Building the snow plow from sheet brass and mounting it securely turned out to be a considerable challenge - and lots of fun. I couldn't figure out how to use an Accucraft coupler in front but I had a Kadee with a long shank so I used that. The breaker bar arrangement would work if the coupler actually had a lift-pin.

 

 

 

I designed the two halves of the plow blade on a CAD system on my iMac (actually, only one blade and a mirror image,) printed it full size then transferred them to light cardboard for test fitting and adjustment. The final result was used as a template to cut them out of .040 sheet brass.

 

 

I don't have a roller, so I had to curve the blades by hand in a vise, bit by bit, working from the top, and checking my work frequently. The curve in each blade is simple (as opposed to compound, thank goodness) but the radius varied so I had to go "by guess and by golly." Once they were right and the two halves met in the middle they were silver-soldered together with a mini-torch.

 

 

 

Here's a close-up of the running gear and (working) Stephenson valve gear, which is fun to watch as she rolls along.

 

 

 

 

 

I probably did more to "bash" the tender than I did to the engine itself. The trucks have shortened safety chains and leaf springs swapped for the original coils. The air tank on the rear deck is from an old Delton C-16, the water trunk (hatch) is from Trackside Details, the feed water hoses, working breaker bar and coal bunker bulkhead are scratch-built. There's a 14.8 volt Li-Ion battery pack, a speaker, an AirWire receiver/decoder, a Phoenix P-5 sound card, volume toggle switch and a programming jack inside, as well. Also, a recharging jack and on-off switch hidden in the water hatch.