Hi, For some time now I have been building a FN3 scale Large Mason Bogie that is the 2 8 6 – From 2002 I built a 2 6 6 Mason Bogie with the assistance of the web group ‘myLargescale.com’, joining when I found out that they intended to run a Masterclass on building these Masson Bogie locomotives which are my favorites. Whilst this progressed there were also some drawings done of the 4 larger locos built by the Mason Locomotives Works for the DSP&PRR which were 2 8 6’s. Parts were ordered, at the same time as those needed for my 2 6 6 which was finished and I lettered it as #12 Como, of the DSP&PRR., the extra parts were stored with an intention of attempting to build one for these locos in due course. In between times other locos were built, gaining some experience. The huge instruction chapters were and have also been used in building this locomotive, as a great deal of the work done thereis and has been applicable to the 2 8 6’s As usual other items managed to get in the way, included the building of my garden railway after a house move, though it was just down the road, the garden, most importantly, and had the room for my layout, and then the building of rolling stock, and some buildings for the layout. After the above quick précis, I eventually started the building of #28 which was named ‘Denver’ when built by William Mason. Having exhumed from the various storage places the bits I started the chassis: this is 5mm thick styrene in two layers with brass bushes for the axles; the wheels were one of the items specially made in China, after arrangements were made, by Rich Schiffman for those interested to buy the number required. The 4 sets were kept by Barry Olsen who having drilled them for his axles, fixing screws, then supplied them to me with the required axles and most importantly the 4-40 bolts, some more of these were supplied to me via Rich Schiffman to assist me – Thank you to all: some of these were extra long ones, and as this loco was both longer than the 2 6 6, and the coupling rods that I made were thicker as well. Barry also supplied some extra sections of his special aluminum extrusion; this was used to extend the base for the much longer boiler. I made the new coupling rods from nested K&S brass tubing, soldered together making the rear section hinged. The drive from the cylinders is to axle number 3. In addition some extra parts were needed for the valve gear which is of a different pattern to the (earlier) 2 6 6 style. For those I used some 1mm thick brass sheet. I do not have access or expertise to use a lathe, so I decided to send my chassis to a builder of Gauge 1 locos for the fitting of a motor and gearbox; the motor was fitted vertically, the same as my 2 6 6 and acts as a pivot for the chassis. To stiffen the base for the boiler a sandwich of steel rule, and stiff plasrtic sheet, was added to Barry’s (extended) extrusion, the boiler is PVC pipe with an extra layer wrapped around it, to replicate the boiler lagging. The domes use the brass turned pieces from the Hartland Loco range with new pieces of PVC pipe to make them the correct size. The cab, is now available from Bronson Tate, as is the cowcatcher – both are laser cut plywood, and are very good. The cab was originally designed by Vance Bass. To the cab I fitted an internal framework as I intended to have the cab roof removable after seeing photos of Jim Barron’s version of the 2 6 6 in the Narrow Gauge Annual for 2008. The firebox, in the cab is a small section opened out of the pipe used for the boiler, with styrene sheet added for the vertical parts. This and the lower firebox, and the rear portion of the boiler, have some lead in to weight the loco. The loco boiler is painted in a buffable paint like Testors or Tamiya, its actually sold in the UK by Humbrol, as part of their ‘Metalcote’ range. When dry it was varnished with Johnson’s Klear’ for protection. The chocolate brown is also a Humbrol color. The masters for the decals are to be designed shortly in Australia, and will then be printed by Stan Cedarleaf before being sent to the UK for me to fit them – all the way round the world! Having hopefully given you’re a sketchy idea of the building of this loco to make things much clearer here are some of the photos that I made ‘en route’ in the building of it.
Here are both my scratchbuilt Mason Bogies together
The loco on one of my curves from below ground level
On my trestle
Inside the cab
Denver just leaving one of my bridges
A final view - from the rear - that tender is BIG!
