Air Pumps, Pipes and Tanks

I plan to kitbash a small fleet of On30 locomotives over the next two or so years. These locomotives will be of different wheel arrangments and my plan is to make them look like locomotives that came from different railroads but due to rebuilding over the years have developed that "family" look locomotives get. For example, the C&S narrow gauge locomotives.
In order to do this, I want to learn what all those pipes do, where they go and why, etc. I want to know how the air pumps are hooked up and how many air tanks there need to be and how they are hooked up.
I am starting to find this sort of thing interesting. Does anyone know of a published source for this sort of information. Photos are nice, but they don't show or tell the entire story.
Thanks in advance.