The Linz Gmunden Bahn took delivery of thier new big engine today. Being it was damp, chilly and quite windy today, combined with me fighting a head cold. I decided to get the big engine into the shops to prepare her to go into service. She is a old “yellow box era” 2073d. In solid shape over all but needing some tlc. The side you see in the pic was missing the cover over the cylinder (steam chest) and the valve spindle rod was broke off a bit short. I fabricated a new cover plate out of some clear sheet styrene and a new valve rod out of some thick sprue from an old building kit. I drilled the spru to accept the short remains of the original valve rod and epoxyed them together. Then epoxyed the top on the cylinder. All works perfectly and from a couple feet away, you dont even notice the slight differance from left to right side. Next up was to light the middle lantern. The back side plate was missing, giving the lantern a nice hollow lantern body. I was able to spin it around so the open side faced forward, I painted the interior a flat white, drilled a small hole at the bottom rear and installed a 18vt grain of wheat lamp that I stained yellow to match the LGB bulbs. I fed the wire through another small hole in the boiler and connected it up to the factory lighting tabs. While I had the top off, I pulled the top motor cover and lubed the gears and motor shaft, the lead drivers were 1 tooth off in quartering from the rear, didnt cause any issues but I corrected it while the top was off. I reassembled, installed the new whistle he included as the original one was broke off. I used some of my nice high strength 3m sticky tape to reinstall the coal bunker box that came off on me, and the engineer back in the cab. The engineer and the cylinders are hand painted on this early model. I know of two varaitions of the yellow box 2073d, the N and A series but dont know what the actual differances are. This one lacks the pin striping on the side tanks and has plastic trailing truck wheels. I do plan to replace those a newer trailing truck with power pickups in the future. This one also has the lower, correct, cab roof height, where as the later ones LGB used their rubber ruler to raise the cab roof to match the passenger rolling stock. I have been shown pics of the real U class with the prototypes of LGB’s passenger stock and the engine had a shorter roof height. Providing I feel better tomorrow, she will get some run time on the line. Mike
