After obtaining my dad’s 70s-era Mantua steam engine from his B&O passenger train in the summer of 2017, I began watching eBay for others like it, to purchase for parts to make repairs to the engine, which has a cracked plastic cab, a broken tender step, and a broken coupler mount on the tender shell. Fixing the problems on the tender would require replacing its shell. Fixing the plastic cab would require replacing the cab.
I’ve since purchased two copies of this model, but both of them turned out to be two different shades of blue, neither of them matching the blue of my dad’s model, making them useless for those two replacement parts. So, I’ve decided to scrap the plan to replace those broken parts on my dad’s model. I had considered repainting it black before finally finding examples of prototype B&O Pacifics being painted blue, such as 5315 and 5309. Now that I have two more copies of this model, I’ve decided to keep dad’s model as-is and work on overhauling the two copies.
Overhauling will include the following:
- Remove all paint (99% complete on one model as of 2/21/19)
- File down the mold separation line visible on the tops of the boilers
- Repaint in black, with graphite on smokebox and firebox
- Apply new B&O decals (already obtained from eBay)
- Apply weathering effects.
- Convert to DCC with sound (requires isolating motor and metal tender frame, which already supplies half of the power pickup.
- Drill out and illuminate backup light
- Add knuckle couplers
- Replace broken draw bars
- Replace broken pilot on one model
- Improve look of the coal loads
- Add weight to tenders
- Replace headlights (currently grounded to metal shell)
Overhauling these is being done mainly as a way of practicing modeling skills, particularly painting and weathering. Depending on how well they run, I might only get one working model out of them, and they might end up being primarily stationary decoration on a future layout. If they run well enough, they might see more active use.