Steam Pump Car Part II

Up New Life for a HOn30 Baldwin Scratchbuild a HOn30 Work Car A Steam Pump Car Steam Pump Car Part II Water Tank Car Spark Arrestor

In the previous installment, I built a small steam pump car using a Keystone Locomotive Works vertical boiler.  That boiler is cast white metal and is rather heavy, which made the car a bit unstable.  In addition, the boiler was a little too tall for my taste.  So, I've looked around for alternate boilers, especially one not quite so heavy.  Woodland Scenics includes a kinda funky looking boiler in several of their kits, and I built one car with that boiler scavenged from a sawmill, thinking that I could use the Keystone boiler in its place.  The Woodland Scenics boiler is definitely lighter weight, but visually is odd.  Next, I found a SS Ltd. Vertical Boiler and Engine.  This is still white metal, but much smaller than the Keystone and lighter weight, kinda pricey, though, to scavenge the boiler out of this kit.  I also tried making a mold and casting a boiler, but the results were totally unsatisfactory.  So, I decided to fabricate one from styrene.  I found several sizes of styrene tubing that nest within each other, glued them together, filed a cone-shaped top, glued on styrene "boiler bands," made a firebox door, scribed a seam and some "rivets" down one side, and made a stack from the next smaller size of styrene tubing and more styrene bands.  Now it is just the size and weight I wanted from the beginning.  So, pictured here are two pump cars, Figure 1  with the SS Ltd. boiler and Figure 2 with my homemade boiler.  The rest of these cars is just like the previous one.

 
Figure 1                                            Figure 2

The SS Ltd. boiler did come with some cute parts, such as the gauge, whistle, pop valve, and drain valve.  I need to add similar detail to my boiler, which will probably make the SS unit a very reasonable price.  The SS boiler is painted Gunmetal and mine, Engine Blue.  Both have Steam Power Black stacks.

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This page last updated on 07/07/2007