I couldn’t directly recall which locomotive this Tinder had been associated with, so I did a little research, suspecting that it had been on an International-Great Northern 2-8-4 in Texas. Looking at Porto photographs online, I couldn’t find the 284 was such a tender, but I did find I-GN heavy Mikados with that very tender.
I then recalled that Hallmark had offered a brass Model of an I-GN mikado with this tender. I suspect that the locomotive itself was lost or destroyed in some kind of accident, but the tender survived. It has random light damage which points to a possible accident.
But anyway, these particular locomotives on the I-GN were modified USRA heavy Mikado’s. Knowing that, a game plan formulated itself.
I have a BLI USRA heavy 2-8-2 that I never use, being in a road name that doesn’t relate to my layout. It’s close enough to the I-GN prototype to be passable. So after minor repairs this tender will find its new home behind my 2-8-2, re-lettered for the I-GN with a few added prototypical details.
The tender is on its way to me so stand by for further details on this exciting project. It’s great because I get to utilize a locomotive that had been sleeping in storage for a very long time.
I could not get this photograph inserted into the last post. Here are the specific details that I’m going to add to this engine, a hinged stack cover and locomotive number boards.
As an addendum this project creates a surplus BLI USRA tender. They come with a beautifully modeled coal load, so this one is going to be forwarded to my friend whose engines are coal burners, to replace a tender shell on one of his engines with a not so good coal load.
That sounds like a really interesting project. Repurposing a locomotive that’s been sitting in storage and pairing it with a more prototypical tender is a great idea. Looking forward to seeing how the modifications and re-lettering for the I-GN turn out. Good luck with the build!
Here’s the model that’s going to be the subject of this work. Right now it’s lettered for the southern railway. I like the southern and I don’t really likerepainting it but the Southern doesn’t really apply to my layout. I’d feel better if it was a PRR engine.
It’s different from the IGN engine when you study them both, but who cares, it’s going to look good enough.
And here’s the prototypical brass model of the IGN engine, there’s the same tender. I think my plastic BLI engine would look just fine with a tender like that.
The PRR received 5 light USRA engines and used them on the Grand Rapids and Indiana for their entire lives.
They also received 33 light engines but refused them and 10 went to the MP and 23 to the Frisco so you would need the light version not the heavy version.
Three differences I could see between the prototypical model and the BLI model that I have.
There is a Worthington feed water heater on the side where the air pump usually is. On these particular engines, the air pumps were up under the cab originally, like on this model. It ended up being a terrible location and they moved them to the pilot beam later. Between a $1300 brass model and a cost free plastic BLI locomotive I already have, I’m not bothered by this at all.
There’s a cast Delta trailer truck instead of the built-up USRA truck like on BLI. A friend of mine says he has a spare Delta item, which I’ll look into.
The steam dome is much further to the front of the engine than on the BLI model.
None of this matters much to me. It’s going to be a great looking engine with the new tender .
By the way, the I-GN Berks were 1121-25. Nifty looking engines, too.
I modified a Lionel 2-8-2 (a 2-8-4 with a 2-wheel trailing truck) to represent #1125. Also an imperfect match, nevertheless she provides a decent stand-in with semi-scale cars.
Aw man, that engine just looks great! The little shop notes on the side of the cab are over the top Missouri Pacific, and along with the number boards up by the stack, just scream MP and in this case I-GN,
That’s going to look great! Not surprised to learn the MoPac used oil on the Texas-Louisiana division. RI used oil on their steamers south and west of Armourdale Yd. in KC. Means I probably need to swap out the coal loads on some of my locomotives!
I don’t know the range of the MoPac, but did they use coal burners anywhere?
My best guess about coal fuel for steam locomotives on the Missouri. Pacific was probably north of Little Rock, Arkansas. But that’s just a guess. I know that in Arkansas that the Rock Island burned oil.
Thank you! I got the decals years ago from Oddball’s (a much-missed source). The bell, number boards, and dynamo were all easy to get, but I had trouble tracking down the Worthington pump for the fireman’s side. I finally found one from John Smith at Pecos River. It was a leftover from one of his import runs.
I remember oddballs decals. That source and the guy that ran it was squirrelly at best. I knew of several people that would order stuff, but never receive it. I had just joined the MPHS and that guy was on the periphery of it . His problem was the same as a lot of the other small decal vendors, the only printer at the time that could reliably print white lettering was one called an “ ALPS” printer, which went out of production and as individual machines broke down replacement repair parts could not be had. I’ve not looked for custom decals for a long time now, but hopefully that particular problem has been overcome with better technology I hope.
Truly, Tom had his problems. But he always gave me good service, and he had decal sets no one else had. In fact, I don’t know of replacements for some of them–like the white-on-black Frisco coonskins for water towers.
Back to my project. The tender arrived last week and it has multiple shortcomings. The paint job and decal job are too dinged up to be saved, plus the tender is very dirty. It needs to be stripped and re-lettered. It also is missing one step in the front, but the one that remains appears to be somewhere else because it is too large and drags the ground. Fortunately, I have two replacements in my parts department.
I have also re-thought about which engine will actually pull that tender. I do have a Southern heavy USRA mikado, but I begin to think, how could anyone from the south ever begin to think about it lettering a Southern locomotive.
Accordingly, I bought another BLI mikado. It was relatively cheap because it was a blue line DC engine, which didn’t matter because I’m replacing the entire tender and installing DCC and sound.. The engine was lettered and numbered correctly for the IGN, but numerals the Cab are too large and the engine has to be re-decaled. No big deal.
