Paul Washburn's SP 4-8-0 #2914

These are photos Paul Washburn has shared so far of his build of the Southern Pacific 4-8-0 class TW-8 steam locomotive with a standard tender. The model is being built out of brass and styrene, and provides us with some intermediate construction photos. All photos are copyright © Paul Washburn; used by permission. Click the photos for a larger version.

Paul had already built this tender when he built a tender for another one of his steam engines. It is usually faster to build two or more near-identical items from scratch at the same time, if possible.

This is the engine that Paul is building.

And here is the starting point of the construction. It gives you an idea of what a master builder has at-the-ready when he is starting such a project.

The core frame has been constructed out of brass.

Paul bought his wheels from the New Zealand-based North Yard. He states that those are listed on page three of that company's catalog, which you can download from their web site for free. Paul says that the SP #2914 has 54" drivers and he used the #263, 21.4x3.0 as being close enough wheels, and the matching #486 axles and #373/8 axle bearings.