First off, I’m sorry for two things - one, for the newbie question and two, if I should have posted this on an older thread (thus bumping it) instead of posting it afresh, but since none of the search results quite answered my question I opted for the latter. I’ll keep it brief, however.
I’ve just got a Spectrum 4-8-2, lettered N&W, with DCC and sound. The N&W modernized its fleet of 4-8-2s (K-class) after World War II and many of them received larger tenders. The Spectrum model comes with the standard USRA tender and I’d rather have one that fits the 1950s N&W practice. What things - other than decals and lettering changes - do I need to consider? This would be my first project of this sort. I am not an experienced kit builder/basher. But mainly I just want to be able to substitute tenders, I’m not going for an exact rivet count.
AWWWWWW, now your gonna get it. You posted a question not directly answered 2 years ago!
Are you going to have to buy another tender or are you looking at trying to do an “innerds” transplant from your current tender? I’m not familiar with the 4-8-2, but the tender “might” pick up track power. You would need to deal with that, but otherwise, if your going to a larger tender it should be easier than smaller. I like to look at what I have, consider what I need, and think about it for a day or two.
edit- don’t be sorry. Even if 20 people have crappy comments and say to search, there are thousands of posters and thats less than half of a quarter of an eighth percent. They’ll get over it. Don’t get sorry until you irritate at least 80%.
Spectrum isn’t consistent in the way their engines and tenders plug together, so you might be able to just plug the engine into the new larger tender and use it, or you might not. If not, you can still make the change. You’d need to remove the lightboard from the big tender and replace it with the lightboard of the smaller tender. There’s I think only one screw holding the lightboard in place, and two wires to disconnect/reconnect (one to each tender truck).
It probably sounds more complicated than it is. I did it recently with a heavy 4-8-2 that I wanted to convert to a Vanderbilt tender. The 4-8-2 does come with either a rectangular or vanderbilt tender (but the undec one that I needed only came with the rectangular) so it should have worked to just plug the new tender in, but for some reason it didn’t. But changing the lightboards around was as I said just removing a screw or two and clipping and then soldering two wires.
Varney, don’t know what’s available that would allow you to do what you indicate you want to do but if you can get the appropriate tender for what you want to do by all means do it!
Twenty-six years ago when I bolted HO-Scale I was giving some serious consideration to “updating” all of my Cary/Mantua and Bowser USRA locomotives with Bowser Vanderbilt tenders. It was only a “consideration” because I never got a one of them done!
Thanks all for the help and encouragement! To address some of your questions/comments…
First, I’d like to get away without replacing the tender “innards.” I think I’ll have to do the swap with the lightboard and the wires to the trucks because I think the model has electrical pick-up on all wheels.
Second, yes, I will have to buy another tender. So to some extent this will depend on what models are available - a separate issue I haven’t looked into yet. I’ll want to do the same kind of swap with the Walthers 2-8-8-2 (Y3) if I get one of those later. As to what I’d be looking for, it could work a couple of ways. By the mid 50s, all the K1’s were using at least an 18k gallon tender. Eight actually got ex-C&O (ex-PM) 22k/22-ton tenders, and one got a B&LE 22k/28-tonner. I would prefer to show it with a 22k. The model is numbered 118; I’m not necessarily trying to depict exactly which kind of tender went with 118 so much as to show a general representation of the beefing up to six axles and greater capacity.
One other twist - some of the old 4-8-0 M’s were “super-sized” with the old 12k tenders off the K’s, so if I ever find one of those 4-8-0s in HO it’d be nice to recycle this brand new tender![:)]
Thanks again; if you all have any suggestions on models I’m open.
Hmmm… 'hadn’t heard that the N&W rostered some ex-PM tenders. Cool.
Were the tenders flat-sided all the way up the coal bunkers (as on some of the PM’s Mikados), or did they curve over at the top like on the PM’s and NKP’s Berkshires? If they were the latter “curvy” ones, the old Rivarossi tender they used for their NKP Berkshire should do the trick.
You are right about the Berkshires - from Jeffries’ book on N&W steam:
“By 1948 all sixteen K1’s were assigned the N&W 18,000-gallon, cast steel, water bottom tenders. When the N&W later purchased used tenders, eight of the class received 22,000-gallon, twenty-three ton tenders that originally had been used on C&O (ex-Pere Marquette) 2-8-4s. One K1 got a 22,000-gallon, twenty-eight ton tender from a Bessemer and Lake Erie 2-10-4. These large secondhand tenders were applied to the nine K1’s in 1954-55.”
The accompanying photos show curved bunker side tops and a doghouse. Thanks for the lead on the Rivarossi model.[tup]
Rob
P.S. (trivia) - In 1955, one of these “re-tendered” K’s, No. 100, was stenciled up in C&O lettering and used in the movie “Giant.”
Visit the favorite place on ebay. He has undec tenders of various styles. He has the short tender that came with the 4-8-2, a long tender and a vanderbilt tender. They are all dcc ready and the only thing you might have to do is swap the boards out so the engine plugs in right like another poster had mentioned. It would be an easy swap even for a new guy(new guy here).
Wow, gotta like a guy who’s done his research! Upgrading tenders was a common practice on the prototypes since the 19th Century, which produced some combos where the new tenders were longer than the engines. There were also cases where the reverse was true, I’m sure, based on the Soo Line, who kept (or swapped!) the USRA short tenders on their 4-8-2s so they’d fit on shorter turntables! (Therefore, there must’ve been roads that changed to smaller tenders on the bigger locos they acquired.)
Go ahead and do it, Varney, and post some before and after photos on the Forum to show others what can be done. To me, one of the joys of model railroading is tailoring your RR to suit your tastes and designs–within logical reason, of course.
Mike and Dean, thanks! I did look at “thefavoritespot” on eBay and he does have a ton of stuff, but no 6-axle, PM-style tenders sold separately (I could, of course, buy the Berkshire and get exactly the right tender, but that’d be going a little far, even for me…). What I’ll do, though, is call my Not-so-Local Hobby Store and check it out that way. It may be they have one or think they’ll have one soon or can get one. I like the idea of using a Spectrum tender on a Spectrum loco - as you say, it ought to be a reasonably simple swap even for a new guy (I’ve been on the fringes of the hobby since I was a kid, but this is my first serious modeling project).
I never thought of shorter tenders, Dean, but it sure makes sense. The N&W seemed to think “bigger is better” - one of their other upgrades was to mate some HUGE 8-axle, 24k/27-ton tenders from ACL with some Y4’s. The whole unit looks as long as a city block and I wonder how they got it on their tables and into their stalls or if they had to move them one at a time.
I certainly will post photos once/if I get started, but I’m afraid it’s going to have to wait a bit. I took my new engine out of the box today and discovered that the cab roof on the engineer’s side is broken - the corner that’s swept back over the drawbar. You can see the white crease in the plastic where it got dog-eared and split. It had to have happened at the factory or in shipment between there and my Not-so-Local Hobby Store [is it ok to plug one’s favorite store?]. So now I have to wait on the warranty replacement. That, along with continuing to wait for the Walthers turnouts, has my fingernails bitten down to the quick. So close, and yet so far…[8] But I’ll get there - this just gives me more time to find that tender!