NYO&W "Mountaineer" #405 project

I thank everyone for the nice comments! This was a passion project and I'm finally happy to have made this locomotive in all its glory! Today I started adding a real coal load to the tender. This isn't just regular coal however, this is real O&W coal, given to me many years ago by a guy who actually worked on the railroad, he collected a bag of coal from the Middletown "AV" shops when steam was on its way out. That's story I was told so I'll stick with it! Anyway a few chucks of the coal was crushed into smaller pieces and sifted, then regular white glue was applied to the top and the first layer added. Probably will do another layer then add a very fine layer of "coal dust" to finish it off.

That's a cool back story! I always appreciate that kind of lore being built into something. It's adds so much depth!

May I make a suggestion concerning your coal load. Before you get too far along, you might want to look at photos of the real locomotive, in service, that you are modeling. Many folks tend to model a tender "completely full" of coal, but fail to understand just how the coal was loaded into the tender from the railroad's coal dock/chute. On the other hand, you might try having the tender coal load appear as the locomotive is out on the main line pulling a train, i.e. with the coal in the front of the coal bunker really low, which is where the stoker screw draws the coal.

One other point, having used "real coal" in a few of my tenders, plus on the ground around the coal dock, I began to notice over time that some of the coal was beginning to oxidize and turned to gray ash. Had to touch that up with black paint.

@Hot Water posted:

May I make a suggestion concerning your coal load. Before you get too far along, you might want to look at photos of the real locomotive, in service, that you are modeling. Many folks tend to model a tender "completely full" of coal, but fail to understand just how the coal was loaded into the tender from the railroad's coal dock/chute. On the other hand, you might try having the tender coal load appear as the locomotive is out on the main line pulling a train, i.e. with the coal in the front of the coal bunker really low, which is where the stoker screw draws the coal.

One other point, having used "real coal" in a few of my tenders, plus on the ground around the coal dock, I began to notice over time that some of the coal was beginning to oxidize and turned to gray ash. Had to touch that up with black paint.

This brings up an excellent point, …..unfortunately, in Blake’s case, his tender is near flat across the top, ….on several brass engines, I’ve modeled exactly as you described, showing off the nicely detailed bunker walls, and sloping panels designed to aim coal towards the stoker, …..wish we could see more of the half empty tenders in the modeling world,…..good point Jack,…

Pat

@Hot Water posted:

May I make a suggestion concerning your coal load. Before you get too far along, you might want to look at photos of the real locomotive, in service, that you are modeling. Many folks tend to model a tender "completely full" of coal, but fail to understand just how the coal was loaded into the tender from the railroad's coal dock/chute. On the other hand, you might try having the tender coal load appear as the locomotive is out on the main line pulling a train, i.e. with the coal in the front of the coal bunker really low, which is where the stoker screw draws the coal.

One other point, having used "real coal" in a few of my tenders, plus on the ground around the coal dock, I began to notice over time that some of the coal was beginning to oxidize and turned to gray ash. Had to touch that up with black paint.

Yup, very valid point and a look I'm trying to avoid. I am keeping that into consideration regarding how the coal looks, I only did one layer and will continue later on. Best part is if I add too much I can easily remove it before it dries (I'm using tacky glue) .

You might think about cutting the front portion of the tender's coal bunker out, and making a basswood insert, to hold the coal.

I finished the coal load, left a bit of a indent in front, I'm happy with it. Time to take 405 to the club track for a test run.

First test run of 405 on the NLOE layout! A few issues arose (no chuff and all but one marker light out) but I'll address those in due time.

That thing really grabs the attention. It's dressed better than Joseph A Bank himself!

Very nice!

Peter

A new stack was installed on 405, one more accurate to the prototype, and the silver bands were added as well, this locomotive is now finished cosmetically! I'm going to be installing a 4 chuff cam and new chuff sensor next.