Adam Baker
Active member
Thought that this would be a good time to finally pull out something I've had for quite some time.
I have an old Bowser HO scale 4-6-6-4 Challenger Articulated locomotive kit that belonged to my great grandfather.
The kit was partially assembled by my great grandfather, but he never completed it before passing away.
Included in the kit is a cab forward conversion, and the kit boiler has been altered to remove the standard cab on it.
I'm having trouble tracking down info right now, but my understanding was that cab forward designs were used in order to place the engineers ahead of the boiler stack, so that when traversing long tunnels, the crew didn't succumb to carbon monoxide poisoning, and other issues, associated with the exhaust created by the boilers.
So now on to the pic's.
Requisite start images.
And the insides. This is how the kit was left from the last time that my grandfather worked on it. My plan is to disassemble everything, and start from scratch, to make sure that all parts are accounted for, and give me a chance to purchase anything that might be missing. I will also strip the paint on the tender, and then paint everything together after reassembly.
And here are a few pic's of the parts.
This is the cab forward conversion. It's all metal, and all of the various detail bits are soldered in place, so it looks like I might be working at soldering the bits in place that have come loose over the years. I've never done this, so it's going to be a learning experience for sure.
And then here's the articulated running gear and the boiler (w/ the std. cab removed)
And then the 14 wheel tender.
I have an old Bowser HO scale 4-6-6-4 Challenger Articulated locomotive kit that belonged to my great grandfather.
The kit was partially assembled by my great grandfather, but he never completed it before passing away.
Included in the kit is a cab forward conversion, and the kit boiler has been altered to remove the standard cab on it.
I'm having trouble tracking down info right now, but my understanding was that cab forward designs were used in order to place the engineers ahead of the boiler stack, so that when traversing long tunnels, the crew didn't succumb to carbon monoxide poisoning, and other issues, associated with the exhaust created by the boilers.
So now on to the pic's.
Requisite start images.
And the insides. This is how the kit was left from the last time that my grandfather worked on it. My plan is to disassemble everything, and start from scratch, to make sure that all parts are accounted for, and give me a chance to purchase anything that might be missing. I will also strip the paint on the tender, and then paint everything together after reassembly.
And here are a few pic's of the parts.
This is the cab forward conversion. It's all metal, and all of the various detail bits are soldered in place, so it looks like I might be working at soldering the bits in place that have come loose over the years. I've never done this, so it's going to be a learning experience for sure.
And then here's the articulated running gear and the boiler (w/ the std. cab removed)
And then the 14 wheel tender.
