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As you have witnessed, the Pennsy modeling community has been treated with many fine models over the past several years. Diesels, Passenger Cars, Freight Cars and Cabins are coming from all directions. Steam Locomotives are no exception. Broadway Limited Imports seems to have found the niche missing in the HO Scale world. With several classes already released and more on the horizon, each of us modelers should have a nice roundhouse full of PRR Power soon.
Recently, Broadway Limited Imports (BLI) released the M1a and M1b Class 4-8-2's. TKM #8 included a nice review of this model by Bruce Smith. My writings here is a follow up to his article. Although it is not intended to be a step by step procedure on how I did this and how I did that, it will show using text and photos what a little detailing can do to improve the appearance of the model.
Of the two 4-8-2 classes released by BLI, I chose to acquire the M1b's for my roster. The powerful, later era, beefy looks is what caught my eye. Straight from the box, the model should please most. However, I, like many others, can't resist tweaking and giving a model it's own identity, and these BLI M1a/b locos lend themselves well for super detailing.
I had reserved only one of these models prior to its release, but soon found myself tracking down another because I had plans for 2 strikingly different M1bs, the 6749 and the 6783. Both of these M1bs could be seen in the mid 1950's trecking up and down the middle division. No doubt passing each other in opposite directions time after time. The 6749's appearance was like most M1b's of this era. "Modernized" Frontend with Drop Coupler Pilot. However, the 6783 was a one of a kind. Photographer/Railfan Don Wood made this M1b famous in many of his photos. Since then it has captured the eyes of many. With its Cast Steel Drop Coupler Pilot and the "as delivered" Headlight/Generator locations, it was an easy choice for me to model. The looks reminded me of the many K4s's of the mid 1940's that also had this front end configuration.
Modeling the 6783......The Tender
I thought I had this all figured out prior to receiving my undecorated BLI M1b. A little work here and a little work there would get me my 6783. Well, it wasn't so easy. Just before I started work on the transformation, I did a little more research. I soon found out not many "good" views of the tender was available. With my many reference books and magnifying glass in hand I started noticing what I believed to be a wood dog house on the rear of the tender deck. Could this be? I then fabricated a wood dog house from scribed styrene. It turned out really nice. I was also in contact with Steve Hoxie at this time. Steve is another Steam modeler and he convinced me that the dog house during the 1950's was most likely the single man steel type then used in service on 210F75 tenders. He convinced me so I removed that fabricated wood one. In its place I installed a brass dog house from Keystone Replica's. A little modification and it fit perfectly. These "KR" parts are long out of production but I had one on hand. It is scaled correctly, has railings and grabs, has a removable visor, which for the 6783 is what was needed as photo evidence appears to show it lacked the visor in later years. The tender also required one other major modification. The real 6783 lacked Train Phone. The BLI M1b features the Train Phone Pipe and Coil Receivers on the tender deck. I soon found myself removing the unwanted parts. After that, still more modification was needed. If a 210F75 Tender lacked Trainphone, then I would need to change the water hatch back to pre Train Phone era location. I removed both hatches, filed off the associated details, filled any remaining holes and remounted a single water hatch crosswise. This resulting work worked out well. Any lack of rivet detail lost during modification was soon hidden by the overflow of cinders and water spillage on the Tender Deck. Other parts added to the tender was finer looking Marker Lights and Grab Irons on the rear edge of the Slope Sheet. A normal paint, decal and weathering job was then applied.
6783.....The Locomotive
Now with the "easy" job of the tender modifications out of the way, the much harder Locomotive work commenced. That is what I originally thought but actually this work was pretty straight forward. Since the 6783 featured parts not found on the BLI M1b model, I needed to figure out the best and easiest way to get the details needed. The easiest way was to locate parts from a BLI M1a. I found a trade partner willing to donate his BLI M1a Smokebox, Pilot Air Tank with Platform for the same from my M1b. The result would get me my "as delivered" Headlight/Generator but retain the Solid Drop Coupler Pilot. The parts were easily interchanged and it worked out well for myself and the other modeler. We both have an uncommon version of 4-8-2's.
I decided to substitute brass detail parts in place of plastic details where I could and also added some additional piping and grabs where the model fell a little short detail wise. One could do a complete make over if one so chose to do so. I more or less added the most obvious. This included a Bell, Keystone Number Plate, Builder Plates, Junction Boxes, Conduit, Grab Irons, Coupler Cut Lever, Drop Coupler in the down position, Marker Lights, Air Pump Strainers, Throttle Rod and Air Pump Throttle Rod. Following all this the model was given a Floquil Polyscale "Brunswick Green" paint job with the appropriate Black applied to associated parts. Decals and light weathering was applied to finish the M1b to represent a loco that seen daily use.
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Modeling the 6749.......The Tender
Unlike the 6783's tender, little modification was needed for the 6749 tender. I replaced the Marker Lights, added railings and grabs on the dog house, and installed grabs on the coal bunker slope sheet. My normal paint job was applied and again weathering with spilled coal, cinders and water overflow on the deck finished the detailing.
6749......The Locomotive
The 6749 when built, had a Foot Board Pilot. Photo evidence shows it still retained this in 1949. However, by the mid 1950's it featured the Cast Steel Drop Coupler then seen on most every modern day Steam Loco. The BLI M1b comes this way so little needed done to model the 6749. The same detailing used in the 6783 conversion was applied to the 6749. However, since this loco featured the modern front end, several additional, specific details needed applied. First, another electrical junction box on the front of the boiler needed installed. 2 small lines then had to be routed from this junction box to the generator. The generator itself featured an extended exhaust stack so I soldered a pipe in place to represent this. Once all work was finished, another paint job followed.
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