The Erie paint job is pre- 1941.
The timeline for these Erie Pacifics was much tighter than that. The yellow diamond on the tender was first applied to some Berkshire and 0-8-0s in 1927. Then the rest of the Erie steam locos were repainted with the yellow diamonds when they were in the shop. Previous to 1927, all steam loco tenders were lettered with just Erie lettering, and no diamond. The Elesco feedwater heaters were applied to all K5 and K5a Pacifics by 1931. So the BLI Pacific model in Erie lettering only existed in that configuration from 1927 to 1931. There are some pictures that show locomoties with yellow diamonds and plain smokeboxes. But most pictures show different lettering or the later changes.
I would rather have an Erie pacific with the Elesco feedwater heater. I like the look better, and it moves the timeline to any time after 1931. Erie did have sets of Boxspoc drivers that were used on these engines in the later 1930s. But they rebuild some of the spoked drivers too, and interchanged all types as they were repaired and shopped. So into the 1940s, the K5 and K5a engines were mostly seen with Boxspoc drivers, but could also have the spoked drivers. And in the 1940s, many of these engines received larger tenders with commonwealth 6 wheel trucks. The Erie heavily relied on having spare parts, and swapping parts and tenders to get the engines back to service quicker.
Dan M
