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NPC No 3 - Tender Modifications

Wood was plentiful along the route of the NPC.  Farmers were paid to cut and stack cord wood for the locomotives.  So my Bachmann Spectrum 4-4-0 would appear out of place on the line with the coal load with which it was shipped, in spite of the fact it is a fairly well detailed representation of the prototype.  Aside from giving the tender a wood load, other modifications were required as this will be a radio controlled battery powered locomotive.  So room needed to be found in the tender for a wood load.  As you can see from the wood load in this photo, when No 3 left a fuel stop, her tender was piled high with wood.

Tender Disassembly

This is a Bachmann Spectrum Tender.  It is standard equipment on their Spectrum 4-4-0 American and 2-6-0 Mogul.  Click the photo for a larger image.

Removing the portion of the tender above the floorboards is necessary if you wish to:

Fortunately you do not need to remove the trucks or disconnect any of the electrical connections to remove the top portion.

Removing the Top

First remove the brake wheel by pulling it straight up.  Be careful here.  The styrene part holding the top of the brake wheel rod to the tender is fragile and easily broken off, a fact I can speak to from experience.  Then follow the steps along side of the photos that follow.

Removing the Coal Load 

The coal load is made up of two parts, both cast in white metal to add weight to the tender.  Consider adding weight to the tender if you plan to remove this load.  Before proceeding, consider removing the two tool boxes from the top of the tender.  Both open and the hinges appear to be fragile.  The tool boxes can be removed by opening the cover of each box and backing out the two Phillips screws that secure the tool box to the top portion of the tender.  Then follow these steps. 

Because I need additional room for electronics, I removed the recess that held the coal load and glued a piece of styrene in place.  Check out the page on tender electronics if you wish to see these modifications.

Making Scale Wood

Nothing looks more like wood than ... wood.  So I headed into the woods behind our property scouting for limbs that had fallen from the trees.  The woods is mostly white pine, balsam, and spruce.  I picked up a handful of 3/8 to 1/2 inch limbs.  They were diced into pieces about 1 inch long with a hand saw.  I then used a chisel to split them into quarters.

With wood in hand and my book open to the page showing NPC wood loads, I began gluing the wood in place using Borden's exterior wood glue.  When I finished the job, my tender looked as in the following photo.  Wood is stacked fairly high.  But it was also stacked to the sky in the prototype photo at the beginning of this section.

(c) 2007 Iron Horse 1:29