[GN_Rocky]

A quick note here with work in progress, no pictures at this time.
I deceided to cut the Belpraire firebox and splice in a piece made out of styrene.
Lot's of work here, but it is a viable solution. At the moment, I am making and istalling beams and cross beams of styrene that
will hold up the styrene "walls" of the spliced in piece. I hope to have some pictures B-4 calling it a night. If not, I will post them
tomorrow morning.

Rocky

 

[GN_Rocky]

Ok, here's the pictures ...
What I did was cut the Belpraire firebox and inserted a few cross beams inside to fix 1/8th thick styrene to for extending the firebox section of the boiler. I will then file down the screw heads to an almost flush finish to the shell.

Doing this will give the shell some good strength and support for mounting parts on to and for handling purposes.
So tomorrow(later today) I will make a couple thin cardboard "jigs" to use to trace then cut out the 1/8 inch styrene.
It may take more than one piece to do the top and I may split that in two in the middle of each piece if I can not bend
them into the correct beveled angle at the middle of the top.

More to follow tomorrow

Rocky

 

[Terl]

I enjoy watching your bash and your techniques. Should be a great looking loco. Personally I don't think that I could bring myself to chop up the Lionel engines, but they make obvious donors. Keep us posted.

Terl

 

[aceinspp]

Rocky: Just a thought, could you not have used a flat head screw with the bevel and slightly recessed and then just filled in over the screw. Later RJD

 

[GN_Rocky]

I guess the reason I used the small Kadee screws is, well there's two reasons.
1). They are small and work well on these projects.
2). They're free, or kinda free as they come with Kadee #830s and I don't have to go out and buy the screws seperately.
And I've accumulated quite a few of these screws and matching nuts with all the frieght cars I have collected

As for the Belpraire firebox "stretching", I've almost got all the styrene in place, so pictures will soon follow later.


Rocky

 

[GN_Rocky]

Well, here is the progress on the Belpraire firebox from last nite.


I added the styrene covering and filed down the screw heads flush with the shell.

Don't mind the mis-alinement on the shell in the last picture, I bumped the table while shooting that last picture and the
shell pieces of the boiler and firebox became mis-alined as the firebox was just resting on the frame and was not screwed down
yet.

Todays project will be to do the work of sloping the cab and cutting the hole for the firebox to come thru.
Still lots more to come

Rocky

 

[GN_Rocky]

Here is a quick update from yesterday's progress before we left for the game last night.
About all I got done after work was to cut the hole in the cab for the belpraire firebox to come thru into the cab.
Today I hope to get the sloped front edge of the cab done. The cab now fits nice and snug on the firebox.

After doing some research on the "Q" series, I found that if I had done a Q-1, I could leave the cab shape as it is.
In fact as you check the steamers that GN had in their roster, all dash one locos(ending in -1) were original locos from the
builder and they all had the square shaped cabs. The dash 2 and above ( -3 and -4) locos were rebuilds in GN's shops and in most
cases, would have the sloped front edge of the cab.

Hope to post more progress later tonight.

Rocky

 

[GN_Rocky]

Sloped cab now completed(other than a little sanding and filler)

I guess now I can work on the details for on top of the Belpraire firebox and cab interior.

Stay tuned !!!

Rocky

 

[GNSteamer]

Nice Work Rocky! You can do so much with styrene much easier than we can do in live steam. Great job on the Belpair smoke box and sport cab. I bought the Aster live steam GN S2 this summer in kit form and completed it in August. I'm in the process of adding more details to my Aster Mikado that I have done up in GN livery, but they will have to be made out of brass.

 

[GN_Rocky]

Not much work done today.
But I did position some of the details on top of the Bepraire firebox and cut off the Eastern style vent
hatches and positioned them in the proper place for the GN cabs. These vents will be able to open and close
using small brass hinges that I got at the doll house/miniture shop today. I also picked up some little casters
that I remove the wheel part and use the rest as "cleats", little hold down brackets to hold down piping and
wiring. Ah yes, soon as the boiler/firebox is painted, it'll be time to run the steam lines and electrical bus lines
along the boiler/firebox. That's were all the fun starts !!! Now here's a couple pictures.

