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History
Okay, I know what you’re thinking… “Er, Kevin, that’s a Denver & Rio Grande locomotive. You’ve been spending too much time in the mountains again.” And after I turned a K-27 into Tuscarora RR #10, you’re really wondering if I’ve finally crossed over to “the dark side.” ‘Tis not the case. In fact, D&RG #13 never made it to Colorado. It was built in 1873 by Baldwin for the D&RG, but they refused it because it would have been too heavy for their rails. So, what’s a locomotive builder to do? Sell it to the next sucker who walks in the door. In this case, that happened to be the East Broad Top RR, which was in search of a locomotive that was more powerful than their diminutive moguls which they were using to build the line. So, Baldwin, sensing an easy sale, sold them this ready-made locomotive. All Baldwin had to do was repaint and rename it.
It proved to be very successful on the railroad, capable of pulling 15 loaded hoppers (9-ton capacity) over the railroad. The EBT ordered two additional locomotives the following year (#4 – Cromwell, and #5 – Shirley).
Number 3 would serve the railroad at least through 1897, which is the last time I see it specifically mentioned in any operations report. It was leased—then sold—to the Tuscarora Valley RR in 1911 along with EBT #1. Shortly after arriving on the TVRR, #3 is reported to have blown a cylinder, and that was pretty much her finale.
The above two photos are the only two photos of EBT #3 that have come to light. There are some differences between the two, reflecting changes made over the years. The smokebox was extended in the early 1890s (about the time the second photo was taken). The cab was replaced at some point; the new cab having a bit simpler wood panel sides as opposed to the rather fancy oval insets of the original cab. (Records indicate #3 was in a wreck in the 1880s, which could easily explain the need for a new cab.) The running boards got moved up higher on the boiler. This could have been the result of a wreck, or it could have been out of necessity—it’s a bit of a stretch for an average-sized person to stand on the lower boards and reach the top of the two domes. Most interesting (to me, at least) is that the drivers have all been changed. The shape of the counterweights is different. I don’t know when this might have happened.
The Model
I’ve always liked the EBT’s consolidations. Perhaps I’m most fond of #7, which was built to the same drawings as the D&RG’s C-19 class. Alas, there’s just enough different between the EBT and D&RG versions to where converting the Accucraft C-19 to an EBT loco would require enough cosmetic surgery to where I’d have a hard time justifying the price to the CFO after much would be sitting in my scrap box. It’s still on my “someday” list, if ever I find one in need of some TLC. (Preferably live steam.) But I digress…
The earlier 2-8-0s are equally graceful locomotives, and when I acquired a Barry’s Big Trains 2-8-0 chassis (attached to a B’mann “annie” at the time), I quickly compared it to the EBT’s early consolidations.
The drivers were the right diameter, at a scale 40”. They are spaced a bit too close together, but in weighing living with that compromise vs. having to build my own chassis and valve gear, I can live with that compromise. Barry’s chassis is bulletproof, so I know I’ll have decades of good service from the locomotive.
Most everything above the drivers would come from a Bachmann 2-6-0. The boiler diameter is the same, and while the prototype was a bit longer (to match the wheelbase), the B’mann boiler matches the shorter wheelbase very nicely. I did lengthen the firebox, but everything forward of the cab is the same.
The only thing that survived from the original 4-6-0 that came with the chassis was the front pilot. I needed something a bit more “modern” than the long link-and-pin cowcatcher, and the 2-6-0’s chassis was earmarked for TRR #2. I did shorten the front a bit from what was on Barry’s chassis originally.
The cylinders came from a Delton C-16, the crosshead and crosshead guides from an LGB mogul. I’m a big fan of using what’s available instead of building from scratch where I can.
The cab had to be raised up a bit, and an extension put along the bottom edge. The wood trim is dollhouse crown molding, and is very close to the trim on the stock Bachmann cab. I used aluminum tape to cover the holes I filled on the boiler, and knocked it a bit with a hammer and other things to give it a “well loved” appearance. Aluminum tape panels cover the roof of the cab, too.
I cut about 1” off the back of the BBT chassis, since it was pretty much just dead space. I also replaced the two center blind drivers. Barry uses the stock Bachmann wheels for this chassis, and the blind drivers are smaller in diameter than the flanged ones. As a result, they sit up above the railhead by close to 1/16”. That wasn’t going to cut it, so I chucked some surplus Bachmann drivers in my lathe, turned the flanges down, and put them on instead. They still sit a bit above the rails, but only by a few thousandths. The counterweights are cut from styrene, and glued over the stock B’mann counterweights.
