Model Railroading > Progress!

My UP 2-8-2 #2537 had been languishing on the back of the work bench for months, So when I got up at 3am yesterday morning I decided to finish up the major details that needed to be addressed and reassemble the model and make it run again. I worked on it all morning into the afternoon, then did some programming and test running. It currently has the Paragon 2 with a custom keep alive and a Railmaster speaker jammed into the tender. But I may change that in the near future due to the odd issues you get with the Paragon 2 decoders, and outdated sounds. This is a BLI USRA Light Mikado with a huge number of detail changes to make it a more exact match to the prototype locomotive that now sits in a park in Walla Walla, WA. The real #2537 was built in 1918 by ALCO for the USRA and assigned to the Oregon Short Line RR in 1919. The locomotive was used around the UP system, especially after a 1940 rebuild that included an enlarged "Sweeny Stack", something that I need to design and have 3D printed. The locomotive runs smoothly with the large keep alive I made that will allow it to cross any dead spot. One issue I didn't notice until taking the photos is the large gap between the tender and locomotive cab. The third view shows the locomotive in the "close" notch in the drawbar, but it's anything but close. I'm thinking I need to add another hole in the drawbar and trim that deck plate.
Can't wait to have this locomotive pull some Idaho log trains and branchline freights.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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Prototype #2537 sitting in the snow at Walla Walla in December of 1999. Some details won't be changed like the low hanging injector lines that would interfere with the swing of the trailing truck. I can see why BLI had them come up and run along the side of the firebox instead.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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Looking really Good Ted!  Lots of details and time. Will you put a Sweeney stack on it?

Ted, looking very good.

Please post some photos or video once you have her ready to pull some tonnage and on the layout.

Bob