New Haven R-1 Mountain Build

Very nice. Don't forget to mount the Elesco feedwater pump on the Fireman's side, plus those large water supply lines to and from the Elesco bundle heater (large diameter solid solder generally works well for such lines).

Nice project. Looking forward to your future postings and completion.

Great modeling! JohnA

Thank you Hot Water, Dave, and John.

Hot Water - I have a roll of .062" solder I have from the late, great Radio Shack that looks to be perfect, thanks for the suggestion. I just removed the supply line from the cab to the check valve this morning. I have a precision scale casting for the spiral-wrapped steam lines from the cylinders to the heater, I'll use solder for the other pipes (to and from the pump, the condensate line, and from the heater to the check valve.

One thing I just noticed following the piping diagrams supplied by the NHRHTA - the feedwater heater only supplies the fireman's side check valve, while a traditional injector supplies the engineer's side. Was this a normal setup, to only preheat half the incoming water?

Pipe and check valve removed, feedwater heater pump and an ATS box will eventually go where the current air pump is.

Solder fitment in the check valve:

I finished painting the Delta trailing truck and reinstalled it:

Lastly for this past week, I 3D modeled a set of air pump shields and sent them off to be printed. I expect to have some revisions after this first pass, but images of the current model below.

~Chris

Fantastic work.  I’m looking forward to your next progress update.  

@C.Vigs posted:

Thank you Hot Water, Dave, and John.

Hot Water - I have a roll of .062" solder I have from the late, great Radio Shack that looks to be perfect, thanks for the suggestion. I just removed the supply line from the cab to the check valve this morning. I have a precision scale casting for the spiral-wrapped steam lines from the cylinders to the heater, I'll use solder for the other pipes (to and from the pump, the condensate line, and from the heater to the check valve.

One thing I just noticed following the piping diagrams supplied by the NHRHTA - the feedwater heater only supplies the fireman's side check valve, while a traditional injector supplies the engineer's side. Was this a normal setup, to only preheat half the incoming water?

Yes. The feedwater system would always be the primary method of supplying water to the boiler, while the Injector would have been the "back-up" supply system. The ICC, now the FRA, required/requires two methods of supplying water to the boiler.

~Chris

A little more progress from the weekend. I cut the engineers side water pipe short, and cut and rotated the corresponding check valve. On the prototype the pipe dips below the running board and the check valve is mounted vertically.

I removed the headlight and marker lights from the smokebox front, and filled the marker light mounting and wire holes with Bondo. The marker lights will be replaced and relocated to the smokebox sides. The feedwater heater was also covered in order to fill some voids and mold patterns in the casting.

Last thing filled with Bondo was the mounting holes for the water pipe on the firemans side. Lettering was also removed - some lacquer thinner on an old t-shirt took it off in seconds.

Now here's the rub - it seems Lionel originally painted the engine after all the separate piping details were applied, so there is a pretty prominent shadow on the boiler underneath where the water pipes used to be. Sanding the filler in the mounting holes flat also caused some scuffs. While I can, I'd rather not repaint the whole boiler, so I'd like suggestions on how to cover these areas and blend them in. I am already going to brush paint the smokebox.

~Chris

I think if you touch up with black, then spray with Dullcote, it will hardly be noticeable. JohnA

Chris, if you decide to paint. Look at SEM Trim Black for paint. You can probably find it at your local auto parts store. Expect to pay between 15 to 20 dollars. It’s a satin black and is suppose to be a good match to Lionel’s steamers. Doesn’t require primer and should be pretty durable as far as handling seeing it’s from the automotive field.

Thanks for the advice, John and Dave.

I did pick up a can of SEM as a backup.

Next purchasing obstacle is the tender. I posted on the Wanted to Buy forum a few weeks ago, looking for a Vanderbilt tender or one of the large, 6-axle tenders from a Mohawk. I haven't found one yet, but I do have an opportunity to buy an 'almost' complete Mohawk tender frame (includes frame, trucks, and full TMCC electronics except the audio board). I can separately get a Mohawk tender shell, so the only thing I'd be missing is the audio board.

It looks like the frame has a Railsounds 5 package on it (no AD20 board), and I have a Railsounds 4 package in the smaller USRA tender that came with the Mountain. From what I have read, the AD20 functionality is in the audio board on RS 5 systems, so if I put the RS 4 audio board in an RS 5 package I would lose whatever functionality the AD20 adds. Does the AD20 board only control the rear light and coupler, or does it affect the sounds as well? As another option, now that Lionel has purged them, does anyone have a source for a large steam RS5 audio board?

