N&W E2a "(& WM K-2) Pacific kitbash thoughts

[Mark5]

Thanks for the pic!

[wm3798]

Well, even after switching around the driver wheels, I'm still having issues with the lead driver crawling over the rail on a 15" r curve.  Not all of them, mind you, but there are two places where I couldn't work in much or any of a transition curve, and that's where I'm having problems.  Originally, the wheels were a bit tight gauge-wise, which causes problems at turnout frogs and what not, but seems less problematic on the curves, but when I fix the gauge, I'm getting the creep, even at slow speeds.

I'm wondering if I ground the flange completely off of the middle drivers if that would help.  Any thoughts from you steam heads out there?

Before I do that, I'm going to fab another drawbar that's a hair longer to see if that doesn't help...

Lee

[Chris333]

This is a old Atlas Pacific? I can't imagine it wouldn't go around 15"r. I'm sure back in the day a bunch of people had them on their 9.75"r layouts, but I never had one my self.

Can you put more weight in the nose? If the drawbar is making it pop wheelies I'd work on that first. Blinding the driver should work, but you don't have spare drivers to mess with. I know Randy blinded the 2 center drivers on a 4-8-4 and it worked for him.

[DKS]

I used to have one of these old Atlas Pacifics. They're nose-light. I agree with Chris; do whatever you can to weight down the nose better.

Another thing to consider would be to design a new drawbar that connected closer to the rear driver; pulling near the end of the loco, as it does now, tends to yank the nose off-course.

One final thought: what are the flanges on the front drivers like? If they're a little rough from being reduced, they may be grabbing at the rail a bit. Might be worth trying to polish them up.

[wm3798]

Sounds like a plan.  First I'll polish the drivers, then I'll monkey with the draw bar.  I think I can run something in to tie into the screw that holds the trailing truck, but it will have to be plastic since the tender floor and the frame would cause a short...

L

[wm3798]

I worked on the tender for the K-2 tonight. 


I'm doing one of the engines that was converted to an oil burner, so in addition to extending the back of what was the coal bin, I also had to re-do the front end, which was changed to accommodated the oil bunker.  So a little scrapey scrapey-cuttey cuttey..then a few bits of styrene filed and sanded to shape, and voila!

It's out in the garage now, primed and then sprayed with a coat of gloss black.  Next I have to rummage through the decal box and see if I still have some steam decals.  Then it's time to fab the oil bunker.  According to the boys in Hagerstown who are endeavoring to get 202 back under steam in time for her 100th birthday in 2012, the bunker, tender deck and cab roof get red, so she'll be a real eye popper when she's done.

Pics of the painted tender tomorrow...  So, how's the E-2 coming along, Mark?

Lee

[Mark5]

Pics of the painted tender tomorrow...  So, how's the E-2 coming along, Mark?

Lee

Thoughts continue as I keep an eye out for a MP Pacific "on the cheap". I plan to check with RLW re availability of the W-3 cabs ...

Carpentry is still consuming most of my free time these days (probably thru next week).

Mark

[wm3798]

Moving right along with the tender...




With the gloss black, the splices are a little more obvious than I'd like them to be, I'm hoping that the lettering and dullcoat will make them less so.

I'm very pleased with the proportions, though...  So much so, that I did a little digital magic...

(Hopefully I can get the actual decals on straighter than I could with Paint!)

Also, on the flange issue, I did polish down the flanges, which were pretty rough after grinding them down, and that did help some, but there's still one section where I'm having a problem.  I'm going to do a slightly longer drawbar next to see if that doesnt' help.  Stand by for news!
Lee

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Lee, I think you should go back after those splices and clean them up.

Weathering will actually only make them stick out more. TRUST me.

[Mark5]

I'm putting this project on the backburner for the time being. Grinding off all those cast on details oughta be a lotta fun. A big factor is that I have two steam projects underway already.

I will revisit when time (and $) allows.

Mark

[Mark5]

Mild update - the price became right.

I picked up the MP USRA light Pacific and a Bachmann USRA long. N&W quickly bumped the USRA longs that came with the Y3s to smaller locos - a bunch of E2s ended up with them.

It's a good thing I need a different tender for the MP loco - the pickup on the MP tender is daffy:



Here's the loco out of the box:



This E has the older headlight mount and older scheme:


Here's the loco with the Bmann tender:



Getting that drawbar off looks to be a bit involved - I'll need to come up with something to connect the loco to the new tender.

For now, this project goes on the backburner though.

Anyone suggest a source for spoked wheels for the front?

Mark

[Chris333]

The front wheels are about 5.2mm. I have straight spoked wheels that are 6.2mm that I bought from here: http://www.scalefour.org/parkside/p4n.htm
I also used their 5.1mm curved spoke wheels on the front on my 4-4-0, the MP 4-4-0 uses the same front truck as the 4-6-2. Curved spokes here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ErieChris333/NScale#5076403815172450002

If you want to try the 6.2mm straight wheels let me know cause I have some spares. I need to order more of the small curved wheels though.

I could also make an etched spoked overlay for the stock wheels, but then they wouldn't be see-thru.

I like the nose heavy look of that N&W E with the high walk ways.

[Andrew Hutchinson]

Have you checked out the 2mm society? They have lots of spoked wheels. There might be a society member on this list who could purchase them for you.

Andrew Hutchinson

[Chris333]

For the 2mm Asso. you DO need to go through a member. They would not sell 7mm drivers to me  :-\

[Mark5]

I have an inquiry in with RLW about the W-3 cabs.

I will be modeling one late in it's career. (only 3 were still on the roster in 1955).

By the 1940s, most had the headlight relocated as shown here on the sole survivor of this class:



In the 50s, some of the remaining E2s got even bigger hand-me-down tenders as shown on 578 above.

I may just decide to ignore the front wheelsets as I am merely trying to capture the "essence" of this loco.