A trainshow in april allowed me to get my hands on a roundhouse "old time" 2-8-0 to get this project rolling. It is a project I have in mind for a couple years, just stalled by getting a late Roundhouse or Athearn 2-8-0 for the better motor already in it.



The making of the boiler for the engine will be the subject of my clinic at the Reading Railroad Modelers Meet III so I'm not going to go too much into that, I have a lot of images to sort though and organize for it. I made some boiler tubes for the 2 IHC engines in the background for a later project while I was at it. If you can't make the meet I intend to video tape it and put it on youtube.

Each project starts with a bunch of research and a quick drawing I do for myself. It makes me look for minor differences in plumbing or other details. Sometimes I choose different detail variations during the build then my original drawing. This drawing was done probably around 2 years ago.



A really quick boiler over view is the frame, with the material used for the boiler tube, then the tube done, and finally the basic boiler shape on the frame. The boiler went from tube to finished basic form in 1 afternoon.




I decided to make the boiler just a little bigger then the original roundhouse boiler but it still makes the L-5 look big and the I-8 look huge.



Then the old pilot got cut off with a dremmel keeping the original coupler pocket.



The main pilot beam was built back up and I decided to go with a totally scratch tender and made a new frame. Taken next to the L-5, I think because I was doing some measurement comparisons to the tender on that at the time.



Retaining walls for the shell frame were placed .040 inset from the edge. Then the shell frame was built around that. This shell is made from .010 so the tube pieces on the shell frame are to guide the curves.




A piece of .010 was then wrapped and glued around the frame.


Heres where it sits now, the main top pieces of the tender were placed made from .040, then I ran out of glue. It gives a good idea of the final placement though.

Geez, Casey, you're doing all these projects that I've been putting off for 30 years! Bless you, my son. I can't wait to watch this one progress.

Thanks! As I have said I really enjoy doing these projects and always am trying to challenge myself. I think thats why the second G-2 build never got finished, I got to where it wasn't new, didn't have detail parts for it, then got distracted with something else. I just force myself to finish it, even just to finish the write up.

The I6 is perfectly sized for a small branch line layout like mine. I had squirreled away a Mantua camelback 2-8-2 kit years ago with the thought of converting it into an I6, but I think your approach is much better. I also have a couple of Roundhouse 2-8-0s -- one is an ancient MDC kit and the other an Athearn era RTR model. I'm torn between and I6 and an I7 "Long John." Either is better than having them sitting around in boxes waiting for my wife and kids to dispose of them after I'm gone. Keep on inspiring me, Casey!

Robin......
When in doubt do both!

The I-7 might be an easier project. The class has a ton of variation with some engines having low set boilers with key hole fireboxes, while some boilers sat higher with the more strait down style firebox over the last driver. I think you could get away with the original boiler from the roundhouse engine on a low set I-7. Give me a little bit to get my hands on another one of these roundhouse engines and you'll see an I-7 build. I just wanted to do the camelback first.