And here is the tapered nose that I figured I could never quite salvage. You can see how we tapered it - first slotting the top part, then splitting the nose and clamping, and finally soldering. The windshield area is plated but not cut. The nose next to it is MTH, which is pretty much as accurate as any PA out there, although the new Lionel is slightly better in the windshield area. Note that the MTH nose is longer than the CLW nose. If anybody wants to get more nosey, I have lots of comparative photos of noses, including these, the early CLW, Lionel, and Overland. I have seen Key, and believe them to be dead-accurate, but I do not have photos to prove it. PAs are, in my opinion, honorary steam locomotives!
