Although they had only a few, for a very few years, I love the SP Berkshires! Matt
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The coffin feedwater heater certainly makes for an interesting locomotive! Who is the manufacturer on your Berkshire? Did you make modifications?
@GG1 4877 posted:The coffin feedwater heater certainly makes for an interesting locomotive!
I think they were originally Boston & Main, and forced on the SP during WWII.
Who is the manufacturer on your Berkshire?
Sunset/3rd Rail did those in B&M, SP and I think Santa Fe.
Did you make modifications?
Looks like "factory original" to me.
The Boston & Maine connection makes complete sense regarding the feedwater heater. I need to learn my Sunset steam better. Obviously know more about the diseasel side of the company.
One of my favorites as well along with the AM2s. Both probably the homeliest steam engines on the SP but love all the detail.
I suspect the one above is a K-Line as 3rd Rails has the whaleback tender.
Pete
@Norton posted:One of my favorites as well along with the AM2s. Both probably the homeliest steam engines on the SP but love all the detail.
I suspect the one above is a K-Line as 3rd Rails has the whaleback tender.
Pete
Right you are. I forgot about the K-Line models. Thanks for the correction.
It is a K -line engine. I have three of them but not with the feed water. Don
By the way Mr Matt, love the shots. Don
That is a nice representation of the type T1-b Berkshire locomotive made for the Boston and Maine in 1928-1929.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bmrrhs/48169346857
https://sites.google.com/site/...mp;showPrintDialog=1
As others have stated, that is a K-Line model which also came in B&M and Santa Fe road names. Lionel also came out with the T1-b Berkshire ( 6-11388 for SP) using the molds obtained from K-Line.
SP and ATSF had a motive power shortage during WWII and the B&M sold 10 units to the SP and 7 units to ATSF. However, the units sold to SP and ATSF were the type T1-a and not the T1-b. The T1-a and T1-b were almost identical in appearance with the big difference in the sand dome. Generally, the T1-b was equipped with a larger tender but late production of the T1-a also had the larger tender. The sites.google link above has pictures of both T1-a and T1-b.
Why did B&M go with this feed water heater design? Route clearances? More efficient design?
Steve
@RideTheRails posted:Why did B&M go with this feed water heater design? Route clearances? More efficient design?
Steve
Apparently the Coffin Company must have had a really good Salesman.
The Boston and Maine did sometimes hide the Coffin feed water heater inside the smoke box. B&M 3713 at steamtown has one in this setup.
Did SP confine these engines to one district?
I would guess they only ran them in one district because they were coal burners and most SP steam engines were oil burners. Don
Converted to oil rather rapidly, with aforementioned whaleback tender. Wealth of information in the PFM Berkshire &Texas Type book.
The the tenders were replaced with the whaleback type so i assume they could go anywhere.
http://espee.railfan.net/sp_steam_berkshire.html
Pete
Cannot find my PFM book. Dunscomb says that they arrived on the El Paso division in 1945, and were all converted to oil and sent to California in 1949/50. From memory, the T1a had a four axle tender, so SP yanked the rectangular upper body off the tender frame and bolted on an enlarged whaleback from recently scrapped back-up mallies. (Yes, I know the proper spelling).
My first attempt was from MM drawings, which showed the T1b. Major difference is the length of the sand dome. I now have two - and at the risk of stopping this nice thread cold (my photos can do that) I will post a couple shots.
Sunset did the definitive version - I did a magazine review when it first came out, and could not find flaws. I was very hard on Sunset when they blew it - this one was as close as one could possibly get for the price. I do have a converted K-Line Lima demonstrator, and the detail is superb for a "U" shaped boiler with motor in the cylinder block. After spending a lot of time fixing those two glaring errors, I discovered it was the smallest locomotive model in my collection. Light Pacifics towered over it! "They" say it matches known blueprints in all dimensions.
Photos in the next post.
Here we go - first two are my first attempt, using Hundman drawings and photos. Note the T1b dome, and the SP style cab.
Third photo is my second attempt, still awaiting minor details and paint.
Fourth is a freelance SP Berk - my idea of what it would look like if SP grabbed a CNW or MoPac Berk and gave it the SP treatment. You can see a lot of SP Mikado details in cab, domes, and piping.
All of these were done using Lobaugh CNW Berkshire fragments as starting points, and all are 1/4" scale.
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Here is the K-Line - you cannot see the work I did, except for the flanges. The boiler is round, the motor is in the firebox where God intended it to be, and someday I may make the proper trailing truck and tender - or I may sell it and start over with brass tubes. Spectacular die work! Too bad K-Line didn't survive.
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I feel these are an acquired taste. Different but neat looking. I model the ATSF and SP so I could get one of each lettered for each road. Problem is I'd probably want to modify either a K-Line or Lionel version for each road. For SP remove the coffin feedwater heater and add a whaleback tender. For ATSF add an Elecso feedwater heater and oil conversion tender. So basically cut stuff up to make it more unique, because I can't leave well enough alone 😉.
ATSF made them a much better looking locomotive: https://www.railarchive.net/randomsteam/atsf4197.htm
