3rd Rail Texas and Pacific 2-10-4

Griff,

I'm getting #2 of 14. I have been waiting for a T&P 2-10-4 for over 20 years since I got back into trains.

I have bought a lot of T&P and Missouri Pacific diesels from 3rd rail lately and have a bunch on order. If it was not for all of those diesels I would have gotten (2) 2-10-4's

Have ordered a black TP 2-10-4 and the CGW version , too.  I ordered black for an "in service" look. Hope/presume the Texas & Pacific herald will be on the front of the Elesco feed water heater tank, in the black version also.   I'll be humming this tune (!):   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHzz5pp5YXI

The black boiler is the way the sole survivor, 610,is painted at the Texas State Railroad, but back in the day T&P painted all of the steamers (except the blue postwar passenger engines) with “Light russian” boilers in actual service, a lot of people use GN gray green but with weathering it could look lighter and even a little bluish but some of that is due to deteriorating photo colors.

At least two buyers and I was one, so advised Scott Mann and he did consult a T&P expert to get the right color, or at least as right as it can be at this point.

These are THE iconic Texas locomotives and I never dreamed a three Rail “O” one would be made, I would look at Pennsys and Santa Fe’s and dream of kitbashing one or having a custom builder do it. I sold off two firearms to pay for it, it’s truly the locomotive I thought I would buy in Heaven... if I ever get there!

I have a couple of color photos I can post later- having internet problems just at the moment. One is 2-10-4 638 and mountain 909.

I agree - gorgeous.  Shame to have to put up with inaccurate flanges on such a museum piece.  I too have a 900 series Mountain, but it is not really accurate.  Will look for a photo.

Bob, please advise... what's wrong with the flanges?

Here are some color photos. The 2-10-4 appears slightly weathered giving a bluey look to the boiler. Photos courtesy of Tom Stamey

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And out of the last three paint scheme, I would venture the AFT to be the most numerous.

Ted S posted:

Bob, please advise... what's wrong with the flanges?

He is obviously referring to the oversize "pizza-cuter" flanges on all 3-Rail models. 

The only 900 class Mountains in T&P scheme I am familiar with are the semiscale MTH and "Sears" Lionel ones, both with inaccurate coal tenders for starters, and the postwar blue/white passenger schemes some of them wore for the last 5 years of steam on T&P before full dieselization.

Griff Murphey posted:

The only 900 class Mountains in T&P scheme I am familiar with are the semiscale MTH and "Sears" Lionel ones, both with inaccurate coal tenders for starters, and the postwar blue/white passenger schemes some of them wore for the last 5 years of steam on T&P before full dieselization.

Remember, Bob2 is a 2-Rail modeler and scratch builder. There is no telling what model he is referring to, until he provides photos and additional information.

Right. IMO he would have to be talking about a scratchbuilt model because the ONLY T&P 2 rail scale loco ever manufactured was the LMB 2-10-4. I nearly faint with Texan pride when my 2 rail friend runs his one....

Griff,

   Congrat on a rea nice Engine, have fun with her on the tracks! T&P 909 very serious stuff.

PCRR/Dave

Hot is correct.  My Mountain is a one-of-a-kind, and actually my first real attempt at creating an O Scale locomotive.  Coal in tender, not much in the way of detail anywhere, and in fact not O gauge, but 1 1/8" gauge, so that the locomotive itself better fits the track gauge.  Its genesis is an All Nation Mountain sand cast boiler.  The tender is a wood block.

In my opinion, a truly scale model ought not to have huge flanges on the outer drivers, contrasted with no flanges on the rest.  That is just an opinion, and obviously some find such flanges add to, rather than detract from, a fine scale model.

Here is my dirtbag Mountain.  I have done better since - once in a while a lot better:

She is a beauty!!

I have the Hallmark HO one. It may never be run by me as I have moved more into O 3rail, although the only layout I have is HO.

Think it was Max Gray that imported the only other O scale  TP 2-10-4, in the early '60's.  

Thanks for that correction. I one time I had two of the HO LMBs - real dogs, the O 2-Rail ones have real bad reputations. My two friends that have those have had to have a lot of work done on them.

The Feb 1978 "Trains" had a quite definitive article on the TP 2-10-4's by Charles M. Mizell, Jr. The article addresses the color issue:

"Quite a few of us saw the 600's, but evidently very few of us looked at them. There is more disagreement about the color of T&P locomotives than any other point. As best as I have been able to determine, they were gloss black, with "Sta-brite" silver graphite smokeboxes and fireboxes; red oxide cab roofs between the eaves; brass safety valves, whistles and bells; burnished rods and valve gear. Freight engines had black stack rims and valve and cylinder head covers, passenger engines had nickel silver. Lettering was gold.  And yet, builder specifications required that boiler jacket, air pumps and cylinder covers be painted in Charles R. Long Co. no. 162 "Light Russia".

Mr. Mizell goes on to say that Russian Iron alloy was used in the 19th century to deter rusting, but the color was was carried forward in paint, varying from a greenish tint to a definite gray. "One old painter said we mixed it up until we got the right color, and that's what we used". Mr. Mizell goes on to say, "however, I remember seeing the 616 about 1947 and remarking to myself that it was black". My bet is that locomotives came out of shops after getting classified repairs, painted in #162 "Light Russia", but after time on the road and getting repainted, they ended up in black. Hence, either black or Russia Iron would be correct for these locomotives. We all can rest easy !!

Hi guys,

Here is a photo clearly showing an in service T&P 2-10-4 showing a lighter boiler and cylinder jacket.

610 was tarted up with a script logo reading WILL ROGERS and it was placed on display at the east side of the Will Rogers Colosseum in Fort Worth in the 1950's. As a boy, I visited the engine many times. It had the boiler and cylinder jackets painted a light gray like navy haze gray. It deteriorated a great deal with the cab suffering the attention of gauge smashers and other vandalism, with dangling boiler jacket and lagging hanging out. When it was restored to running condition in 1975-76 it was quite a surprise to me. Who painted it that color TP or the City, I have no idea... But it does imply that someone tried to ape a lighter pre existing color on the engine when it was painted as it was put on display.