So last week, I went to Lowe’s, bought some extruded polystyrene foam, and started the door layout. I do not have a train shop within an hour from me, so I went to Michael’s and bought a roll of cork to make my own roadbed. I only got to the roadbed before my evil, chronic back issues reared it’s ugly side.
Today’s project is a little bit simpler. I am converting my coal burning Consolidation to an oil burner while my daughters are doing spin art. Disassembly of the Bachmann 2-8-0’s tender is a bit more complicated than I expected. First you have to unscrew the screws that hold on the trucks. You also have to remove the handrails from the front of the tender, then place a VERY thin screwdriver into the mounting hole for the truck and push the screwdriver into the tender to push the top off.
Once you have the tender separated, carefully remove the back of the coal bunker from the coal pile. Unfortunately, the coal is molded on to the deck of the tender, and needs to be sanded down. I used a sanding block to flatten the coal and lower it enough for the top of oil bunker. This job would have been much easier if the Bachmann designers would have simply made the coal pile a separate part. I then cut a piece of .040 styrene to fit and glued it on after I reglued the rear of the fuel bunker back on. I started to remove the steam off of a cheap ear ring for the oil filler door.
