web-site up-date mighty mikado is done

Phil, I hope no one takes you accomplishment that way. Detailing any engine is an accomplishment ? the first is even more so. ...and even more again so in this age of ready-to-run. Congratulations. I'm not much of a steam guy, but Mikados are my favorite.

I'm not familiar with John Allen's #42? was that the one locomotive which survived the fire at his house after he died?

Congratulations on a job well done. Not only the engine but the whole scene looks great!

R F Foster

az:

It's good. I like the Elesco feedwater heater; they always make a loco look like a completely different machine. Of course, my favorite Elesco was on Ma&Pa #43, just because a little shortline hog like that is the last place I'd expect to see something fairly high-tech like feedwater heating, and on the smallish engines that got them, you get the full effect of the snaky piping everywhere. ("Little" being a relative term, of course; #43 was a monster for a low-driver 2-8-0.)

The sandpipes also do a lot to break up the rather bare expanse of boiler. She really looks like a different engine.

I'm not a terribly skilled detailer, having been known to do horrible things like shave airpumps off plastic trainset engines and stick 'em to drilled- out dowel boilers (I'll spare you all the rest). May I make a few suggestions?

The sandpipes and whatchacallit fairing by the sandbox look good, but they seem a little oversized, and it's a little distracting in the photo. The effect on the real-life model is probably very different. Photos tend to exaggerate things.

You may want to file down the squarish bump cast into the Mantua boiler, ahead of the smokestack. I think this represents a Worthington feedwater heater, which wouldn't be there on a loco with another style. Of course, I could very well be wrong about this.

I see you bought the Yardbird pilot-deck airpump & radiator kit. I like it; it's very spiffy and modern, and a lot better than the Mantua lump that represented the same thing. However, you don't need to have the firebox-mounted pump that comes with the basic detail set - let another loco have it. I think, too, that the radiator replaces pipe cooling coils, which I don't see, but may be on the other side...I may be wrong about this, of course. I love steam, but I am no expert.

Here's a photo of Santa Fe 3751 which might help to illustrate some of the stuff I wrote. It's actually a clickable image map...click to zoom in. Neat idea, too.:

I hope I'm not being too picky. It's great to see stuff like this. Too often nowadays people are so worried that they have to do a perfect job on the first try that they never get that far, and never get a chance to practice. It's a shame. Perfection should be a goal, not a barrier.

Keep up the good work. I'd be proud to run this engine.

Cordially yours: Gerard P. President, a box of track and a legless table.

MM:

IIRC #42 was one of several similar Mikados on the G&D. Furthermore (and again, IIRC) it was the best of the "class", able to handle a few more cars. That was in a letter or article in some old issue of MR, but I forget where.

The one surviving engine was a scratchbuilt 4-10-0 brute. I forget the number.

Cordially yours: Gerard P. President, a box of track and a legless table.