Two New Projects:

#1.) Picked up a Nickel Plate Products rotary snow plow about six months ago and finally got done with the modifications and painting.

After mods but before painting:

After painting and weathering: Mods include:

Re-railing frogs. Roof Grabs. Rear roof hatch. (open) Generator & electrical conduits. Pop valves and whistle. Stack. Spotlight & new headlight. Icicle-breakers. Whale-backed oil tender.

Also replaced the original junky open-framed motor with a modern can motor and replaced the rubber-tubing driveshaft with a solid universal- jointed one.

#2.) Found this Balboa S.P. GS-1 on Ebay over a year ago and just finished it up as well.

Turns out this particular loco was the Balboa pilot model, and it needed to have the pilot truck replaced (wheels were too small and there were no brake shoes) and hinges added to the boiler face (They had been inexplicably left out entirely on the pilot model! The production models had the right hinges.)

Also added:

The step on the boiler face. Boiler lagging clamps. Relocated whistle to prototype location. Swapped the factory clamshell stack for the later straight version. Added air pump exhaust pipe and stack. Added sand dome grabs. Opened the ventilation hatch in the cab roof. Added a modified box-style tender, as the Balboa model came with the semi-cylindrical Vanderbilt tenders which were only seen on the Texas locos. I added an oil dipstick, steam, signal, and brake lines; and full brake system to the tender, and removed the left-side tool box that only showed up on GS-2 and later tenders.

I'm happy with both models.

~Pete