Southern Pacific Steam 2023

[R.K. Maroon]

Holy cow -- Bob you are "flooding the zone" here. Not that I am complaining, but I am going to wait until the waters subside before posting any of my SP steam. Anything I were to post now would just get lost in the deluge.

And just wait until he gets to cab-forwards!

[bob turner]

On purpose. There are so few of us - I am no longer seeking discussion. Gets them all in a row instead of scattered over 14 pages.

Cab Forwards were just done.

[bob turner]

I guess I am trying to follow a sequence, but I shall skip the smaller stuff for a while and post the "Mikes and Decks." One of the interesting things about my collection is that I started with a Lobaugh Mike, in 1/4" scale, and so all my Mikes and Decks are in that scale. Here is the first Lobaugh - you have seen all these many times, but the links are broken.


This one is dead-stock, except for rivets and tail beam/trailing truck. I got it from Harold Peters in 1980.


This one from Bob Janzen in maybe 1990. It features a full boiler load of lead.


Scratchbuilt. One of my first attempts.


Lobaugh, but seriously modified here. Came from a virgin kit somebody uncovered in the 1990s.

[bob turner]

For some reason I started my Lobaugh hobby with Mikes, and will probably end it with them. I have a mechanism ready (thanks to Maroon), but right now the incentive to do another boiler is low.

But for a while there, I was really cranking them out:


In progress


Still needs a little work. Note the Stevenson tender!


Austin Steam Train - parts from Henry Pearce.


Best Mikado model in any scale - collection of Dick Fullerton, painted and decaled by John Fisher, and in the possession of Howard Hansen right now.
We think the basis is Lobaugh/Ray Waller.

[sleepmac]

Bob, thank you again for showing us the results of your talented work.

Dan Weinhold

[bob turner]

Thanks. I actually get a kick out of seeing them gathered together like this.
Here come the Decks. SP called them that, because they were loathe to call them Santa Fe types. I think Bob Church was going to include the 4-10-2 in this category, but so far he has not done his "Mikes and Decks" book. He has done a spectacular book on the 4-10-2 type.

This will be quick:

'
My first attempt at a 2-10-2


This one is 17/64.

I have two of each of these, but for some reason only these two are in Shutterfly.


Well, I found this, but it is kind of shaky. This model actually won first place in a national NMRA contest.


This one is not strictly SP, but it did run from Sacramento to Truckee several times with revenue freight. I did this from photos, and got the boiler taper wrong. No one will ever know . . .

By the way, all of these actually run, and have been tested extensively on my horrible superelevated test loop.

[bob turner]

So much for Mikes and Decks. A little cleanup this morning, then on to mountains of Mountains.


A Max Gray Mogul, possibly hand-lettered. All I did to this one was to clean up the drive a bit, making it a very smooth runner, and to brace the tender truck leaf springs with cork.


The early CRYyP Atlantic - if you squint your eyes you can see the legend on the cab. All I had was HCWT Lobaugh 84" drivers, so a jeweler's saw, some Swiss files, and an entire evening was soaked up in those LCWT drivers.


My first attempt at an Atlantic. Both are 17/64, both powered by NWSL/Pittman, and this one hauled ten Kasiner and Mac Shops cars with heavy 3/4" wood underframes on Lobaugh trucks easily on level track. Both unsprung - cast iron tires.


This is the one I promised to paint Daylight by last June. Didn't happen. It remains unpowered, without pilot detail, and with only pinned valve gear. I am currently fooling with a Pacific boiler, maybe with matching cab and details. We'll see.

[bob turner]

And now the Mountainous Mountains:


My first one - it came as an unfinished kit. The tender was a mix of Lobaugh and Adams, and without drawings I was at a loss as to how it went together. I cut the Lobaugh wrapper to fit. (Blasphemy).


This one came from Art Haelig, with a USH tender. I added lag clamps and washouts, and some Floquil paint.


This one was from Hal Sharkey - he was a superb model builder and a Marine fighter pilot. All I did was finish it up and add a wood block tender. Hal indicated that the boiler was Scale Craft, but the frame is definitely Lobaugh.


Here is a genuine Scale Craft! From the Allan Wehrle collection . . .


Max Gray. I bought this in 1961 from George Zane in New Jersey.


100% Lobaugh, except for the skyline casing and the Boxpok main. Well, even that is Lobaugh . . .
Skyline casings are really tough - I think boiler making is easier.

I have two more somewhere, but you get the idea. I also have a couple frames with drivers and rods, so more may be in the offing.

[steamaheadstephen59]

Thanks Bob always an inspiring look, love them all!

[bob turner]

Sunday morning - War in the middle east, and I find myself entertained with trivialities. Yesterday I took an aircraft engine that had been parked for a quarter century, and pressurized it with solvent, and then engine oil. It gave me great satisfaction to see oil come squirting out of each rocker arm as the engine was rotated. I am still giddy! We might be able to start it today or tomorrow.

And of course there are always trains - currently thinking about some sort of production run for steel 45" tires. Probably not practical. I hate to think of machining 24 of them individually.

And of course, I need to finish this thread up - maybe today! Here come the Northerns:


This one is a Weaver - 2-railed by my brother in North Carolina.


Carey owns this one - you can find info on one of his Youtube efforts.


Scratchbuilt in 17/64. Solid 1"x1" bar frame (before machining), silver-soldered copper boiler (won't do that again, ever!), and tender trucks cast by my father in Tucson last century.


Max Gray, but with Overland drivers, Pittman/NWSL, and my very first complicated paint job.

[bob turner]

I think that about does it for SP Steam, at least until Shutterfly changes the links again. Here is one last photo - a "doorstop" GS-1. Its lineage is obvious; that is an All Nation Mountain boiler with an extended smokebox and modified cab. Frame is bar stock, but a lot like Lobaugh, with Lobaugh drivers. Note the Boxpok main. Power is NWSL into a genuine Henry Pearce gearbox. Tender is Adams, with my sides. It deserves paint, and better photos. Soon . . .

[E7]

I did this from photos, and got the boiler taper wrong. No one will ever know . . .

I'm blabbing to everyone........what's Dear Abbey's E-mail? Indecent exposure! This will make Epstein and Weinstein look like Boy Scouts!

Bob, you're the only one who cares that the taper is wrong!

[bob turner]

Actually I don't "care." I did my best - you cannot see it, but I put a conical section in there. Like a lot of Baldwin products of that age, the "cone" is slanted either up or down. In this case the bottom of the boiler is straight, and the top shows double taper. In the SP Deck series, and the big CB&Q 2-10-4, the taper is on the bottom (and sides) and the top is straight. I am not the only builder that misses such things.

This is the only model I "missed" in that sense. My SP "Decks" are correct.

[E7]

I did my best

And that's all that matters!

Rich

[R.K. Maroon]

Bob, you're the only one who cares that the taper is wrong!

Well...kinda. The SP Mikes are distinctive for their straight boilers. I have been aware of this for some time, but that hasn't stopped me from purchasing Mikados that were either finished in SP already or with the intention of finishing them in SP, only to recognize later that the boiler was not correct. Here is an example:


https://www.dropbox.com/s/8uv5vyp7184jng9/Hines-GMC%202-8-2%20SP%203206_01.JPG

Bob, who otherwise likes his boilers to be correct, encouraged me to renew the decals on this one and put it in service. I may yet, but I would really prefer to have a correct SP Mike and repurpose this one to another road -- it makes a decent stand in for a class of Rock Island 2-8-2s, as I recall.

Jim