Part 3! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SREWV5ETTE4
It still needs plenty of mechanical work, but hey! Getting one of these to work at all was supposed to be near impossible.[:D]
Different environment and new phone camera about 1/3rd of the way through. I still need to work on lighting in my new basement.
Hi Darth,
Thanks for part 3 of your build. The Kanawha (pronounced “Ka-naw”) is running sweet and the superstructure looks to be coming along nicely. I look forward to more down the road. [:P]
My K-4 is “on ice” while I do work on my C&O in the basement. I’ve left it at a good place with all valve gear in and mechanism running smoothly with a NWSL/Sagami drivetrain.
I’m happy to see yours progressing and is now over the hump to remind me of my unfinished K-4 from time to time. I need to feel inspired to do my best work and right now my inspiration is focused on geting more of my railway looking and feeling like appalachia.
Joel
Darth,
It’s great to see that you’re back in business in your new digs!
Tom
Darth, Thanks for this inspiration. Your fine work has spurred me on to pursue a kitbash project for a C&O Allegheny. From your experience this would involve a modified Bowser Challenger mechanism underneath a Arbour super structure.
It’s been a long time since I’ve made any updates for this, but I am back to making progress! I found a lot more mechanical snags to work out, so most of the next video will be focused on that. Some of them were my fault, but now that I know what’s going on, it won’t be long before I have it running like a Chinese knock-off of a Swiss watch.[:D]
I’ll also be putting up a video of a DJH kit in a couple months. I bought one of those because I needed a new kit that would go together smoothly as a break from the 2-8-4 (you could call it therapy). They’re expensive with the all British manufacturing, but worth every penny!
I have the Allegheny, did a start build on it, I found an original Winton Allegheny unbuilt, without tender I found a tneder no trucks then I found some winton trucks…I decided to co-build them together and started a website on it, but I have not worked on them for a while, I think I am stuck on the Winton pilot truck, I will get back to it eventually. I heard horror stories on the Arbours, one fellow I knew bought one and threw it out. Another story I heard someone built the Allegheny, first run screws were falling out and siderods busting. I found another on ebay somebody built, asked him a few questions and I bought a fully built one, tested it and ran great. I congratulated the owner for doing a great job and how other ones had some bad luck. But its no differrent than doing a Bowser or MDC, take your time, check every step and you will be one ahead. I have built the bowser big boy, challenger, MDC shay, HOn3 2-8-0’s.
I really do get it, it is the challenge. I remember doing an MDC shay, could go a tie a minute if prouply built
Part 4 is finally done! The mechanism is fully built and running, and now I can finally focus on the detail and finishing touches! I went into a lot more detail about the valve gear and other parts, so it’s a long video this time.
Wow! Very impressive! You need the patience of Job to build one of these kits…
WOW Darth!
All I can say is that you do amazing work! I would have watched your video if it was two hours long.
Thanks for sharing your work. It is very inspiring!
Dave
It is said that there is a thin line between genius and madness.
[bow][bow]
Thanks for sharing,
Cheers the Bear.
Conghrats on conquering the impossible! Those scratchbuilt componenets are works of art. I rewatched the earlier videos, and just caught up with the later ones. Again this could be considdered an instruction video. When I saw that bent frame, I thought you hit a major setback! Great save!
And now I know, that if I ever have the opportunity to take on the challenge of this Arbour kit, I’ll pass it up![:D] Dan
Darth,
Nice to see the K4 (or as they were called on the C&O, ‘Big Mikes’) build has now moved to detailing. Mine thankfully is also running fine, with a NWSL gearbox/Maxon can. I had a heck of a time fitting the new delrin spur gear because the knurled end of the 1/8 driver axle removed some of the gear bore as I pushed it on. I had to put knurl marks in the middle of the axle to keep the gear from turning because of the slightly enlarged hole made by that darn axle end.
Long story short, the mechanism is working well with just a few small linkages left to attach to the crossheads. Detailing is about 70% done as she sits in a display case. I obtained a PFM K4 tender years ago from a brass dealer in MD (PeachCreek Shops) when we were there to visit my wife’s nephew who was at the Naval Academy at the time. I will be using this tender behind the Arbour and relegate the one in the kit to water tender duties. Thanks for the fun updates.
Look forward to the next part!
Joel
Guess what I’m finally working on again![:D]
I finally have a good place to work on my bench again, I’ve gotten some practice in with some other projects, and I’m back to adding details to this thing. There’s a lot of work to do, so it will still be a little while before the video’s ready, but things are coming together nicely. I’ll have to strengthen the rear of the frame though, because I noticed it’s started to sag down under the weight of the body!
I was wondering, is the front of the smokebox supposed to be black or graphite? Most photos I’ve seen suggest that it’s black, but I’ve seen a few others where it was gray or graphite instead.
Great to see you back on this one, Darth. Smoke box front color is largely a matter of choice, unless you are following a specific prototype. Graphite always looks good to me. Some roads like SP used a bright silver. Dan
Thanks! I’ll be painting it for C&O.
Currently in the painting phase! I’ll finally have this done in just a few more days![:D]
That is great to hear. Please share when complete.
Joel
Awesome news. Please keep us all updated.
-Kevin
Looking forward to seeing the images!
John