I mentioned on a earlier post buying a partially built 7.5 inch guage Southern Railway Ps-4 4-6-2 heavy pacific. I picked it up down at the MSLS meet a couple weeks ago. I plan to keep postings pictures,etc. on here as kind of a built log or something. The pictures I posted with this are of the locomotive as it was when I got into my shop. I have already ordered a cylinder casting, crossheads, stack, smoke box front, domes. Most everything else will be built from scratch.
The frame is pretty much finished, drivers are finished, rear cradle is mostly finished. Also the equialization/suspension is finished on the first 2 sets of drivers, I have to wait till the rear trailing truck is finished to finish the suspension on the 3rd drive axle because it ties in with the trailing truck. The lead truck is basically sperate from everything else, as far as suspension does. In the next few weeks I plan to sand blast and paint it.

Enjoy
- Andrew

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Well the Ps-4 is project is coming along. No new pictures....at least not yet. I have finished sand blasting the chassis and now I need to prime it. The lead truck is at present being shipped to me. I had it built by a man in South Carolina who I am having do most of the machine work. I had orginally planned to use Little Engines castings for the running gear, but now I have pretty much decided to use some castings from Klamath Locomotive works who make castings for a Ps-4, then scratch build the rest of the running gear. Mainly just to have it be more prototypical.

From Klamath I will get the cylinder block, baker valve gear parts, cylinder and valve back heads, domes, smoke box front, smoke stack. The only things that are/ will be Little Engines are the drivers, frame. So most of the critical stuff will be castings.

I have attached 2 photos comparing the Little Engines running gear and the actual Ps-4 running gear. The Little Engines photo is of Duncan Herring's Ps-4 which was built with LE running gear. Although not much else on his Ps-4 is from Little Engines. Duncan Herring is the man who I am having do most of my machine work.

The next thing to do is to prime the chassis and then start scratch building the hodges trailing truck.
- Andrew

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Well... finaly got some new pictures.... they are of the finished lead truck.
The truck is built to little Engines 4-6-2 specifications, except it is a inch longer and has coil springs for better tracking. The reason it is a inch longer is to better support the larger boiler. The Little Engines design calls for a 9 inch boiler this will have a 10 3/4 or 11 inch boiler. Also the longer truck helps to clear the front cylinder heads when it derails.
Now just to get the trailing truck going.
- Andrew

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Well the Ps-4 is still coming along. At the current, the Hodges trailing truck is nearing completion. I still have quite a few castings that I am waiting for... it takes forever to get them, because they are cast to my order and because of the low quantity the people that I am ordering them from have to wait for a foundry to work them in.
I have posted 2 pictures of a Ps-4 that someone built, I at current do not know who owns it or where the pictures were taken. This is almost exactly what mine will hopefully look like when finished. I wouldn't mind having 3 of those SRR "Crescent Limited" 2 tone green passenger cars to go along with the Ps-4....
- Andrew

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Well,
Progress is still being made on the Ps-4. The trailing truck is nearing completion. I have been doing a lot of research as to whether I should have acutual combustion chambers, superheater, working elesco feedwater heater system, and a true conical boiler, what should the flue size be, etc.....
So far I have pretty much ruled out making the boiler truly conical, and have actualy combustion chambers, mainly because the benefit they will provide won't really be noticable on a model of this size and thus their extra cost is not worth it.
I will however probably put a working super heater into it. Using stainless steel tubes, and welded joints, it will actually extend into the firebox, because on this size model there isn't enough heat transfer by just having it extend into the tubes.
The feedwater heater system will be operational to some extent, but exhasut steam won't be piped into it, because I won't have an axle pump on this lcomotive, and therefore only the steam water pump will use the feedwater heater. This means that the feedwater heater won't be used all that much, and the plumbing involved and the maintance in making it all completely functional is simply not worth it.
It won't have an axle pump like most locomotive have, because I'd rather have 200lbs of lead between the frame, and use two injectors as the primary sources of water. Also axle pumps have a bad reputation for locking up, and because of their location they are really a pain to work on.
The boiler will be 10 3/4 inch OD, the jacketing/ insulation will be used to give it the look of being conical. I hope to use around 30-35 3/4 inch ID copper tubes. And use 1/2 inch material for most of the boiler.
The reason for making the boiler out of 1/2 inch steel and adding all the extra weigh in lead, is because almost all live steamers are limited by their traction, not cylinder power. So hopefully if I build the suspension right, add the extra lead, and heavier boiler, this locomotive should pull pretty well.
I'll try to post some more pictures in the next several weeks.
- Andrew

