Southern Pacific Steam 2020

[bob turner]

Here is a Lobaugh Mountain under construction. It came to me as an unopened kit, complete with 1940-vintage bottles of paint. Being sacreligious, I opened the box and started in.

[rogruth]

I don't see anything "sacreligious" about building a model from a kit. That was its original purpose, I think.
I would get no joy from looking at a kit in a box but if I could put it together as well as you and some others do it would be built.

[De Bruin]

I consider cracking into a new kit at this point one of life's real pleasures, especially given all the refurb or re-work projects these days,
That free-lance 2-10-0 looks like it could have made a decent Mastodon in another incarnation
You're indeed on a roll Bob, the 4-10-2's are mind blowing.

[bob turner]

Thanks. Just for that, more coming this morning, after I wake up.

[bob turner]

Coffeeffe was good. Still sipping, but less groggy.

The prewar Lobaugh Mikes and Mountains hold a particular fascination for me. Way better than Scale Craft, and maybe a bit more accurate. They were maybe a hair bigger than 1/4" scale, but not 17/64. I have four of each, I think. The Mountains have several variants - skyline casing, cab shape and location, and tender are the big differences, but there is also a slight difference in superheater plumbing and air pumps. I don't get carried away with absolute accuracy, but I try to account for some of the variations. Here is an attempt at the skyline casing version - yes, those silver stripes are outlined in black, as are the decals.

[bob turner]

Oh, yeah - please notice the Boxpok main driver. Cab, skyline, and tender are all scratchbuilt by me. More tomorrow?

[rogruth]

More tomorrow?

Hope so.

[J. S. Bach]

Oh, yeah - please notice the Boxpok main driver. More tomorrow?

I would not have noticed if you had not mentioned it! Looking forward to them.

[bob turner]

Here is one I got from Art Haelig. The cab has been moved back in SP style, with the angle clearing all the firebox stay bolts. These mods made the locomotive slightly longer than the original MT-1.

No, I never saw a green-boilered SP locomotive. I did see a grey boilered 2-10-2 in my back yard in Fairbank, one day when we were fighting a small brush fire. I was a nine year old, holding the nozzle while the older SP employee pumped pressure into the water bottle. One of those indelibly etched moments . . .

[bob turner]

Oh - Max Gray tender. I need to move those number boards so they line up with the stack, per Bill Pirie, a long-time SP engineer and O Scale scratchbuilder from around Cottage Grove.

[bob turner]

This one was started by Hal Sharkey of Newport Beach, and finished by me. The mechanism is Lobaugh, pretty sure the boiler is Scale Craft. Hal's work can be seen on the smokebox; he was a very careful modeler. He was also a Marine F4 pilot.

Tender is one of my wood blocks. I do that as place holders while I consider doing them in brass.

[bob turner]

Nobody but me likes Lobaugh Mountains? Too bad; these things have elegant lines.

[rogruth]

Nobody but me likes Lobaugh Mountains? Too bad; these things have elegant lines.

Bob,
You know I like the train/loco photos you post and you know that I can't post any useful comments.
Now if you want me to post my usual "nice", " beautiful", etc, I will if that keeps you posting photos.

[bob turner]

Believe it or not, that is pretty much why I post these things.

Maroon has it right - put one in every week. No response, no photo next week. Alas, his gorgeous freight cars are now drifting around in forum history.

[bob turner]

Okay - so interest in the Mountain types has dwindled to almost Roger and me. Let me try the Daylight Northerns - I note that I still have not done Moguls, Mastodons, Atlantics, and Americans in this thread. And not at all sure you have seen all of my Pacifics and 0-6-0s.

Lobaugh was going to do a GS-3. They never did, because the war intervened. So I did one for them, using as many characteristic Lobaugh features as I could, substituting a one piece bar stock for the cast bed, and departing from Lobaugh with a 1/16" thick copper boiler, silver-soldered together. I won't be doing that again, since the copper has to be glowing red for the solder to flow, and it really doesn't need to be that strong unless it is to be live steam. Here it is - tender trucks are from my patterns, and are not painted for strange reasons not related to reality. Yes, it runs, and yes, 9000-series Pittman and NWSL.