Cab Forward 2020

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bob turner
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Cab Forward 2020

Postby bob turner » Mon Aug 10, 2020 1:10 pm

My #3 Scratchbuild - still using steel exhaust pipe for boilers due to ignorance of availability of proper size brass tubing. Tender trucks cast from my masters using Lobaugh journals and springs. Available for a while from Trackside Specialties.

Runs like a watch with Pittman 9234 motor and Mod 0.5 gears. 17/64 Scale. First Place OSW 1995 (although before paint and weathering it lost a contest to a dealer-owned Overland import).

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Rufus T. Firefly
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Re: Cab Forward 2020

Postby Rufus T. Firefly » Mon Aug 10, 2020 1:24 pm

And where do you source "proper size brass tubing"?
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bob turner
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Re: Cab Forward 2020

Postby bob turner » Mon Aug 10, 2020 7:50 pm

For a while it was "W T Rogers" in Michigan, now I can only find 2" dia, and it is hideously expensive. Steel is problematic; once finished you really have to do serious corrosion control. Solder flux must be scrupulously removed, and then the steel must be coated.

Rufus T. Firefly
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Re: Cab Forward 2020

Postby Rufus T. Firefly » Tue Aug 11, 2020 5:57 am

bob turner wrote:For a while it was "W T Rogers" in Michigan, now I can only find 2" dia, and it is hideously expensive.


I need some 1 5/8" OD. Maybe 3' of it. I guess I could work with rolled sheet, but still need a source.

Steel is problematic; once finished you really have to do serious corrosion control. Solder flux must be scrupulously removed, and then the steel must be coated.


Not interested in working with steel.
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bob turner
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Re: Cab Forward 2020

Postby bob turner » Tue Aug 11, 2020 12:36 pm

Scratchbuilt #1 - steel boiler and firebox, no taper. CLW motor, NWSL Mod 0.5 gears. Ran like a watch the very first time I put power to it. I was unaware of this type until Boyce Martin did an article in MRR a billion years ago, converting an HO model. I considered it charming. Mine is 17/64, following plans in Church's Cab Forward book. I started the drawings in 1982 while in Dallas after my second airline went bankrupt. Finished the model in 1985.

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bob turner
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Re: Cab Forward 2020

Postby bob turner » Wed Aug 12, 2020 12:51 pm

Here is the modernized version, patterned after the Baldwin four wheel lead truck kit installed after the 1911 Applegate derailment of 4208. Subsequent mods on these locomotives leave me cold - the "Sport Cab" version has to be the ugliest, and I shan't be modeling that.

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Rufus T. Firefly
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Re: Cab Forward 2020

Postby Rufus T. Firefly » Wed Aug 12, 2020 3:41 pm

Looks.............."compacted"?
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ScaleCraft
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Re: Cab Forward 2020

Postby ScaleCraft » Wed Aug 12, 2020 5:03 pm

Interesting that the railroad would have swapped steam and sand domes like that with rebuilds. Sand dome no problem, but steam dome?
Dave....collector, restorer, and operator of the finest doorstops

bob turner
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Re: Cab Forward 2020

Postby bob turner » Wed Aug 12, 2020 7:08 pm

I dunno- all I have to go by is photos. These things had unusual boilers - the rear end was a preheater of sorts. I will look it up.

bob turner
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Re: Cab Forward 2020

Postby bob turner » Thu Aug 13, 2020 1:13 pm

Yep. Early photos of 4201 and 4207 show the sand dome aft, and when they rebuilt 4208 after Applegate, the domes got switched. It isn't apparent just by the shape; the sand lines tell it all.

