Hello Everyone,
My name is Logan Thurman and I'm new here. I just joined this forum as a means to connect with other HO Scale Model railroaders in my age group of 20-25 years. And I'd like to share some modeling I've been doing in my past and what I have planned now. My father got me into trains when I was only 3 years old and I still enjoy them to this day. When I was only 5 years old here in the state of Montana the SP&S Class E-1 4-8-4 #700 came through the state and I fell in love with it. As I got older, I researched about her and discovered the Northern Pacific actually designed the 4-8-4 locomotive with the help of Alco and classed it the Northern Type(Previously Northern Pacific Type). I discovered the SP&S 700 was a oil burning version of the NP's A-3 class 4-8-4s, but I found out about the A-2 4-8-4 and how it was the direct predecessor to the A-3 and had to get that locomotive...Now I'm a die hard Northern Pacific Railway Fan of the 1930s and own a Precision Scale Brass A-2 4-8-4 #2652 at only the age of 22... Yikes... I really worked hard to make that money from my machining career I've started all but last year... One day I hope to join a Steam Railway group to machine new parts for old steam locomotives...
Thanks,
Logan Thurman
NP A-2 4-8-4 #2652
Welcome Logan. You'll find your in good company in here, with lots of steam modelers.
Mike.
My You Tube
Logan .
the 4-8-4 is beautiful!
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Speaking as someone who has unbuilt kits older than you are (and worse yet, kits I built that are twice as old as you are!), welcome, Logan. It's always great to have someone new to bounce ideas off of, or to hear fresh perspectives from.
I have always liked the look of NP steam power. Heh - the NP is also one of the better "trick answers" to the trivia question, "name the Class 1s that had trackage in Wisconsin."
Dave Nelson
Thanks Guys! I'm glad I finally took the time to join MRR Mag Forums and some of the others. I'm also in the process of rebuilding and repainting the PSC NP A-2 as I'm back dating the design to as built in 1934-35 years with the large Big Stack that had the steam exaust piping attached to the side of it.
Photos from the Ron V. Nixon Collection.
Hi Logan,
Welcome. I always have loved the looks of the A4's and A5 4-8-4's of the NP.
Dave, that trackage between Superior and Ashland does make it a trick question.
Scott Sonntag
Logan! It's always nice when the forum gains a new member. Those are some beautiful models you have in that photo.
Hi Logan!
Welcome to the forums!!
Nice locomotives!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Thanks! I've been slowly working on my model and I finally got a successful 3d printed smokestack for the locomotive, but now my hobby shop is closed until further notice so I can't get the brass wire to make the pipes that must be connected to the exhaust plugs of the stack...All because of this Coronavirus crap...
Nice stuff!
You can probably get what wire you need off of eBay.
Chuck - Modeling in HO scale and anything narrow gauge
Steam seems to be popular on this forum so you should find people of like mind.
but a professional Model Railroader
So it is your primarly occupation and you make your living from model railroading?
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
LoganTMTI can't get the brass wire to make the pipes that must be connected to the exhaust plugs of the stack...All because of this Coronavirus crap...
There are still many places that sell online. "Coronavirus crap", really ? How dare it interrurpt your modeling.
I see. When you posted in the title of this topic that you were a professional model railroader, by the common definition it means that is your primary occupation and you make your living from model railroading. The title is misleading then.
LoganTMT. My Profession is Machining. I work for several different machine shops in the Bitterroot Valley,
What type of machine work?
As another former machinist, I am interested.
I spent several years putting older equipment back into service, field reaming bushings, line boring, also occassional build up work and such. Sometimes I had to fabricate parts that were no longer available, or to retrofit newer components onto older mechanisms and systems.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I say follow your dream
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Welcome Logan,
The Northern Pacific has an allure that is hard to resist...especially in my case and especially the Northern 4-8-4s. But if you're an NP fan you must be an SP&S fan cause there's good old #700 and then those Challengers....but these two roads were intertwined with the Great Northern and I submit to you that the GN 4-8-4s were also things of beauty! Better line up a lot more machining jobs to finance your future acquisitions! Boyd Wirkkala
I'm also a big fan of the SP&S (screen name should make that evident!) and the NP, but I tend to gravitate towards the later years of the two railroads! Main reason is diesels are a bit cheaper, and I love the NP Yellow Canoe paint scheme! Still I see how you could be into those late era, big steamers! My grandpa has a model of one of SP&S's Z-8 class 4-6-6-4s (also an NP design but oil fired) and it is very impressive!
Regards, Isaac
I model my railroad and you model yours! I model my way and you model yours!
LoganTMT I've been so enamored by steam locomotives that I want to work on them for a living, be it a paid or unpaid position. I would work on the Willemet Locomotive Works No. 7, but I think the restoration halted before it even could get started for the fifth time...
I was pulled into the "restoration" of the 0-6-0 industrial locomotive at Lakes Park in Fort Myers, Florida. It never made it back to running under steam. It is just a display locomotive now.
I would never do that again. The only way I would work on a steam locomotive (1:1 scale) is if the locomotive was already operating, and there were people already on staff that knew the locomotive, like at an operating railroad museum.
The project at Lakes Park was headed by a group of steam locomotive "experts" that knew a lot from books, but there was not a mechanic, machinist, welder, pipefitter, or engineer in the group.
These people really thought this locomotive resurection would be like a "fix up the car" montage from an 80s movie. Like we could take it apart, clean all the parts, put it back together, and it would run again.
This could even happen in a maximum security prison!
Any time they were told a part had to be purchased or fabricated they lost their minds.
I could go on about this experience forever, but I will not.
I imagine it was like doing a major house renovation for a customer that had no idea what that would be like.