Kriegsloks building shops

[KriegslokBR52]

Worked on the F-1 decapod all Saturday and i finally fixed this horrible piping on the firemans side:

First shot is after i desoldered the whole main air tank with all airlines. Since i've had that main tank taken off, i took the opportunity to get this thing back in the lathe and turn it to proper size and length. It was too large in diameter and too long, hence the reason for piping running at a diagonal from it to the front.

Newly installed piping with the air tank (still not perfect, but a lot better) Here is number 402 which had the same piping arrangement:

Picture author Bob Collins and grabbed from the book: "Lehigh and New England".

Barely visible are the markers at front of the smoke box, ladder on the side of the boiler by the sandbox and those weird handrails at the back of the cab (those were a treat also do to their shape). Amazingly there are still a few details to put on this monster before painting; more piping on both sides of the boiler, the whistle on steam dome, oil distributor on the left side cylinder and i might try the tiny handrails on the sandbox, tbc...

 

[KriegslokBR52]

After hee-hawing around all day yesterday, back to work today. It was time to tackle those plates under the firebox:

Early times presented only two of those vertical details between the plate and bottom of firebox:

But those pipes disappeared sometime after that.
I started with flat pieces of bar, and after bending it to size, fitted the inner details:

They definitely add to that muscular look of the huge Wooten firebox. On that left side there will be another pipe added, what i assume was a steam pipe into water pump. The "out" pipe is already there. A sharp eye will also notice the wind deflectors added in front of the window on the cab. I just have to have a glass on there.

 

[KriegslokBR52]

Continuing on the pipes, all pipes on the left side are installed;

The bends by the cab were challenging:

Now it's time for the thick steam pipe to the booster on the engineers side:

There is a manual shutoff valve near the cylinder block and engineers control valve just aft of the power reverse. I was able to find a nice set of those at one of the train shows, but i have to solder in the extentions to all piping and then connect everything into one piece:

 

[Colorado Midland Modeler]

Looking good! That's a lot of pipe work! I'm not entirely sure, but from looking at the prototype photos those plates under the firebox look like they might have something to do with the ash pans.

 

[KriegslokBR52]

Looking good! That's a lot of pipe work! I'm not entirely sure, but from looking at the prototype photos those plates under the firebox look like they might have something to do with the ash pans.

Yes, they're part of the ash pans, not exactly sure what the professional name is for them. This thing is loaded with piping. Even when new, they've had a lot of piping from Baldwin, that piping only increased during the service lives. This is what made this model so challenging. After this thick steam pipe, this will be it for piping...by the boiler. There will be more piping at the compressor rack.
Dry fitting the hardest part:

I'm done for today.

 

[logandsawman]

You are an inspiration with your craftsmanship!

I am interested in this wheel config as Northern Pacific had 2, built in 1887 and in service until 1910 and 1921. I am thinking about putting one in my layout, here is my prototype:

We have a bigger window and 2 sand domes, it looks, without all the valves I think.

A couple more shots:

I find the Northern Pacific model to have much cleaner lines.

Maybe in my retirement I could work up one, I could always follow your lead, however I feel the learning curve is going to be steep.

Photos from Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association, Ainsworth collection

Dave LASM

 

[KriegslokBR52]

You are an inspiration with your craftsmanship!

I am interested in this wheel config as Northern Pacific had 2, built in 1887 and in service until 1910 and 1921. I am thinking about putting one in my layout, here is my prototype:

We have a bigger window and 2 sand domes, it looks, without all the valves I think.

View attachment 214028

A couple more shots:

View attachment 214029

I find the Northern Pacific model to have much cleaner lines.

Maybe in my retirement I could work up one, I could always follow your lead, however I feel the learning curve is going to be steep.

Photos from Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association, Ainsworth collection

Dave LASM

Yes, you have included a list sometime ago with all Northern Pacific steam models (list might be on the first page of this thread). There are main dimensions in that list. With the inside reverse lincage hidden on real machines, this model would be much easier to build. The piping is also much simpler. Looks like the water pumps were inside the cab, pretty common in the era the locomotive was built, so that's already simpler in design. Turbo generator is right behind the headlight. Only thing would be figuring out the airlines; the huge four cylinder compressor is on the firemans side- these are actually fairly easy to find. I don't know what was the driver size on those, but the Bachmanns "Russian decapod" would possibly be a good start for kitbashing. The Russian decapods had pretty small drivers: 52", so maybe same size as the Northern Pacific loco.

