Greetings fellow friends, hobbyists and forumgoers, hopefully all of you are as well as can be in these swiftly vanishing weeks. As of the past month or so (June-July) I have been busy with a kitbash of an LGB 2017 0-4-0 into an open cabbed industrial/sugarcane/tropical export locomotive, with varying successes and trials throughout the build.
Beginning this adventure is the engine’s original appearance, shortly after a conversion from archaic radio control back into a track-power analogue engine, and a proper servicing of the motor block. 'Tis your typical grey starter-set LG(&)B 2017 that would be stuffed in a box with a 2 axle gondola and 2 axle caboose. At this point I had already replaced the ‘American’ box headlamp with a European Stainz headlight, and was tinkering with the thought of mounting the roof on metal poles, being nice clean axles from Hartland plastic wheelsets. The running gear has been removed, but the wheels were still turning.
The open cab appearance had been noticed after some browsing of images of open-cabbed locomotives, many of which were of an industrial and non-mainline nature.
It is known that English and European railways rostered mainline motive power in earlier days of railroading with open-cabs, and in rarer cases, American railroads did as well.
In all instances, the crew generally suffered from the lack of inclement weather protection. In my case, this engine, my model, would end up retaining the full arched roof over the cab floor space, and would live a life in a warm tropical environment, where the only weather it sees is regular imagined rainfall.
In the process of a further teardown, curiosity brought a spare dome lid and safety valve apparatus from my pile of Stainz parts. Using the same boiler shell casting from 2010/20s means that yes, this certainly can fit in the envisioned position on the 2017. This began a dangerous series of contemplations of what else can be traded around on these models.
A day or so later, I ripped the doors off, hinges and all. Knocked the handrails out too, pressing against the inner split nubs with a flat blade screwdriver. Those railings in particular are fragile and costly to replace, so care is advised.
I also decided to rip the cab in half.
Lopping off the superstructure allowed for me to place the metal support rods in, thereby synthesizing additional inspiration fuel for the idea-cooker. (Mind)
Around this point, tinkering with the various doobies and things on the boiler came forth into the beginnings of a vertical steam pipe, reaching skyward to the future roof to deliver spare steam to a whistle. Those are chopped plastic axles sleeves, on another metal axle rod, courtesy of Hartland. Very nice that cast-off plastic wheels and their metal internals have additional uses on the work table.
Some morning later, I took the top half of the cab to a powered wheel grinder, after committing unspeakable violence with big cutting dykes, and ground away the remaining plastic. An Xacto blade later trimmed the outer edges flush and cut new channels in the flat spots to match the rest of the roof’s relief.
Then, probably some of my finest guesstimation-ing took place, spotting cut and drilled nubs of plastic, all sourced from a spare Hartland flatcar stave.
Seating the poles carefully onto various corners, the first glimpse of the combination-modification came forth. The height is certainly not final, don’t worry.
With cutting the cab in half, the wide open doorway in the rear was now wide open, leaving the rear walls standing alone and afraid. This was rectified by cutting apart one of the cast-off cordwood fuel-retainer things from my Hartland Dunkirk, creating a three-board insert that hangs out between those two convenient flange slots. Who’s to say the locomotive’s builder didn’t have modular catalogue construction in mind?
In among research of prototypes, the locomotive’s color was on the mind, and a variety of Java locomotives, yellow with red trim, very much had the likeness of tropical-industrial I was after, with the same ballooney smokestacks to boot. This engine in particular below was quite a find.
In the end, yellow was decided as the dominant color. Having a lighter yellow on hand from two yellow cabooses painted in times prior, I sprayed some on. Coinciding with this was an application of flat black sprays to that silver smokebox and all related black parts, evening out the colors.
I’m sure your eye noticed that spot of orange peel on the bunker. Mine swiftly did too, though it only occurred on this one spot. As fate would have it, this wasn’t entirely a bad thing, considering its position beneath the wet and splashy hatch of the engine’s upper water tank. Evil plans were henceforth concocted after sanding and several minutes of stern staring. Additionally visible is the placement of the errant walkway-mounted generator/tank cylinder, sitting in a more suitable position behind the sandbox.
Remember that T-shaped thingy? What you probably didn’t notice is the absence of the huge single-stage cylinder/pump on the right-hand tank. Taking that off leaves two big conspicuous holes, but also allows for creative insertion of different things.
Like a water tank overfill-air-vent overflow… Thing?
One plastic truck washer and a mesh wire sleeve later, things are a little more convincing and interesting.
Next to come was the installation of singular buffers, done in the same style as my blue-grey 2017. These are spare Thomas/British buffers made by Bachmann that were ripped off 2-axle rolling stock and tossed in a spare parts drawer. Roughing up the front of them with a file mimics the impact and rubbing wear experienced in service.
Installing one on the rear required Xacto work to remove the cast rivets lining the back of the black chassis frame. The buffer sits right above the rear coupler slot, not readily visible due to the pliers.
Around this time, a rear headlight was considered, and a flat spare grabbed from the parts bag. Although the central mount seemed optimal, the look of a heavy headlight sitting on painted wood boards seemed a little odd.
Sitting offset on the right, was a triple-whammy. Unusual for being offset, (which I like) fitting snugly up against the framework of the rear wall, and conveniently above that long-ago drilled hole for wiring from the long-dead R/C electronics. This placement immediately won favor.
In another instance of mad science, Stainz-style rear flange guards were fitted to the underside rear, only requiring a few chops of the Xacto blade on the backsides of two cast round things, hiding and visible among the four support lengths of the plow. This allowed the tops of the angled plow blades to sit flush beneath the motor block and chassis.
What occured next on a later evening, was an execution of patience to be remembered, and it paid off. Cutting a small length of scrap wood (popsicle sticks) to length to act as a placement block, and using temporary slappings of tape, I positioned and glued the support rods to their various places on the rear walls and backhead plating. In a procession of matching heights in four corners, I set a pair of pliers atop the arched roof as a counterweight, and pushing up slightly with the metal rods beneath, found their stopping places against the mounts, and kept them in place as the glue cured.
And as intended, the roof is the same height as the since-glued steam pipe, with the metal axle wonderfully in line with the cast holes for the factory whistle. Around this same point, I painted, glued and added those little wood boards between the roof’s riveted metal bars, representing a different sort of roof vent, or perhaps a prefabricated hole in a prefab roof, replaced by wood planking by the manufacturer with the open-cab construction. Modular mayhem, especially reasonable considering those lifting eyes in the four corners, would mean the roof is plucked off by a shop crane.
Once the metal support rods were confirmed to be adhered, more of that sectioned Hartland flatcar stave became mounting feet for them, glued into place and giving the setup a little more durability against possible downforce impacts. (Gravity + objects)
Breaking the topic into two posts because I expected a 25-image limit; stay tuned!