Got two sides of my CPR auxiliary tender more or less finished, and the sectional roof plating, too. With a pal in Ottawa having made the six-wheel trucks, and another friend in Stittsville finding me the wheel from the US and many providers of photos from all over Western Canada and the team looking after the Hudson #2816, I'm well on the way to making some kind of successful model. Lots of hard-to-make parts are coming from Precision Scale Casting at vast expense, almost a third of which is the shipping [!]
Here's what the real thing looks like, for those unfamiliar with the concept of having a dedicated auxiliary tender carrying only water.
With the passing of steam in Canada in the late '60's, the familiar water stops with their huge holding tanks and floppy elephant's trunk nozzles disappeared, too. Large locos by any standards, the Hudsons of both CPR and CN loaded up 20,000 GALLONS at a time - hence the need of any auxiliary tender like this one - an ex-Delaware & Hudson 'Challenger' tender for oil - see below - to run along behind any loco in preservation that was engaged in hauling a train at least half-way out of British Columbia or Albert. Canada is BIG.
I hope to be able to show you the completed trucks in the next week or so, after they have built our new kitchen and we have gotten some semblance of normality in our lives.