4-8-2 Back Head?

Knobs red, handles red, gauges white to light gray, yes I would add color.

Dick

Thanks Dick

Would the firebox door handle be red?  More likely worn down to shiny metal from use.

Seaboard's Mountains were all hand-fired originally, not sure if they ever got stokers.  I suspect those doors got worked hard.

Bob  - those two large slanting  tubes are stoker coal delivery tubes.  I read somewhere during WWII stokers were mandated for locomotives above a certain size.  As a result the PRR had to retrofit stokers on hundreds of hand fired locomotives L1s 2-8-2's and K4s 4-6-2's.  Perhaps the Seaboard 4-8-2's fell under the same mandate.  

Ed,

Your post prompted me to take another look at my books and sure enough, the M2 class Mountains were converted to Hanna SF or Standard HT stokers, looks like in the late 1930s.

I would look at some real locomotive backhead color pictures before I painted anything.

Bob Delbridge posted:

Thanks Dick

Would the firebox door handle be red?  More likely worn down to shiny metal from use.

Seaboard's Mountains were all hand-fired originally, not sure if they ever got stokers.  I suspect those doors got worked hard.

Some burned coal and some burned oil.Later on they had stokers installed.

seaboardm2 posted:

Some burned coal and some burned oil.Later on they had stokers installed.

Yep, some were converted to oil use which SAL found cheaper to run.  I'm surprised they didn't convert them all knowing how tight Seaboard was with their $$$.

Bob Delbridge posted:

seaboardm2 posted:

Some burned coal and some burned oil.Later on they had stokers installed.

Yep, some were converted to oil use which SAL found cheaper to run.  I'm surprised they didn't convert them all knowing how tight Seaboard was with their $$$.

To me this makes seaboard stand out more.Because not that many railroads in this part of the country.Had oil burning steamers.

PAUL ROMANO posted:

I would look at some real locomotive backhead color pictures before I painted anything.

IRM's operational Russian Decapod, SLSF 1630 circa 2002:

Rusty

NKP 755 in Conneaut, Ohio

OK, I think I got the paint in all the right places:

Once the crew is in place the gauges/valve handles should still be in view.

Nice!

Dan Weinhold

Thanks Dan!  I painted the dials by touching them with a white paint pen, then scraped the paint off the indicator/pointer/needle.  The bank of red handles at the top appears to be a separate casting (brass or diecast?), the red was brushed on.

Almost done converting this Lionel Southern 4-8-2 into a Seaboard Air Line Class M2 4-8-2.

This is the original engine:

And here's the SAL Mountain #240:

In addition to making a Vanderbilt tender from brass, I also had to relocate/make/buy part of the walkway/running board, sand dome, bell, and air tanks.  Also had to re-bend the brass piping underneath the walkway and dremel out a spot in the rear for a MTH circuit board for the 10-pin tether so I could install BPRC electronics.

Here's a shot of the engine:

and the tender:

I did scribe some lines and simulated wood etching on the platform on top of the water tank, just can't see them in the photo.

Here's a shot of the removable foam "coal" load:

This is showing the BPRC electronics (Deltang Rx65 receiver, RSC on/off switch and charging jack) hidden inside, mounted to a box I made from Strathmore paperboard.  The battery is in the water tank, accessible by popping off the round end piece made from PVC round stock.  The 2 yellow thingies are the polyfuses to keep things safe.  The yellow spot behind the box is a piece of heat-shrink tubing is slipped over the Deltang Rx to keep it from making contact with any metal:

I still have a few items to add, tool boxes, sand dome piping, and maybe some rivet decals on the coal bunker.

What surprised me was the brass tender weighs less (even with all the solder I used!) than the diecast Lionel tender that came with the engine.

This will most likely be my last engine project, decals are getting too hard to find (although I do have 2 sets of Champ decals coming from Jack McGarry).

Seems like I've been working on this thing for 6 months!  I never thought I would end up with a SAL 4-8-2, but the Lionel engine was too close not to try, and the price was great as well.

Oh...this Lionel engine runs GREAT on battery power, probably the best running engine at slow speed of the 10 steamers I've converted with the Williams brass N&W 611 a close 2nd.