The front of the coal bunker starts as two small pieces 3/16" x 1/8" glued flush to the inside walls, I used .010 for this. The front piece starts out as a rectangle 11/16" high flush to the sides which is about 3/4" wide. I notched out a triangle about 1/4" high centered on the bottom for the coal opening then glued upright in place. Then I put a strip of .015x.030 I had centered vertically to simulate the door separation. then made latches out of the same material that lay on top of the simulated seam, but first adding a piece of the .015x.030 for the underneath to have something to anchor it more then just on the seam.


also added are steps on the front are the steps on both sides above the frame beam centered on the piece that comes down off the built shell and the salvaged flared steps from the K-4 tender cut just above the second step glued to the frame beam. The step cut from styrene is about 1/16" x 1/8". Heres a better view of the steps on the frame.


The rear steps are made from the .015x.030 strips I had doing the 2 vertical pieces the width of the rear frame beam apart about 7/32" long. I glued the top step first about 1/16" down and then capped the bottom with a strip. I used super glue on this but is will remain fragile.

Also there was a strip of .040 added to the under of the original frame to make it appear closer to the trucks, in pictures I have seen the tenders seem to sit really low.

Next I did the water hatch and the back coal bunker braces. The hatch is a piece of .404 about 28/32" x 3/16" with rounded corners with a piece of .010 1/32" larger (7/8" x 7/32") with rounded corners centered and glued on top. It also has strips of the .015x.030 on it one down the center for a hatch split and two on each side as the hinges about 1/16" long equally spaced. Then .010 brass wire handles centered on each hatch. The whole assembly sits centered 7/16" from the outside of the back tender wall.

The rear bunker braces (hard to see in the picture) are two strips 1/8" wide set at about a 45degree angle about 3/8" on the long side, its not a triangle, there is space between the deck and the center of the beam, equally spaced in the center.


I will try to get a good picture for the next part.

you do amazing work! I need to do this for my T-1, but i'm terrified to scratch it in N scale! my NMn caboose was a pain the rear!

Next is the rivet detail done with micro mart rivet decals. I prepped the with a coat of gloss. Actual placement was really just eyeballing based on pictures and once I did one side you could count the rivets you did to make is symmetrical. After applied I hit it with another layer of gloss coat to seal it. I also added a strip of .020x.010 around the top of the coal bunker to make the lip of the metal.






The last image also shows the back brace pieces for the coal bunker I mentioned in the last post.

The tender will sit like this for now, not having any parts at the moment to continue. so before we start into the engine itself I'll so how the easier in comparison 202 tender made from a Bachmann I-10.

Take the K-4 frame and cut the drawbar assembly out. it should be a pretty self contained rectangle. Then take the I-10 frame and cut a notch matching the width of the K-4 drawbar to fit about halfway up the rectangle, centered on the frame. glue it into place so when assembled the top of the assembly box is flush with the original frame sides top. It has some super glue white burns in the picture.



For the trucks use the original bachmann trucks and replace the ole wheels with the metal ones from the K-4 tender. Then it is basically wired as it was on the K-4. The lugs are taken off the pick up wires and put through the holes where the trucks clip to the frame feeding it between where the truck clip splits. It smashes the wire a little but it works fine. Glue the brass pickups to the bottom of the truck and solder the pickup wire to them.



For the actual shell its a friction fit now, to make room for the circuit board you need to cut out the plastic screw mold that come down inside the shell and cut out under the gangway so the wires can plug in.

This method is identical in a I-10 to spectrum guts conversion I did.

To start the actual locomotive I started with the pilot. In the past I used a pilot from Greeyway products which I picked up at train shows in Timonium MD directly from the company. I do not have a specific part number and they don't even have what I got on their site but they have something close thats.... out of stock right now, so good thing I figured out scratch building one. At any rate here is the link to Greenway products part TS-696 www.greenwayproducts.com/storeroom/brass...ilots_snowPlows.html the one I got from the company was only the pilot no boiler struts, hoses, cut lever, etc.
Start by taking off the K-4 pilot which slides off with a little muscle once the coupler is removed then remove the tab on the frame so it is flush with the base frame.



