I have been messing with trying to get this wheel arrangment for a long while now. I needed spoked 73 inch drivers and I have 72 inch drivers. Close enough. I needed spoked pilot wheels although some later got solid so a compromise. Trailing truck from my parts box and probably off an old 2-8-8-2 is very close. Broke the danged wires about four times trying to clear out for the trailing truck but everything resoldered again and now clear ready to reroute. Air pump is not exactly in the right location but on the right side so close enough again. And I'm not going to go grinding on that metal boiler to relocate it. Bell and domes are just a little off but I can live with them where they are. Belpaire section cast from resin awaits sanding and applying to boiler to extend same. And the big cab and windows are also close. Bmann short tender with oil bunk gets hooked on behind with a new drawbar. Decals and paint await.
Oh boy, here we go again. Bet that's going to be nice... MP 4-4-0, right? I thought about this when they first came out. My road had 2 classes of old Brooks Atlantics that looked similar. One type had valves like yours and one had inclined cylinders. But there was very little space between the pilot wheels and the first driver, and they had inside-frame trailing trucks with big spoked wheels... I never tried the "build"... JimR.
So just how many steam loco makers parts are involved here? That looks sweet John! I have a 4-4-0 kit bash on the shelf. Need a better frame than the old atlas pacific.
Managed to file the cast Belpaire section paper thin last night and then trued up all the edges and test fit to the area where the cab used to sit. This AM I attached the MP cab to the Belpaire section with ACC. Once everything set up I test fit to the boiler and compared the trailing truck position under the cab to the prototype and am happy with it. Broke the other danged wire again and decided a trip to Radio Shack was in order for a much finer tipped soldering iron. While there I spotted the product displayed behind the loco. If it works as claimed I'm re-attaching the wire with that. MP had a problem with breaking wires in the earlier renditions which is why they designed the drawbar to anchor everything inside. I am of the opinion that while the wire is flexible it is also brittle and subject to easily breaking at the attachment points. So when I try this glue I am including just a tab of the insulated cover in with the connection so hopefully it stays this time. "What is the prototype railroad you are trying to represent? Something from the Pacific NW?" SP&S class C-1 with booster. A while back I had eyed this loco with this kitbash in mind. I took measurements off of a drawing in my SP&S locomotive book added it all up and then measured the MP loco and found it was right on with the cab moved back. As noted in my first post there are a number of things that are very close and some that aren't but I can live with. The cylinders are another one of those. I'll live with the wrong cylinders and still be happy. Plus I don't relish trying to modify this mechanism. It's bad enough dealing with the drawbar and wires. With the Belpaire section replacing the cab and the new cab location I am less than 1 scale foot from being right on in length. And I can live with that. Looking at performance without traction tires I will be able to put some tungsten inside the top corners of the Belpaire and maybe a small amount in the cab if needed. I have the smoke box front off and have found there is room to add some tungsten putty there too. There is a weight attached to that smokebox front but there is enough room to add tungsten and almost double the weight. So with some additional weight added front and rear I should have improved traction.
Continued working with the cab today and now have an area to route the wires through plus designed some airtanks from styrene tube. Almost at the point of tackling the drawbar post and set one of my spare tenders behind to check how far I need to drop the post. Actual tender for it should be here next week. The slanted position of the trailing truck is the result of my messing around. It actually rides level. The airtanks actually go over the smaller metal cast on ones seen behind the rear driver and will both align and stabilize the cab. Plus I plan to tuck a bit of tungsten into those tanks also. The wires will route up and into the styrene structure under the cab exiting from the rear as only two wires to connect to the Bmann tender drawbar wipers. A tad bit more styrene under the cab and the drawbar post and done, until the tender comes, when it will get an oil bunk. SP&S had at least three of these left on the roster in the 1940-50 time period according to my information. And I found that there was a previous N scale conversion done of a SP&S C-1 class using a Black River Penssy Atlantic as the start point so I can't claim the first on this.
Started work on a set of drawbar posts. After attempting to trim a previous one with a Dremel had the cut off wheel shatter luckily on low speed so the shrapnel didn't have much force. However I launched the drawbar post into a low earth orbit so if anyone near San Diego finds it..... I decided to get rid of all the danged wires I could and simply use the Bmann drawbar with it's wipers and combine to just two wires off the loco. Drawbar post made of .100 solid styrene rod and 5/32nd X .014 brass tube split in half with a dremel and then smoothed up. Then .020 X .020 styrene strips cut to length for isulators between the two halves. The brass attached to the rod with ACC. The styrene strip with Pro Weld. The styrene strip protudes just slightly, enough to cause the wiper to kick out when it encounters it preventing contact with the other side and a short. Extra length of the styrene rod is to adjust mounting heigth and then it will be trimmed. This is the drawbar post I have been using for steamers without tender pick-up to convert them.
