Custom Reading Engines: T-1, E5sa, saddle-tank 0-6-0

No new work on the 2102, but I've been tinkering with my Lionel USRA 0-8-0 to RDG E-5sa conversion.

 

 

 

Nice canadate for a Reading I-1a 2-8-0 also.

 

An I-10sa was actually my first thought, but the USRA is a little on the small side.  I've been looking for candidates for an I-10sa but I've been trying to convince myself to finish the E-5 and the #1251 before I spend any more money on motive power.  Plus there are still a few more details I'd like to add to the 2102.  I was thinking the Lionel Consolidation might be a good drivetrain donor, but I'd pretty much have to scratch-build the whole boiler.  Or I could hack up a T-1, but if I got another great deal on a T-1, I'd just want another T-1.  The other idea rolling around in my head is to convert a N&W Y3 (or maybe a USRA Mallet) to an N-1.  But that's down the road further.  

I just treated myself to  MTH T1 and love it. It was to replace the Lionel T1 but I'm still thinking about it for now. I'm using the MTH for Pulling a 14 car coal train and I can use the Lionel for Ramble passenger service lol. Would a MTH USRA 0-8-0 be to small also? They can be had pretty reasonable in ebay. I have a N&W I thinking of listing sine I got a NYC version.

Well do the math.  The T-1 boiler is a lengthened I-10 boiler.  (In fact I think the boiler fronts are the same.) So look at the diameter of the boiler of your USRA 0-8-0 compared to your T-1, there's your answer.    You could probably make a really nice "Railking" sized I-10 out of it, but not scale.

I think the best candidate for an I-10 conversion right now would be an MTH Premier WM consolidation.  Good proportions, would just have to add the Wooten firebox, fix up the cab, and adjust the appliances and headlight. Some other small details too but it'd be a good start.  Problem is those aren't exactly cheap.

Latest work on the E5sa has involved moving the footboard on the engineer's side and recontouring the domes to better represent Reading style. Did a lot more reshaping of the wooten firebox before I was happy with it.  Still not totally pleased with the smokebox front, the door is too big and the headlight too small. But I'm going with it for now. Also removed the handrails and filled the holes since most were in the wrong place.  You can see I'm in the middle of adding new washout plugs.  Not many of them stayed that way but the E5sa was built with fully jacketed firebox so I'm modelling that simply to avoid dealing with rivets (until I scratch-build the tender body, anyway.)

My T1 kitbash. D&H anniversary engine.

 

Recessed headlight, smoke deflectors, straight cab window tops, auxiliary tender and new paint job.

1:1 scale.

 

My version.

Great work, Bill.  Never was my favorite look for the 2102, but she made a good stand in.  It's really quite too bad D&H didn't save any of their steam, they managed to make eccentric look classy.

The latest work on my E5sa made a big difference;  I cut a scale foot or so off the smokebox and corrected the pilot footboards as much as I dared to without fouling the coupler swing.  Although looking at the way the coupler is mounted, it should be relatively pain-free to devise an interchangeable mount for a scale coupler.  Maybe after I scratch-build the whole tender!  Pardon the lousy photos,  I'm working on it on my break at work sitting in my work truck.

Oh and by the way, Bill, if you want to remove the running board stripe to be more true to the prototype,  I found that regular rubbing alcohol made short work of them without damaging the black paint beneath.

Wowak,

 The E5sa is looking good. And I have to agree with you that Bill did a nice job creating D&H's "Anniversary Engine". The one little change you suggested would really make it stand out.

 My hat's off to both of you on excellent work!

 

Henry J.

I thought of that, but decided I liked the stripe.  Not much of a "rivet counter". 

Well all the major conversion work is complete, except (I think) for the cab front windows.  Now it's just accessories, handrails, and pilot details.  I may still decide to build an interchangeable scale coupler mount for the front.  Then I get to start scratch-building the tender shell, with no images of what the back of it looks like.  Wish me luck!

 

 

 

 

 

The pumps on the fireman's side should be moved a few feet forward, but then the shroud around the can motor would be quite obvious, so I've chosen not to move them.  I'm still trying to find better pictures of the arrangement of the generator, whistle and pop-offs on top of the firebox, all my reference photos are from the ground so the exact location of them is very difficult to determine.  I suppose I may just have to fudge it.  I'd like to find the correct trucks for the tender as well, although for the time being I plan to use the trucks from the 0-8-0 (and the air whistle if I can fit it in the small-ish tender. 

 

First coat of primer. Fewer problem spots than I expected.

Looking GOOD!

Wowak,
That is really looking good. What are you doing for a tender? I can't wait to see the final results!

