Awesome Article

Jim has done another awesome MRH/RE article (3rd in a row I believe).  Jim's explanation how-to matches the great result he got with his detailed Pacific. The step by step talk and comparison to prototype photos for the why and what made me read the whole article without stopping.  I got tickled when Jim wrote, "I do not take apart steam locomotive models. No way, brothers!"  I made big mistakes because I followed no prototype when I added Cal Scale details and brass pipes to my antique Pacific locos.  Next time, I need to guide myself using Jim's article.  STEAM IS GREAT! Well done, Mr. Six!

Steve G

Steve,

Your message is really appreciated. That NYC K3 article was a lot of work. After reading it again now that it is published brings to light something that I need to work on. That is, there are a few places where I repeated myself a little. That is caused by starting and stopping work on the article as I built and photographed the model. IT is difficult to main "flow" when writing in that way. On the other hand, if I don't write as I build the model I have to believe that I would overlook and forget some important points. I promise that I will work harder to prepare a smoother flowing article and still address all of the key points.

Should anyone have questions, comments, or suggestions about this article and the featured model please ask them here and I will do my best to answer them. I can also provide more photography if there is something specific you would like to see.

Thanks again Steve.

Jim Six

Thorough Enjoyment!

As always really good presentation and, in this case, very near and dear to my heart as I have always loved the Pacifics over all other steam engines. Don't know why, but their lines sing to me! I'm not sure, but perhaps they were the ones I remember most from my childhood living along the Rock Island mainline in Chicago's south side. If I had the money available, I would be getting one of these to make up into either CRIP or NP livery.

Thanks for another great article!

Photo Bud

Bud,

I hear ya'. I too love the Pacific-type locomotive. While the Mikado is my favorite because I am a freight train buff, I find the Pacific to be among the most "beautiful" of steam power. They are not too big, not too small, and most have great lines. The USRA Pacific is no exception. Broadway Ltd has done a great job of capturing that great locomotive in model form. It is a really good model to work with. While this model will primarily be a passenger locomotive I intended to use it for light freight duties at times.

Jim

Below is the fireman's side of the model when I was about half way complete with the detail changes that I made. In the past I used either brass rod or solder to shape into the needed piping. This time I decided to use copper wire. I found that copper wire works far better for bending to shape and forming the plumbing than does either brass or solder.

NYC Pacific and Layout

Jim:

Great article as usual.  I would love to see more on your layout progress; if anything new.  I really like the approach you took on the NYC Michigan Branch.  I have always admired your work and articles throughout the past 20 years or so.  The Carolina and Western in Model Railroad Planning was favorite of mine...

Happy New Year to you and I look forward to seeing your work again in 2019!!!

I received a private message

I received a private message asking why I didn't weather this locomotive more than I did. I knew that this question would come up. So, permit me to ramble a bit with my thoughts.

I see today's hobbyists as over-weathering their models. After all, weathering looks really great. Problem is though, not all locomotives and rolling stock is as weathered as we modelers make them. Some are, but we tend to have too many heavily weathered models. NOT REALISTIC.

Back in the 1920s -- the roaring twenties -- locomotives and rolling stock was not rolling rust buckets. In fact, most freight cars were not rusty at all as they were wood and not steel. The steel cars around then were much newer. And, labor was relatively cheap so time was spent maintaining equipment -- particularly passenger locomotives. The NYC was arguably the nation's premier passenger railroad and in order to maintain that image passenger locomotives were regularly cleaned. My model is a passenger locomotive.

Most of us with personal recollections remember steam locomotives as filthy and ill-maintained. That is because we can only remember the final years of steam, a time when steam locomotives were used until they broke down and then retired. That is not the way railroads worked back in the pre-depression years. The locomotives were generally newer and better maintained.

So, as a passenger locomotive in a time of prosperity and representing a premier passenger railroad, . . . I chose to paint and weather my model to best represent how it looked back in 1927.

Jim Six

Thomas Austin

Hi Thomas. Thanks for you kind words. The C&W was a favorite of mine too. If it wasn't for my love of steam power I would go back to modeling the C&W in the late 1950s. The ACL was and is my overall favorite railroad.

Jim Six

Pacifics and Mikados and Steam Weathering

I'm in agreement with Jim on a couple of his points made above. Mikes and Pacifics share a couple of things that make them great for model railroads - compactness. I model the N&W, but will rarely run any of the bigger locomotives (especially those with four wheel trailers) for this reason.

I model Circleville, Ohio, in 1938. The first photo shows one of the small E class Pacifics that were used to serve the local industries for some period of time in the forties. The second is a nice color photo from the mid fifties (also servicing Circleville industries) that shows just how clean the locomotives were when a railroad was still committed to that form of motive power.  (The NWHS has a wonderful (and wonderfully searchable) archive here)

Matt Goodman

Good morning Matt,

You used the term "compactness". That word is something we model railroaders need to better understand. Our layouts are a compact representation of some prototype scene or an imagined scene. It only makes sense that huge, long locomotives don't work for a compact layout. This is why I like 2-8-0 and 2-8-2 locomotives from my freight trains and the 4-6-2 for passenger operations.

Here is one of the next prototypes that I will model. A Pennsy USRA class L2a Mike.

