prep and painting a N&W Y-3 2-8-8-2.
I still need to assemble the Texas & Pacific 2-10-4 engine but figure I can do that while this engine is 'cooking'.
I wanted a Y6B but this was for sale 2 years ago at a real good price so I bought it instead (plus it, closely, looks like a Y6B!) The engine was made in 1978.
Unusual box lid in that's it's hinged.
This, also, sold me on the model: removable cab roof with real nice interior detail. The PFM Y6B that I was looking for didn't have this kind of detail. This will make it easy to paint the interior walls a light green.
The open frame motor replaced with a can motor. This is one of the motors that I purchased for 5 bucks which, to me, appears to be a duplicate of Kato's motor.
No holes in the motor frame to secure it to the engine so just used clear silicone. New tubing replaced the old black dried out tubing plus a metal rod inserted between motor and gear for stability.
DC test was good.
LED and decoder prep:
Multiple holes drilled below the tender's deck plate to route decoder wires (8 of them).
A 'burr' used to remove the brass sheet under the tender's deck. A little filing 'cleaned it up'.
Tender light plus hole in tender to route LED wires.
Four running board lights over each of the valve gears.
Marker lights drilled and holes in front smoke box to route LED wires.
Three screws had to be removed to disassemble the valve gear from the valve gear supports.
The slot in the support was too small to pull the valve mechanism through so the one small screw had to be removed.
There were 2 small screws to be removed to take the valve mechanism out of the support.
Each screw was different so care was taken to replace, immediately, back into it's respective hole.
Some valve gears are soldered onto the driver's crank pin. This one has a small screw.
No springs for the drivers but wires, instead. In theory, this should allow better traction between all drivers as the motion of one driver affects the motion of it's 'neighbor'.
All parts arranged in the same orientation that they are removed from the engine.
Washed all parts in dish washing liquid and vinegar, dried them, taped up all exposed surfaces not getting paint and put the first coat of Scalecoat #10 black on all parts. Parts in paper boxes are air dried while metal tray gets the usual 200 degrees for 2 hours. Unusual on the tender trucks not having screws to remove the wheels so they will have to be air dried.
'Cooking' for 2 hours in the toaster oven.