So I suppose the guy on OGR who was looking for Lobaugh info took offense and left, but just in case he decided to be serious about finding Lobaugh, here is the only truly original Lobaugh 1941 Cab forward I have seen. I know more exist, because I own a second tender underframe and most of a second locomotive. I did an AC-6 out of the locomotive parts, retaining as much Lobaugh as I could. The boiler had been shortened somewhere along the way, so I had to rebuild the rear end. The only serious departures are the spoked drivers and the snow plow pilot - and of course the tender, which is itself genuine Lobaugh. The road number and pilot depart from available information, but I have never let such things get in the way of my hobby enjoyment. You will see extreme examples of that on my Berkshire thread, and in the up-coming "SP Hudson" photo.

Here is, in order, a stock Lobaugh AC-8 (except for tender trucks) and below that, my AC-6 SF, mostly Lobaugh.

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bob turner
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Re: Cab Forward 2020

Postby bob turner » Fri Aug 14, 2020 12:51 pm

No Lobaugh fans? Okay, back to 17/64 Scratchbuilt:

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By this point all my boilers were brass tube. A buddy in Pennsylvania had sent me a bunch of tubes of various sizes - I think by now I have used up 30 feet of brass tube! Tender is a wood block with sides glued on with Pliobond. Seems to work ok. Tender trucks are of course not prototypical, but I think I have mentioned my lack of reverence for strict authenticity? That, plus wherever it goes on my demise, its new owner will be free to change them out.

Still 9000-series Pittman, driving NWSL boxes. USH "Allegheny" drivers. My side rod castings, poured by Dennis & Kathy.

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R.K. Maroon
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Re: Cab Forward 2020

Postby R.K. Maroon » Fri Aug 14, 2020 1:16 pm

Bob, it would be easier to absorb and respond if, instead posting one photo of a lot of models in a short period of time, you posted several photos of one model and spread them out in time more.

Case in point, I am just now responding to the post on the 4207 and 4208. You didn't identify which prototype model these were, and I am not expert, but Martin's comment about how it looked "compacted" reminded me of Charlie Morrill's one and only cab-forward, which is an AM-2:

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These shots don't clearly show the length of this locomotive, but Charlie picked the AM-2 as it was the shortest of the cab-forwards and would therefore have the best chance of running well and looking realistic on his somewhat compact layout. These photos are from an OST article I did on Charlie's layout and models in OST several years ago (issue #96). I will have to search the boneyard to see if I have any photos that show the cab-forward from the side. I think not, but maybe.

As to the Lobaugh models, I would love to have a reliably discerning eye for Lobaugh steam, but I know I don't have it. I have been fooled in the past into thinking that the presence of a Lobaugh chassis is enough to make the model a full and complete original. The mistakes I have made in this regard are painfully laughable. I have made these mistakes with Lobaugh models a lot more common than the cab-forward, and it truth it is not simple picking up an eye for the details of a particular model when you just don't see very many of them.

Jim
Slow progress is better than no progress

bob turner
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Re: Cab Forward 2020

Postby bob turner » Fri Aug 14, 2020 7:15 pm

I am available as a consultant. Just ask.

I am re-creating my long-lost photo essays, and trying to get a photo in before the thread drifts too far. I likke feedback, but once it has drifted into unrelated material for about ten posts, I am starting a Volume 2.

Your freight car series was highly successful - I just don't have your patience.

The AM-2 was never my favorite, but Sunset did a really nice model. Those model scenes look great! These photos do not have to be in any order.

This thread will end after about two more photos, unless folks contribute like you did.

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Re: Cab Forward 2020

Postby Rufus T. Firefly » Fri Aug 14, 2020 7:27 pm

bob turner wrote:This thread will end after about two more photos, unless folks contribute like you did.


Pretty sure that the Cumberland Valley never had any cab forwards, but I'll look.
Conservatism: The intense fear that somewhere, somehow, someone you think is inferior is being treated as your equal.

bob turner
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Re: Cab Forward 2020

Postby bob turner » Fri Aug 14, 2020 8:37 pm

There may have been a sort of backwards Beyer Garratt, or maybe Peacock? But only SP had true cab forward steam.


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