Henry J

I'm going to be largely scratch-building the tender. I'll use the trucks from the 0-8-0's tender and maybe part of the chassis,  although I'll have to re-drill the mount for one of the trucks to move them closer together. The Reading -type tender trucks (do they have an official name/designation?) will be a problem, not sure exactly where to get them and it's going to be time-consuming to scratch-build them, esp. if I want to have trucks with pickups for the whistle (if I can even fit it in there.)  I also haven't decided exactly how I will model the coal load. I've got a few ideas I'm mulling over.   I think I'm going to get it finished with the existing trucks and worry about the correct ones later. Unless somebody has a Crusader tender they stepped on and want to sell the trucks from.

There's my start on the tender. Not so much, but a start. I laid another coat of primer on the locomotive and I'm not really going to be home all weekend so it will have a good chance to dry before I start painting it.

With all the added details it would be impossible to cast as one piece,  and I definitely don't have the means to cast it anyway.

Here's my progress on the tender so far.  The only major detail I don't have some referring is the size,  shape and position of the water hatch.

The tender is looking great Wowak!

 I like to keep following the progress of your projects.

 

 Would you open to redoing the pilot of my Lionel T-1?

 

Thanks

Henry J

 

Henry, shoot me an email with exactly what you want and we'll talk about it.  I couldn't do anything VERY soon for no other reason than the stanchions I use for the coupler lift bar come from the UK and take 3-4 weeks to get here because of customs, and I only have 1 left.

brian.wowak (at) gmail.com.

So getting the tender together I realized not only would the wide Lionel trucks not tuck between the frame-rails (which I expected,) they were really tall. Combined the tender was riding almost a scale foot too high.  So the solution was to modify the trucks to ride lower on the wheelsets.  I popped out the plastic journals, and modified them slightly to go in upside down. Modified on the left, original on the right.   I would still rather have a set of correct Reading style trucks.



I also had to tweak the 3rd rail pickups to keep them from high-centering the trucks.



The Lionel "air whistle"  is mounted in the tender. I hope it never breaks because I'll have to cut the floor out to get at it.  I should have put more thought into that part.



The tender is still a hair high, but It's close enough for now. 




Oh, also, I just won another 0-8-0 on eBay, so it looks like I'm building an I-9sa next.

Wowak,

 That's awesome!

 

Henry J

Thanks, I'm very pleased so far.

In the absence of hard data, I kinda winged what the coal bunker doors might look like.

 

Did you ever notice how you can stare at decals until you go crosseyed, decide you've got them PERFECT, then as soon as you take a picture of them they look like you applied them drunk?  Yeah that's awesome.   I may re-decal the front numberboard. 

It looks very good and I doubt you really need to re-do decals any decals.  The modeler always sees all the little imperfections.  Very often no one else notices.  

 

My "downfall" ow is rivets I create when I scratch or bash models.  (I don't use press on rivets - maybe I should).  Any slight uneven-ness in distance between them or if they are not in a straight line, and i see it, no one else ever does.  

Looks GREAT Wowak!

 Can't wait to see it with the tender!

 

Henry J

 

Just a couple of handrails and details away from paint.  These micromark decal rivets are amazing.

 

Well done!

Thanks!  All that's left is clearcoat and weathering.    Eventually I'll get the correct tender trucks (from a Lionel Camelback) but the set is ~$50 and I can't justify it right now.  I've got another 0-8-0 lined up for an I-9 build but I've got my eye on another donor for an I-10sa build so I might jump to that.  The trickiest part of the I-9sa build will be moving the steam chest, smokebox and stack forward a few scale inches, and or course adding the pilot truck.  The rest of it shouldn't be much more complex than this build (although this time I'll be completely scrapping the cab and scratch-building one instead of just modifying the windows.)   The I-10sa I'll be scratch-building almost everything except for the chassis, powertrain and steam chest.  The E5sa definitely proved to me that I have the ability to do it, though.

Beautiful !

Hi,  Beautiful.  Was wondering if the trucks from a Reading Crusader tender would be a close match for the trucks on your tender project?  There is one for sale on ebay.  Jim R.

       
       


I suppose they would,  but considering that I can get both trucks from Lionel for about $50, and the starting bid on that tender is $100, that doesn't make a ton of financial sense.

Looking forward to the I10sa build!

Wowak,

 That looks great! I'm looking forward to see your next project!

 

Henry J.

Well I'm tinkering with the #1251 dockside again... trying to decide what the repercussions will be if I try to shorten the actual smoke unit so I can shorten the overly-long smokebox, and if I should ditch the electronic whistle so I can shorten the cab to it's correct length.

Well the dremel sort of had a mind of it's own, so I shortened the smoke unit and am shortening the smokebox.  I think I can keep the whistle and shorten the cab if I close all the windows and lose any hint of there being an interior.  Still mulling that over.