ACY .... Boston & Albany 1400-1444 were built with Elesco heaters .....
.... Boston & Albany 1400-1444 were built with Elesco heaters .....
Ya sly dog, ya caught me knapping! you are correct, the B&A did have Elesco Berkshires. Told you I needed a moment to think about it. Thanks for reminding me.
There was an Elesco feedwater heater on the original Lima A-1 demonstrator Berkshire. She was eventually sold to the Illinois Central, where she joined 50 more Elesco-equipped 2-8-4's. Boston & Albany 1400-1444 were built with Elesco heaters, and two of those engines were sold to the Tennessee Alabama & Gulf where they continued to operate with that equipment. Santa Fe 2-8-4's 4101-4115 carried Elesco equipment, and they applied an Elesco heater to one of their ex-B&M 2-8-4's. All of the above engines had 63" to 63-1/2" drivers, rather than the 69" of the NKP engine, and none of them looked very much like an NKP Berkshire. They were smaller than your NKP engine, so your best course is probably to do exactly what you are doing.
Tom
If you are willing to put up with a less than totally accurate model, it might be possible to mate the 2-8-4 mechanism and frame with a different boiler/cab to come close enough to the rather hulking B&M Berkshire. I agree that just placing a coffin feedwater heater on the front of the NKP/PM type boiler won't really get you there. The sand dome alone will always scream NKP. Ditto the cab.
The IHC 2-10-2 boiler has something of that same hulking look as the B&M (with obvious differences in domes and piping) , but just how compatible the innards of the boiler are with the outards of the mechanism is unknown to me. With luck maybe a junker IHC engine might turn up at a swap meet.
Not sure what can be done about the trailing truck under the cab either but that is the sort of thing that wouldn't bother me all that much if I captured the general look and feel.
Dave Nelson
BMME, no such thing as a USRA Berkshire, though an interesting thought towards design. The rectangle shaped box under the running board and above the cylinders on firemans side is actually the 'feedwater pump' or 'hot water pump' which takes water from the 'feedwater heater' and pumps it into the boiler. The rectangle box on top of smokebox betwixt the smokestack and smokebox front is the actual 'feedwater heater' that does the heating by taking heat directly from the exhaust. The whole purpose is to preheat the water. If you look on the side of the trailing truck (firemans side) you will notice a cylinder type object with piping. That is the 'cold water pump' which takes water (gravity fed) from tender and pumps it to feedwater heater. The path goes - tender to cold water pump to water heater to hot water pump to boiler.
Worthington is the manufacturer of the heating appliance, and SA was the model number or 'type' of water heater. S, SA, SS, were to name a few types. Elesco is another company that made water heaters. These are easily discerned from Worthingtons as the Elescos were cylindrical, not rectangular. Same purpose, but I am unaware of any Berkshire having an Elesco heater. Have to think about that one for a minute. Most had Worthingtons, few had coffin types which cannot be confused for any other type of water heater made.
No laws broken.
I decided to take the easy way out on this one. Numbered the Berkshire 4027 (B&M Berkshires were numbered between 4000-4025, classes T-1a and T-1b). Installed a TCS Wow Sound decoder and lettered it for Boston and Maine, and gave it class (T-1c). I will refer to Rule 1: Its my railroad and I'll do what I want.
B&M's Berkshires were a 1920's design with many, many features that differentiated them from the NKP design of the 1930's and 1940's. It might be possible to rebuild the engine so that it resembes the B&M engine, but many proportions would be off by a pretty wide margin. Geographically speaking, the only Berkshires that operated close to New England and sported dimensions similar to the NKP design would have been Erie's S-1, 2, 3, and 4. Even so, a lot of details would have to be changed to create a plausible model of one of the Erie engines. I'm not sure what alternative to suggest, but the conversion you propose may be impractical. Of course, this depends on how much accuracy means to you. You may decide the compromises are acceptable, and that would be your privilege.
As already mentioned, the square thing atop the smokebox is the actual feedwater heater. The item beneath the running board on the fireman's side of the loco is the hot water pump. There should also be a cold water pump near the rear of the loco, mounted below the level of the tender's cistern, like the one on the lower front corner of the firebox of this loco:
For a Coffin fwh, you'd need to add the cold water pump, then get rid of the hot water pump and the Worthington heater.
Wayne
Thats what I was afraid of, really not sure if I want to hack up a proto 2k berk, but B&M used coffin FW heaters. This may be a project I delay for a while. I didnt think it was a USRA locomotive, but thats how the undecorated model that I bought is labeled on the box sticker.
The Worthington SA heater is that 'thing' sticking out of the top of the smokebox between the bell and the stack. The rectangular item and the parts just to the rear are the feedwater pump.
The same pump arrangement/location are found on the NYC L-2 class 4-8-2s.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with Elesco feedwater heaters only)
The P2K model is basically a NKP Berkshire(also C&O/PM) for the most part. It is not a USRA engine. The 2-8-4 design came long after the USRA designs of WWI. The 'box' submerged in the top of the smoke box(and behind the number boards) is the actual FW heater unit. The 'pump' is usually mounted below the cab on the firemans side of the engine(just above the trailing truck). I hope this helps....
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
On the Ho scale Proto 2K USRA 2-8-4, There is a retangular shaped object above the Fireman's side cylinder. Is this the Worthington SA feedwater heater?