Winter 2010 - Pennsylvania Railroad Technical and Historical Society

7. Reinforce the cut down underframe
with brass sheet used as a splice plate
and weight.
8. Cut off factory end railing from underframe.
9. Trim off horizontal bars joining wheel
supports and the toolbox from the underframe.
The photo shows the underframe
test fitted for NWSL 36 in. dia.
wheels and MT couplers (more details
on this later).
10. File off the cast-on roofwalk, then keep
on filing until the factory board lines
disappear from the roof.
11. Remove cupola roof and ends, leaving
only the sides.
12. Fill in the factory smokestack hole
(seen at lower right) and file smooth.
Cupola ends, roof, and windows
13. Build new cupola ends – this is more
work that these few words can convey!
Make the ends from scribed styrene and
make them oversized – in other words,
too tall. Install some 0.040 in. by 0.040
in. strip styrene above cupola sides to
make the sides taller. Once the ends are
installed and the glue has been allowed
to set overnight, use files and sandpaper
to reduce the cupola ends down in
height and to give a suitable round contour
on top. I simply did this by eye
alone.
The Keystone Modeler 26 No. 72, Winter 2010