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Well I know I have slacked off with this thread, however progress on the locomotive has also been rather slow. I attached some pictures of a few brass detail pieces I bought. They are lost wax brass castings, exact scale models of the real thing.
The first picture is of some boiler steps, which go on the side of the jacketing. Look at the prototype PS-4 pics in this thread to see where.
The second is of 2 flag standards that go on the pilot beam.
The third is a superheater plate. These were required on all locomotives with superheaters
The fourth is of 2 electrical junction boxes. These are FUNCTIONAl and will be used when I wire the head light, markers, etc. The long pieces next to them are the covers ,which I will have to trim when I use them.
The final pic is of 4 steam operated cylinder cocks. These are also FULLY funtional. Steam on- they are closed, but only head shut by amount of steam pressure, so in event of a hydro-ram they will still open. Steam off- they are open.
I will try to get more pictures posted and keep up with this page better.
- Andrew

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Well I thought I would post a few pictures of other 7.5 inch gauge Ps-4s that I have seen. I will try to point out the differences between them.
The Frist Ps-4 is owned and operated by Bob Nash, this Ps-4 is located in southern Australia. This is scratch built using SRR drawings, it is almost dead on detail wise with only a few exceptions.
The Second and third pictures down are of a Ps-4 owned by Doug Moody in Virginia. This was built using castings from a company no longer around, and scaled from Ps-4 drawings, this is exact in every detail and paint color on this one is most accurate.
The fourth picture is of a Ps-4 owned by Duncan Herring of South Carolina. Duncan is the one doing a lot of the machine work on my Ps-4, he does all sorts of live steam work. This is his webpage www.backyardengineer.com
This Ps-4 is built from Little Engines castings, and modified with larger boiler, and hodges trailing truck. The little Engines 4-6-2 is based off of drawings of a Souther Pacific light 4-6-2, so it is slightly different in dimensions than the real Ps-4.
The 5th picture is of Joe Holbrook's Ps-4. I have known Joe since I was 4 years old, his diesel was the frist locomotive I drove, and I learned how to coal fire on his Ps-4. This locomotive is also based off of Little Engines castings, and is very accurate detail wise. Having ran this locomotive nearly as much as I have my own, it is a really nice engine to run. A little slippery but very free steaming, and doesn't have any real issues. I have pulled 24 cars with 2 people on them at the track at Canton. It weighs about 900 lbs.
The 6th picture is of a 1.6 inch scale Ps-4 owned by Darrel Cason of Arkansas. This is a little larger than the others. The others are 1.5 inch scale, which is accurate for a standard gauage locomotive on 7 1/4 inch gauge track, however 1.6in scale is accurate for standard on 7.5 inch gauge track. Mine will be more this size, but with baker valve gear, hodges trailing truck, and different tender. I am not sure where the castings for this locomotive came from, however it has a delta trailing truck which is not accurate for a Ps-4. I would say it from klamath loco works castings, but they do not sell a delta truck. This is propane fired.
I will try to get more pictures up soon of castings, and such.
-Andrew

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Well.... finally got the Cyl block ordered.... smokebox front, domes now here, stack now here..... I'll get up some pics in a few days..
- Andrew

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Here are a few photos... still moving very slowly. The positive is that progress is being made even if slowly.

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