Hey Y'all;
That "nobody home" look in my HO scale Bachmann and IHC steam locos bugs me but I'm having a low, very low, pretty near zero in fact, success rate finding engineer and fireman figures like I want. and the engineer and fireman selection isn't really much better than when I began looking about a decade ago, that including the advent of 3D printing.
The Walthers/Preiser guys are quite nice - but, oil burner firemen don't shovel much oil;
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50972812956_a8a4c05a73_o.jpg
And the 2-10-2 and 4-6-2 coal burners would have mechanical stokers in real life, so I want a seated fireman who could be working the oil or stoker controls.
Labelle has a seated fireman - except, he and the engineer are posed for cabs which have the windowsill at about armpit height; (they are also wearing jackets and I want people dressed for warm weather, my layout has palm trees)
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50972918857_9acc55c9d5_o.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50972918837_ba37e599da_o.jpg
And the windowsills of the locomotives I want figures for are somewhat closer to waistline height, for instance, the USRA 0-6-0s; (and note that photo can be clicked to enlarge quite a bit)(turntable it is on is also of interest) https://www.shorpy.com/node/11371
Found some 3D printed engineers and firemen on Shapeways - except once again, you don't do much shoveling of oil.Woodland scenigs has figures in HO like I've used for the On30 except you get 2 seated guys in a package of 6 figures and to crew 8 locomotives that requires spending my Social Security Disability money on almost 50 figures to get 16 to use. NOT an economical proposition.Who out there knows things I don't about what HO scale engineer and fireman figures are available? (probably almost everybody, I expect )
Atlas had an unpainted set.
BLI has sets where the fireman and engineer do not have their arm on the windowsill and nobody is carrying a shovel.
https://www.broadway-limited.com/engineerandfiremanfigures.aspx
Here in the UK, Hardy's Hobbies do (amongst other items) footplate crew in various poses. https://hardyshobbies.co.uk/product-category/footplate/
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
I'll second the BLI ones, I use them for locomotives and caboose crews.
https://www.walthers.com/products/layout/figures/scale/ho-scale/manufacturer-name/broadway-limited-imports
I'll bet Mel Perry's methods could be adapted to produce precisely the crew you need, posed to do what you want.
The point about being poised to work the stoker jets is a good one. Perhaps multiple interchangeable figures might make sense for different situations?
I was going to suggest Mel's blog, as well. I'm sure he'll be here!
Mike.
My You Tube
I buy some of my HO figures off Shapeways, you might look at this Shapeways page.https://www.shapeways.com/shops/scalehumans?section=HO+scale+Figures&sort=The engineer sitting down would workout very good. I bit pricy but you could make a mold and duplicate it, making castings would bring down the cost per figure.
I just received the some Shapeways ladies yesterday.
The detail is much better than the pictures show. I ask Kevin if he would do an instructional post on how to paint figures and he agreed.The first thing I do with the Shapeway figures is make molds for casting duplicates. The second generation figures hold the detail very good.I cut up the second generation castings and change positions of arms, legs and heads so that there are no look alikes. Then comes the tough part, painting.
PLEASE HELP US KEVIN Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
Oh! I'd forgotten about the BLI guys; seeing the pictures of them reminded me are some purchased a few years ago still in the box of my Chessie and WM diesels. And of course, some in some of the diesels!
Found Mel Perry's blog. Thanks! Is interesting that he models SP since one of the 0-6-0s I want an oil burner crew for is SP.
Had originally intended to carve off Bachmann's molded-on boiler detail and replace with free-standing 'more SP-ish' parts but health decline has reduced that project to merely painting the boiler and cylinder jacketing olive-grey and cutting open the roof hatch vents and cab front doors.
It is because of opening the roof vents and cab side windows, and cab front doors on a couple, on my half dozen 0-6-0 that it is important to me to have the crew at their posts, in addition to the reason that they simply look odd with nobody home.
Eventually I want to add a little bit of backhead detail but that it a project for another year.
And that brings up something I've not yet found online in a couple months of looking in a couple different years - cab interior photos of USRA 0-6-0s.
I did just last week acquire Newton Gregg's 1970-something Train Shed Cyclopedia 9 about USRA locos and other. It has reproduction of original diagrams showing location and style of coal firedoor, throttle, water sight glass, engineer's seat. That helps.
