Model Train Journal

I note that most of my photos from yesteryear have now been deleted, so you get to endure a re-run of at least a few of my locomotives.

Motivation for a new thread: Maroon and I are discussing the SC K4. I have more than enough, but I get attached to these things. All I would need to create one for him is a beat-up boiler with domes, running boards, and smokebox front. I have just about everything else. Look through your junk boxes.

We were also discussing the Saginaw E6 and H10. I have some comments of interest, and also spare parts. I think I mentioned having a spare H10 frame and needing a G5 frame.

More later, after I re-post some long-gone photos.

Looking forward to it all.

All previously posted. This one is a dead-stock Scale Craft, right down to the blind center drivers and the buttons on the smokebox. The thing I like about the Scale Craft, other than its antiquity, is the graceful taper of the boiler conical section. Note how it goes in one continuous cone from the smokebox to the firebox. Max Gray did it that way, and USH decided to add a straight section after the smokebox, like the drawing in the MRR Cyclopedia.

Also note - no rivets on the cab, firebox, or tender. None. When I redo these things I add rivets to the cab and firebox, and smaller rivets to the smokebox. I also add boiler bands, a sandbox flange, and lots of piping.

Scale Craft started these things in around 1929 - they were brass, but with lead castings. One carefully soldered the brass to the lead. Not sure I could do that. They quickly graduated to bronze for the major castings, and zamac for the tender trucks.

I am not sure, but I believe the first ones had the gear on the rear axle, and later on they moved it to the middle axle. After that, they split the frame so you could remove the drivers without an arbor press. Other than that, production was the same for the 12 years that these things were available.

The competition was Ed Alexander. I have only seen two, and near as I can tell the boilers were heavy cast, and somewhat smaller than Scale Craft. They required tender drive because of the firebox casting wall - no room for a motor.

Bob, you are correct about the early version of the drive. Here is a clip from an American Model Engineers (pre-Donnelly) Scale-Craft catalog. I believe the year is 1934:



Note the lack of rivets on the unfinished model in the middle photo and the presence of smokebox rivets in the upper photo. Rivets on the prototype but not the the production version, perhaps? Or possibly rivets strips, maybe? I have lots of Scale-Craft catalogs, so I will look for more photos.

Nice model, by the way. Note from the text of the catalog shot that the tapered section of the boiler comes fully assembled from the factory.

Jim

Just had a nice call from Scale Craft Dave - turns out that K4s are not as plentiful as I thought; he, too, is looking for one. I passed one up in Philly in 1980 for $75 - I thought "what a piece of junk!" Turns out Dan Henon was standing behind me - I had been subscribing to his newsletters, but had never met him.

I passed that one up, but seems like every year in the 1990s and early 2000s Don Massy would bring one to OSW, and dump it on me at the end of the show. I now have four, and pieces for a fifth. Turns out all I am missing is a boiler and sand dome. Who knows, maybe a construction series right here on this forum?

Before descending into Saginaw, I will re-post the SC K4s - this one is my Tuscan version. It needs gold stripes, but I think it is elegant! I do need to add tail beams and those nice "feet" that contact the trailing truck ahead of the journal - I have the castings.

Oh - note that on both of these the drivers are from the SP Pacific. All PRR steam had straight counterweights, not crescent. Who knows, maybe I shall fix that. I have the castings. Nah - I am going flying.

Bob,
I look forward to the reposted photos along with your, and others, commentary.

Nice. The one engine I am missing in SC is the K-4, have Hudson, Mountain and Mikado, not interested in the P-13. Too bad RK Hall isn't around any more, he probably had all the parts to finish your last SC K-4.

ScaleCraft wrote:Nice. The one engine I am missing in SC is the K-4, have Hudson, Mountain and Mikado, not interested in the P-13. Too bad RK Hall isn't around any more, he probably had all the parts to finish your last SC K-4.

Nice to see a post from you again, Dave.

This one is Alexander frame, Lobaugh drivers, KTM tender, Scale Craft boiler. I remember the boiler clearly - some guy's wife had taken a hammer to it, and it was really bad! I slipped a heavy pipe inside and went to work with my own hammer.



Sure, off the track, but look how straight those air lines are!

The last of my K4s - another Don Massy special. This one has those cracks in the paint that resemble a dried up mud puddle - really adds some antique flavor. I haven't touched it except to steal the drivers for a friend in Florida (RIP - I'll think of his name in a bit). What you see are Loco Works coined drivers before Jan had the axles and pins plated. Perfect K4 drivers, but too lacy for Scale Craft. I do have replacements, but lately machining driver tires is more of a chore than a pleasure. Been there, done that.

I see that the tuscan K4 debate continues on:

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/topic/did ... 1249578476