Just a quick addition. The front of the smokebox consists of two styrene disks, one cut a smaller diameter to fit inside the boiler, glued together. I needed to be able to remove the front to access a battery used for lighting. Ozark Miniatures NBW castings were added as was a Trackside Details smokebox door.
That completes the boiler construction for now. I will describe the backhead and other plumbing later.
This is great fun to watch, Doc. Nice details, good progress, learning a lot by lurking. Perfect!
Is Trackside Details still in business?
Ray
Yes Trackside Detail is stili in business
They were bought by âValley Brassâ who has continued to produce and sell the parts, though I donât see any new ones. The website catalog is much improved too! Just google trackside details.
Time to move on to the cab construction. I decided to construct the cab entirely from wood to gain the effect of a very early Mogul design. Prior to metal cabs that is. The cab was constructed in two layers. The inner layer was made from1/16â plywood and basswood strips.
The outer layer was entirely basswood. All parts were stained golden oak and sprayed with a semi-gloss clear coat.
Here is an interior shot of one of the sides. Brass channel strips have been added to allow a window to slide in. All window frames were made as separate units and glazed with clear styrene.
The four doors were constructed from three layers of basswood. This design would allow the glazing to be inserted from the top.
Hereâs a photo of the completed cab. The roof was made removable so that one could appreciate all the plumbing details. The roof covering was strips of aluminum duct tape painted flat black. The grab bars were fabricated using brass rod and modified Trackside Details parts. At this point I want to mention the lack of photos showing the hinge installations. All doors operate. I will show a close up of the hinges at a later point.
Now to move on to the tender construction. As it happened, building the tender turned out to be almost as much work as the engine. Of course, there were many photographs of tender exteriors, but nothing showing the underside. I could have just done a minimum amount of work to the frame and who would have noticed, but for me that wasnât enough. The only thing I found, and I donât remember where, was one lousy drawing of a typical tender underbelly. So, I took it from there.
I took the design and produced a scale drawing to create a build plan. The construction consisted of styrene strips and a few basswood pieces. In addition, notice the small brackets that run along the outside of the frame. Well, I made a drawing and had my son print a few. I wanted these because you could see them on the side of the tender. Hereâs a photo of the completed undercarriage prior to painting. The brackets are in grey.
This is the completed tender chassis (rear view). Everything has been painted satin black and basswood decking planks have been added. I modified an Ozark Miniaturesâ link and pin coupler to accept a Kadee knuckle coupler. It turned out that the Bachmann Spectrum 0-4-0 trucks were perfect for the Mogul tender in every respect. Saved me a lot of work.
I mounted another Ozark L&P coupler to the front bolster. This would accept a tow bar at the rear of the engine.
Continues to be a spectacular build.
Beautiful work, Doc!
Wowie wow wow so cool. The woodworking is so clean. And the use of brass is awesome. Nice work, Doc!
Slight correction, as I know they are still in the Parts catalog. You mean the very nice Spectrum 4-4-0/2-6-0 trucks. Note Bachmann sells a front truck and a rear truck - the difference is that one has the coupler mount and the other doesnât. You can buy 2 rear trucks and cut the coupler mount off one.
I would also point you to the thread I wrote on making them a little more flexible.
https://largescalecentral.com/t/bachmann-spectrum-4-4-0-2-6-0-tender-truck-fix/80193
Sorry Pete. I did mean the Spectrum 4-4-0. Thanks for catching the error.
Doc
Fantastic work Doc. Thanks for taking the time to write it up.
Making the tender shell led to another call to my son. I didnât feel like bending and fitting another bunch of styrene. I created a number of scale drawings and forwarded them on. My son spent a lot of time figuring out how to break down the design so that it would fit in his resin printer an Epax X10. He ended up printing it in 6 separate section which he indexed so dummy me could make sure they would all align. This is a photo of the tender top in the printer.
And here is the tender temporarily assembled to test the fit.
This version of the Cooke Mogul had two tanks on the rear deck of the tender. The lower one was built from a PVC tube. The rivets were Tichy. I just happened to have in my parts cabinet a Trackside Details brass tank that was the correct scale. Both tanks are held together by the two brass straps and the whole unit is attached to the rear deck and independent of the tank shell. This allows me to remove the shell for access to the electronics.
Speaking of electronics, my original goal was to make this model battery operated R/C. To make life simple down the road, I decided to mount everything on a sort of sled that could easily be removed for repairs. From left to right: the enclosed speaker, a Railboss 4 receiver on the bottom (my favorite), a brass bridge to hold the on/off and volume switches and charging jack, a Phoenix sound card, and finally the battery. Nice, neat and compact.
This photo shows the electronics unit temporarily installed in the tender.
DSP&P tenders had many versions. Shape and size of tender toolboxes also varied. I chose a more vertical type rather than the more common horizontal style. Below shows my version. They were made from styrene with fabricated brass hardware.
To construct the coal load, I carved a piece of blue foam and inserted some lead weights so the unit would stay in place.
To hold the coal load, I made a base that was cut out for the switches, tool boxes and top of speaker. I next added brass strips to hold the wood plank sides and back. I covered the foam with real coal using wood glue.
Hereâs the coal load holder in place.
And here it is assembled. The whole unit, including the frame, is removable for access to the switches.
And the mostly completed tender prior to painting.
Back to the engine next.
Wow. Very nice.
I wish I could do 3D that well! 
Me too. Of course, Iâm not even trying.
This 3D printer thing is just getting out of hand 
I canât believe how much it has opened up my hobby ability. I mean I figure I was a decent scratch builder but 3D printing is really the wave of the immediate future.
I agree. But, itâs a difficult skill to pick up. Youâre doing VERY well.
Thank you. I am not gonna lie, it is ot an easy skill. I am working on something that is giving me fits right now. The roof for a water tank to go along with the sand house that I want to print. I am trying to dona compound miter âcutâ and its not so easy.
But honestly one you get over the steep initial hump, it gets amazingly easier. Itâs a steep learning curve but most operations are pretty repetitive and once you learn how to tackle things it gets much easier.
And then when all else fails you ask Dan.
That is really nice Doc. I like to job you did on the electronics and wire management too.
I agree on the 3D print comments. Resin is a real game changer as I could never see making loco shells, etc with PLA and all the print patterns and if you are going to fill and sand itâs hardly less effort than building from scratch.
If I had any ability in 3D CAD I would be investing in a resin printer setup, but I have a serious problem thinking in 3D. At work, if a build is complex enough to require 3D drawings, I just make a mock up; usually a scale model without a lot of detail. I tried sketch up a few years ago and was making some progress and got hung up on not being able to figure something out and ended up quitting.
So Iâll watch folks like your son and Dan make it look easy 
That 3D shell would be nothing though without that fabulous frame/deck and the details you have added on top.
Thanks Jon. I probably wouldnât have done this project if my son wasnât there to help. As it was it took me 2 years to complete and his work didnât slow me down one bit. I agree that 3D printing is going to be a boon to scratch building. Those of us who used to do everything by hand is going to have to rely on 3D printing as parts manufacturers slowly die away. I guess all we have to be is good drawers so our ideas can be converted to actual things.