I thanks all the nice comments folks !!! Makes me feel good and let's me know the project is all well worth it.
Some have said that they got the Aster GN S-2 kit. But this is more fun, building a loco without any directions and doing
it all for just some pictures in books plus parts from that which is only availible. I do build custom parts too.

More fun still to come !!!

Rocky

 

[Jerry Barnes]

Rocky,
I'm curious about how you did the frame. Never saw any pix of that.

 

[rkapuaala]

Fantastic Job Rocky. Great work, excellent detail

 

[lownote]

I'm really enjoying this thread--thanks for the updates

 

[Greg Elmassian]

Jerry, read the first 2 pages of this thread, there are pictures of the frame, the hinge, gearboxes, etc.

Regards, Greg

 

[Jerry Barnes]

Thanks Greg,
Was not aware the bottom of the boiler was the frame, but I see now! Sure looks good Rocky!

Jerry

 

[GN_Rocky]

Hey guys,
Sorry for any mis-information on the build.
The main "frame" of the loco is the bottom section of the boiler and it is just 2 Aristo Pacific parts spliced together.
One was an older one, the other is a newer one that overlaps about 2 inches more than the other if you looked at a single
full piece. The front section is the older shell and it goes from the front of the loco to just where the weight ends towards the cab. The rear section is the newer piece and it goes forward from the rear of the cab to just shy of 2 inches into the weight area. The 2 sections are connected by what I call "splice tabs". These are the flat thin( bout .125 inch) black spacers that come with one of the Kadee couplers. There is one tab on the outside of the shell, one on the inside. I drilled a hole just large enough
to fit the screws that came with Kadee #830 couplers, 2 screws per tab. There is either 10 or 12 of these splice tabs on the
seam of the shell splice. and of course, it is glued as well. After the glue had dried, I cut off the excess screw on the inside with
the dremel using a cutting wheel. Worked great on the P-2, so I think I'll stick with this process. It does make for a STRONG
hold with little to no give to it.

Other than that, I've taken the weekend off from the loco due to our 5th year anniversary.
Spent most of today cleaning house, but most of the time with Deb. I'll be getting back to working on the loco sometime
next week. Maybe, just ,aybe, I might get a few minutes tomorrow or tomorrow night after the game.
No promises. But I think I will be cutting the vent holes in the top of the cab next and installing the hinges on the vent
doors. The boiler shell would be next to paint, then I can do the piping and electrical busses and cab interior.

Rocky

 

[Torby]

So how do you get your extension to the firebox to match the contour? I'm guessing you use something better than "Squadron Green Putty."

 

[Maurice F. Head]

WOW Rocky.. that is one beautiful piece of machinery... then again.. i am a bit partial to the 2-10-2 configuration...

and if it is anything like the one here.... yeah... it will rip the rails with pulling power.. my main problem is wheelslip... guess i'm gonna has to install a sander this winter...

wow... your usual level of craftsmanship as well.... tol's ya what... let me run yours... an' ya can come run mine....

 

[GN_Rocky]

Well today's progress report has no pictures, sorry.
But thru the craziness of the holidays, some work is still being done

I began starting to work on making the piping for steam lines. Not much to look at, just styrene tubing and unpainted at that too. Valves, actuators and the like are being made now for installation on the boiler after it is painted. I may paint the boiler today in fact. I've had an idea, an alternative thought to connecting the firebox to the main boiler and that is to use black insulative foam in the small gap between them. THat way if there is alot of vibration during running, that the shell won't crack. Just an idea of course. Other than that, it's been busy with other things outside the train hobby and even with that, I'm trying to build a 1/18th Jagdtiger to help out a friend on the military forum. Sooo much and sooo little time

More later and pictures too

Rocky

 

[rwjenkins]

Are you going to paint her black or in the Glacier Park scheme? Looks like at least one of these engines was painted green at some point in her career: http://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr0102/gn2176.jpg. Of course it would also look awesome painted black and hauling a string of ore cars. Either way, she's looking good so far!