Little Engines 4-6-2 Pacific for Tom Hill
Tom Hill of Florida has had this locomotive for many years but due to employment obligations and several relocations the locomotive has had trouble getting reassembled after it was taken apart for repairs and rebuilding. After a little "horse-trading", the locomotive was transported to Wayne's shop for the Monday night rebuild team (Wayne and me) to tackle.
Frame
(1/15/2008)
The locomotive was completely disassembled to the frame so
everything could be checked and rebuilt as needed. The frame was
then painted and the drivers re-attached to make a rolling chassis
again.
Boiler Mount
(3/10/2008)
The boiler gets mounted again. It makes the whole thing look a lot
bigger!!
Smoke Box
(7/14/2008)
The smoke box gets some cosmetic touches including rivets, door
hold-downs, and a headlight. The devil is always in the details but
it is what makes a loco look good!
Throttle, Lubricator, and Cylinder
Feed Collars (7/14/2008)
Here are some shots of some of the devices that make the loco work
as well as look good. You never see the throttle but you can't run a
loco without one!
Ladders
(9/1/2008)
The original locomotive ladders were salvaged but were never mounted
so they were square to the running boards. To get them to mount
right, they needed some modification to narrow up the top two rungs
of the ladder. Here we see Dave doing the needed modifications. Now
they will look right when mounted to the front buffer beam.
Trailing Truck Rollers
(9/1/2008)
The original trailing truck uses heart-rockers to allow the trailing
truck to move side-to-side and at the same time change the height
and pitch of the truck. This is very effective in the prototype but
somewhat less so in the scale model. In short, they are problematic
and tend to "fall over" and become useless. As a result, we have
replaced the heart-rockers with simple rollers that cannot "fall
over" or become a problem. This has worked successfully on other
locomotives so we are confident it will work well on Tom's loco.
Front View
(9/2/2008)
Here are a couple of shots of the front end after assembly. Notice
the smoke box door detail and the ladders mounted to the running
boards. We think it looks pretty good and hope that you agree. BTW:
Pay not attention to the water pump lying under the smoke box!! It
was just lying there for storage...this is NOT where it will be
mounted.
Backhead
(9/2/2008)
Here we see some of the attachments that mount on the backhead. The
backhead has been painted and the throttle and water gauge glass
mounted. Note the inspection plug in middle of the backhead is
removed and you can see in to boiler to the top of the crown sheet.
Although it looks a bit rusty, the boiler is in very good condition,
especially considering its age.
Tender Trucks
(9/29/2008)
We took a small break from the loco to work on the tender. While the
tank itself was a bit rough looking, it was in pretty good shape. A
little new plumbing under it and some paint and it was done. Below
we see one of the trucks "before" we started working on them. They
were in tough shape and needed some bearings replaced. After a
little sand-blasting and some paint, they look as good as they roll!
Tender Gas Valves
(11/24/2008)
Tom is planning to fire the loco using LP like many of us do. It is
clean and easy to use and very effective as a heat source. To manage
the gas, we provide a 2-valve system. One valve is opened and set to
an "idle" sized flame. Then the other valve is opened as needed to
create a fire of any size needed. This system prevents the
accidental "shut off" of the fire that would require a re-light on
the mainline. We have this system on several of our locomotives and
really like it! You also see a picture of Wayne hooking the as-yet
unpainted tender to the loco to test the placements of everything.
Jacket, Cab Floor, and Cab Sides
(12/16/2008)
Here we see a test mounting of the new boiler jacket. Also we have
just mounted the newly fabricated cab floor. The steel blanks for
the cab sides have been set on the cab floor just as a "sanity" test
that they will be big enough and of the correct height. Everything
came out just as we planned so we could continue with the
fabrication process.
Mockup
(1/3/2009)
Here we have taken a couple of shots of a mockup we did to see
everything in place. Notice that the running boards have been cut
and are resting (unfastened) on the mounting brackets (which are
held in place by clecos at this point). Notice also that the
steam-powered water pump has been mounted. Mounting points were
welded to the boiler shell to provide a solid mounting for this
rather heavy pump. All looked pretty good so it was shortly
thereafter taken apart to be painting and continue the work.
