Re: [CBQ] Dave Beck's HO Scale S3 4-6-2 model.

["Nolen Null via groups.io" <NNull=aol.com@groups.io>]

Hol,

I wonder just how many of us on the list remember Bill Schopp's kit bashes.  It almost makes me cringe now to recall the number brass locomotives that went 'under his soldering iron'  Of course brass locomotives weren't quite as expensive then.

Nolen Null

-----Original Message-----
From: HOL WAGNER <holpennywagner@msn.com>
To: CBQ@groups.io <CBQ@groups.io>
Sent: Wed, Jul 29, 2020 11:22 am
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Dave Beck's HO Scale S3 4-6-2 model.

Mike:

I asked Al Hoffman about this, as I recalled he knew the answer you are seeking, and here is his response:

"You might remember when I made an ass of myself during our visit to Dave Beck's home a number of years ago upon seeing his S-3 model. He thought it was an LMB product, but in reality, it was a Bill Schopp kit bash using the boiler assembly from an LMB 01a and a PFM mechanism from a Southern 4-6-2. There was a short article in Rail Model Craftsman about such conversions years ago. Unlike most of Schopp's conversions, the S-3 was actually fairly accurate since the O-1a boiler is the same as the S-3 boiler. the stack, sand box, steam dome and cabs are all lower on the S-3, along with other detail changes, but the conversion is correct. Note, however, that the LMB boiler represents a locomotive before being equipped with a mechanical stoker which required that the cab was moved backward about a foot when applied. Unfortunately, the LMB model's boiler stops at the front cab wall. The S-3s also received this upgrade around 1940 so the same problem applies to conversions from the LMB model unless the planned model is to represent an oil burning S-3 which would not have required the cab relocation."

Hol

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From: CBQ@groups.io <CBQ@groups.io> on behalf of Mike Martin via groups.io <atsf3460=aol.com@groups.io>
Sent: Friday, July 10, 2020 10:21 AM
To: CBQ@groups.io <CBQ@groups.io>
Subject: [CBQ] Dave Beck's HO Scale S3 4-6-2 model.

 

Hi!  Would anyone who knew Dave have any idea exactly what model he used to kitbash his S3 class 4-6-2?  I have the wonderful CD-ROM / DVD that his son Vernon produced and Dave says about his model that it was purchased at a flea market (or possibly a railroad swap meet) in Nebraska and while it came in an LMB box it has a United builder's plate on the bottom of the driver retainer plate.

I've done some serious looking at 4-6-2s produced by Pacific Fast Mail with United as their builder and haven't had any luck figuring out which model was the basis for Dave's S3.  The Southern PS-4 4-6-2 seems like it may have been close.  Dave wrote that the model was purchased in Nebraska and there's a chance that the model had already been modified by the time Dave got his hands on it.  Dave wrote that the dimensions fit the S3 class almost perfectly but he didn't know what prototype the model was.  I am guessing that Dave scratchbuilt the tender completely.

The S3 class has a rather hulking presence and is more along the lines of a Heavy Pacific like a Chessie F-19.  I do have an Akane Heavy Pacific that I originally purchased to convert into a C&EI Heavy Pacific but I may do some looking at it to see if an S3 can be made out of it.

I'm not entirely sure I want to attempt to build an S3 since I gather they were a Lines West locomotive in the latter years of steam but I am intrigued.  If nothing else if we can figure out what Dave used it will add to a knowledge base.

Mike Martin

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