This project came about from wanting to use parts I had. The Spectrum running starting point is 3 different spectrum 2-8-0s put together. The weight and motor is from an engine I bought a while ago to originally do my M-1. I just wanted one of the 2-8-0s and didn't pay attention to the fact that it was the special Union Pacific one with "stephenson" valve gear and vanderbilt tender as it was new shrink wrapped in the box. To top it off being brand new it had a wire broken in the tube so it didn't even run. I used an older 2-8-0 I had to do the M-1 and thought I would make one with the vanderbilt tender and it got shelved for years. The shell section is the boiler from the 2-8-0 I made the M-1 from. The rolling frame is from the first I-8 I did, the frame that came stephenson is what I used to start the I-8 rebuilds last year as a test to see if I could make the I-10 rods work on it, it did so it went under the I-8 1537 I did. Since I had to rewire it anyway it made for a good candidate for a 2-8-2 which needs the wires extended for.

Poking around on northeast.railfan.net I came across Lehigh Valleys 2-8-2s some of which had baker valve gears. Not having to change the running gear is what had me set on doing one. Other options were CNJ 2-8-0, something else LNE if I found more decals, but I also picked up some Lehigh Valley caboose decals that should work for a tender not that long ago and the road does not get much steam attention. I will be giving the Lehigh Valley some attention though with this a 2-10-2 and possibly 2 2-8-0s but I'm not totally set on those yet.

Heres the base starting components, the rear truck wheel is a mantua 2-8-2 camelback wheel and the tender trucks are bachmann I-10.


Here is extended wires and the light out of the frame that I will try to place in the headlight casting. The tender frame is scratch, I didn't realize I didn't take pictures of it until now, I'll get some for the next post.


I worked on the boiler today and got the basic shape done. This picture shows what I kept from the original shell vs. the original spectrum shell. The smoke box got cut on the line the marker lights go in to shorten it the stack got a little shortened too. The domes were removed and all detail was stripped except the rivet line on the smokebox. The back of the boiler was cut where the firebox joined. A base front was placed and little strips were added at the bottom of the smokebox to hide screw holes in the weight/frame.

Other hard to see things done is the cylinder heads were ground down to make a prototypical bolded look, the 2 metal nub on the lower front of the weight/frame were removed and the lead truck was extended about 1/8". The rear truck is attached by gluing a piece of styrene to the bottom plate of the running gear with a rod coming up and a post to slide the rear truck frame on which is just a shaped piece of brass with a bearing made by just wrapping around the axle of the rear wheel. The same as pictures of the M-1 I shared just a little different style.



The boiler is extended by rolling a piece of .040 to make it malleable and glued to the original boiler section, then hip joints of the firebox are placed which are shorter and more forward then Reading ones as the fires has the step back.




The back head shape and internal skeleton is then set and the bottom step I mentioned is in place at this point too.




Then with .010 I wrapped the frame with plenty of extra.


I trim extra but not completely, add the floor of the firebox connecting the 2 points of the front and the rear of the bottom of the firebox frame created and it also gets rid of any bulging of the .010 on the sides being anchored to the floor. After that I trim flush and round the edges.



A pre putty overview look of general final spacing.


For this one I tried out cutting general shapes of plastic to fill the dome holes to cut down on being entirely putty, its more of an experiment to see how I like it. The easy way I did it before is just masking tape the inside over the holes and fill with putty. Heres how it sits now drying for at least a day before sanding.

The tender frame was started as the top flat piece which is a cut piece of .040, I got my width from measuring another tender frame. The end beams were then placed which is a styrene bar the same thing I use for pilot beams. The sides are pieces of .040 cut to fit in between the beams. The center beam is 3 layers of .040 with an extra .040 pad to lift the frame from the truck a little. I measured the center and drilled holes for the screws that came with the bachmann spectrum tender, the electrical guts are all reused basically as they were designed. The trucks got the clips cut off so they are flat on the bolsters then drilled in the center for the screws.


Since there was no pilot in the way yet I did the cylinder heads made from a shaped piece of .040 in a dome and a bunch of squares cut from a .020x.010 strip of styrene. The putty on the shell was sanded at this point.


Then I made the pilot and set the base of the smokebox front which is layered the same as the E-5 with shaped .040 separated by a .010 layer. The pilot is the beam stock and the steps are done with .010. I use a dremel to carefully grind out a notch for the coupler pocket. The back of that pocket mostly got cut off for the front truck clearance.


I drilled out the headlight casting to fit the led that was on the spectrum engine, so this one will actually be led lit.


The cab is made from .010 with a .040 floor. Lehigh Valley had odd cabs on a lot of their end cab engines with the bend inward in the middle much like what is seen on european engines especially american exports. To do this I cut a little away from the front and back walls and put a nice bend line on the cab side walls to retain the shape in unsupported areas.



A little trick with cabs is if you cut something uneven you can shim where needed with scrap .010 to get it to match seen in this picture on the front wall. Also this was the first ash pan built, which was a lot of little pieces, but it turned out well and took process pictures on the other side matching what I did.


This is what was seen at the Reading Modeler Meet.


