SF Broadway-Limited 4-8-4

So far everyone has missed the most glaring defect. What is a Westinghouse cross-compound air pump doing under the fireman's side of the cab?

Buy a cheap piece of junk and you get junk, no matter how expensive it is. I suspect that the air pump under the cab is supposed to be a coal screw engine. I haven't seen the model but that much for a plastic model is silly when you can get a more accurately modeled brass model for about the same price.

-- Bob May Losing weight is easy! If you ever want to lose weight, eat and drink less. Works every time it is tried!

Perhaps it is meant to be a representation of the stoker motor?

But, as an interesting footnote, there was a class of 2-8-2s belonging to the MoPac that DID have their air compressors underneath the cab...

Westinghouse

And here I thought it was the OSHA foot massager....

Jim Stewart

Broadway Limited will be attending the Timonium Great Scale Train show next weekend. I'm sure most of their models will be on display. These folks put out a wonderful product and are quite eager to talk about them and field comments. I most definitely would recommend stopping by their booth. I'm a brass guy, but I find myself operating many of their locomotives. Check out our site

for show details. Best... HZ Howard Zane

5236 Thunder Hill Road Columbia, MD 21045

Why would an oil-fired 4-8-4 need a stoker motor? :-)

Pictures of the real 3751 seem to indicate there's some sort of air or feedwater heater pump in that very location.

snipped-for-privacy@aol.combatspam (Sean S) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mb-m14.aol.com:

Aw! Now why would you go and inject reality into what might have become a good flame war? Want to take any bets on the number of people who totally ignore your post and keep right on arguing the matter?

Flame War? Who said anything about a flame war? I suspect that a cross compound air pump looks like a feedwater heater on a dark night at three hundred paces in a heavy rain, but for anyone who knows a little about steam locos it is a serious error. I will admit that there are fewer and fewer people who know a bit about steam locos, but I would hope that the manufacturers would know the difference. After all, it is supposed to be scale model, or is it a toy?

Does this photo help or confuse?

CTucker NY

SNIPS

I suspect that a cross

Way, way back when I had more hair, MR ran a series called "Basics of Steam". Being then younger and poorer, I am not at all sure that I ever did get all the issues of MR that covered the topic, and I have a gut feeling ( gut now bigger than when I had more hair --- it seems to be an inversely proportional relationship) that MR never concluded the series.

Anybody remember when (years/ months) the MR series ran?

Anybody have pointers to books about the subject -- how a steam locomotive operated? Basic 2 - 4 - 0 up to tender stoker coal fired behemoths?

Seems to me that there should be some good basic hobbyist affordable books out there, and a hell of a market if they are not out there.

Comments, suggestions?

Cites to steam theory books rte railroad locomotives ?

The tough part is, trying to find a clear enough picture of 3751 that shows exactly what it is the engine has hangin' down there. Since the 3751 class was modernized and rebuilt by ATSF with a different feedwater system than what many were delivered with, it's difficult to say what's where on the engine now ... barring, of course, good closeup photographs, accurate techinical drawings, or a personal looksee at the locomotive. The photo in the link another poster provided gives one of the best shots so far. From my rather limited prototype steam experience, it sure looks like an air pump to me.

But then, my experience is in coal-fired 2-8-0's, and not mainline oil burners... :-)

A fair question. I didn't realise the model was of 3751 in it's rebuilt form. It was delivered as a coal burner, along with it's thirteen classmates.

Photos and text in Worley's massive "Iron Horses of the Santa Fe Trail" confirm that one of the air compressors was eventually mounted under the cab.

(I should have looked at the book before posting!)

The engines as rebuilt had only two compressors, according to Worley. One remained on the pilot deck adjacent to the feedwater heater pump, the other was mounted under the cab.

Well, in this case the manufacturers got it right - the 3751 class as rebuilt carried an air compressor under the fireman's side of the cab.

SNIP

SNIP

Model Railroader Cycolpedia, Volume ((insert number here, there are 2, one for steam the other for diseasels)) has a basic discription of how a locomotive operated, what went where, what it did and why, and what all those pipes were for. Bill

I know I should have stayed out of this! It really is an air pump. Wierd but correct. I never did understand Santa Fe steam.....................Sigh.............

Now if you want to see some weird steam look at C&O stuff................ok just kidding. VBG I still hope to get up to your store someday. No flame wars......unless they are oil fired.......LOL!!

Paul (an ATSF Fan)