At the last show I was at, when I got the caboose that I painted Lehigh Valley I decided to treat myself a bit (it was within a week of my birthday) and get something I have been wanting to do for a little while. So I looked for a cheap proto 2-8-8-2. I got one for $150 which is about what I wanted and is high for me on a starting project but the next cheapest one was over $200 and I saw one for $335. I would have liked the more USRA style over the N&W style but beggars can't be choosers. I got it home and realized parts I thought were broken on a beat up engine were parts to be added in sealed bags, I then looked at the wheels that have no run time and realized it was brand new, and was then happier with my purchase.

So here is the untouched engine shortly after a test run.


I then removed the rear truck and painted it, the end... just kidding.

It sat for a little while when finishing up the Lehigh Valley N-3, then I did some disassembly.



The bottom of the weight (in the center of the picture) has the 2 bars that go to the rolling frames of the driver sets have a little recess before the thread starts for the screws. I noticed it looked like it was sitting a little high so I used a dremmel to grind those just a little bit to the start of the thread to lower the boiler without effecting its performance. This was done later after I got the boiler sized but the picture shows the part that was ground down.

I jumped around a bit on what I was working on at the start, thinking about it I was unconsciously making sure things I was worried about would work the way I wanted it to.

I replaced the valve gear on rear driver set first to be a walschaerts valve gear. The eccentric rod is actually the eccentric rod from the 0-8-0 project and the second set still to be done is part of the K-1's original valve gear that are the same size. Those rods happened to work if not I would have scratch made them like the links I made.

The links I made are copies of a roundhouse one I had. I traced it on brass and cut it out just inside the lines and shaped it a little with the dremmel. The one on the left is the original.


I chopped off the baker and used the yoke and just about everything else but the link and one rod per side. I will say, this is the second project using a proto steam engine and the second time I have been disappointed at how they cheaped out on the running gear. The eccentric cranks are plastic, from what I can tell for no reason and 3 of the 4 broke at the loop where the rod is riveted. One broke when I just had it on its side looking at things. I had to patch them with plastic and redrill the holes.

Here is the original vs the rebuilt.


The cylinder heads were reset to be more rounded and look less N&W. On the front set the piston was made smaller too. I am doing the simple articulated engine where both sets of cylinders are the same size. The reading N-1s in their conversion used the compound sized front cylinders but just had reset pistons, I would guess its easier to just shrink the piston then reset all the running gear mounts etc. to fit smaller cylinders.



I somewhat backed myself into a corner with the boiler size. Since I made a K-1 to keep it consistent the boilers need to be the same size. I did this by cutting a little off the front and back. The weight was modified so it would fit.

Heres and over head comparison.



So heres where it sits now.

Well, you have gone and tackled "the big one!" That displays more courage than many of us, I suppose. It will be fun watching the progress on this one. The complexity is going to be mind-boggling. It is good to see you are selectively strengthening some of the parts.

One last question. Are you using the drawings from Steam Locomotives of the Reading and P. & R Railroads by Edward H. Wiswesser as a guide. I am sure you know you can get copies if you need them.

I actually don't use drawings in doing a project. If I was starting completely from scratch it would be worth it to get everything exact but starting from an existing engine I find things go better if you make what you are trying to make fit the existing model not the model fit a prototype exactly. Its more about visual comparisons to where things start and end lined up mostly with the drivers. Like for this project in a perfect world the 2 sets of drivers would be closer together by about 1/8" but the construction of the model makes that an extremely difficult task for a sight line that will mostly be hidden anyway. There are other things I will be doing like moving the steam dome to match where the k-1s is, again for consistency the boilers should look the same. Doing that means I have to come up with a different way to screw the top half of the shell to the motor frame since the existing screw is under the steam dome now and I won't be able to use it.

As for courage, what is left to do is actually not that daunting of a task to me, a lot of work yes but for the most part things I have already done just shaped differently. I feel anyone can do what I do, just don't expect to scratch build something on your first try, I have spent the past 6 years pushing what I do further and further into the scratch world. The saying practice makes perfect really applies here.

Looking forward to this build. I plan to do one in O eventually, but the starting point is between $800 and $1500, so... some day.

That price is a pretty good punch in the gut, and you would have all that fun metal grinding to do too! At the same time though I wonder if there would be a better starting option then a USRA/N&W 2-8-8-2 since O scale companies seems set on making every articulated to ever exist, at least for mainstream or popular railroads.

I like this project your doing. I have one of those Protos sitting on my shelf waiting for it's turn to meet my bench. Like you, I couldn't get the USRA version for a good price. I seen the HO scale NJ brass models sell for upwards of $2000.00 dollars on Ebay. A little out of my league, and the Proto is a close enough model for this N-1 project. I will enjoy watching your build Casey.