Best Of Spokane, Portland and Seattle (SP&S) 0-6-0 Project

[Iain]

Just out of curiosity, why not move the coupler box back a bit to mount to the saddle itself?  That way, you won't have as much sticking out the front.

[mmagliaro]

Just out of curiosity, why not move the coupler box back a bit to mount to the saddle itself?  That way, you won't have as much sticking out the front.

Fair question.   It's because the real coupler actually does stick out like that.  If you look at the prototype photo on page 1 of this thread, the coupler actually has the look of a coupler "box" sticking out from the pilot beam.

Here's a close-up of the area in question:



And the coupler box has a slight lip at that point so it was a good spot to put it.  It's probably a little further out than the actual prototype, but remember, it will have pilot steps under it so it will not look so far out when those are in place, and it has to clear the steps so it will work in a practical sense when coupled to rolling stock and on curves.

This engine is tiny, and even using a Z scale Bowser Buckler, which is about the smallest thing there is, the real problem is that the coupler itself is quite oversized compared to a prototype coupler... just something we still have to live with in N Scale.

--------------
I'm back... heh heh...
I measured how much my coupler box actually protrudes there (and of course, I will fill in that hole on top of the box where it sticks out!)...   It sticks out .080"

According to the actual drawing, it should be 10" or .062 in N Scale.   Okay, so mine sticks out .018" more than
prototype.  I'm content to let that go in the interest of practical operation.



 

[Iain]

heh, made you check 

But, yeah, I admit I didn't look at the photo.  I'll go hide in shame now.

[svedblen]

Reading your post about the saddle, cylinder, pilot beam and coubler build was like reading a good detective story. Intriguing and thrilling. 

[C855B]

Max, I'm totally in awe of your work on this project. No comments up to this point from me because I've mostly been sitting back watching a master at work.

This said...

I worry about the aspect of being unable to service or otherwise replace/repair the coupler without significant disassembly of the model. In my 50+ years of operating model railroads, my experience has been that couplers are the most consistently broken rolling stock detail. If you ever put this model on a layout and operate it with other trains - or even by itself - you or any guest operators are likely to invoke Murphy's Law and smash it into something, or something into it, and that coupler is poised to take most of the blow.

I wish you continued skill and luck on this effort, but given your end goal of creating a fine-operating, fine-scale model, I'm offering that you might reconsider what it might take to replace that coupler.

[mmagliaro]

I totally get people worrying about the replaceability of the coupler.  I will say that in all my years of model railroading (30 now... yikes), the only time I've ever broken a coupler is by dropping a piece of rolling stock to the floor, and if that were to ever happen with this model, the coupler would be the last thing I'd be worrying about.

In any event, upon rethinking this, it would not be all that awful to replace.  If I remove that screw and do a little slicing or heating of the heat melted plastic, it would pull right out of there without removing anything else from the engine.  So while it's not quite as simple as just taking out a screw and replacing a coupler, it wouldn't require taking the whole pilot apart as I previously stated.

[Chris333]

I tried to make a set of cylinders in styrene from scratch. They came out terrible and it ended up being one of the first 3D items I've drawn.

BTW I've also never broken a coupler 

[OldEastRR]

I totally get people worrying about the replaceability of the coupler.  I will say that in all my years of model railroading (30 now... yikes), the only time I've ever broken a coupler is by dropping a piece of rolling stock to the floor, and if that were to ever happen with this model, the coupler would be the last thing I'd be worrying about.

Fantastic work, Max. Would the new MTL couplers look and work better for your needs?

[peteski]

Max leaves me speechless - again!

[C855B]

... BTW I've also never broken a coupler 

My experience could easily be colored by operating primarily in club environments. Of late, we have one fella in the club I belong to now who is so bad I have been reduced to taking my trains off the layout when he shows up. There are at least three cars on my workbench needing coupler replacement (and more) attributable to his hamfisted/careless/distracted operation. Mostly hamfisted. He's a one-man wrecking crew.

[mmagliaro]

Yes, in a club environment, coupler damage would be more common I think.  You can bet this engine will never see the light of day on a public or club layout.  There's no way I could risk it.  I've taken my other work to group sessions; the PRR I1 made an appearance on the BaNTrak N scale layout at Timonium once.  But this thing?  No way.

And thank you, once again, fellows.    Yes, this part took 6 weeks to do.  Shaping that dang saddle from the pattern so that it looked right AND fit in place between my frames and under the boiler was a bear of a task.  I worked on that for days.

And in case anyone is wondering... I am working on a pattern drawing for the cab now.  That's the next job.  Once that's on,
I will have a very good fix on the tender body.  Even though I have photos, I do not have an erecting drawing for
the tender, so I need to go just by dimensions and photos and make sure it lines up right with the cab.

If anybody has an erecting drawing for an NP slope-back tender... now's the time to speak up!

[robert3985]

Absolutely fascinating Max!  Cutting headlight lens from real glass microscope slide cover glass?  WOW! Add another technique to my list of things I've learned from you... 

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[muktown128]

Max - Your work is incredible!  I really enjoyed reading your latest update with the detailed photos and explanation of how you did this and why you did this the way you did.  The brass headlight part really blew me away!  WOW!  I look forward to the next installment.

Scott

[mmagliaro]

Happy Saturday, everyone!

This installment covers the construction of the cab. 

As I am going through this project, I am trying to get as much of the basic detailing done as possible on each sub-element.  But I cannot put on items that might easily be damaged while I am testing and working on the engine.  So while I have applied some rivet detail (Archer decal rivets), I am only doing it in hard-to-access areas where it is easier to get it done now, and when the rivets are being applied to styrene.  For places that are on the outer surfaces, and especially on brass, I am holding off on the rivets because they don't stick as well to brass and won't be durable until I can paint over them. 

Other than rivets and superdetailing the backhead, I tried to get the cab as complete as possible.

I had to remove a few grams of tungsten weight in the rear of the engine to make room for the cab, but as it turns out, the cab itself weighs more than those weights, so I ended up with a net gain of +2g anyway.

Another nasty complication on these SP&S engines is that while they were largely knock-offs of GN or NP (and this engine is an NP L-9 0-6-0), the cabs were usually changed out while the engines were in service.  In the case of these 0-6-0's, they were delivered with NP cabs, but by the 1940s, they had all been changed over to GN style cabs.  In fact, many got that treatment much earlier.  So it is far more correct to see these engines in the late 40s and early 50s with the GN cab.

No drawings exist that I am aware of for the replaced cabs on these SP&S 0-6-0's.  There are some GN 0-6-0's that look very similar, but while I have GN books with photos and loco "diagrams", they are not scale drawings.   So the cab had to be "gamed" from all the prototype and large-scale brass model photos and diagrams I could find.

On to the photos!

























































































Now that the cab is in place, the next step is the tender body.  I'll be able to make sure I have it at the correct height relative to the cab, and get the cab-tender coupled spacing right so I can add the foot plate between them, and verify that it can negotiate curves.

[Chris333]

It's like with each part you build you try to out-do your last part!