The pilot starts as .125 x .188 strip of styrene cut to 1 5/16 length. the coupler pocket is a normal kadee no.5 with the round holes that stick out the side cut off to be a solid rectangle. make a notch the width of the coupler pocket centered on the beam 3/32" deep for the coupler pocket to fit in. The lower section is the same stock fit to have 1/4" of the top beam stick out and have angled cuts on the ends to be a little less visible in the finished product. Also notched in the center 3/32 to fit the other half of the coupler pocket and then all glued together with the pocket sticking out about 1/8".



The rest of the pilot gets a little tricky to explain, it was a lot of eyeballing and deciding what to do as I was doing it, but I started with making a line on the pilot in line with the top of the coupler pocket which is the drill line for the top bars and a second line under the coupler pocket as the drill line for the lower bars that go under the coupler. Starting 3/16" from the sides I made 6 center punches on the line 1/16" apart by using a sewing needle and just pressing it into the plastic. then center 7 more holes on the lower line using the same center punch.

At this point glue the pilot onto the frame centered and so the top is not quite flush with the top of the frame, it needs to be flush the a piece of .010 inserted later. Then I started adding the pilot "pipes". This was done at the end of a table so I could bend and position each rod then cut to a good consistent height that will clear the track and switches. As I said a little hard to explain and I don't have specific measurements as I mostly eyeballed it, but all the rods are bent into little L shapes and tweaked from there the bottom pieces being a little more equidistant.





After all the rods are in place I added a strip of .015 x .030 and glued all the rods to it making it much more solid as a piece. You will also see that the piston valve (top cylinder) has been sanded to be rounder, done so further hide it's pennsy origins. The orange slice snifter valves get broken off too I just hadn't done it at this point.

Next the piece of .010 is added to be flush with the top of the pilot beam measuring 1/2" x 1 5/16". Then the for decorative pilot swoosh piece can be glued on the side made from .010 measuring the height of the pilot beam 3/8" on top and 1/4" on the bottom then cut to connect the dots and sand a curve in the bottom corner. Once glued into place sand the front corners of the pilot to give it a round edge. You will see the pilot steps started with a piece of brass .010 about a width of 1/16" about 1/2" long glued to the back of the pilot and bent to stick out a little past the first rod sticking down on the pilot.




The steps themselves are made from the .015 x .030 strips then bridged by a mall piece of .010. The two vertical pieces are set about 1/8" apart the top step glued to the underside of the pilot beam the bottom step glued to the brass. You will also see the coupler pocket bracing which are just little triangles made from .010.

Time to start the boiler. Take off all removable pieces they are mostly on the front and the steam dome is glued onto a molded square and will pop off, the whistle will need to come off that dome too. For the sides of the boiler everything goes up to the firebox. There is a bump in the boiler inline with where the steam dome sits, I tried to sand that down to make it less apparent. The sand dome is molded on I start by sawing a good portion of it off with a hack saw then continuing to get the rest off with an exacto, the rest of the old boiler detail was taken off with just and exacto. The handrail stanchions are metal but cheap, most broke at the point where the ball form meets the mount bottom, they are really glued in there too, so I just sanded them down flush with the plastic boiler. If you have nick or odd cut it can be patched with filler but I waited until the boiler structure was complete before puttying. The front just remove everything and leave it alone for now. The mold for the smokebox front sticks out further then the rest of the boiler, I left that in, its about how thick the boiler bands I put on where so it keeps the band strait and looks rather seamless.




Once it it rather smooth its time to cut the boiler. That happens at the point where the belpaire firebox starts. I some what accidentally angled the cut slightly toward the front of the boiler which helped me in the long run for the complex rear shape.



The rear of the original boiler get discarded.