On a side note, if anyone who sees this is willing to sell one of these tenders complete, I'm still open to that as well.

~Chris

@C.Vigs posted:

Thanks for the advice, John and Dave.

I did pick up a can of SEM as a backup.

Next purchasing obstacle is the tender. I posted on the Wanted to Buy forum a few weeks ago, looking for a Vanderbilt tender or one of the large, 6-axle tenders from a Mohawk. I haven't found one yet, but I do have an opportunity to buy an 'almost' complete Mohawk tender frame (includes frame, trucks, and full TMCC electronics except the audio board). I can separately get a Mohawk tender shell, so the only thing I'd be missing is the audio board.

It looks like the frame has a Railsounds 5 package on it (no AD20 board), and I have a Railsounds 4 package in the smaller USRA tender that came with the Mountain. From what I have read, the AD20 functionality is in the audio board on RS 5 systems, so if I put the RS 4 audio board in an RS 5 package I would lose whatever functionality the AD20 adds. Does the AD20 board only control the rear light and coupler, or does it affect the sounds as well? As another option, now that Lionel has purged them, does anyone have a source for a large steam RS5 audio board?

On a side note, if anyone who sees this is willing to sell one of these tenders complete, I'm still open to that as well.

~Chris

Chris, practice with the SEM,  it lays beautiful when you master the spray out …..it’s a true urethane product so she’s loosey goosey when wet,…..allow a flash between coats, I’ve turned a few folks onto the SEM, and they’ve never looked back,….I use the SEM satin trim black exclusively, but I buy the qt cans, and use a gun, ……the rattle can works very well though,…..like I said, once you’ve mastered your spray outs, you’ll never put it down…..tricks I’ve learned with both the rattle cans, & the catalyzed mix, a little wetter, retains some gloss, a little dryer, and she’ll dye back for ya,…..you can really play around with that product, ….hide is almost immediate, and the mil is thin enough not to kill details …..

Pat

I spent some more time on the feedwater heater this weekend. I want to dry-fit everything to make sure I like the pipe routings before painting and gluing, so I've adopted a pin-in-hole construction. Small holes are drilled into each component, and short section of phos. bronze wire is glued in place. Each mating component has another hole drilled. The fit is just tight enough that I can observe the routing and handle the boiler shell a little without everything falling out of place. I also sanded the filler on the feedwater heater down back to smooth surface.

Hole in the top of the smokebox:

Pin on the bottom of the feedwater heater, and pin-and-hole connection between the steam pipe and feedwater heater:

Engineers side steam pipe:

Firemans side steam pipe:

Two views of the smokebox front partially reassembled - marker lights have also been added:

~Chris

Getting better and better! JohnA

Chris- I enjoy following builds such as yours. Here’s a pic of a Canadian National 2-8-2 I am modifying from a Lionel “baby Mikado “.  Feedwater heater is Railking, steam pipes are stiff wires. JohnA

Chris, that’s coming out nice. I really like the idea of adding the pins to keep everything in place.

very nice look forward to what's ahead

I could read threads like this for days. Keep up the good work!

Thanks John, Scotty, and Bill.

John - that feedwater heater looks good on the Mikado, and see you added the CN number boards as well. I always liked that look, good job.

Not much in the way of piping was done this last week, but I did receive my first revision of the air pump shields from Shapeways. They really complete the look and separate this from a standard USRA engine.

I only figured out how to mount these shields after I began playing around with revision 1 here - my original intention was to epoxy them in place after painting, but I am always in favor of making parts replaceable if damaged. I realized that with some longer mounting screws (courtesy of McMaster-Carr) and a larger base, the pilot-to-frame mounting point could be used to hold a single piece shield in place. Revision 2 is shown below, with adjusted spacing between the shields and a larger base with mounting holes. I also found out recently that the engineer's side shield, aside from being asymmetrical, was actually slightly taller than the fireman's side, so that has been modified as well.

I have a few more detail parts on order to begin working on the piping again, as well as a few more miscellaneous items. I haven't yet found an appropriate feedwater heater pump for cab signal box, so I might need to 3D model and print those as well. They are mounted adjacent to each other, so if I need to go that route I'll have it made as a single part.

~Chris

This is a really cool project. My favorite steamers are the B&A Berkshire and L2a Mohawk. I like mid size steamers with a lot of piping and things to look at. Rather than just a plain boiler. I have this engine tucked away. I added EOB to it and just lost interest in it. This thread makes me want to dig it back out and do something with it.