The Home Machinist!

I'm trying to figure out what the 2 "things" are, on the upper corners of the front of the Baldwin S12, above the grille. This was the best picture I could find as they are hard to see on the Baldwin Locomotive Company S12 that is on display.
Looks like some sort of plugs with caps, and clips for a grille canvas for cold weather running?

The plugs, or round things, appear on the cab too, at the edges of the cab between the upper and lower windows.

I believe the rectangle one is the class light bracket and the round item is the electrical plug for same.

slsf1060 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 15, 2018 4:24 pm I believe the rectangle one is the class light bracket and the round item is the electrical plug for same.

That's right - the Baldwin DS-4-4-750 (of which I've crawled all over) have the same setup.

Britt Bettell

Ok great thank you. It's interesting I've never seen a picture of an S12 with any of the lights in place. I'll use something that fits the bill for looks for the brackets and plugs and call it a day.

The round items in question are a standard Pyle National electrical fitting that allowed weather tight conditions when the class/marker lamps were not plugged in. The round door of about 2 inches in diameter is spring loaded.

The same standard fittings are also seen on many other locomotives from the 1940-1950 era. They were also used by Lima on the GS steamers of the SP. Found on both the front of the locomotive below the pilot deck on either side of the air cooling grill work and on the back of the tenders.

A nice little detail few notice and seldom modeled. One reason is the small size makes for some delicate model work. With the rapid prototype process, what used to be a challenge could be readily produced if someone with the computer skills steps to the plate. It might make a good investment as many models are out there which could be upgraded in detail for a small cost if the parts were to be offered.

Thank you for the info. I was noticing it was missing from my HO scale "prototype" as well as most S12 models out there. In my scale, there's no reason not to include them somehow. That is going to be about 3/8" round in my scale, I'll see if I can come up with something. Maybe a short chunk of aluminum pipe I'll put a screw thru, then cover it with a small plastic pipe cap I'll carve on a little to make it look like that cover.

So I found a very interesting product. These are outdoor weather resistant metal sprung protectors for 1/4" power/audio jacks.

https://www.alliedelec.com/switchcraft-515x/70214273/

These could very well work for the electrical fittings it I want to pursue real working class lamps.

Dang they are a bit big though, about 1" tall, mounted like they should be on the S12. I'll keep looking.

https://www.alliedelec.com/switchcraft-2c1072/70214252/

These look better. A little over 1/2' round, when scale would be about 3/8" for me. Might go for these!

Have you looked at little oil cups with spring loaded covers? I believe McMaster Carr carries them.

Good thought! I just ordered screws from McMaster yesterday and has to pay $6 shipping for a $10 bag of screws, but couldn't think of anything else I needed ugh. I'll have a look. I was looking into the electrical ones though, because I was thinking I'd actually power the socket but I'm not sure I'd ever get around to making or actually using the class lights.