Locality

Some of the weathering "standards" in the hobby were set by Paul Jansen back in the 1970s. But Jansen was modeling sunbleached SP engines running in areas with highly alkaline water -- not exactly the conditions found in Ohio and Illinois.

Graham Line

Your message prompts me to state another of my hobby "rules". That is, do not model to other people's standards. Model to your prototype. Period. If you cannot go out and see your prototype, then sit down in front of your computer and find photos of it. Simple enough.

Jim Six

And if there are no photos ...

And if you can’t find photos online or if there is no prototype (as in freelanced), then pick a representative prototype for which you can find photos online, and use them to guide your modeling — if realism is a goal, that is. If you’re into whimsy, that’s fine too, but even then using real photos as inspiration for whimsy can be helpful too.

I am planning another NYC

I am planning another NYC 4-6-2. It too will be a modified BLI USRA model. Here is a photo of the prototype I will model. It will need a new cab two windows per side, a new Commonwealth trailing truck, and another of the NYC tender bodies. I do not believe I can come up with another Oriental tender so I will modify the BLI USRA tender. I am planning to 3D print the cab. The truck remains a problem.

Thanks So Much for This!!!

Like many, I enjoyed the usual layout on a sheet or plywood as a kid in the 60's. I decided to come back to model railroading in the late 90's. (And yes, I remember Jim Six from his articles in Model Railroader at that time, and those early, wonderful days of the internet. I remember Jim's posts in the Southeastern Railroad Modelers Group. Remember those news groups then?)
When I came back, I wanted to model the WWII era for several reasons, but that's another post. I was somewhat discouraged by the lack of decent steam, even for a free-lanced road, but more discouraging were all those I met that gave me a "tsk-tsk, no you can't do it". Eventually, I sold off what I'd accumulated, and left. Fast forward to this last year, and I decided to take the plunge again knowing better RTR steam had been produced in the last ten years, and my present modeling hobby just wasn't cutting it for me and mine. 
Thank you so much for this article Jim! While I don't plan to model the NYC (my concentration is on the NC&StL and L&N), your methods, etc. will carry over to my own detailing projects. This article is definitely getting saved. 

Warren

Thank you Warren. Your

Thank you Warren. Your message encourages me to do more. My appetite for more steam projects is high!

tske care my friend,

jim

Does this loco interest

Does this loco interest anybody? I a modeling it and will do an article about it too. While my NYC K3q article was about adjusting a Broadway plastic locomotive and adding a brass tender body, this project will be about adjusting a brass model and adding a plastic tender body!

Jim Six

Enjoyed this article

I am not a sophisticated steam engine fan, so your rendition of the NYC Pacific is more than acceptable. On the weathering, I like the well maintained because it's well used look. I am surprised when I look at steam photos how much dust is picked up by oil or moist areas. Condensation on tender water cistern seemed to be a magnet on otherwise clean locomotives.

Great Job

Jim

The conversion of the BLI Pacific into a good looking and running model came out very well.  I've used the same Pacific model to create a C&O F-20.  Lots of details to removed/move/add as one can expect.  The real challenge was the tender.  I choose to modify the stock tender as I could not find anything except a $300 model to 'borrow' the tender from and even then it would not accommodate the electronics. In the end it seems to have turned out well and serves as steam power for the M&E train on the RR (as it did on the prototype as well).  Here it is when completed.

This article was right up my alley

This article struck a chord with me. I've been working on modifying a BLI Light MIkado into a Pere Marquette MK-1, documenting it, as I go along, in a series of articles for the Pere Marquette Historical Society's newsletter.

One thing that makes the PM's MK-1 a bit easier is that the new tender that the one I'm modeling needs is, for all intents and purposes, the Rivarossi Berkshire tender, or the newer one from Bachmann. These haven't proven to be too hard to get.

King_coal

You are right, Steam locomotives sweated a lot and there were places that were moist from oil. As you said, these places were magnets for dust and other dirt and grime. Look at the tender in this photo. It is very obvious where the water tank section of the tender is located, and it is not completely full either. Nice little 0-8-0 switcher.

Jim

Jim, I will be interested in

Jim, I will be interested in your 2-8-2 locomotive project. Just so you know that will be the lightest Steamer on my layout and it will be a USRA heavy type.

Other models I will run.

2-6-6-6

C&O 2-10-4

Penn type 2-10-4

Possibly some of these.

I have all of these locomotives and just need to go over them to get them ready for prime time.

As you can see most of my locomotives could be called ballast crushers, and or rail straighteners. They do look good with long stings of hopper cars between a pair of them. They would definitely not be at home on your lighter rail granger branch lines, but the big locomotives were definitely used in the type of service I am modeling and in the same general area.

The B&O based these and ran them out of Wheeling.

So lots of big and heavy locomotives in my part of the rail network.

Rick G.

Rick,

Your C&O model 4-6-2 is very, very nice!  I like it my friend. If you have more photos please share them. You are obviously a talented modeler.

Happy new year,

Jim Six

Fritz Milhaupt

Fritz,

Please share photos of your Mike!

Here is one of my USRA  Mikes.I have to backdate it to its 1927 appearance. This means that I need to re-letter it with the older Railroad Roman lettering and also remove the later day coal bunker extension. I will also weather it a little lighter.

Jim

Rob

All those are beautiful locomotives but all are too large for my layout.

Jim