Neat. Could you provide more details and photos on covering/modding the coal bunker to look like it's part of the water tank? I'm thinking about doing something like this for my PRR steamers.
No problem.
On the prototype, they put sheet metal over the coal bunker and turned the bunker into a machine shop. Basing my version on the prototype, I started with thin styrene to get the overall dimensions (it's hard to measure width with the curve) after removing the existing coal load (which was a plastic insert held by two screws on this model). Once I had it set right with the styrene, I then traced the size onto the aluminum. I cut it out with a metal blade on my jig saw, and then smoothed out the edges/corners with a grinding wheel on my dremel.
After cutting and grinding, I found a round can that was close to the curvature I needed, and using spring clamps, I started bending the aluminum to get the curve I wanted. I did the radius slightly tighter than what I needed to get a good fit over the tender coal bin ends. The attachment fittings I made would pull down the top to fit better.
For the attachment, I put the cover in place and then glued self locking nuts (the nuts with the nylon inserts) together to make standoffs. I glued them together with JB weld. I then glued the standoff to the aluminum using super glue gel.
Once the glue was dry, I masked the nuts, and primed and painted the cover. Then I installed it, being very careful to do it slowly to ensure the screw did not break the glue loose (it did on one of them). I used washers on the screws to ensure a snug fit to where the screw just started getting into the nylon part of the self locking nut.
Here are pictures of both ends of the cover. If you look closely, you can see the standoffs (and JB Weld) between the coal bin ends and the cover.
On my Version 2 cover, I just used straight styrene that was slightly wider than the coal bin. I made a bead of Super Glue Gel on one side of the coal bin and glued that edge. Then I did the same on the second side. Because the styrene was slightly wider than the coal bin, when that edge was glued, I got a natural curve of the cover. You can sort of see this in the Version 2A picture.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
