West Side Lumber Company, Plymouth Locomotive - On3

[LinnS]

This was built from a Buffalo Landing On3, West Side Lumber Company, Plymouth locomotive kit.   It is mostly white metal with a few brass pieces.  Only solder and screws hold it together.   

If I had assembled it according to the very good instructions, the only removable part would have been the motor unit.  I modified it so that the cab roof is removable as is the radiator/hood assembly.  The radiator/hood is removable for ease of painting and displaying the motor.

In the picture showing the detached hood, the two bent brass wires at the rear of the hood represent sand pipes.  What look like wires under the radiator are 0-80 studs to hold the radiator to the frame.  A single screw at the rear of the hood holds it down.  The horizontal line visible in the cab window is a decoder wire.  Since I plan on eventually painting this model, I left the decoder loose in the cab.  Before taking the picture I turned the loco upside down to remove the hood, and then upright, and didn't notice that a decoder wire was visible in the cab window.

The heights of the coupler pockets on this model are low, as they were on the prototype.  This required the West Side Lumber Company to use offset steel bars as link couplers.  I wanted to use Kadee couplers which would have been a lot higher than the coupler pockets.  If the loco were left as is, the Kadee couplers would have looked like geese with their necks stuck way out.  To reduce the goose neck look somewhat, I increased the locomotive's body height by replacing its 22 inch wheels with 26 inch wheels, and by placing shims between the frame and the motor unit.

[finescalerr]

They should use your model to advertise the kit. Everybody would want one. -- Russ

[Ray Dunakin]

They should use your model to advertise the kit. Everybody would want one. -- Russ

I agree. It's a great model and you've done an excellent job with it.

[Chuck Doan]

More excellent construction! Should be nice and heavy for running.

[marc_reusser]

Lovely work.