Big Boy Question

Those large diameter, red, hand wheels, are used to open and close the ash hopper bottom doors. That is were the ashes dump out the bottom of the ash hopper and into the ash pit between the rails, in the locomotive servicing facility.

Thanks, Hot Water. Are BOTH of those knobs for the ash dump? I can totally see the one that's directly under the ash pan being for that, but is the other one that's directly under the cab also for the ash dump?

Thanks,

Eric Siegel

Yes, it should be, as the ash hopper is so huge, there is a forward portion and a rear portion.

Awesome. Thanks so much!

-Eric

Thanks "HotWater", I have always wondered the same on my OLDER Big Boy!!

Fred

Something that has always perplexed me, and not to derail Eric's topic, is that on the prototype Big Boys, they had three of the large red hand wheels.  Two were located at the front of the ash-box, while the third sat under the cab.

Most HO renditions of the Big Boy that I have seen include the third hand wheel.  In the O-gauge realm, however, I've never seen Lionel or MTH include the third hand wheel (even on the high-end JLC and Vision series).  It is just something that has always sparked my curiosity.

I was pondering customizing my VL Big Boy to incorporate the third hand wheel.  If you remember, the JLC version of the Big Boy from a few years back had the hand wheels packaged separately.  I attempted to locate them on Lionel's part site and despite success in locating the part, they are currently unavailable. 

For what it's worth, the HO manufacturers generally get details much more correct. It is always best to checkout the William Kratville book about the UP 4000 class locomotives for EXACT construction technical details of the prototype.