locoboilerguy Wrote:
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> I was about to say they had the patterns and
> drawings from the NPS but your right. There
> wasn't much when the first two were built. But
> the designs all share many basic principles which
> are hard to get around. Then we have the standard
> practices and I found a couple of export engine
> side elevations but they had entirely different
> frames. It turns out it shares a number of bits
> with the NC #2 and actually a couple of parts
> found on the original class 60 engines.
I've seen similar comments from modelers--which I suppose you are, in a sense, except you work in 1:1 scale! The D&RG "heavy" 4-4-0's can be difficult because they're a unique class...nobody else ordered the same pattern. That being said, there's a starting point. The D&RG class 42 (Baldwin 8-18.5-C drawing 2) was a direct derivative and close relative of the more common 8-18-C drawing 4 of which numerous examples survive. There are some differences in the frame and suspension, enough to complicate things for an exacting builder, but the older pattern should've been able to serve as a useful reference. Both patterns exhibit similar frame details around the firebox sides and front frame/cylinders so characteristic of narrow gauge Baldwin 4-4-0's from that era. Just after the D&RG engines were produced, Baldwin switched to using the depressed frame construction method for its narrow gauge 4-4-0's, so locomotives built after about 1880-1881 would've been useless for comparison. Interestingly, the D&RG did
not order a unique design for the "light" 4-4-0's. Class 38 was a catalogue-standard Baldwin 8-18-C drawing 9, a model used by numerous railroads across the United States.
Those Baldwins weren't cheap to build, as the frame complexity mentioned above alludes to. They quite often cost 7 or 8 thousand dollars in an era when a Brooks or Porter could be had for 5 to 6 thousand. Railroads quite obviously regarded the extra expense as well worth it given Baldwin's increasing dominance in the industry during those years. I consider it a safe bet that the new RGS 36 probably cost a little more than the original!
Look forward to seeing it run.
