Once again I want to credit Steve Eastman's creativity. He comes up with some ideas that make you think. A while ago he posted a thread on making a steeple cab out of an old Ives engine. I thought it was pretty cool, but thought no more of it until several months later.
First I came across some photos of a JEP French prewar tinplate steeple cab:
... and I realized I really liked it's proportions, especially the profile of the lower cab, compared to other steeple cab designs I'd seen, like Steve's, with proportionately much higher center cabs. Soon after that, an Ives cast iron loco frame from a 3235 came my way, and it was the narrow version, which fit an old narrow field Ives motor I'd had for a long time. That made two of the three main components, with a design idea for the third, so I set to work bending some tin.
Here's a little movie of my Ives "Niagra Junction" steeple cab in Standard Gauge tinplate, with my home-made cab mounted on a vintage Ives frame and motor, giving various Bing cars a ride around the layout.
Thanks for watching!
david
