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Model Railroading > SP "Light Pacific" by Broadway Modification Process Part 1Date: 05/31/20 12:21 SP "Light Pacific" by Broadway Modification Process Part 1 Author: Fiftyfooter Here is my friend Charles Smiley's new model project. Below are the notes on this project!
I picked one of these up knowing that it was a generic Pacific (4-6-2). I'm in the process of making it look more like an SP Pacific as used on the SF Peninsula. I need it for a Fast Mail train with all Harriman style dark-olive colored cars that I built up. On flat ground these things were like Saluki dogs - fast as any Gazelle and still fairly powerful. The things that needed changing right away were... 1. The headlight needed a visor over the lens. Later I'll replace it later with a brass one and relocate it more below the smoke box centerline as the SP style dictates. 2. The bell is normally between the stem and sand dome. And it was never brass colored! That was an easy move - air-brushed to black. 3. It needs large, angled number boards bracketing the smoke stack. I used some parts I had that are OK for now, but I'll find better ones when the shops open again. 4. I need to fit it with a fatter stack that is more tapered. 5. The SP front pilot/cowcatcher didn't have spokes. It looks like they made it out of some heavy corrugated steel. hat's a futre poriject. 6. SP steam and sand domes looked like Bowler style hats compared to what this model has. That would be very ard to fix. This model ran very poorly out of the box. It derailed and stalled (reset shutdown) every 10 feet on even 36-inch radius curves and number 8 turnouts. Most of this was front wheel/truck lift on the lead tender truck due to poor routing of the wire from the brass truck frame - and two other problems. a. The slip-fit on the connecting drawbar was binding. I burnished the hole to polish it smoother using a round hardwood toothpick in a drill motor. Now it's fine. b. The tender's brake cylinder had projections (bell cranks) that interfered with the trucks pivoting. I snipped them off since they can't be seen unless you turn the tender upside down. Now it runs just fine mechanically. I would say somewhere between very good and excellent. But it likes to reset going over gaps on loops that have DCC polarity reversers like the Lenz model LK-200. It stalls, resets the decoder but quickly recovers. It needs a TCS "Keep Alive" added. There is no useful info or wiring diagram on the generic-OEM decoder in this thing -- it has lots of empty connectors for unused things with no info. Has anyone ever put a Keep-Alive module on this loco decoder? Or has anyone junked it for a preferred decoder brand? Some of my plans will need to wait for local hobby shops to open back up.  Date: 05/31/20 18:32 Re: SP "Light Pacific" by Broadway Modification Process Part 1 Author: atsf121 Looks great!
Posted from iPhone Date: 05/31/20 20:07 Re: SP "Light Pacific" by Broadway Modification Process Part 1 Author: wabash2800 If you can't find suitable parts in brass and are not skilled with a lathe, domes could be made in plastic with the desired shape and diameter if you chuck styrene rod into a drill or drill press and turn them. Then you could get the proper radius where the dome meets the boiler by sanding with a wood dowel and sandpaper wrapped around it and approximately the boiler diameter. The secret is to be able to go at a slow speed with a variable drill speed or drill press. As far as the flange is concerned, it could be made by mathematical caluculations and trial and error, and would look like an oblong gasket before attached. I have done this for 1/25th scale but with very old style steam and sand domes. Another posiblity would be to use existing domes and modify them. (I've done that too.)
Someone wrote an article in Model Railroader in the 1970s on how to kitbash plastic HO steam locos with some great ideas. He also made tenders in styrene. He was able to duplicate models not available, by modification and the use of commercial mechanisms. As I look at my brass locomotives I realize that shortcuts were taken in that some stacks and domes were stock and not exactly correct for the prototype. For example, on my Wabash J-1 Pacifics, the domes and stacks are too small. Victor A. Baird http://www.erstwhilepublications.com Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/20 20:14 by wabash2800. Date: 06/03/20 13:02 Re: SP "Light Pacific" by Broadway Modification Process Part 1 Author: Cupolau The early light Pacific's did have spoked pilots but later on they changed to pressed steel. If you're lucky you might find one on eBay. I know that Precision Scale did make both the early and later pilots for SP models.
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