Joined
·
429 Posts
Hi all,
A couple months ago a brand new Davenport gas-mechanical arrived at the Shasta Pacific shops.
http://www.mylargescale.com/Community/Forums/tabid/56/forumid/17/postid/61067/view/topic/Default.aspx
After running it through the shops and knocking any bugs out, it was lettered and turned over to a Shasta Pacific subsidiary,
the" Love Letter Mining Company", up in Trinity County. It left the Redding Yards this morning, with one of Love Letter's flat gons
in tow, for the mine complex on Love Letter Creek near Hyampom where it will be put to work moving dump cars and shifting flats
to the siding for the regular runs to pickup and deliver to the Redding yards.
We were able to catch a couple pictures as Smoky Johnson was about to send her up the line.



Actual changes to the model were;
1. That headlight had to go! Made a new one from styrene tube and reused the LED.
2. Hood was repainted, black, after the headlight mods.
3. Front handrails were repainted and the stanchions were removed from the radiator core and moved to the shell.
4. The plastic foot boards were replaced with wood.
5. THe coupler lift bar handles were shortened so the lift bar chain would hang closer to the couplers.
6. Couplers are KD # 820. I run everything at 24 inches to centerline so there was very little modification required
to get a perfect fit. Only downside is the lack of centering springs ( no possible way to install them without major surgery)
I didn't think the surgery was worth while for my operation, your may vary.
7. The seat and firing stand are a joke for 1:20 scale! The seat as supplied is 12 inches round and 14 inches high, the firing
stand is like 2 foot tall. Perfect if your engine man is 4 foot nothing tall. Anyway I changed the seat completely and raised the control
tower to suitable height.
8. the lettering is press on vinyl by a local sign shop. A very light weathering was applied as this is a brand new engine. In fact it is
so new that it will be ( by my railroads time line) 2 years before it will be introduced to the real world.
9. Battery and remote control will be added at a later date.
Thanks for your time.
Rick Marty