I finished the conversion of a 675 to a somewhat more real looking K-4 last night. The article in CTT that described the process was a bit fuzzy on the front truck mounting, but all turned out OK. I dolled it up a bit more by putting marker lights on the caboose, adding handrails to the engine cab, and adding a whistle to the top of the engine. I also put flag posts on the front, but broke one of them, so I need to get one more to finish it. I also moved the boiler front marker lights back on the steamchest. Since they were broke off the boilerfront in my junk bin, I just smoothed out the boiler front and placed them where it look like they should go from my pictures. The decals I used were HO decals, but I couldn’t find any O gauge decals that seemed to fit. I took pictures of the K-4 at Strasburg, and the lettering on the tender was smaller than I thought. I am also putting a picture of that K-4 here as well.
If anyone wants them, I have higher resolution pictures of these, let me know and I will send them to you, or if you are doing the conversion from the article, and have questions, let me know.
I know for some, this is probably either destroying a nice postwar piece (I pieced it together from junk parts for about $40 bucks) or not to your standards of prototype. But for my, its a labor of love, and turned out pretty good I think!!!