The paint on the locomotive is purely conjectural, based on what the EBT was doing with other locos in the time period I’m modeling. Number 3 came to the railroad in black paint with what’s believed to be gold and green trim. It would presumably have been repainted over its service on the EBT, most likely following its wreck. How it was painted is really anyone’s guess, but most likely in line with other contemporary EBT locos, which at the time were either olive (dark green) with silver (“aluminum”) lettering or black with aluminum lettering. Assuming #3 was semi-retired by the turn of the 20th century, it’s unlikely she ever wore the familiar orange “E.B.T.” on the tender which came into vogue around 1908. However, many of my other locos (Tuscarora RR and Tuscarora Valley RR) are black with silver lettering, and quite frankly I liked the look of the orange on the dark green. I had used that on EBT #1, so it made sense that #3 could plausibly be painted the same. If anyone has photographic evidence to the contrary, I welcome it!
The fireman’s side of the loco. It’s noticeably sparse compared to “modern” steam locomotives, but from everything I’ve read, this loco was pretty simple. It had a single injector on the engineer’s side, combined with a crosshead pump. No engine brakes, it used steam for braking. You’d close the throttle, open the cylinder cocks, put the locomotive in reverse, then open the throttle to apply back pressure to the cylinders. (This is probably how the cylinder got blown out on the TVRR, because if you forgot to open the cylinder cocks, that would happen.) So long as your trains were short, that was generally sufficient to stop the train (along with brakemen setting brakes on the train).
The smokebox was extended with some 2” acrylic tubing that I wrapped in embossed styrene to match the diameter of the stock firebox. The smokestack is 5/8” brass tubing, capped with the cap off of a B’mann 4-6-0 (Thanks, Jon!) The headlight is from a B’mann Shay. Domes, bell, and handrails didn’t change.
The cylinders and whatnots, painted. I left the side rods unpainted, but had to paint the main rod from the cylinders. It’s not the best match, but with everything else there, it’s not that noticeable. I may try again to match it better, but we’ll see.
The cab extension turned out pretty darned good. It’s kind of a combination of both styles of cab that were on the locomotive; squared panels with heavy ornamentation. I wasn’t in the mood to build new cab sides unless I had to. The green is ModelFlex “Seaboard Air Lines Pullman Green.” The boiler jacket is Testors’ Metalizer Buffable “Gunmetal.” I’ve used this on four locomotives now, and each time I use it, I like it more and more. The green interior is just a generic green acrylic paint.
The tender is pretty much left untouched. There is a photo of #3’s tender sitting behind a derelict ex-EBT #1 taken in the 30s, and it matches very closely to the Bachmann 2-6-0 tender, so I didn’t do anything to it beyond a new coal load (which lifts off to access the removable battery).
Weathering was done with my usual mix of dilute black and brownish washes, followed by Bragdon’s powders. I sprinkled around some coal dust here and there, too. To apply this, I just brushed on some dilute white glue into the corners, dusted on some coal dust, and left it to dry. The coupler is an AMS 1:32 coupler, which scales out well for the 3/4 sized couplers used by the EBT (and other narrow gauge lines).
The engineer started out as a Tamiya 1:20 racing crew figure “kit.” You get a head and torso, and the arms and legs are separate. This makes it a bit easier to cut and fit to specific situations. In the case of #3, there’s not a lot of room between the side of the cab and the firebox. I’ve seen engineers sitting on the window sill on the prototypes, so I figured this would be a great chance to have my engineer do the same. It’s hard to see his head from anything but a low angle, but that’s why I have the door open. To match his bottom to the armrest, I coated his leg with Sculpey (which I had to do anyway since the original figure was wearing shorts), and smushed it down on the rest to get it to shape.
One quick tip with working with Sculpey this time ‘round: my toaster oven died a while ago, so I didn’t have an oven to “bake” the sculpey. (I didn’t want to turn on the big oven.) So, I grabbed my heat gun and just blew hot air on the Sculpey for a few minutes to get it to temperature. Worked like a charm. Because the figure is plastic, I had to be a bit careful not to melt the plastic, but I was also able to soften some joints and move hands, feet, etc.
The “other half” of the engineer, showing the semi-detailed cab interior. I didn’t go too nuts here, I just wanted to hint at a cab interior. I didn’t notice until I looked at the photo, but I missed a few spots when painting. Oops. Gotta get those…
Here’s the front of the tender, with the requisite “junk” within arm’s reach of the fireman (who’s taking a quick breather from shoveling.) The fireman is actually a demoted conductor. I don’t know who made him; I got him from one of the vendors at the Narrow Gauge Convention. Shoulda bought more… I reshaped his conductor’s hat to more of an engineer’s cap shape, and ground away his tie to give him a less formal look. He scales to about 5’ 10”, so you can get a feel for how small that tender really is.
Here’s #3 and #1 next to each other. I wish the size difference showed up better. Number 3 is a “small” locomotive, and it makes #1 look even smaller.
Number 3 has already proven to be a very smooth running locomotive. It’s capable of some very low speeds, and will likely become a regular site on the TRR’s trains.
Later,
K
