Sounds like a great project. You might as well add a scale height cab, too, but either raising the cab roof or lowering its floor, or both. It has a 1:48 scale five and a half feet of headroom at the center. My Premier 999 and 2-8-0, the only scale late-19th century locos I have, each are closer to seven than six and a half scale feet, and my Lincoln funeral train loco, a scale 1865 loco, has a full 6.5 feet at the center.
Post pictures as you go about the project, projects like those are always fun to watch. Good luck.
