Northern Pacific

[Tom Dempsey]

The photos and the memories of all the enjoyment he and you as well as I assume others took in that railroad. I see no waste here.

[ScaleCraft]

He did say, yesterday, that he has some really emotional issues with all of this. He walks into the train room and the first thing that pops into his brain is "where the heII are my trains?"

[ScaleCraft]

225E with mods. Note no e-unit slot or lever...has an electronic reverse unit.
This series he mounted the bell on the top of the smokebox front.
SHORT tender. I am not sure of the red areas under the running boards. Either weathering attempt or something. I might mask and paint just because. The short coupling from tender to loco is a bit extreme, and with some of my curves, I will probably re-bend the tender portion of the drawbar to open it up a bit.

My 726/736 engines...one has smokebox bell, moved stack, added appliances, and I have all the bits to do the second one.

[rogruth]

Dave,
Do I understand that you are going to alter the one that hasn't been?
I like the bell and front coupler. Maybe a number plate on the front on the headlight mount?
The moved smoke stack really makes a difference. I'm sure there are other alterations I don't know.
What does the builders plate(?) just above the cylinders say?

[Neil]

" I am one of the few liberals I know - very much in favor of free education for any who qualify and who will maintain grades - all the way through an MD."

There are plenty like you out there. Education and immigration have helped make this country as great as it is. Which is why the current administration seems so short sighted to many of us. Do remember that poor people, who are generally liberal, have the lowest voting rate, and that may change. And nonetheless, a relatively unpopular and not particularly likable woman won the popular vote. As the country changes, so will the government and its policies in all likelihood. Folks like your bitter and angry brother are not the future of the country. Even Pat Buchanan thinks this period is the last hurrah of the xenophobic, misogynist point of view, and he's as xenophobic and misogynist as they come .

[ScaleCraft]

Well....rather than filing off the plate and finding a replacement, I'll leave it.
Other mods. Firebox cut back to expose rear driver completely. Cab backs made of old broken caboose bodies (rivets and windows!). I know the one in front has a dynamo and repositioned whistle.

This is a 226E. Basically a pre-war 726 boiler. Notice the stock stack location


When the 726 came out post war, they started in on the smoke units. The what, 1946 one had a dimpled bulb for headlight and heat (smoke pill dropped into the dimple). Near as anyone can tell, they moved the smoke stack back to align the stack with the dimple and to keep the end of the bulb inside the smokebox.

So now we get to re-work 726/736 stacks to get them right. Not that sometimes they were not lined up with the blast pipes, but generally they were.

I suppose the two rail guys would have a cow if they got a 736 with the stack not lined up.

[rogruth]

I'm not sure who Neil is quoting above but I came from a town of maybe 50% twentieth century immigrants. Yes, most were from Europe but
all, probably, entered this country in a legal manner. Most of the first generation folks could carry on conversations in "American".
Their children were mostly bi-lingual and their children could speak enough of their native language to talk with their grandparents.
We have so many today that did not come here in a legal manner and make no attempt to learn "American" that I resent that.

[Neil]

The quote is from p.3 by Bob Turner. The vast majority of immigrants from Europe during the late 19th and early 20th century who came here as adults never became fluent in English. Their children who were born here or came here quite young and attended our public schools, did learn to speak English without an accent. We certainly have more immigrants, legal and otherwise, than at most times in the late 20th century. No doubt all these children will speak English in due course, if not already there. That has been the history of our country. Some of them or their children will be future leaders of our society. Virtually all of them are fleeing horrific crime or poverty so I believe they are owed compassion, not hatred and resentment. None of them are taking jobs from native born Americans by most analyses I've seen. They are mostly doing menial, tough jobs that natives like us do not wish to do because they are usually both harsh and poorly paid.

By the way, my grandparents born in Europe in the late 19th century never became fluent in English. My father never spoke English, even though he was born here in 1921, until he started kindergarten at age 5. He eventually graduated from law school at Columbia on the GI bill in 1946 and became a professor of sociology. His background was as the son of an immigrant family that surely was viewed with contempt by the privileged of those times. You can go back and read the anti-Irish, anti-Italian, anti-Slovak, anti-semitic newspaper stories of that time if you like.

[rogruth]

Neil,
I don't think we actually disagree much. I have absolutely no problem with people that enter our country in the proper legal manner.

[ScaleCraft]

Just for a point of reference, here is a shot early on from about the same place as one of the "empty room" photos to give you an idea of how it was "filled":

[Seaboard Air Line Fan]

I am not sure of the red areas under the running boards.

Probably failure to spray all the primed areas, been there, done that

[Roy]

What does the builders plate(?) just above the cylinders say?

I think it says "Built by Lionel Corp."

[rogruth]

What does the builders plate(?) just above the cylinders say?

I think it says "Built by Lionel Corp."

Thank you.

[ScaleCraft]

Remember the cab backs I mentioned? Here is a shot showing the old caboose bodies cut to fit, with rivets and windows.
40 years ago I had no money, so I did that, and for handrails I used paper clips, keeping the factory bend st the bottom, then painting "Safety White". I still do that.

Caboose bodies with broken roof corners were free....folks couldn't give them away.
Sometimes they were nice...lit, toolboxes, stacks and windows, and I used the parts to fix others in service without those items.

If I needed toolboxes and had no factory frames with metal ones, I would wait until I got a really bad work caboose in, and use one of the long toolboxes, cut down to one door size, and epoxy them to the frame.

[rogruth]

Dave,
It appears you had fun. I hope you still do.