Large Scale Central

Tuscarora Railroad #4

Modeling
#1

I really hate it when temptation gets the better of me, but sometimes you just gotta go with your gut… I’ve always liked the looks of the Accucraft mogul, and a long-idled Roundhouse 0-4-0 in my collection provided trade fodder with a fellow steamer in Florida, who had one he decided was surplus to his needs. So, this is what it looked like when it arrived:

and here it is after a few weeks’ worth of magic:

I didn’t do too much major cosmetic work to it, mostly just adding details and a proper paint job. Check out my blog http://tuscarorarailroad.blogspot.com for a detailed write-up of the hows, whats and whys of the transformation. Here’s a few more pics to whet your appetite:

Later, K

#2

(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/eastbroadtop/TRR4/TRR405.jpg)

Those metal thieves hit even you, huh? Looks great. You continue to amaze.

#3

Kevin,

You do 'em exactly the way I like 'em! All it needs is an oil bunker to westernize it. :slight_smile: I love it!

#4
Richard Smith said:
Kevin,

You do 'em exactly the way I like 'em! All it needs is an oil bunker to westernize it. :slight_smile: I love it!


It needs HEP cabling as well!
:wink:

#5

Looks great Kevin. I like the idea using real coal for the top parts. Ill have to give that a try. The more I see the Accucraft live steam mogul the more want one. know how you felt.

#6

Almost perfect! Only one (picky, picky) detail. Have you ever tried lifting a chunk of coal the size of your head? A load of “mine run” may look cool, but it won’t steam very well. Anything much over about 3" lump your fireman would be calling the union.

#7

Mik, that’s what hammers are for. The EBT ran run-of-mine coal in their locos, and that’s even with the cleaning plant where they could have easily loaded cleaned, graded coal into their locos. Don’t know why that was the case. I’ve also been in the cab of #346 at the Colorado RR Museum, where the fireman spent as much time with a hammer in his hand as the coal scoop. Who needed gym memberships in those days???

Later,

K

#8
Kevin Strong said:
The EBT ran run-of-mine coal in their locos,
They were running "Indiana County black dirt" the last time I was there :P

I can fully understand from a cost point why a cheap or shoestring operator would choose mine run. The more successful (or more heavily unionized?) lines tended to be a tiny bit nicer to their crews.

Can you imagine having to deal with mine run on a long 4% grade? I’ve had the… pleasure… of trying to fire a traction engine with mine run. I’ve also fired with the stuff that falls off the breaker conveyor, and every sort of cheap trash imaginable. Including black dirt and boney mixed with broken asphalt and junk (We have cheap buyers at the clubs, too. What can I say?). Sometimes (often) saving a few dollars on the input side costs you plenty on the output end. At some point your gorilla firemen would go looking for better paying jobs!

#9

Kevin you really make your locos so realistic. I love that they have that hard working down and dirty look. If I modeled steam era railroads I would refer to your work as a guide . Nice job !!!

#10

Auto stokers, Mik. :slight_smile:

My great granddad was a brakeman for the B&O, and told the story of the B&O vs. Pennsy firemen running the Northeast corridor out of DC. The B&O firemen had auto stokers, the Pennsy firemen did not. Suffice to say the Pennsy firemen did manage to take a long enough break from shoveling to salute the B&O firemen, though they were evidently so tired from all that shoveling that they could only raise one finger. :wink:

Quote:
... I can fully understand from a cost point why a cheap or shoestring operator would choose mine run.
That's what perplexes me about the EBT. They owned the coal and the cleaning plant. Cost wasn't an issue since they mined and cleaned it themselves. In the photos where you can definitively see the size of coal in the tender, it's run-of-mine. In fact, the cleaning plant had a notch cut out in the "run-of-mine" bay to clear the smokestacks of the Mt. Union switchers when they filled the tenders. Maybe it owed to the quality of the Broad Top coal, which was reputed to be excellent, that they could be a little more liberal in terms of the size of the chunks they fed into the fireboxes. Dunno. But it sure makes my life easier as a modeler, because I don't have to screen my coal prior to dumping it in the tender.

Later,

K

#11
Kevin Strong said:
My great granddad was a brakeman for the B&O
One of mine worked for the Western Maryland as a fireman. :)
#12

Cost would still have been the order of the day. If they were burning clean, graded coal in their engines, they were not being PAID for it. The cost to have the fireman break the lumps was far less than the price they were paid by the customer purchasing the clean, graded stuff.

Bob C.

PS. My grandfather started as a fireman on the Pennsy, and left as a Gold Seal engineer, running L1 Mikes from Hoboken, NJ to Phiily, PA and back.

#13

One of my mentors at the W, K&S RR recalled how sometimes the locomotive firemen of that day would get a lump of coal that was too big for their shovels. Those grossly over-sized lumps were pitched off the locomotive, as there just wasn’t time to break them apart. My mentor and his buddies were children then, and their parents would send them out to the tracks to look for the cast off lumps. Those families were happy to hammer those lumps into smaller sizes for coal stoves and furnaces. Those lumps helped stretch the heating bills during the hard times of the mid-1930s.

Those of us who model that time could probably add some kids and pensioners gleaning the right-of-way for oversized coal lumps.

Just thought you’d like to know,
David Meashey