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

[benderda]

Beautiful Max, just beautiful.   

[timgill]

Nice work! Enjoying following this little work of art.

[superturbine]

Really nice work Max,

I completely know how much work it is to have a nice looking model and actually have it run. 
GOOD JOB!

[North Bank Road]

Max,  The #626 was a one of a kind locomotive. It was always kept spotless in its day as a top notch passenger unit. For a while in the Glacier green paint. I can't wait to see your version. Keep up the good work.

Rick

Another SP&S fan

[mmagliaro]

Max,  The #626 was a one of a kind locomotive. It was always kept spotless in its day as a top notch passenger unit. For a while in the Glacier green paint. I can't wait to see your version. Keep up the good work.

Rick

Another SP&S fan

Rick,
Thanks for that info!   I do have a book that shows a black-and-white photo and says it was still in Glacier green early on.
But I'll go with the later black.  But it IS good to know it was usually kept in pristine condition.   I'll go easy on the weathering
when I get to that stage.  I did notice that all the photos of it, even in service, show clean natty white pinstriping on
all the wheels (like the #700 4-8-4).
 
The tender logo will be the plainer thin-stripe oval in white.   It probably wore it in gold at the very end,
but white is probably more typical.

[mmagliaro]

This installment continues with work on the cab and pilot.

I am using the cab from a Kato Mikado.  After comparing prototype photos and drawings to all the cabs I had, the Mikado cab turned out to be very close in size and window placement.  The only real discrepancy was the contour of the roof.  I made a template from a prototype drawing and used it to "sculpt" a new roof shape using JB Weld.















The next series of photos shows construction of the pilot.  Although even a Z scale coupler is quite oversized in N, I wanted to give this model a working front coupler, so I adjusted and mounted the pilot to accomodate a Micro-Trains #905.
















Most of the basic pieces are in place for the boiler shell now.  The next big task will be grinding/reaming
the frame and cutting out a cavity along the underside of the boiler tube, to fit the whole thing onto the
chassis.

[carlso]

Max,  you sir are a true artist. Very nice work and great tutorials.

Carl

[strummer]

Max,  you sir are a true artist. Very nice work and great tutorials.

Carl

I'll second that...

Mark in Oregon

[jmlaboda]

"a top notch passenger unit."

I have yet to see a steam locomotive that was  unit.

[mmagliaro]

Thanks guys, and Jerry, I confess, I don't get the "unit" joke (or is it not a joke?  I can't even tell    )

[Cajonpassfan]

I suspect Jerry wasn't joking; personally I squirm when I hear steam locomotives referred to as "units". They each had variations and personality....but not everyone gets that, kind of like "parental units" of Saturday Night Live?
Max, beautiful work on your, ahem, unit....
Regards, Otto K.

[jmlaboda]

The therm unit was never applied to a locomotive until the introduction of the EMD FTs (if even then) and has always applied to locomotives that were intended to be used as sets, such as FTs, FAs, etc.  Never a steam locomotive.

[mmagliaro]

The therm unit was never applied to a locomotive until the introduction of the EMD FTs (if even then) and has always applied to locomotives that were intended to be used as sets, such as FTs, FAs, etc.  Never a steam locomotive.

Oh oh oh... okay.  Now I see.  Thanks for explaining.

[Chris333]

Max,

Not to derail, but you seem to know a little bit about vavlve gear. Do you know of any N scale steam with this older Baker valve gear?
http://www.railarchive.net/randomsteam/erie1639.htm

[mmagliaro]

Max,

Not to derail, but you seem to know a little bit about vavlve gear. Do you know of any N scale steam with this older Baker valve gear?
http://www.railarchive.net/randomsteam/erie1639.htm

Thanks Chris, but I really don't know much at all about valve gear.  The one on your photo does look very similar to the valve gear
on the Walthers 0-8-0, though.