How would I go about converting the coal tender that came with my steam locomotive, into on that stores oil. Thanks for the help guys.
Dave
I know it can be done because I’ve done it before and believe me, you’d be much better off buying one ready made or a kit.
Bowser has an Oil tender kit I believe
What loco are you trying to convert?
I made a very simple conversion for my Bachmann 2-8-0. I run the Santa Fe and a coal tender just didn’t look right. So I removed the coal load and put a piece of styrene over the hole. I added a railing and some hatches and now I have an oil tender 2-8-0. Very simple to do. Polly Scale Steam Power Black is a close color match too btw.
I’m trying to convert all my tenders. I’ve got a few Spectrum locomotives that I’m going to put the oil burning vandy tender on, but I want to keep all the short tenders that are with my MDC steamers so I need to convert them. I think I’m going to give your suggestion a try Chief. By the way, what manufacturer did you use for your hatches? Thanks for the help guys.
Dave
Dave;
At one time, MDC offered two types of oil tenders, a rectangular “Santa Fe” style, and a short vandy.
Dave–the MDC SP-style Vandy tenders came with a ‘reversable’ load, coal on one side and oil -hatch on the other. Carefully pry the ‘coal’ hatch off of your Vandy, and there’s an oil bunker on the opposite side. Do a little filing on the edge to re-set the hatch, and ‘Voila!’ You’ve got your oil bunker. MDC made it easy. The oil hatch is set pretty close into the casting, though, if you want one that looks more realistic, check out the PSC locomotive casting catalogue, there’s probably one in there that will work.
As to the Spectrum–I’ve got a WP 2-8-0 with a coal tender, and I think converting it to oil–which I plan to do, will consist of sawing or filing off the coal load even with the sides, then fitting a piece of 1/16 styrene to the top, and then following WP practice, using whatever wire stantions and PSC hatches that will fit. That’s in the future–right now, I figure that the Consol just got transferred from the Salt Lake division, LOL!
Anyway, check out your MDC tender loads. They should be reversable. [:)]
Tom
MDC made a very nice ATSF prototype oil tender, whch was about the size of the USRA short. They do pop up on Ebay from time to time, so keep an eye out.
But converting a coal tender to an oil tender is easy: just remove the coal load, cut the slope sheet off, plate over the coal bunker with .020" styrene, add a small fuel fill hatch and a couple of grabs, and paint the whole thing black. What’s hard is removing the ash pans from any engine you give an oil tender to!