{"id":1203,"date":"2012-09-09T21:27:31","date_gmt":"2012-09-10T01:27:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mattforsyth.com\/?p=1203"},"modified":"2012-09-10T22:19:56","modified_gmt":"2012-09-11T02:19:56","slug":"steam-tender-conversion-and-ultra-detailing-in-%e2%80%9co%e2%80%9d-scale%e2%80%a6virginian-coal-tender-803-to-aux-tank-a27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mattforsyth.com\/?p=1203","title":{"rendered":"Steam Tender Conversion and Ultra-Detailing in \u201cO\u201d Scale\u2026Virginian Coal Tender #803 to VGN Aux Tank #A27"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Prototype…<\/span><\/h3>\n

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VGN Aux Tank built from one of the 14,400 gallon AB\/AD tenders…<\/em><\/p>\n

Although few in number, the Virginian Railway was well know for their massive articulated steam locomotives, particularly their AB\/AD Class 2-8-8-2’s and AE Class 2-10-10-2’s.\u00a0 In the late 1940’s and early ’50’s, with\u00a0even more new electric locos\u00a0making inroads, the VGN scrapped\u00a0some of those\u00a0big steamers and salvaged\u00a0the coal tenders from\u00a0seven of them. The tenders that were saved were sent to the Virginian’s Princeton Shops, where they were converted to water-carrying Aux Tank cars.<\/p>\n

Effectively,\u00a0the coalboards were removed and sheetmetal covers were fabricated to seal off the top and the end of the bunker. The cistern ring and\u00a0hatch was narrowed and extended, a freight car style\u00a0AB brake system was installed, as well as freight car running boards, hand\u00a0grabs, backup light\u00a0and safety appliances. The front end beam was modified to accept a coupler instead of a drawbar.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0intent of the Company in building these was to\u00a0couple them to the rear of existing steamers to double their onboard water supply, thereby reducing or eliminating a\u00a0number of water stops. Other railroads in the east\u00a0built\u00a0aux tanks (aux water cars) too, most notably the N&W and Reading. These VGN cars\u00a0were also used in MOW and other service.<\/p>\n

Of the seven cars built, five were 14,400\u00a0gallon tanks\u00a0taken from the AB\/AD 2-8-8-2’s and two were 13,000 gallon tanks taken\u00a0from the AE 2-10-10-2’s.\u00a0 The first five were rebuilt into aux tanks\u00a0after WWII\u00a0and the last two were rebuilt in the early 1950’s.<\/p>\n

The Model…as delivered<\/span><\/h3>\n

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For this commission, the client\u00a0shipped me\u00a0a complete, pristine model of one\u00a0of the AE tanks\u00a0from the recent run of the Sunset\/3rd Rail VGN 2-10-10-2’s. The client had planned this conversion prior to the Sunset models being completed, and ordered just a tender for this purpose.<\/p>\n

Here’s a few shots of the brand new tender as delivered to me…<\/p>\n

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As was done at Princeton, the goal here was to convert the stock coal tender into the modified aux tank. Fortunately, the client was able to supply me with a copy of the actual 3\/8″ = 1′ erecting drawing used by the VGN to make these modifications. Here is an image of that print.<\/p>\n

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The Conversion…<\/span><\/h3>\n

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The rebuilding process to\u00a0create an aux tank from this stock tender was EXTENSIVE. And even though the original paint and lettering\u00a0was pretty good, it could not be saved and had to be stripped. Here’s a few shots of the model after all the details, un-needed parts\u00a0and paint have been removed.<\/p>\n

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As with the prototype, new sheetmetal covers (with rivet detail) to cover the top and end of the coal bunker were fabricated and installed.<\/p>\n

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Accurate end fillets then had to be fabricated to fill in the openings between the new end and top sheets. There was some confusion about just how these were to be\u00a0rendered, since no good closeup images of the corner treatments exists. Looking at the Company print, in two out of thee views (end and top) it would appear that there is a 18″ long x 4 1\/2″ wide notched step at the joint. That made sense, as the Princeton Shop would have had limited metal forming capabilities, and creating a complex, compound curved section of steel sheet\u00a0to perfectly fill in that space with no step or notch\u00a0(just for the sake of asthetics) would have been\u00a0way too much work.<\/p>\n

Here are\u00a0some closeups of the print that shows the\u00a0notched fillet…<\/p>\n

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Here’s a close up of the completed engineer’s side\u00a0fillet installed, maintaining the correct length, width and depth of the notch\u00a0(as per the print).<\/p>\n

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Princeton reduced the width of the cistern deck water hatch on these tanks, so following suit\u00a0I filled in the old\u00a0opening with several\u00a0layers of brass, to accommodate a smaller filler.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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After soldering in the new filler sections, the top of the tender was filed smooth to blend all the seams together. The eched rivets were filed off too, but will be restored prior to painting.<\/p>\n

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Once\u00a0the old opening was filled and the new one cut in, it was time to turn my attention to modifying the water hatch ring and lid. The\u00a0ring casting was fixtured into the\u00a0milling machine, and\u00a0two segments near the middle were removed.<\/p>\n

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The remaining\u00a0center section and two small curved end sections were then fixtured, and joined together with solder.\u00a0A new, extended center colum, lid and platform\u00a0was fabricated and joined to the smaller base ring to complete the assembly.<\/p>\n

Here’s the completed hatch assy. installed in the new cistern deck opening (with the running boards mocked up).<\/p>\n

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Using the prototype as a guide for component location, a full AB brake system was made up and\u00a0installed…<\/p>\n

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New front end beam was fabricated per the print and attached to the deck…<\/p>\n

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Running boards and end platforms were installed…<\/p>\n

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Next up…drop grabs, end grabs, deck railings, and roof walk end supports. All parts were custom fabricated…<\/p>\n

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Yard steps and rungs were individually fabricated from brass strip…<\/p>\n

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Ajax brake box, brake chain and brake step were added, along with coupler cut levers, back up light and tank stays, completing the fabrication, and making the model ready for paint\/lettering.<\/p>\n

The Completed Model…<\/span><\/h3>\n

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3\/4 View “B” end…<\/p>\n

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Side view…<\/p>\n

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Top View “B” end…<\/p>\n

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“B” end…<\/p>\n

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“A” end…<\/p>\n

After I shipped the\u00a0finished model to the client, I received this letter in the mail…<\/p>\n

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The Prototype… \u00a0 VGN Aux Tank built from one of the 14,400 gallon AB\/AD tenders… Although few in number, the Virginian Railway was well know for their massive articulated steam locomotives, particularly their AB\/AD Class 2-8-8-2’s and AE Class 2-10-10-2’s.\u00a0 In the late 1940’s and early ’50’s, with\u00a0even more new electric locos\u00a0making inroads, the VGN […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-clients-projects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mattforsyth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mattforsyth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mattforsyth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mattforsyth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mattforsyth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1203"}],"version-history":[{"count":60,"href":"http:\/\/mattforsyth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1305,"href":"http:\/\/mattforsyth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1203\/revisions\/1305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mattforsyth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mattforsyth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mattforsyth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}