

The main tank of this is a piece of Copper water pipe, With .004 sheet copper soldered as an overlay, thats why the big hole you can see inside the coal bunker-- every time it hit it with the torch to solder it, it blew the ends off till I put the hole in it! Durn thing weighs a ton!
On the front view , see the two water delivery pipes coming out ? Notice the "Ball" shape on them , the pipes are insulated from the rest of the tender & the wheel pickups feed them & they hook into the loco by a modified split gold bead on the power transfer wire to the motor, it "snaps over the ball. Works real slick & no wire to try to hide! The wire looks like a water transfer line.
Heres a trick I used to form the ends of the tank. I got 2 of the old "concave or Flat" type freeze plugs for engine blocks, soldered a piece of brass ( on what would be the inside surface) to one freeze plug, put the other over the brass & squeezed them together in a vise ,then heated it enough with a propane torch for the brass to take a set, when they cooled, I trimed & filed the end cap perfectly round using the freeze plug as a pattern.
I have also used much the same procedure on styrene for concave or convex ends.    
   
   
Instant glue ? ---- SOLDER ---- NOW THATS INSTANT!
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#2
A couple more of the Vandy.
   
   
Instant glue ? ---- SOLDER ---- NOW THATS INSTANT!
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#3
Dave, I have been following your threads, VERY IMPRESSIVE and INSPIRING work! Thumbsup Thumbsup
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#4
Yeah, that's a B&O tender. I have a Sunset Models B&O EL3a that has that tender.
Quote:To make matters worse I built this to put behind an Arbour 2-6-6-6 kit that I salvaged from a garbage can! It had no tender but was mostly there , boy what a POS kit it was !! I built a new pilot deck & had to scratch about half the valve gear because it was very poor & fragile pot metal.
The drivers that came with my kit, were (expletive, deleted) Curse
I ordered a set of drivers from Bowser, that were 1 scale inch smaller than the Allegheny had. When I tried them in the "Arbour" frames, the flanges made contact. I have to make new frames. When I get around to revisiting the project, I'll do fully equalized suspension. With the "tons of weight" boiler casting, the thing should pull the world!
For those who don't know the Arbor Models 2-6-6-6:    


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We always learn far more from our own mistakes, than we will ever learn from another's advice.
The greatest place to live life, is on the sharp leading edge of a learning curve.
Lead me not into temptation.....I can find it myself!
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#5
Sumpter250 ( quote)
The drivers that came with my kit, were (expletive, deleted)
I ordered a set of drivers from Bowser, that were 1 scale inch smaller than the Allegheny had. When I tried them in the "Arbour" frames, the flanges made contact. I have to make new frames. When I get around to revisiting the project, I'll do fully equalized suspension. With the "tons of weight" boiler casting, the thing should pull the world!
For those who don't know the Arbor Models 2-6-6-6:

That probably makes--- with mine -- TWO of those locos that actually got done! Looks pretty good.! YES, they ARE HEAVY!

I'l l get mine out & take some pics of it , it's about 20 -30 percent brass replacement parts , I did use the Arbour drivers.
Instant glue ? ---- SOLDER ---- NOW THATS INSTANT!
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#6
I've always wondered about their kits...having seen the old adds, but never a completed locomotive. Sounds like they needed a set of brass etchings.

Thanks for posting the photos.
Michael
My primary goal is a large Oahu Railway layout in On3
My secondary interests are modeling the Denver, South Park, & Pacific in On3 and NKP in HO
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#7
Very nice, Dave

Joe Thumbsup
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#8
Quote:I'l l get mine out & take some pics of it , it's about 20 -30 percent brass replacement parts , I did use the Arbour drivers.

I gave up on the Arbour drivers, the axle holes were not centered, and the whole thing wobbled, without any side rods, just the drivers!
I used wheels that had ball bearings built in, for the tender. Makes pulling that lead sled a bit easier.
The project was shelved, when I got two of the Rivarossi H8s.
We always learn far more from our own mistakes, than we will ever learn from another's advice.
The greatest place to live life, is on the sharp leading edge of a learning curve.
Lead me not into temptation.....I can find it myself!
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