My Northwestern Class E project

Sounds awesome. Are you talking about an E-4, Hudson, or the E-2 Pacific?

Class E. As in Road Number 1597 Class E.

Ah. A purist. I like it. Are you using a Weaver USRA 4-6-2 shell as a starting point? (Couldn't track down a photo of 1577)

Now this will be cool.

Chris

Actually the locomotive is a modified All Nation 10 Wheeler.

Even more intriguing. Keep us posted. You had mentioned a shell and the Weaver USRA die-cast was the first one that came to mind. Weaver did an ES "Yellow Jacket" some time ago, but that was brass (eventually want to get hold of one of those.)

Forward to see the pictures!

So the project has gotten off to a rocky and somewhat sudden start.

I found a Lobaugh Chassis for a Pacific (talk about coincidence) at the March Meet that had a price too good to pass up. (So much for machining one from cast iron) So I will be posting pictures as early as tomorrow, showing the parts I intend to mix and match to make the conversion happen. 

I'm sorry it took me so long to update.

Just a small aside.......was talking with an aquaintance who is an HO modeler. I mentioned something about an O Scale scratch built C&NW 4-8-4 I had seen, and he replied: "scratch built? Heck, you need blacksmithing skills in O Scale!"

As an aside to your aside... I know a few scratchbuilds that are really just super duty kitbashes.

I saw, at the March Meet, of all the crazy things, what looked like an All Nation cast Bronze Banjo Frame for a Northern with what looked like a Lobaugh Boiler shell...the drivers were all in place, complete with siderods... all it was missing were the detail parts, like steam domes, air compressor deck, etc.

If it hadnt been for the Pacific, I would have been eyeing it up more closely. C'est La Vie, and all that jazz.