This was another of one of my -haddaget- engines like the Jawn Henry (taking a back seat working on while parts show up)
someone on the brass lists or N&W model lists offered it up for sale, I said YEH, and not cheapo either, you save your pennies.
This is a Norfolk and Western engine before all the Y class hypes. I got the model and it ran great...till it hit the left hand curve. SHORT. This model has metal brakes between the drivers, and I look at them, well, the wheels may be hitting this, so I dremel tool shave off teeny bits of brass to make clearance, still shorting.
I look harder, test run, the short occurs about the same spot on the driver rotation. I find the siderod is hitting the driver on the front wheel when the wheel -slops- to make the curve. I can't shave metal off of anything here. The choice...put a teeny washer on the siderod backside to -lift- the rod away from the wheel. I scrounge my parts, I find ...2....TEENY washers, they may fit on the rods. Front wheel went on fine pretty well, the middle driver the screw slot was wornish hard to turn messing with different teeny screwdrivers, I got it off, put a washer on, naw, too tight on the driver, remove, all fidgeting with tiny screws and parts all the time.
SO I leave the front washer on, get it all back together and test run....ran the curve flawlees this time, ran a couple of spins on the loop, no prob...wait short on the back track. Front drivers tilted forward?
This engine has a sprung "shover" on the front drivers to nudge them down to the track...neeeeeto.
But they were not seated correctly pushing the truck squabbly they way it wasnt meant, I look at it, teeny screwdriver pops it in the right place, ZERO probs anymore....nice running engine.
Little-known prototype fact.
The last steam locomotive to operate on the newly-dieselized Southern (before steam tourism) was - a N&W Z1a. Seems a factory served by the Southern was in the habit of borrowing a boiler on wheels from the railroad when their plant boiler had to be taken down for maintenance. Well, they called - and the Southern didn't have a single loco in steam or suitable to fire up. So they passed the ball to N&W, which lent them a 2-6-6-2 - which had to run a fair piece on Southern rails to reach the customer. The run back was the last steam run on the Southern...
Beautiful model! I'd be envious if it wasn't 'way too big to run where my (home-brewed on the Tomikawa Tani Tetsudo) 2-6-6-2T smokes up the tunnel linings...
Chuck (N&W fan modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)