USRA 2-10-2 light rebuilt

[Schraddel]

One of the first steps was closing the gap between trailing truck and fire box:


For this i made two stripes of 0.2mm brass sheet, cut it in shape and mounted it under the frame.
Here on the photo you can see my first attempt to correct the plumbing from injector to check valve so the trailing truck is enabled to swivel.
But alas look to the position of both injectors, left and right side.
They were mounted too much too far outside and were the widest part of the loco. This was a consequence of the mishaped and misaligned firebox.
Not only the firebox, the whole boiler was "not square" and really crooked.
What followed was a bending and straigthening process which i have not documented by photos. Too cruel the work, too coarse the tools (from the tractor tool box). Bending, looking, bendig again, looking again and so on until the boiler was straight and stack, sand box, dome and the middle of the cab roof were in a straight line.
Take again a look to the photo, especially the rear traverser below the cab floor.
You can clearly see how angled it is. On the main frame rear traverser there are two tapped bores for the screws which held the rearend of the boiler.
In normal case the rear casing traverser is in a 90° angle vertical and will slip fit exactly onto the rear traverser of the main frame.
Not so here. Korean monday or whatever happened on this monday ...




A look from below. Both brass sheets are forming a Vee shape to enable the trailing truck enough lateral movement.
Furthermore i made a leaf spring for the trailing truck. It has a strange shape, but it works very well and ist invisible when the loco is on the tracks.



Here i have removed the rear traverser and reposited it about 1mm backwards.
Three small reinforcement angles were made out of 0.2mm brass sheet to strenghten the mounting.
This was dome by the torch and the gold laquer was burned on several locations.
The burned laquer will lateron be removed by an rotating brass brush in my Proxxon (Dremel).
The injectors were both removed until the plumbing is bend in shape so the injectors can be positioned on the right place.


Lutz