My Pacific... a life-long project

[Tonino]

I want to share here a building started many years ago and, between family issues, movings and other things, stopped and re-started many times. I hope I will be the one who will finish this thing and I'll not have to give it unfinished as a troublesome legacy to my sons...

It all started with one of those weekly issues taken in a newsstand... I don't know if you have something similar in your country. Usually is a model very attractive, the first issue is very cheap, the following are not the same... At the end you pay an amount very higher than if you have bought the thing in a shop. But this time was different: I didn't see such model anywhere and, for that I knew, anything similar was available in model shops. So I started... not a good idea...


The original subject is a Pacific steam locomotive realized by French engineer André Chapelon in 1909 for the PLM (Paris Lyon Méditerranée) rail company.


Here are the issues of the "serial model" and some documentation collected around in the Internet...


The construction is mainly wooden but many parts are metallic, so I preferred to put the buiding thread in this section.

The skeleton of the boiler and the main chassis are made of plywood

The main body is realized by wood strips, like a ship model.


A tour into the boiler


The rear section is made the same way.

 

[Cybergrinder]

This looks incredible! I thought that the terms atlantic & pacific related to the wheel configuration? (Atlantic was 4-6-0, Pacific 4-6-2) (leading wheels, driving wheels then trailing wheels)

 

[Lighter]

This looks incredible! I thought that the terms atlantic & pacific related to the wheel configuration? (Atlantic was 4-6-0, Pacific 4-6-2) (leading wheels, driving wheels then trailing wheels)

In North America. Europe usually uses axle counts rather than wheel counts. Usually the North American "name" carries across the ocean for a given type of locomotive. As in all matters railroad, things may differ!

 

[Cybergrinder]

In North America. Europe usually uses axle counts rather than wheel counts. Usually the North American "name" carries across the ocean for a given type of locomotive. As in all matters railroad, things may differ!

UK and South Africa use wheel counts as well True what you say that things may differ, how many different gauges are there?

 

[Tonino]

UK and South Africa use wheel counts as well True what you say that things may differ, how many different gauges are there?

... a lot!! :wideyed:

 

[Tonino]

Some more photos from my PLM6001 building:


cabin building and trimming


some corrections and filling of undesired spaces


After A LOT of sanding and putty, and sanding again...
the locomotive starts to look like a.... locomotive...!

 

[Padre]

Amazing! Great work, effort and looks.

 

[zathros]

Looks fantastic. I think they all fall under the heading of "Choo-Choo Trains".

 

[Tonino]

Other images from my building:


the worst decision in all railway modeling history: to cover the surface with this particular thin wood foil. It was provided from the producer with all the other materials and I supposed it was especially realized for this purpose. I was completely wrong: this wood covering would have been source of BIG troubles in the next future.


The first one: this wood foil was very VERY porous and requested a lot of coats of spray putty and sanding to became acceptably smooth


This was the situation after many days of sanding & spraying & sanding & spraying ... ... ...

 

[Tonino]

A little bit of surface detailing with plasticard, little nails and brass wire.

 

[Cybergrinder]

This is looking amazing Tonino! Keep it up!

 

[Tonino]

FIRST INTERLUDE
During wood working I tested a new (for me) procedure to duplicate a part with resin casting.
I didn' like the original lamps provided with the model: too "plasticky" and ugly, with evident extractor marks and oversized handle.

This is the same part after a little bit of "cleaning"

The "master" ready to be duplicated

And the box ready to receive the silicon to form the mould.

The master and the new resin "double"


The finished lamp with little original add-ons (alluminium foil and a little lamp inside, a brass wire to replace the handle). The front cover and the chimney are metallic parts provided with the model.

 

[Cybergrinder]

Excellent redo! I'm sure yours will be much more realistic!

 

[zathros]

I think that foil cover forces you to add all that filler to end up with a steel looking surface, and you have definitely achieved that. The surface of that train's body would be impossible to discern unless one was told. Looks looks like cast Iron. Your lamp also looks far more realistic than the "toy-ish" one supplied.

 

[Tonino]

During locomotive building I (as, I think, any other one building this model) was thinking about how to provide the model with his own tender. A steam loco without his tender is an incomplete subject. I already had found some drawings on Internet and was trying to figure how to build the complement from scratch. The publisher knew it so well... and, obviously, with the last issue of the locomotive there was the good new: the pubblication was going to be prolongued with some more issues to build the tender!!! Could I miss those supplement issues? Not at all!

The wood works...


and the surface finishing.

 

[Cybergrinder]

Wow! Tonino, this is looking amazing! I agree about the tender, but I've always liked tank engines (mainly due to a set my parents bought me back when I was 6.... GWR 0-4-0 tank with 3 4 wheeler coaches)

 

[Tonino]

Thanks CG! Who knows why trains are so fascinating for "children" of ALL ages?

Well, here are some more photos about tender detailing...


There were A LOT of nails to put on this thing!

Ready for painting...

 

[Rhaven Blaack]

The amount of detail that you are putting into this model is IMPRESSIVE!!!

 

[Cybergrinder]

Amazing! this is going to look even better than the real thing!

(with apologies to U2...)

 

[Tonino]

SECOND INTERLUDE
the leaf spring suspensions.

During tender building I decided to better detail the carriages who lacks any suspension component. I decided to realize from scratch the leaf spring suspensions with plasticard.

The single components were cut from 1 mm. plasticard sheet



To give the correct shape to the suspension I created this little wooden tool

After having added a generous amount of plastic glue between the "leafs" this thing keep them in position. Once glue has hardened nothing can straighten them again...

This is the result


Those ugly pieces of metal are the main suspensions. I'll re-do them too with the same techinque.