I spent a lot of time studying pictures of real 'Little 800s' due to the many changes that occurred throughout their life span. After a lot of thinking, I decided on a black coal burner, with single headlight, and no 'wind wings' which meant an early FEF-1 life cycle locomotive. This picture of #809, taken at Cheyenne, WY, in September 1938 shows the model I'm replicating:
Not sure why it's rotated but you get the point.
These are great books. I wish I could find some at a reasonable price. I'd probably buy the whole series if I could. However, everytime I come across them online it seems like they want a fortune for them. Clearly they are popular for a reason.
FEF-1s had unique tenders compared to the later FEF-2/3's centipede tender. There is a lot of work in these photos-about 40 hrs. It's all brass and detail parts/trucks come from PSC. I quickly threw some old decals on it because I was so excited. I've removed them since this picture and have installed new. Here's a teaser:
Those tenders really add to the unique look of the FEF-1. When it is finished it should fit right in next to your 3rd Rail early Challengers.
I'm sure you are aware of and already use steamlocomotive.com as a resource.
here's a few links from that site to FEF-1 photos:
#806 builder photo:
http://www.steamlocomotive.com...thern/up806-full.jpg
#815 with the UP shop's attempt at a skyline casing (if you're feeling really ambitious):
http://members.pioneer.net/~fitzrr/mm815.jpg
Another great resource I visit frequently is the Denver Public Library photo file. There are two search fields. Be sure to use the "Search Photographs" field. I enter the locomotive I'm looking for ("Union Pacific 4-6-2, 4-8-2, 2-10-2" etc.). It will pull up tons of photos of that type and photos are listed by the year it was taken. It is really helpful for researching modifications and livery schemes by period. I keep this link as a desktop icon because I use it the most:
http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/
