Southern Railroad PS-4 Pacific Design Discussion

[Pipescs]

This is a plea for help.

Having looked over the forums, this appears to be the place to put this.

I am looking to start a discussion with anyone that has built, is building or researching the ALCO PS-4 Pacifics used by the Southern Railroad. This includes anyone that has photos of the engine, scratch built or kit bashed anyone elses design.

If you are out there please jump in.

I am looking at this as a project to take me into my retirement years. The idea being to get all the parts bought and my shop up to speed prior to retiring and going onto a fixed income.

Efforts to date:

I have started a preliminary set of drawings in AutoCAD 2002 using the book of plans by William C. Fitt, printed in 1973 by Wildwood Publications. The book of drawings while not complete are measured. I am primaily working on the frame sides. I will post them as I go.

I have resently visited the Smithsonian Institute to photograph the PS-4 number 1401 that is on display there. I am in the process of asking for permision (A long process that requires you make your request in writing) to go behind the fence to photograph the left side of the engine. (I will post some of the photos I managed to take so far later)

My initial research has lead me to some available castings from Roger Goldman of Live Steam Locomotives. His cylinder set along with his Baker Valve gear are a dead on fit for a 1.6 inch to the foot scale. Needless to say the use of these castings go a long way on giving me motivation to attempt this.

I have ordered and received the set of casting for the Baker Valve Gear. The Cylinders are next.

http://www.livesteamlocomotives.com/id10.html

[Pipescs]

This is the 1401 displayed at the National History Museum in Washington DC. It is reported to be the only survivor of the PS-4s.

I am having to shrink these down for the forum. They show better detail full scale.

[Pipescs]

Friday I put in a request to the Smithsonian Library to see if a set of drawings came with the engine when it was donated in 1952.

Areas the book by Mr. Fitt do not cover are the braking system, and cross frame details.

[FLtenwheeler]

The Ridge Live Steamers has a PS4 that comes by often. Take a look in the picture section.

http://www.ridgeclub.org/index.htm

Tim

[FredR]

I am envious. Good luck. Keep us updated.
Fred

[Trainman4602]

First

I wish you luck with your project. I have designed and built from scratch several locomotives and it is not easy.

I would suggest that you use as many parts that you can find that already exist. This will lessen the build time.

Second Why are you using Baker Valve gear? The Ps4 in the museum uses Walschaert gear?

Some Ps4 Pictures This Locomotive was built by Bob Petersen

[Pipescs]

As I started the design process I looked at what castings were available that would support the 7.5 gauge.

The Cylinders and valve gear from Live Steam looked to be a close fit and have actually been closer than I could have hoped

The Baker Valve gear from Roger Goldmann

[Pipescs]

Thanks for the quick reply and photos.

Fitts book showson the spec sheet that all the early engines were built by ALCO and came with the Baker Gear. 1401 was refit later (as were a lot of the Baker valve engines).

As you say I am looking to use castings and Items that are still available. I am buying them now prior to retirement

This is a low quality drawing from Fitt's book of the PS-4 with baker gear.

[Ghettofab75]

Fitts book showson the spec sheet that all the early engines were built by ALCO and came with the Baker Gear. 1401 was refit later (as were a lot of the Baker valve engines).

So they replaced the baker with walschaerts, hmmm..... I allways thought baker was a step above walschaerts as it had no sliding parts?

Kevo

[nickco201]

All the Ps4s were built with baker valve gear except the 1928 baldwin batch. This batch also was different in that it had 4 axle tender trucks under the 14K tender and the 1409 had a coffin feed water heater. Generally from photos you can see that by the 1940s most had been converted to walscheart. Here is a as built 1926 Ps-4 ( http://www.shorpy.com/Crescent-Limited?size=_original ). During this time it the running boards were raised to how the 1401 is now, some got over fire jets, and some had the coal bunkers built up. Almost any picture you see from late era southern steam shows that most of the mountains, mikados, and pacifics had been converted to walscheart if not originally built with it and converted to laird style multiple bearing cross heads. It is interesting that the 2-8-8-2s kept the baker valve gear but got the laird cross heads and the 2-10-2s kept Southern valve gear. This is off of memory, so correct me if I am wrong.

Here is a good link that has many Ps-4 photos. http://southern.railfan.net/images/arch ... 2/462.html
As far as a model I believe there are multiple sets of castings out there. I do not know how many are still available.
There was a tech trainer model, the East Coast loco works model. I believe mammoth loco works at one time had castings for it. There was a set a while back for sale on chaski of 1.6 inch scale castings for one. There may be others as well.

[Pipescs]

I am currently building the LE American and I try to get time in the shop with I can.


The design work on the PS-4 is a project I can work on my laptop while on travel or in the late evenings when I can't make too much noise down in the basement.

On the subject of modified valve gear. I also noticed the date on the Builders Plate as 1926 and that the cylinder casting was dated 1944.

Question for the day??

Recently I stumbled on a set of Hodges Trailing Truck Castings that were sold prior to my call. Does anyone have information on where a set can be located?

[gwrdriver]

This is a low quality drawing from Fitt's book of the PS-4 with baker gear.

I'm curious as to what makes this a "low quality" drawing.