MLS Masterclass 2005 CP Huntington FINALLY finished

[vsmith]

MLS Masterclass 2005 CP Huntington FINALLY finished

 

No kidding! Sherman set the Wayback Machine for 2005;

 

 

When a fairly wet behind the ears still newbie kitbasher in large scale, who had previously only done a small number of relatively easy bashes decided to really test himself by doing the David Fletchers scratchbuild Masterclass project on MLS which was the CP Huntington 4-2-4.

 

 

Now I was learning ALOT with this terrific class but halfway thru building I found that the design wasn't going to work that well on my R1 curves, the rear swung WAY out and hit things YIKES, what to do, I had to veer off the program and improvise. My decision was to cut off the bunker, move the cab forward and build a 4-2-0 teakettle. First was modifying the chassis thus:

 

 

Once I was pretty sure it worked I moved forward with the rest of the build:

 

 

Then built up the boiler and cab:

 

 

With that I moved it along to a certain point of finished work:

 

 

And that was pretty much where I left it at about 2007, when my indoor layout became an on and off again affair I just kept this as a display model. I was very proud of this as it was my first more or less true scratchbuild. my first attempt at running it on the pizza were a failure, it keep jumping the tracks and jamming into the scenery. So I left it as display item:

 

 

And thus its been since.

[vsmith]

Until today...

 

I decided that if that after much violence and bloodshed, some of my other large models now run on the pizza I would give this one another try. This time I systematically figured out where each problem was and fixed it, usually with unspeakable violence to the layout. Also I remounted the tender latch for the drawbar, the main reason it was jumping the tracks turned out to be not it hitting the side of the layout, well that too, but that the standard LGB loop had a raised ridge on its inside that would catch the drawbar hook, ride up on it jamming it and triggering a derail. Once I cut it smooth (and did unspeakable violence to the layout) it now runs well on the layout ....in ONE direction, I'll take that as a success...  :-)

 

One I had it working I decided to raid the parts boxes and add some last missing details and give the whole thing a nice shiny glosscoat! Here she is finally finished after a short lull of oh..10 years ;-)

 

 

 

 

 

I'm still looking for a few harder to find details I'll add as I go but she's done and ready to pull a short string of Lil Haulers at the shows!

 

 

 

[PJM20]

Nice Job!

[Ray Dunakin]

Nice work, Vic! Better late than never!