Some live steam material I bought at a local auction

[Fred_V]

Another weld behind that one. I guess this was a piece of scrap pipe that was welded back together.

What he called the steam box is the smoke box and it is cast iron.

[cbrew]

any idea why there is a weld bead around the upper half of the barrel a few inches in front of the firebox?

I saw that too,

weld.JPG

Wonder what the reason is for that... Perhaps a defect in the original piece of material that was welded over?

hmmm, sure looks like a "crap too short" cut

[Pontiacguy1]

I do not believe that these castings are from those same patterns from New York, although I could be wrong. One of the guys up there near St. Louis, either Mr. Pittenger or Leo Myers did the patterns, and I think that they had about 4 or 5 sets cast from them. As far as I know, the one here in Tennessee is the only one that has been completed from those castings. This is what Paul told me back before he died. That's been about 5 or more years ago, so I might not be 100% correct. There were 4 or 5 guys that were all going to build this locomotive, and they had the castings and boilers done. Don't know what happened to the other sets. They're out there somewhere.

The boilers were done for all of them by the same person and were all finished out the same way. I do know that for a fact, and this boiler looks like the other one i've seen.

[Painter590]

I had the boiler hydro tested yesterday. Passed with fling colors. We took it to 200 lbs no leaks. I guess the next step is to sell the 999 stuff. Email me if any questions need to be answered. I'll do be my best.

[Glenn Brooks]

Well, there is an outside chance the castings might be original Albert S. campbell castings. Between 1896 and 1955 mr. Campbell produced and sold 125 model engine kits and completed locomotives, mostly representing the NYC &HRV 999, actually the 928- original prototype of the class from which the 999 was built to to compete for the world speed record- and was credited with making 104+MPH with a consist of four passenger cars, over a 400mile run down the Hudson River Valley in March, 1894. only thing is most of the Campbell castings were 1/2", 3/4", and 1" scale, and smaller gauge than 7 1/2". Although he may have been producing 71/2" gauge in the 1950's.

In any event you have some nice castings there and the photos of the other 999 locomotives certainly do justice to the glory days of the locomotive.

One possibility about the weld beads on the boiler is that the original 999 boilers were wagon top style, meaning they had a sloped front crown sheet leading down to the tube - not squared off as your boiler is. Maybe someone got into trying to build a sloped style boiler and decided to button it back up.

Here are a couple of photos of the prototype and Mr. Campbell's 1902 build of the 999 in 12 5/8" gauge. Doesn't look as good as the other live steam models but it's been in storage for 112 years and needs a new coat of paint. The pony trucks are removed for shipping...

[Fender]

As a point of interest, the NYC 999 on display in Chicago has smaller drivers than when it was built. I believe the original drivers were either 84" or 86". In the below Edison video at about the 12:00 mark, this locomotive is shown running by with the original drivers in 1902:

[Pontiacguy1]

"Well, there is an outside chance the castings might be original Albert S. campbell castings. Between 1896 and 1955 mr. Campbell produced and sold 125 model engine kits and completed locomotives, mostly representing the NYC &HRV 999,"

I seriously doubt that these are that old, or were produced by Mr. Campbell.

Like I said earlier... these castings, which look exactly like the castings that were used in the build of the 999 here in Tennessee, were produced in or near St. Louis, Missouri. Only about 4 sets were ever made. Paul told me the names of who had them, but I can't remember who they all were. The only ones that I know for sure who had them were (a) Paul Brien here in Tennessee and (b) Leo Myers from St. Louis. I also believe that one of the people that had a set was from Cincinnati, Ohio, but I could be mistaken on that one. One person built all of the boilers for the project, and I've heard that they were all built and welded in a nearby Monsanto plant. Somewhere out there are another couple of sets of these castings. Who knows, they may be lost by now or scrapped by someone who didn't have any idea what they were.

Since he also has an original Leo Myers' locomotive chassis, I'd say that exactly what he has is one of the sets of castings produced by Mr. Myers and possibly Mr. Pittenger. I'm not sure about exactly who did what on this project, but I am sure about the origins. I am pretty sure that the castings and boilers were produced in the late 1970s to early 1980s timeframe. Like I said before, Paul Brien told me that the engine here in Tennessee, which was built from Paul's own set of those castings, was the only one that was ever finished to-date. Paul died about 5 years ago, so whatever else he knew about the origins of the castings, or who had the other couple of sets, has probably now been lost.

[johnpenn74]

Back to the Stainless dome....

Some where in the reaches of my mind I recall reading that stainless doesn't react well with Chlorine. Wouldn't this suggest we should not use stainless in boilers since much of our water system is chlorinated?

JP

[Painter590]

Yes this is a set that Leo Meyer and Neil Pittneger was working on.

I believe that Joel Pittenger has patterns. Maybe plans also.

I will see him this Saturday.
We are having our first free train ride day.

I'll find out what else he has.

I have this stuff listed in the live steam market forum.

[Painter590]

These castings are indeed from Fred Bohn. I have a letter dated 9/27/71. From Fred to Leo Meyer.

I'm sure the boiler was made at Monsanto maintaince shop. The boiler blue prints are printed with Monsanto logos on them.

These 999 castings and boiler have a pending sale.

[elm53]

The 999 started out as a Buchannan designed 440 with 70" drivers.the 86" drivers were installed just for this run and the publicity afterwords. The run took place not in the Hudson River valley but along the NYC main line between Batavia NY, and Buffalo NY. The 800 series Buchannan americans were a classic design that represented locomotive design of the period.