I thought I had taken more pictures then I did, but I will try to explain It starts with small pieces of .040 double layered to make the spacers, normally I only do one layer but these are made deeper and built back up. A piece of .040 is then places on top to make the base of the pan. The outlets are made from .010 the ones being attached in the picture were just copies of what I had already figured out. When learning on the fly I did the strips first for the front and back (of the engine) used testors glue so it was malleable and got the angels I like while checking the rear wheel clearance. The outsides are the full width of the pan the insides are a little thinner to make turning room. Once the frame was set I capped it with another piece of .010.


This image shows the differences in thickness and the placement left to right, also the notches on the bottoms for turning clearance, they don't have to be too pretty because you won't see them.


I shaped pieces of .040 as the bottom hatches of the pans on the front and back of the top of the pan where is a piece of .010 that is a basic frame for the 2 pieces of .010 that bridge them, it kind of curves up.


With those 2 pieces now set, which the top one has notches cut in it as access for metal rods used to push ash out or to the lower part of the pan, the bottom 2 parts angle out to the upper part of the pan. The gaps are filled with putty.



And an over all shot of that point.


Today was building the tender shell, since the cab floor is in place we know where the gang way goes. It was done in one sitting built mostly from .040 much like the G-2 build just shaped differently. The coal bunker extension is .040 front and back walls with .010 rolled up on the sides. Theres a bit of super glue that needs to be sanded down too on the side seam done on purpose as a quick light filler.

really looking nice Casey, I've always been amazed at your work. I hope to get my own bashes started soon, and I will be using these threads for very useful information!

Since the tender is pretty set I finished the wiring and got it running. Since I am built the firebox and cab I have more control as to whats under it. I wanted to try to hide the wires the best I could so I built a little box as part frame for the area under the cab and a ledge with a removable floor for the wires to rest on at the level of the tender frame. This minimizes wires viewed.




Then I did more hiding, the steam pipe to the cylinders also needed to be a little higher. On the motor mount frame there are plastic tubes that the screws keeping it together grab. One side is the screw the other side is a big ugly square. Moving the steam pipe up hides the front big ugly square in the frame. I would just fill it but that would make it hard to get apart if I ever needed to.



Noticing most of the 2-8-2 pictures I saw the headlights had visors on the front I realized I needed to add one. I have ground them off before, this was added by gluing a piece of .010 to the front then shaping it to the final form.



The dome were done at this point too, done the same way as other projects.



After the domes were set it was time for boiler bands made from .010x.030 styrene.



Before I started the fireman's side running boards I placed the air compressor since it sits through the running board. The compressor I used is actually the one from the proto 2000 0-8-0 as I didn't have a brass one and this molding on it is done well.



The running boards themselves are made from .040 styrene. I cut little notches at the boiler bands so the board sits more flush with the side of the boiler. This engine is a bit of an odd fit for the front. The steam pipes to the cylinders are glued to the cylinders, I try to glue them to the boiler most of the time because it makes the running boards more solid, but since the motor mount/weight sticks out of the bottom at a high angle the pipe wraps under a little and would block the shell from sliding off. There is a hole in the running board for the pipe and its tight but the shell slides on and off.



After the running boards were on I put the air tank in made from a styrene tube with filled ends and straps made from .010x.020.

While doing the engineer side running boards I decided to reverse my decision to have the steam delivery pipes glued to the cylinders and not the shell. The shell did not want to slide on and off easily and with the running board in place it had more points of contact to glue to. I also placed the power reverse, it hides some of the weight otherwise visible. A piece of .040 was used as a place to mount it glued to the shell. The linkage was set and I put the check valves on.




One of the last major structures I needed to figure out was how I was going to 1 have the shell secured to the frame and 2 make a place to mount a draw bar. So heres how I did both at once. There is a piece of .040 going across the back bottom of the split frame that was originally to direct the wires up into the firebox only glued to one side of the split frame. I glued an another piece of .040 to that running to the bottom of the box made for wires to run through. Built a spacer out of layers of plastic and mounted a nut for the screw on the removable beam (bottom) of the wire box. In short it's a double layer mount.




The cab got some basic scratch detail, nothing too crazy just some things to get a gist of an interior. The steam turret is the plastic one from the proto 2000 0-8-0 and will probably will never be actually seen again.



Cab figures test fit. For this engine I decided to paint some of the cloths for the figures just for some variation all other engines that have figures are the general blue guys from bachmann.



For no real reason I then did some tender work adding the lip to the top ring on the tender, the water lid which was a brass one I happened to have and fleshed out the rear headlight.




I think I was doing tender work as I thought about just how I was going to do the cab roof. From what I can tell in pictures the lehigh valley cab wrapped down further on the sides. The complicated once piece was a lot of holding it in place then trimming. Once I got it to where I liked it I gave the underside a quick shot of black and then mounted it after drying.



Gutters and roof vents were then added. Other details will appear as I think of them while working. This pictures had the generator and whistle in place.



Overall shots, bell in place too which is one off a bachmann spectrum 2-8-0.

Got some work done this weekend and went to a train show so this one has all the parts to finish and all the major parts are installed. So now the washer plugs, safety valves, sanders, injector lifts, tender steps, pilot steps, smokebox front detail, the oddball brace to the valvegear hanger from the boiler, front braces with step, air hoses and the rear tender ladder are in place. The next step planned is rivet decals and then the final detailing will be started.




Seen in those pictures is a caboose I got at the show which is fairly close to a Lehigh Valley transfer style caboose. Its general roundhouse kit someone had already built and was actually roundhouse's tacky version of a Reading paint scheme.