Stuffed the voids in the smokebox/light lense insert with Tungsten putty nearly doubling its weight. Light still works. Added the same to the air tanks and the corner voids in the Belpaire and replaced the original cab weights plus applied first coat of paint. Also stuffed a bit of Tungsten inside the smoke stack. Applied ACC sparingly and clamped the new cab/firebox assembly in place until set. Started trimming down the drawbar post and installed a T section at the bottom to retain the drawbar in place. And somewhere in the process I broke the bell clean off dang it. Fortunately I have several in the parts box to replace it with. Tomorrow I'm tackling the chore of re-attaching the wire I broke, hopefully without breaking anything else in the process.
Rerouted wires under new cab location to new split drawbar post. Now I just have to remember which wire hooks to which and connect to the drawbar post sides. The wires route upward to clear the new trailing truck.
The engine is done. Fabricated a new bell for it, seen on the mat in front, and it will be the last thing applied. Need to gloss coat for decals and awaiting delivery of the Bmann short tender that gets an oil bunk. The brand new needle point soldering iron from Radio Shack made life alot easier in soldering the small wires It is posed with the MP 4-4-0 starting point for comparison. I did notice that there is some slight differences in the two locos even though bought at the same time. For one the plastic center pilot trucks versus the solid metal ones. Once the tender comes in then it will be test track time. I expect an increased performance over the stock 4-4-0 just due to better pick-up and increased weight. These locomotives were used as dual service on the SP&S and did very well pulling freight on the water level track. With all the problems with the Bmann 4-4-0s earlier it is nice to have something finally turn out with a minimum of trouble. As to whether the 2nd MP loco gets converted is up in the air.
John: Bit confused here. You mean the wheels or something else? Mine have plastic centers on the right side/rail and solid metal on the left. Prevents shorts,eh; though I guess they could have used plastic for both... BTW, did you know some of them have "inclined" cylinders? And the undecs came with spare parts.
My oops. I have been staring at wheels too long. You are right both have plastic on one side that shows as a black wheel with a silver tire and the other all silver. A little black paint will take care of that. When the pilot truck isn't used for pick-up, and these aren't, I'm used to seeing black on both sides. By chance would you know which ones came with the inclined cylinders or are you referring to the 1 to 1 versions?
John: I'm refering to the models. The inclined cylinder is NOT real steep; it is much less angled than I'd wish. But how many n scale steamers have it at all? The undec is the real prize-it came with both cylinders,2 cabs,pilots and smokebox fronts, and 2 pairs of tender truck frames. I don't remember which others have the sloped cylinder, but last I knew --- still had photos of them all. (sorry,forgot I can't say that; that shop in Jersey that used to be in...) As best I can tell SP,PRR,NP,NYC,and CN have them. There are a couple that aren't pictured so I don't know. Hope that helps a bit. You'll want the ones marked "valve cylinder"... You might also see if MP has any spares available; not a hard install. JimR.
Either this rendition wasn't released yet when I ordered mine or I simply missed it. Both GN and NP had some locos with the slanted cylinders and I would have gone that way had I been aware of it at the time. I checked MP but no way to tell if they have it without calling. They list it as double circle. However that part would complete the look enough for me so thanks for the information. I really have to get out of this cave more often.
John: I believe "double circle" is their way of describing it, refering to the covers on the front of the block. The inclined inside-valve block has two circular covers, while the old slide valve block has one... You have got me thinking about converting this thing again... JimR.
The 4-4-2 is done for now. I have to get off my backside and call MP to see if the correct cylinders are still available. Nothing seems to come easy anymore with any of my projects. Had three new Bmann tenders arrive this last Saturday and not a one of them would even pick-up static electricity much less from the rails. After some head scratching and opening them up I found that the danged brass strips in the tenders were too flimsy and staying up and out of contact with the truck posts. And no amount of tinkering would correct the problem. Since the last time I ordered tenders until now evidently they got really cheap on the brass strips. Tissue paper has more resistance. So after some thought I broke out the soldering iron and laid a small long bead of solder on the brass to give it the stiffness. Anyway decaling done and finished except for the possibilty of going back and retro fitting the engine with the slanted cylinders. The Bmann tender used is the short standard tender and you can see the size as compared to the MP tender. Belpaire is a resin casting and oil bunk is a resin casting and trailing truck is from an old Rivarrossi. Tugsten putty was stuffed in every available location but with a idea toward maintaining balance with most of the weight concentrated in front and rear of the drivers. The cab only has the small weights that came with the loco. Since this is an all metal boiler and nothing was removed I expect tractive effort to be far better than the original wheelbase was. Decals for this were cobbled from NP and GN steam decals, and SP&S freight car decals. The loco class data below the number on the cab is from was spliced from both GN and NP data and does state C-1 73 inch driver plus tractive effort. Tender is labeled for water capacity and oil bunk for its capacity. I have the parts to do a 2nd one but I will wait and see how the test track results come out before commiting.
