Southern Railways PS-4 Pacific

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Berkman
Posts: 679
Joined: Wed Aug 16, 2017 7:55 pm

Re: Southern Railways PS-4 Pacific

Post by Berkman »

Unless you can find Klamath locoworks castings, the easiest approach will be to use Roger Goldmann parts or if you are less worried about it being totally accurate then little engines parts.

https://www.discoverlivesteam.com/disco ... /index.htm
That is from LE parts and looks quite nice to me!
Pontiacguy1
Posts: 1566
Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2012 10:15 am
Location: Tennessee, USA

Re: Southern Railways PS-4 Pacific

Post by Pontiacguy1 »

Charlie has decided that he's not going to do any more modeling in 1 1/2" scale, so he sold all of his PS4 Pacific stuff a while back. He now models pretty much exclusively in 2 1/2" scale narrow gauge.

Like Berkman said, the Klamath stuff is no longer available, and hasn't been for a long time, so you're either going to have to adapt someone else's castings, or you're going to have to make some patterns. To me, the LE castings look nice, but the drive wheels are way too large for a PS4. Also, the Southern didn't use the delta trailing truck. Most of the Southern PS4 pacifics I've seen in 1 1/2" scale were basically a LE Pacific painted green. They're very nice, also. Sometimes you have to use what you can get. I'm sure you'll come up with something awesome.
Berkman
Posts: 679
Joined: Wed Aug 16, 2017 7:55 pm

Re: Southern Railways PS-4 Pacific

Post by Berkman »

Not trying to nit-pick, but in 1.6 scale, the drivers are pretty close in diameter. Should be 9.73 in 1.6 vs the common 10 inch. Too close for me to tell a difference. Getting the boiler diameter right is more important, some LE ps4s have 10 OD boiler vs 10.75 OD. 10.75 looks much better with the 10 inch drivers.

The drivers also look bigger due to the LE not having brake hangers that come out over the front of drivers which hides them a little.

The cradle is shorter on a LE pacific than a USRA heavy 4-6-2 or copy of any kind., especially in 1.6 scale- something like 2 inches if I remember right when looking at a LE vs a C&O drawings. The USRA heavy pacific and mikado both had the same width and length of firebox.

Not sure the easiest solution for a longer cradle regardless of LE vs RG castings. Maybe if LE - could use a hudson cradle, shorten it then braze it back up.

All the USRA heavy pacifics and copies - AWP, SOU, C&O, Erie had the same firebox width and length ( C&O f19 had a wider firebox 96 vs 84 I think...). AWP/Erie had a 14ft driver wheelbase vs 13ft on the C&O/SOU, and the C&O had a slightly larger diameter boiler as well. - Closer to the diameter of the heavy mike. Only the Eries had the full 80 inch drivers, the others were all 73.

My interest was more looking at C&O drawings as I've always wanted to build a C&O heavy 4-8-2, but have loosely looked through SOU ps4 drawings as well. The Roger Goldmann cylinders and baker valve gear would be my choice to make it more prototypical. I saw a video of a N&W J that I think was from the RG castings, which is pretty interesting. Just shows how flexible a set of cylinders can be !
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