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 Posted - December 14 2023 : 5:20:03 PM
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Visits to many steam railroads and railroad museums have put a soft spot in my heart for the little off-the-shelf Baldwin consolidations that served many a branch line and shortline. The MDC old-time Consolidation catches the typical look of the type. A couple of years ago, I put one together from parts I got cheaply, and it's nice, but it didn't have the right tender and the commutators on the motor are almost worn out. This past fall, I picked up a nicer one at Hobby Recycling in Wyoming, MI.
This is missing some detail parts and the paint job and lettering are not what I want. When I test ran it, I found out that the previous owner had taken the motor apart and put it back together with the magnet upside down with the result that it ran backwards compared to other locomotives, and the magnet was a bit weakened making for poor low end torque. This was easily fixed with a stack of rare-earth magnets.
I changed the bell and whistle to ones that I thought better suited the engine. I added a headlight and backup light, an exhaust pipe for the dynamo and a roof hatch for the cab.
The bodies on these tenders are not attached and slide right off if you pick up the tender, so I glued a big chunk of plastic in the fuel bunker and drilled and tapped it for a 2-56 screw. Now I can fasten down the body.
The pilot truck, as it came, was the one for the Mogul, and didn't quite fit this engine right, creating a lot of drag. Also, the pickup wipers on the tender axles were too stiff and acted as a powerful brake on the wheels, so that the engine mostly just sat and spun its wheels. I fixed the pilot truck to work as designed for the Consolidation and to roll more freely. I made new wipers from a thinner, springier piece of phosphor bronze.
I like locomotives that practically never stall, so I modified the electrical pickup. The cover plate on the driver axles is replaced with a piece of printed circuit board. Soldered to that are pickup wipers for the insulated side drivers. They're made of springy phosphor bronze wire. The tender is changed so that its frame is grounded to the right rail, same as the engine frame, and a metal drawbar conducts electricity between the two frames. Home made springs keep a tight contact on this drawbar. They're also phosphor bronze wire.
The tender also picks up from the left rail on the front truck, and a flexible wire carries that to the locomotive. The connection for that wire to the locomotive is a dress snap. It's detachable and it pivots when the locomotive goes through curves.
I painted the engine a basic black and lettered and numbered it for my railroad. Railings, boiler bands, pop valves and the number plate are Testors Gold for a polished brass look. The smoke box is Grimy Black to give that high-temperature graphite paint look. The roof is oxide red. The side rods are brass and came painted black, but I wanted a polished steel look, so I tinned them with solder. The numbers on the number plate are from some gold numerals I have on a set of dry transfers.
A load of coal hides the big plastic block I put in the fuel bunker to fasten the attaching screw.
I'll probably lightly weather this with a bit of a patina, but first I wanted to take some pictures while it still looked brand spanking new.
Carpe Manana!
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Posted - December 15 2023 : 07:51:59 AM
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Nice work Sir.
Randy
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 Posted - December 15 2023 : 12:22:30 PM
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Very nice Don. Will be interesting to see the engine's gritty complexion after many trips around its new environment.
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Posted - December 15 2023 : 12:59:21 PM
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| Fabulous narrative. Amazing outcome.
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Posted - December 15 2023 : 11:07:46 PM
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Thank you all for the kind words.
Carpe Manana!
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Posted - December 17 2023 : 8:12:34 PM
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Very nice loco!
Glenn
I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, "... I drank what?"
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Posted - December 17 2023 : 9:26:18 PM
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quote:Very nice loco!
Originally posted by gmoney - December 17 2023 : 8:12:34 PM
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Thanks
Carpe Manana!
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Posted - January 04 2024 : 3:54:09 PM
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| Looks very nice. Great work!
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Posted - January 04 2024 : 6:49:29 PM
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quote:Looks very nice. Great work!
Originally posted by CNW_Productions - January 04 2024 : 3:54:09 PM
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Thanks
Carpe Manana!
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Posted - January 05 2024 : 12:08:24 AM
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Somewhere I have one of these. It's a gutsy little engine that can pull 12 cars up my 4% grade, making it the best pulling steamer I have and putting it right up there with the diesels.
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