 

[KriegslokBR52]

Working on the booster pipe today:

It's difficult to tell what was going on under the cab, but the booster pipe was deffinitely hidden behind the injector. The highly visible pipe is for the water from the tender.

I have the main part of the pipe soldered to the boiler already since the toughest bends were already made.

Getting those pipes to fit without them getting in the way from pulling out the running gear is challenging.

 

[KriegslokBR52]

Booster pipe installed:

 

[trailrider]

Fantastic piece of work! Can't wait to see it when you get it painted. I see all the center drivers are blind. What is the minimum radius curves it will run on? I've got similar setup on my kitbashed Mantua 2-10-2 and 2-10-4's. and they will manage 18", though 20" is better.

 

[KriegslokBR52]

Fantastic piece of work! Can't wait to see it when you get it painted. I see all the center drivers are blind. What is the minimum radius curves it will run on? I've got similar setup on my kitbashed Mantua 2-10-2 and 2-10-4's. and they will manage 18", though 20" is better.

I actually haven't been able to test it yet. But the whole idea was to do a same setup as the Bowser/Penn Line decapods and the wheel base is actually just a little bit shorter on this one. So it will probably run on 18" curves just like your ten coupled engines.

 

[KriegslokBR52]

I took a small break from the F-1 to roam around the land on weekends, plus i've had a car issue to resolve. Today i'm back on the project and besides finishing the boiler/cab assembly, which was also washed in gasoline and then with warm soapy water with a brush. That's drying now ready for painting. My main work was to do entire piping on the compressor stage:

I probably didn't get all the piping just right since the availability of good pictures of that area is very poor.

I'm still missing the air filter on this right side, but it's time to wrap up for the evening.

And a comparison of the real 401:

The air filter for the right side compressor is practically invisible in most pictures, since it was hidden behind the ladder steps, but on very few shots it can be seen, so i'll have to make it.

 

[Marlin338MX]

Your attention to detail is in another galaxy, very impressive work!

 

[KriegslokBR52]

Tonight i managed to add the second filter for right compressor behind the step...and it was tight in there.

The first picture has the best view of that filter and here is a rare shot of brand new 402 (built at the same time) out of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, showing visible location of that filter:

The filter covered almost half of the face of secondary air tank.
Sand box has received the four small handrails. Bed time.

 

[KriegslokBR52]

Today was the final detailing of main frame, mainly the uncoupling rod, brake line at the pilot and a small vertical step in front of compressor shield. In addition i also added lubricator pump onto left side cylinder block. I could go on with more details, but that was going to be madness and never done.

This is not a very good shot, i was just making sure everything fits as intended. The compressor module screws into main frame just like i wanted. The object was to clean everything up and prepare it for painting tomorrow:

Lubricator pump on left cylinder block:

The only part missing is the bottom plate to keep drivers from falling out. This i will have to work on to add brake rigging and brake shoes as well as pickup tabs for electricity. Hopefully the weather will be more dry tomorrow.

 

[KriegslokBR52]

F-1 is baking in the oven right now with satin black applied. This was in primer earlier:

 

[KriegslokBR52]

After spraying the parts with Satin Black, the locomotive in pieces went back into the oven.

Starting to look good. Wanting that somewhat fresh still new look, but with a little grime on the road, i went for factory smoke box color. After pulling it out and hand painting the smoke box with very diluted grimy black, i also gave it a little high gloss on the side of the cab and sandbox - both areas will have decals with numbers on. Back to the oven it went. This is after final painting:

The one picture i have from an aquaintenance shows the look i went for:

Picture taken probably by someone from Baldwin after the locomotive was i service for about a year. It came from the factory with a typical cow catcher and some time early in its career it got the steel prow. The picture shows still dark gray smoke box, but with a little grime and dirt accumulated in about a year/ year and a half time. I have also painted the rest of the wheels:

 

[Rico]

So cool to watch this slowly coming together!

 

[TheXModelRailroader]

Are you going to scratch build the Coupling rods? Or do you have some rebuilt?

 

[KriegslokBR52]

Are you going to scratch build the Coupling rods? Or do you have some rebuilt?

The whole valve gear is already built, i just had issue with one of the crossheads falling off the guide. Since i already had that off, i also decided to modify the backing plates on both crossheads to accept a flat head screw instead of rounded head. The round head screws would slightly hit the first coupling rod screws as the wheels were turning. I was still working on that until late evening yesterday and only managed to clean the whole assembly. Maybe during the week i'll paint it...