Hello,

I’ve been looking for some drawings of Reading engines to model from. I already have the ‘standard’ Reading books including Ed Wiswesser’s book complete with separate drawing plates. However not being too keen on modeling from pictures, I would like more drawings.

John Hall was kind enough to give me contact info for a couple of sources one of which is the Pennsylvania State Archives. They do have what they call ‘mechanical engineering drawings available for coping. However, they no longer will do the remote searches. But I would be able to search the archives in Harrisburg myself… Great – not too easy from Maine. Kurt Bell, at the Archives, did past along this info on where to start looking:

• Mechanical Engineering Drawings. (53 boxes) {#199m.88}
o Crusader Equipment.
o Rolling Stock.
o Steam Locomotive: Classes A - G, I - P, T1 and Engine #110 and Proposed 4-4-2.
o Steam Locomotive: Miscellaneous Parts and Appliances.
o Tenders.


My question to the group is simple: Does anyone live near the State Archives in Harrisburg who would be willing to do some looking and coping of some of the drawings?

And a further question. Does this group have the ability to archive drawings if someone wanted to share?

Thanks,
Tom Stoltz

Tom

Same issue for the PRR drawings. I have at times spent significant time and money getting PRR drawings. But the PRR T&HS has its own drawing service which for me, the PA State archives were backup/secondary. I got much better service form the PRR T&HS. Not sure if/where other sources for Reading materials exist

I met Kurt at the archives in the spring. He was most helpful. You are not the only person looking for "local boots on the ground" to do the research. Truth is that person probably does not exist.

It all depends on how obsessed you are with it all. Would you take vacation with the archives as the main objective? With some notice to Kurt you can scan a lot in 1-2 days there. No one else knows what you want more than you.

Bill

Tom,

A you familiar with the RSME, Wisswesser drawings he did on "O" scale. They are more accurate the the plate drawings that came with the book. I'm sure between the confines of the forum a whole collection of these drawings could be compiled. What locomotives are you looking for in particular?

Bill

Bill PRSL,

You are so right, I am looking for more info about G1-sb(s). If I had to be specific, I would say G1-sb 201 only because there is a picture of it at North Hills. John (Hall) also gave me the contact info for John Greene at the RCT&HS and he got back to me asking what engine I was interested in. I replied, but haven’t heard from him yet.

I am kind of surprised that with all the group members in PA that someone isn’t close to Harrisburg or perhaps has already collected the drawings. On the other hand, I don’t really know what is involved with using the PA Start Archives.

Bill LNE,

I am not familiar with RSME (but if I were to guess; Reading Society of Model Engineers?). More accurate drawings than what came with Wiswesser’s book on Reading steam would be neat. How does one go about finding them?

I gave brief thought to trying the G3, but soon discovered that the cab is longer than my starting point (please don’t laugh), an American Flyer Atlantic. What I like is the semi-streamlined skirting covering the (I can’t think of the name) running board.

Thank you for replying,
Tom

Tom

I will applaud your effort in using the AF Reading for a starting point in an S Scale kit bash. I have based many starts of HO scale Reading equipment with the Bachmann I-10, in the works is an M-1 and I artfully cut two shells and reattached them together with ABS cement from the plumbing section of the hardware store. As for your cab dilemma, have you kicked the idea grafting a slice of a donor cab to lengthen it? I tried this on my slow but sure N-1, with yep I-10 parts! All you have to do is re-file the window arch and add appropriate rivets. Now as far as these RSME drawings, in which you are correct of the origins, I do have the O scale drawings for the following,

1) L3-se 4-6-0 Cameback
2) M-1sa 2-8-2
3) P-7 4-4-2
4) P-5 4-4-2 Camelback
5) I-8 2-8-0 Camelback
6) L-7sb 4-6-0 Camelback
7) G-3 4-6-2
D-11 4-4-0

plus a whole other boat load of info. PM me if anything interests you and we can iron out the details.

Bill

Go to the first (earliest) posting in this thread for information about the RSME equipment drawings:

www.readingmodeler.com/index.php/forum/t...gs-the-list?start=12