doctorwayne's Get off yer duff Challenge (Part I)

[doctorwayne]

This project seems to be one which invites delays, but I've finally had a chance to get back into it, and the locomotive is coming along quite nicely, although isn't yet done. I've either neglected to take photos during the early part of the latest round of construction or have misplaced them...still looking.

In the meantime, I've started work on the tender. This locomotive came with the USRA Long Tender, but since the locomotive was shortened to fit on a particular turntable, its tender will get a somewhat similar treatment.













With the cistern shortened, it was time to lengthen the coal bunker:









Still more work to do on the coal bunker, and some detail work for the cistern deck, too.

With the tender body shortened, the frame needed to be altered, too. Unlike my other Bachmann locos, this one has a cast metal floor and frame, so I used a regular hacksaw to make the cuts, then spliced the remaining sections together using part of the steel weight from a freight car:



The tender trucks will be modified to allow all-wheel pick-up, and wiring inside the tender will be re-done to accommodate that. I'm not too pleased with the joint in the re-joined sections of the tender, and will be sanding all of the rivets off it in order to allow use of body filler, something I don't particularly like using:



More to come...if I can find the photos.

Wayne