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 Posted - April 29 2020 : 12:42:56 PM
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I picked up the broken remains of a Roundhouse Old Timer Consolidation for $5 at a swap meet. I bought it for the motor, because I had an Old Timer Mogul with a lot of wear on the motor and planned to use the motor from this basket case in the Mogul.
Somehow, I just couldn't leave the rest of the parts well enough alone.
Here it is. Clearly, it has taken the trip to the floor, and parts have been cannibalized.
Chunks are missing from the cab, the running board, and the remaining detail parts.
There are more parts missing from the front and the previous owner hadn't cleaned the flash out of the front coupler pocket.
This was an old design with plastic drive wheels on both sides, but brass tires. As designed, only two of the right drivers were to pick up electricity from the rails. I redesigned it with pickup wipers on all drivers and mounted them on a printed circuit board cover plate below the axles. To make that removable, a spring contact connects the left-side pickups to a pad behind the cover plate and that pad is wired to one motor brush. The right side pickups are connected to the frame via the screws.
Wipers on the flanged drivers are bits of nickel silver rail joiner soldered to a phosphor bronze spring. Nickel silver is supposed to slide easily and wear long. Blind drivers have phosphor bronze wire (.010") wipers.
A little paint hides the pickup wipers in the shadows. The pilot truck gets a wheel set and a homemade cover plate.
The cab is patched where the corner is broken off of the roof. Molded on (then broken) railings are replaced with wire. Broken off awnings have been replaced and a roof hatch is added. The patches are glued on with solvent and are surprisingly strong.
Paint covers a lot of ugly in these patch jobs.
Missing parts have been replaced from my stock of spare detail parts and broken parts have been repaired. The mounting hole for one handrail stanchion was damaged, making one handrail crooked. It creates the odd illusion that the smoke box sags, but there's no graceful way to fix that, so I'll have to live with it.
More paint has covered more ugly and the engine is pretty much completed. The brass railings and appliances really are brass. The boiler bands and the trim around the domes and valve chests are just painted to look like it.
A front view shows that the front coupler pocket has been cleaned out and a coupler installed. The pilot beam has a railing, as Model Die Casting intended. The number plate is left over from my other MDC locomtive kit and a number has been added with gold dry transfers. Union Pacific painted a locomotive in honor of our 41st president. I have an engine number 41. Looks like I'm barking with the big dogs. 
This did not come with a tender, and I don't happen to have one handy that's typical of what this kind of engine would have. Taking a trick from the full-sized railroads, I've borrowed a tender from another locomotive. A slope-back switcher tender is not typical for a polished brass pride of the mainline, but it'll do until I can find or make something more fitting, and there is a prototype for everything.
Old number 41 (with 81's tender) sits in the yard with a train of refrigerator cars.
The Mogul did get the nicer motor, and I patched up its old motor to run in this engine. This'll probably not run a whole lot. It has a hitch in its getalong that makes it lurch along at slow speeds, but it runs okay just cruising. I'll likely just run it occasionally because I like its looks and the old motor is good enough for that.
Someday when there are swap meets again, I'll keep an eye out for a fitting tender, or failing that, I may have to cobble up something, myself.
Carpe Manana!
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Posted - April 29 2020 : 3:41:50 PM
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| An amazing fix, several useful tips.
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Posted - April 29 2020 : 6:37:46 PM
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What a difference! The finished product looks excellent. 
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Posted - April 29 2020 : 7:47:00 PM
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Wow! I love it! Awesome work, I need to get myself one of those!
Yeah, the tender definitly needs replacing. Especially since the loco is #41, and the tender is #81! 
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Posted - April 30 2020 : 10:40:38 AM
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| Great work! I like the look of the finished loco and the extra pickups are brilliant.
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