Fixing a brass Erie 2-8-4, Class S-4 for Erieman

[ACL1504]

Sounds like a plan Bob.....it might even speed up the healing process. 

Then come on down and sing, and sing often. I'm all for the healing. You can even lay hands on me and say a few Jesus things.

Tom

Singing is okay.....I'll leave the laying of hands - down there - to Pam, thank you very much. 

Gregory,

I need to talk to Pegi, your mind is certainly in the wrong place. I was thinking more of my shoulder or top of my head. As Hercules Poirot says, "The little gray cells"!

Tom

[ACL1504]

Sounds like a plan Bob.....it might even speed up the healing process. 

Then come on down and sing, and sing often. I'm all for the healing. You can even lay hands on me and say a few Jesus things.

Tom

Singing is okay.....I'll leave the laying of hands - down there - to Pam, thank you very much. 

That hurts just thinking about it.

Jim

EXACTLY!

[ACL1504]

Okay, I'll leave the tease/quiz up for a few days and then give the answers.

Hopefully, we can bring this thread back from the brink of a possible parental control issue.

As many of you know, I always paint the bell, whistle and pop valves with Floquil Brass. The bell, whistle and pop valves will got so sooty they look like they are painted black on the loco. It is my belief that in painting them on the model, the loco takes on a more realistic look.

Here is how the loco looks without the whistle and pop valves painted brass.

You can also see I painted the faucet handles red.






More in a few.

[ACL1504]

Here is how they look with the Floquil Brass paint.



I'll add whistle and bell cords in the next few threads.

The new total are as follows. Since I have $25, 45 and 55 per hour, I'll go ahead and add $35.00 per hour for comparison.

Yours truly - 13.75 hours = $343.75 (Retired)

Repair guy at $35.00 per hour - 13.75 = $481.25

Darryl - 13.75 hours = $618.75 (Still actively working)

Steve - 13.75 hours $756.25  (Retired)

I'm not sure what Thom charges for his brass repairs. Whatever it is, I'm telling you folks, it is well worth the price of admission.

[ACL1504]

Time to repair the tender decal. I'm jumping ahead a little on this. I mentioned to Frank I made the repair and want him to see it came out great and not to worry.

Again, here is the offending Erie Herald decal.



Frank sent me a sheet of Erie decals  a few years ago when I repaired and painted the other Erie loco. Which by the way I still need to tweak.

Here are the steam loco decals.



More in a few.

[ACL1504]

I started by cutting one Erie decal off the sheet.



I then cut a corner decal off the herald decal. You can see I cut a large piece of the corner. I want good coverage and not just a little at the top.




More in a few.

[ACL1504]

I then soaked the decal in water until the decal easily slid off the decal sheet.



There are two ways to apply a decal and get a good seal.

Usually on a new paint job the paint is new and glossy. The decal goes on very smoothly; however you can still apply a light amount of decal set to the new paint and then apply the decal.

Obviously, this isn't a new paint job. And, I'm not going to spray the sides with clear gloss paint. You know why?

If I did, I would need to spray the entire loco with the gloss as just one coat of gloss will change the color of the loco. By only spraying the tender side, the loco boiler, cab sides and the rest will all look different.

It is usually frowned upon to apply decals to a flat finished paint. In this case, it will be fine as the area I'm actually applying the decal is a very small area. The decal set will help "set" the decal. I expected no problems in doing this.

I then applied the decal using tweezers. Once in place, I added Champ Decal Set to the new decal.



Continued in a few.

[ACL1504]

In the photo above, you can see the decal set (the wet area) around where the new decal was applied.

Also, I'm not sure you can see this but a little of the black still shows through the new decal. The repair is made but a little black is visible. This needs to be addressed as well.

To fix the fix, I cut a smaller corner off the decal sheet. I cut just enough of the corner to cover the black showing through the new decal.




Continued in a few. It is most definitely Diet Pepsi time.

[ACL1504]

Here is the completed decal repair.

You can see the top is just a shade darker than the rest but I'll add a little weathering here to blend it in.




In the photo below, you can see the decal is almost the same color as the original decal. The decal set has dried and the decal has a slight flat finish to it.

The area that appears to be a water stain will be removed with warm water after the decal has set and dried for a 24 hour period.

[ACL1504]

Pricing up date. Decal repair took 1.5 hours.

ACL1504 - 15.25 hours = $381.25

Unknown guy - 15.25 hours = $533.75

Darryl - 15.25 hours = $686.25

Steve - 15.25 hours = $838.75

[ak-milw]

Tom, excellent post as always. I wish you would have posted this back when I had my question on steam engines. I did in fact save up enough to get one. bought a PFM Milw. 4-6-4, matched it to pictures and it is right on and it runs great. But after reading you post here I am beginning to really like that  faded golden color it is..

[tct855]

Tom,
          Since you're taking pics of each process of the repair, I thought you and your viewers might find this stop animation steam build interesting.  Thanx Thom...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPy5-8a0jUc

[ACL1504]

Tom, excellent post as always. I wish you would have posted this back when I had my question on steam engines. I did in fact save up enough to get one. bought a PFM Milw. 4-6-4, matched it to pictures and it is right on and it runs great. But after reading you post here I am beginning to really like that  faded golden color it is..

Andy,

Thank you for the kind compliment.

I went back through my post and don't see your question. Was it a separate post? If so, I'm sorry for some reason I missed it. Do you know the link? I couldn't find one.

The faded golden color on the decal is due the fact I lessened the brightness for a more clear view.

Tom

[BandOGuy]

When you are in awe of the material before you, comments are usually superfluous. 

[S&S RR]

Tom


Excellent work and excellent thread!  The locomotive is going to really look nice on Frank's layout. You seem to be getting more done each day - I hope that is a sign that you are feeling better.  Take care, my friend.