I’m new to this forum, but have been fascinated with modeling railroads since I was about 12 years old. I am a C&O history buff and modeller and get a special kick out of recreating in miniature a division of the C&O in 1949 that played an important role in the industrial development of this country.
In this–my first–thread, I wanted to show my progress (albeit slow) on an Arbour Models C&O K-4 kit (Kanawha or “Big Mike” as those who ran them affectionately called them) that I bought at a train show out West back around 1996. The mechanism is a real challenge, but I managed to get a NWSL gearbox and can motor in her. That wasn’t so much the problem as it was getting the mechanism to roll free without side rod binds all over the place. Now my K-4 runs smoothly down to a crawl forwards and backwards. This justified the start of adding the details. The 3 pictures show brass castings being dry fitted to the boiler before I begin soldering everything up. The alloy Arbour used in their kits solders nicely, but can be melted easily if the iron is too hot, so I use a combination of Tix low temp solder and paste silver-bearing solder.
This 11/02/13 picture shows the booster engine to be fitted. You can also see the slot I cut along the bottom of the roof line for the handrail that will go in later.
The last 2 pictures is where the project sits today (01/18/15). Fireman’s side: the backings for the roof slots have been installed and the booster engine is now in place. This view also shows more dry fitting of brass castings. I have a little more work to do on finishing the valvegear. Next time I take apart the mechanism, I will install the brake hangers between the drivers. Thankfully, I have worked
I am really happy I got this thing running right, otherwise it would have stayed buried in its box for the rest of my existence! Think we all have projects like that.
Very nice! Looks like it’s going to turn out well when it’s finished!
I’m wanting to build mine a little more “as-is” with as many Arbour parts as possible. The biggest differences will be the pilot and valve gear, since I had to get Cal Scale and Precision Scale parts, but pretty much the rest of the details will be the old Arbour castings. Of course, that means yours will be the superior model in the end.[:)]
Nonsense![;)] I’m sure yours will turn out beautifully using the original Arbour details. While I love going all out on a model, like you, I also enjoy building steam locomotives bone stock. I’ve been saving a Mantua Mikado kit with their so-called “Power Drive” to build “as-is” to re-live the time when my parents gave me a shiny new Tyco mikado under the X-mas tree.
Dan, thanks for the nice reply. This arbour project almost did not make it to the “eye candy” phase. More than a few years back, I stopped work because the bare mechanism sans valvegear would not run free (had a lope to it). Looked at all the obvious stuff–quartering, squareness of axle slot, flatness of frame, etc. I was stumped, so in the box it went. About a year and a half ago, I decided to revisit the problem. With a fresh attitude, I discovered the issue was in the axle slot clearance for the drivers. The metal used for the frame is maleable and when the cover plate screws were tightened, I lost critical hairline clearance in the bearing surface/axle combo, so offending axles grabbed with every rotation. Anyway, the fix was a few simple swipes of a jeweler’s file near the top of the bearing slot opening. I was thrilled.
This re-jumped started the build: I pulled out my reference pictures, drawings and brass casting I’d been accumulating over the years for this project. As you can see there is still much to do, bu
Amazing how even the tiniest thing can completely throw everything off! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve completely torn into something over and over to find a problem, only to realize it was something very simple.