Back to the guys, I'm also looking for some dressed like these,
https://eriksenphoto.smugmug.com/Trains/Standard-gauge/Baltimore-Ohio-Railroad/i-4X7g3b5/A
Hmm, is his hat 2-tone? Dark blue bill and light blue crown?
https://eriksenphoto.smugmug.com/Trains/Standard-gauge/Baltimore-Ohio-Railroad/i-nJ5FqsK/A
SP 0-6-0?This guy is one of my castings.This guy is another Mel casting. Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
I’m not sure but I think the master for this guy was a Preiser Engineer. Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
KitbashOn30oil burner firemen don't shovel much oil;
Quite true, but he could be sanding the flues.
My Dad fired for the L&A out of Greenville, TX after he graduated from High School to earn money to pay for college. The line fed its locos Bunker C, the stuff left one step above road tar in the refineries' cracking towers. Back in the Thirties, they'd practically pay you to take the stuff off their hands. One of the problems with it was that, unlike coal, there were no fine particles scouring the flues of deposits - which interfered with heat transfer. Solution - once you were well out in the country (to avoid fines for pollution), the fireboy would occasionally take a scoop of sand from a box located in the tender, open the firebox door and the draft would pull the sand off the scoop, through the firebox and down the flues. The result was billowing, thick black smoke like a destroyer laying down a smoke screen to screen the battlehips
https://laststandonzombieisland.com/2017/05/10/warship-wednesday-all-vessels-make-smoke/#jp-carousel-24633
BEAUSABREKitbashOn30 burner firemen don't shovel much oilQuite true, but he could be sanding the flues.
KitbashOn30 burner firemen don't shovel much oil
The sand is abrasive to the flue metal, so you want to do this comparatively seldom and stop as soon as the worst of the soot is out.
You want the inside of at least the rear part of the flue black for best heat transfer... but soot is a pretty good insulator when it builds up as well as blocking induced-draft gas flow patterns.
BEAUSABREMy Dad fired for the L&A out of Greenville, TX after he graduated from High School to earn money to pay for college. The line fed its locos Bunker C, the stuff left one step above road tar in the refineries' cracking towers. ... The result was billowing, thick black smoke like a destroyer laying down a smoke screen to screen the battlehips
...
The result was billowing, thick black smoke like a destroyer laying down a smoke screen to screen the battlehips
Hey, thanks for the personal connection to the topic, cool!
As it happens, I've been wondering if fuel oil heater detail, or at least heater acess panel detail, might be called for.
But I've not yet applied effort to researching the thing.
And in another, as it happens ...
My now 80-something Dad had several of his Navy duty stations on USN DDs during the cold war, FRAM'ed "WW2 leftovers" as I called them.Fuel oil, steam turbines, good stuff.
He had a lot of fun on those Sumner and Gearing class ships.
OvermodYou want the inside of at least the rear part of the flue black for best heat transfer... but soot is a pretty good insulator when it builds up as well as blocking induced-draft gas flow patterns.
The first part I knew about oil-fired locos, but that bit, no; either I had not come across it or my brain had not retained it.
Even though it remains true that I am not fully satisfied by engine crew figure variety I am happy with these Preiser guys where they are appropriate.
They come painted but of course I wanted them a little different from the factory colors.And the mold seam lines needed trimming off.
My body has some problems it didn't two decades ago but I can still do sort of okay at painting these little people.
Locomotive has also had Bachmann's total plastic tender trucks replaced with Kadee 590 electrical pickup caboose trucks. Yes, a lot of tender trucks had coil springs instead of leaf springs.
See:
http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/prr7055s.jpg
And some 0-6-0 have been seen having one truck of each spring style, sometimes leaf springs forward, sometimes leaf springs aft;(also, note that 4442's smokebox is jacketed along with rest of boiler)
https://locomotive.fandom.com/wiki/Union_Pacific_No._4442?file=Union_pacific_4442_.jpg
(err, should have closed the gap and shortened drawbar when I made the hinged apron several years back, oh well, such is life, I'm not redoing the apron)
Looking good!!I believe those guys are the ones I used for making my molds. They were the best I could find and haven’t been able to find any better so far. Here's a few of my engine crews. Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.