Best Of SP&S 4-6-2 #626 Project

[dnhouston]

Wow!  Great work on the front and light, lots of pain-staking detail work done very well.

[mmagliaro]

Greetings all.
This installment involves two subjects:

1. Wiring and powering the SMD LED headlight
2. Building walkways and cooling lines

This has been very tedious work, especially the walkways.   The photos will actually only show one completed walkway,
but I do have the other one cut out, just not mounted on the engine yet.

As always, the captions should tell the story.  If anyone is wondering why I didn't use those natty etched brass pipe hangers that Jason and Loren worked on, I don't have enough left, and even if I did, this prototype had hangers that really look more like flat straps over the outside of the lines, rather than loops with the lines running through them.







Now, we move on to the walkways...

[VonRyan]

Simply (complexly?  ) stunning!

Now you have me wondering about how to convert my H10w to an H10sa...


-Cody F.

[robert3985]

Very interesting.  It's great to see how you've developed your assemblies and built/attached them.  Most excellent.  This is my current "most favorite" thread!   

[peteski]

I'm also enjoying this thread immensely!  It is sort of like watching a TV series in (more or less) weekly installments.  Come to think of it, If this was a reality show, I wouldn't mind watching it on TV (unlike other reality shows on TV). 

[sirenwerks]

Max, you're approach to building is a priceless body of knowledge. 

[mmagliaro]

Thanks for such kindness, guys!

On this engine, more than any other yet, I am trying to use every nitty gritty hand-made thing I can make
and use every technique I have ever thought of.  It means this will take a LONG time to complete.  But
I am not in a race.   

The cooling line/hanger assembly is made exactly the way I did the one on my PRR I-1s about 6 years ago, only
on that one, I used epoxy to attach the lines/hangers to the walkway.  I did not have the nerve to try soldering it
without risking unsoldering the cooling lines.  But since I learned about flux, ... SHAZAAM!   Now I can do it, and
not only quickly enough to avoid unsoldering, but also neatly enough.
(Of course, those of you who have resistance soldering setups would do it that way... maybe that will be something I learn
before the next project!)

Wow.. soldering it makes the whole thing so darn STURDY.

This is a labor of love, and it is really my pleasure to share it.   I welcome all comment and criticism.  It makes for healthy
conversation and a better model.

Thanks again.

[mmagliaro]

Hi all.

This installment covers 3 topics:
1. Completing the second walkway, including compressor and air tank, and the steam exhaust pipes above the cylinders

2. Making a simple drawbar and wiring the motor to the frame

3. The basic construction of the tender.

As always, the photos and captions should tell the story.  My ordering on this project is not as random as it may appear.
Once the walkways are in place, the physical/mechanical assembly of the engine itself is complete.  All the rest of it will
be an exhaustive amount of detail parts, but they won't affect the running of the engine.  The walkways were the last part that
had to be completed to make sure I had nothing in the way of the wheels or valve gear. 

So at this time, I move on to the tender, to enable me to get the engine functional for shake-down tests and tuning before I start
piling on the detail parts.

The Venderbilt tender is made from the cut-up sections of a Bachmann/Spectrum Vanderbilt, with a new scratchbuilt brass body.
The Bachmann body would have needed so many changes to match the SP&S engine that I decided it was better to start
from scratch.



1. THE WALKWAY:







































2. DRAWBAR and MOTOR WIRING:










3. BEGIN TENDER CONSTRUCTION:

[peteski]

Max, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this latest update. Superb kitbashing/scratchbuilding, and documentation!

I even think that your photos might be good enough for making this thread into an article for the Model Railroader Magazine. 

[bdennis]

Awesome work!

[Cajonpassfan]

Max,
this engine is amazing, thank you for the step by step tutorial. I always look forward to the next "installment" with great  anticipation, as you do such fine and cutting edge work.
While I love the new Bachmann steam Spectrum models, I think the tender trucks are visually the weakest part of the model; they are very wide to accommodate the wide thread wheels and this is especially annoying on Vandy tenders where this is visible from above. Any thoughts on how to overcome that without jeopardizing all wheel pickup?
Best, Otto K.

[Chris333]

Another superb installment!

I was recently working on a Bachmann Vandy tender, for my prototype it was the correct height, but I didn't like seeing all that air above the trucks so I filled it all in with bits of styrene.

[mmagliaro]

EDIT FOR TERMINOLOGY...


Thanks guys,
Chris, and Otto,

I actually did not check the prototype height on this tender.  I just decided I couldn't stand all that airspace between the tops of the trucks
and the bottom of the tender, so prototype or not, I lowered it.  Chris, that's a good idea to put some blackened strips underneath
to hide the airspace.

As for the look and width of the trucks, about the only way you could improve the trucks would require a lot of work.
It would be similar to home-brew brass engine trucks I've modified where you basically take two "live" halves of a nice wheelset
like a Fox Valley, join them together in a styrene tube, then cut the truck frame in half and rejoin it by screwing the two halves
together to a new truck beam made from something thin and rigid like a strip of 1/32" printed circuit board.   I don't have any drawings
that show the correct width over the sideframes on this engine.   To be honest, the truck width isn't something that bothers me
and I don't even notice it.  The ride height, however, stood out like a sore thumb.   

I also don't like the way the metal truck pickup tangs show so much.  They could have been bent inward UNDER the truck frame
beam, and then come up into the tender close to the mounting post, instead of coming up right at the outside of the truck where they
show so much.  But I think once they are painted black, they won't look so bad.  Since I'm going to hard-solder fine flexible wire to them anyway,
I am thinking of cutting them off entirely, except for the strip that rides behind the truck frame, and just solder a fine wire down in there and running it up inside.

 

[Sokramiketes]

With the interaction of the cab roof and tender height being so prominent on a steam engine, have you verified that the locomotive and tender together look OK with the lowered tender?

[SkipGear]

At least for the VC-16 that the tender is a model of, the truck width is pretty close and the daylight under the tender is also there on the real thing. I know it looks better with somesort of view block but the tender, at least as a VC-16 is right.

http://www.kohs.com/Images/K3/K3_lf_side_2305_2.jpg

I have a shot of a Mikado with a VC-16 crossing a bridge with nothing but daylight behind it that really shows how high they sat. I don't have it anywhere to upload and can't find the same shot on the net. In the conversion, do what looks right. I really believe that proper proportions and look should come before hard measurements in our scale. Sometimes fudging looks and feels more right than the hard facts.