I have been taking a break from the G-2 project, mostly since the last trainshow I went to was not as bountiful in parts as I would have liked. Also reworking my M-1 opened a bit of a can of worms making me want to fix imperfections in completed older projects from when my skill level was lower. This isn't going to be as in depth as the G-2 build, its rather freeing to just be able to build and not have to stop at each step to take pictures.

I had 2 I-8s I did with mantua camelback shells and bachmann spectrum running gear looking like...



1527 was the first from 2008 and 1580 from 2010. I was going to leave 1527 alone since it was my first modern era kitbash project. Modern era meaning I had been messing with learning how to kitbash since I was about 13, 1527 was finished shortly after I was done college, but since it was not up to my current standards I found I didn't want to run it and just rebuilding it would be way cheaper since it has all the detail parts I need already.

With the mantua shells too long but not in one spot rather then chopping and gluing I went for just a total scratch rebuild. I did that for a few reasons, it gives me more control in what I'm getting and its good practice. Originally I was going to use the same tube I used for the LNE 2-8-0 but the walls were too thick to fit over the spectrum motor mount so I had to teach myself how to make my own tube, I wanted to anyway so this was a good reason to learn.

After a few weeks of working on it almost every day here is where I'm at. The roof on the more complete one just when on this morning.






Unfortunately it's hard to take a good picture of all that white with detail. The one tender of what was 1580 is the only thing not getting a full rebuild. The engines will have some of the detail variation common to I-8s. Even as they sit not one tender has an extended coal bunker and I redid the running gear of the more complete one with I-10 parts to make it a "speed runner". That also proved a hypothesis I had for a while that you could transplant an I-10 valve gear and main rod to spectrum running gear.

All the time I've spent staring at the old Bachmann and Spectrum chassis' and i didnt notice the difference in the valve gear, until i saw what you did here. Does it run as good as the stock spectrum?

Picture taking does become a chore, but thanks for posting this and previous builds. It is appreciated, and encouraging.
So how'd you roll the boiler for these? I was planning on wrapping a similar size dowel with .040 sheet and nuking it in water, which I think was your reference from a while back to that MRH article.

With valve gears even the less finished one also has a replaced eccentric crank eccentric rod and link to get rid of any trace of the baker valve gear.

I did the tube a little different and I think .040 would be hard to bend and keep there until you heat it. I did 2 layers of .010 with the seams set 180 degrees from each other. I wrapped masking tape all the way across the sheets making it look kind of like the end of a golf club. I put the assembly in a large oven dish with high sides (I needed something to fit the tube both boilers were one piece at this point) boiled enough water to submerge the whole thing and poured the water in the dish and let it sit for a while, not sure of the specific time, then ran it under cold water. I did this twice with the same piece, my tape job the first time wasn't all that great and the water didn't totally cover the piece but the final result was a well formed tube. One thing that happened though is with the tight tape where it over lapped made grooves in the tube like rifling. This can be fixed with putty but I had already decided I was adding another layer just after the smokebox to show the jacketing beginning and it would match hight of the firebox exterior sheet. Doing that solved several problems at once and the ridges made acted as a formed lock for the 2 layers of the tube. Once dried I peeled back the top layer of the tube and put glue in one half at a time. When finished it was pretty solid.

your work always astounds me. How much time would you estimate you invest in these projects?

While we're on the topic and it's fresh, could you explain better how you made the tube or refer me to an article? This might come in handy if I decide to attempt it for my N models, as there is NOTHING but the Bachmann I9 that compares to the Reading.

Answering a couple questions, with how they run I didn't do any real running tests until last night. I did do rolling tests the entire time I was redoing running gear but running under its own power will show unforeseen problems. The not so modified one had no problems, I actually fixed a tic under heavy load it did every revolution just rebuilding it, which I think was the old eccentric rod hitting the main rod.

The speed runner needed a little tweaking that would be easier to fix before the rod assembly gets glued into the yoke and cylinders. The crosshead is made of a front and back piece sandwiching the main rod and riveted in 2 places. The lower rivet would slightly his the bolt holding the side rod onto the front driver on a curve. So very carefully used a dremmel to grind the rivets on the crosshead down and added a little glue to make sure the crosshead didn't fall apart.

Now they are both quiet smooth runners I had them pulling 35 not so free rolling cars no problem.

For how long, I think its been 3 weeks working on both at the same time, doing 2 at once is daunting at times. Get something hard done, now I have to do it again haha.

For N scale boiler tubes, depending on what you are making, you may find premade styrene tubes. The last post covers how I made my tubes, but I fully understand that might not work for the small size of N scale. But there are lots of things you can do with I-10 boilers I just don't know how easy it is to get N scale detail parts.