Did CLW ever make a B&O P7 Pacific

CLW never produced a model of a B&O P-7.  If your model has sand cast iron or brass driver centers, you may have a model built from parts produced by Ken Henry prior to WWII when he offered this model as a kit or built up.  Does the model have sprung drivers?  Ken's P-7 kits had a sand cast bronze frame and cylinders.

 

Joe Foehrkolb

Your model appears to be decades old and a reasonable facsimile of an early P-7. It also looks to be sheet brass to me. While there are some inaccuracies, it looks like it may have the correct 19 spoke drivers and the typical B&O cab roof curvature.

Sharing a few photos of the underside of the engine might help illuminate its origin(s).

I have never heard of CLW doing a B&O P7.

 

CLW is well-known for doing the Southern Pacific, I think it was a PS4 class.    He did more than one run of that model.

 

Could this be kitbashed from one of those?   Is that even possible?

I will vote for the Ken Henry verdict.  If you study his models in the B & O museum you will see that he actually got better when he did this one.  The boiler shape could be Scale Craft SP.  No way this is CLW or Lobaugh.  Lobaugh did a P-1.

Thanks to all who replied.  I obtained the engine in 1986 from the estate of a man who had lived in the suburban DC (near Silver Spring) area.  He had been an electrical engineer and had begun modeling O scale trains in the 1930's.  His collection contained models dating from the 1930s well into the late 1970s or early 80s.  Some of his engines were outside 3rd rail, others 2 rail, but all had open frame motors.  He used DC power which he generated by using a large AC electric motor to power a DC generator, controlling the volage by controlling the AC motor speed.  His layout occupied most of the basement of a large ranch style home.  Almost everything he owned (engines and rolling stock) was built from kits or kitbashed from models that were commercially available (e.g., he repowered and rewired a 700 e, destroying the original backhead and modifying the frame and repainting the tender for his private road name).  The P7 was one of the 2 or 3 engines in his collection that was relatively intact.  

 

I have attached a few more pictures showing the engine's underside and the tender

 

 

Do not forget - folks who are not famous have scratch-built models at least this good.  My friend John Dill (RIP) was always trying to ascribe engines to Icken, Alexander, or some other famous person - yet I know folks who have made from scratch locomotive models that rival the best, and yet they were just hobbyists doing what they enjoyed.

Hooked,

 

As I said above, Ken Henry sold kits for the B&O P-7 before WWII.  I have his catalog in my collection.  Since you purchased this model from and estate in Maryland and Ken was a Baltimore resident all his life, it is more than likely that your model was built by someone who knew Ken and purchased parts from him and built it himself.  Ken did not often put rivets on his tenders so this model may have been built by an unknown modeler.

 

I have a P-7 built by the late Mr. Russell Wilcox in 1937/38 from Ken Henry's kit.  The model was reworked and 2 railed in the 1980s by Bernie Gallagher for Russ and repainted at some point.

 

Ken had the patterns for the correct 19 spoke drivers that the B&O used.  Ken also numbered his castings so if you disassemble the model and see three digit numbers in the castings, they are surely Ken's.

 

I have several of Ken's P7 sand castings including a cast frame, drivers, cylinders and domes.  I also have a partial set of drawings for constructing the model that Russ gave me.

 

As Bob T said above, back in the early days, many unknown modelers had the skills to build a locomotive like this from a set of castings.  Some are very well done but may represent the only locomotive model ever made by a specific modeler.

 

Your model looks like it is well done.

 

Joe Foehrkolb

While we are on the subject I just bought an O gauge Flyer Pacific with the #43226 on the cab; it sure looks like a B & O P7.  Any thoughts. Also now that I have it I realize that Flyer didnt really make any cars (passenger or otherwise) that go with it.  It has link couplers which means hooking up to 3/16 scale cars; it looks like its very close to 1/48 O scale.      

 

                       thanks for your reply, bertiejo

Nice loco. For some added details, I would swap out the tender water scoop for something more detailed that psc offers. Second add a keil line backhead to that boiler to cover up that hole. Keil line offers with and without stoker backhead.