I bought a brass engine kit (from the 60's?) on Ebay. It is a "Great Western" kit and is described only as a "Betsy" consolidation. Upon receiving the kit, I realized it had no instructions, not even a photo of the finished model. Somethings are pretty obvious, like the steam dome, the sand dome the stack, etc., but the piping is a little more confusing. There are two holes on the top of steam dome - I'm thinking the whistle and a pressure value. There is a tank on the left side with a pipe on each end. Where would these pipes go? There is a two cylinder compressor (?) on the right side with a spot for a pipe on the side of the top cylinder. There are two holes on each side of the boiler about mid point - I'm thinking check valve? I have the Cyclopedia Vol 1, which is a great help, but I still have part and holes in the boiler/smokebox that are unaccounted. Can someone help? It will be a great model when it is assembled, but I don't want to guess where things go.
If you know who imported it you can probably find the instructions here.
http://www.hoseeker.net/lit.html
Good luck.
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
Something I have done is to locate actual pictures online showing different aspects of the particular locomotive and model from there. I have a Mikado 2-8-2 that I am getting which is not very close to a prototypical PRR version that I plan on altering to the PRR version-should be very rewarding. Hope you have a great time working on your locomotive.
Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
http://s1082.photobucket.com/albums/j372/curtwbb/
Pete,
That is a great resource, but I'm not sure the model was imported. The kit maker is Great Western Locomotive Works, Studio City, CA. I've done a google search by can't find anything.
I'll spend some time on the site and see if I can find a similar model.
Mike
I did some research about this some years ago. In the 1870s when air pumps came into being. there was a whistle and pop valve. Also a lever from the cab to a valve to release steam pressure.
Some had a pipe and valve on the side of the steam dome that fed the air pump regulator which fed the steam to the air pump. Many, the steam to operate the pump came out of the cab.
There was a filter for air coming into the pump. Exhaust steam after oprating the pump went to the bottom of the smoke box via a pipe. Compressed air went into the tank and eventually there would be some pipes in seires with each other used for coolling the compressed air on one side of the loc o as a single pipe did not provide enough cooling.
Below is a link to a Google Book search where I found a lot of info.
http://tinyurl.com/6jqrlz3
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
I might be able to find someone that has the instructions or a photo of the finished model. What scale is this loco?
The engine is HO scale.
Mike:
I found someone who has an instruction sheet and can also provide a color photo of the finished model in natural brass.
Contact me via the conversations section here at modelrailroader.com with your email address and I will put the two of you in contact.
Victor from Indiana
Great Western goes way back to the 1940s. They produced O scale locomotives including a 4-4-0.
I can recall seeing references to a Brass Betsy in the Walthers catalog -- parts from Precision Scale. I wonder if they ended up with the tooling?
Dave Nelson
I understand that Cliff Line offered the parts separately at one time.
The seller said the kit was 70 yrs old, but he was wrong on other things, so I doubted him. The box looks like it might be from the 50's. The price on the back of the box is $38.95, but it could have been resold at some point. Most of the machining is excellent, but some of the castings are a bit rough.
Did Jack make contact with you yet with the instructions etc?
Victor,
Jack sent me a boatload of stuff. I can't believe someone would still have a copy of the instructions. He sent me some additional info on Fox trucks (which come with the kit) and other very interesting stuff. I love that the Model Railroading community is so helpful.