C&O H-5 2-6-6-2 Articulated Painting

[jerryrbeach]

Tom,


The coal pusher is a nice detail.  I'm a little surprised that it wasn't done when the engine was manufactured.  Also, great tip on using flat coat on the side rods.  That applies to almost every model steam engine, brass, cast, or plastic.  I'll be borrowing that one.

[ACL1504]

Nice addition to the tender (which looks great by the way).   

Bob,

Thanks very much. Appreciate you following along on this one.

Tom 

[ACL1504]

Tom,


The coal pusher is a nice detail.  I'm a little surprised that it wasn't done when the engine was manufactured.  Also, great tip on using flat coat on the side rods.  That applies to almost every model steam engine, brass, cast, or plastic.  I'll be borrowing that one.

Jerry,

Appreciate the comment. Some brass importers did but most didn't. What's surprising to me is some of the Key and PFM brass had them and some didn't. I have no idea how they chose which ones to add the coal pusher to.

I've used the flat on most of all my brass locos, it does remove the shine and glare. Glad you noted the tip.

Tom 

[Judge]

Jerry -  I have the book C&O Power by Staufer and it contains a builder's photo of an H-5.   There is no coal pusher on the tender in the builder's photo.  Staufer says that the H-5's were built without stokers.  That doesn't make sense to me.  The H-5's were large engines for their day and it would make sense for stokers to be included. Stokers became common on large engines after 1909.  The Key model Tom is painting has a stoker on the backhead.  I think Staufer was generalizing about the stokers.  We know that the USRA 4-6-2's and 2-8-2's were built without stokers and they had coal pushers.  So, my theory is the USRA engines that were built without stokers had coal pushers.  This is only my theory so if anyone knows different, please set me straight.

Now about the Atlantic & Southern.  Our railroad is a first-class operation.  When the A&S acquired our H-5, the A&S  Superintendent of Maintenance, Will Fixer, located a coal pusher in the storage room behind the roundhouse and decided to install it on the H-5.  The idea was to give the fireman a little extra help managing the fire on the big engine. There is a prototype for everything. 

Speaking of stokers, imagine being a fireman on a Mikado or a K4s Pacific without a stoker.  It must have been really hot, back-breaking work to shovel 20 tons of coal or more every day.  And it only took ten or fifteen years to get promoted to engineer.  I guess labor was cheaper than investing in a stoker.

[GPdemayo]

Not my kind of job.....

[ACL1504]

Here is a builder's photo of the USRA version of the articulated H-5 loco.

[jerryrbeach]

Jerry -  I have the book C&O Power by Staufer and it contains a builder's photo of an H-5.   There is no coal pusher on the tender in the builder's photo.  Staufer says that the H-5's were built without stokers.  That doesn't make sense to me.  The H-5's were large engines for their day and it would make sense for stokers to be included. Stokers became common on large engines after 1909.  The Key model Tom is painting has a stoker on the backhead.  I think Staufer was generalizing about the stokers.  We know that the USRA 4-6-2's and 2-8-2's were built without stokers and they had coal pushers.  So, my theory is the USRA engines that were built without stokers had coal pushers.  This is only my theory so if anyone knows different, please set me straight.

Now about the Atlantic & Southern.  Our railroad is a first-class operation.  When the A&S acquired our H-5, the A&S  Superintendent of Maintenance, Will Fixer, located a coal pusher in the storage room behind the roundhouse and decided to install it on the H-5.  The idea was to give the fireman a little extra help managing the fire on the big engine. There is a prototype for everything. 

Speaking of stokers, imagine being a fireman on a Mikado or a K4s Pacific without a stoker.  It must have been really hot, back-breaking work to shovel 20 tons of coal or more every day.  And it only took ten or fifteen years to get promoted to engineer.  I guess labor was cheaper than investing in a stoker.

Judge,


No coal pushers from the factory explains the probable reason the importer omitted one from the model.  Of course, back in the day men were really men.  Firing a Mike or Pacific had to be child's play compared to firing a 2-10-2 Bullmoose on the Ontario & Western.  They were used as both head end power and pushers to get the coal drags up the grade out of Scranton. 

[postalkarl]

Hey Tom;

Looks just great.

Karl

[Jerry]

Tom first time here.


You do some beautiful work in this field to.


Jerry

[ACL1504]

Hey Tom;

Looks just great.

Karl

Karl,

Thanks very much.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Tom first time here.


You do some beautiful work in this field to.


Jerry

Jerry,

Thanks for stopping by and checking out the painting and detailing. I appreciate the support. Painting brass is something I enjoy especially now that I'm coming to an end and getting all the brass painted.

Tom

[ACL1504]

Not sure why but I forgot to post these last two photos prior to the sound installing.

Here is a look at the coal pusher on the tender. I added the curved exhaust pipe and then painted it to match the tender. Red marker jewels were installed on the tender marker lights.



White jewels were added to the front markers.



Continued -

[ACL1504]

The one thing I don't like about railroad modeling is the wiring. Be it the layout or installing sound in the locos. Yes, I can do it but I'm not all that confident about it.

I've got the TCS WOW DCC decoder wired for the three lights. I have 470 watt resistors soldered to the function wires. The white is for the headlight, green is for the cab light and the yellow is for the tender light. The blue wire is the common (also the Positive) for the three I just mentioned.

The black wire lead on the LEDs go to the corresponding colors while the red (with resistors)  all go to the blue wire.

The red wire attached to the tender is the ground wire for tender power pickup. The black wire from the decoder goes to the loco ground.

The gray and orange wires go to the motor.

Not shown are the two purple wires to the speaker. The speaker wires come out of the other end of the decoder as does the KA (keep alive).

[tom.boyd.125]

Tom,
Nice modeling sir !!!
Tommy

[Judge]

The C&O H-5 is coming along nicely.  I am sure it will haul 20+coal hoppers up the 1 percent grade of the Ovalix.  A fine job by the A&S master mechanic!  WOW Sound has a low single chime Southern RR whistle that will top off the sight and sound of this beautiful engine.  These engines were not retired until 1952.  That fits the A&S time frame of 1950-1951. 

BTW, Staufer's book, C&O Power, contains a photo of the backhead of an H-1.  No stoker on that beast.  Of course, it was not unusual for the railroads to add stokers sometimes years after delivery.  Only one H-1 was built (1909).  Twenty-four more were ordered from ALCO (1910), but because they had minor changes, they were classified as H-2's.  The minor changes included Schmidt superheaters and " an apparatus which permitted the admission of high-pressure steam to the front cylinders when starting and operating at speeds up to 12 mph."  The H-4 was the model the USRA used as the prototype for the government designed 2-6-6-2's.  The H-5 (20 of them were acquired in 1919) were like the H-4's but they were slightly heavier and had larger drivers.