Chaps, I have to build one of these from my own instructions too. After CCRR #4, my next favorite Porter is the CCRR #7, a 2-6-0, 6 wheel tender version from 1877. Where #4
was the first Porter to the line, the #7 was the last and most up-to-date
What's curious when modelling this is to keep a watchful eye on the prototype photos of the loco you're building. No two of these Porters is quite the same. My instructions
cover all the versions, but final trimming, heights and details are best left to your own comparisons with photos. For #7, the most obvious difference to me was that the
rear steam dome was quite a stubby dome as compared to the taller steam domes of the Porters that preceeded her...this in turn affects the height of the larger 2nd steam
dome (as both are to be levelled at the same height above rail). As such my domes are 2mm shorter than the PDFs show. Its best to just use your own judgement and compare
to the photos of the loco you're building. While my boiler is per the PDFs, I'm not even sure these Porters did infact have the same boiler size to all. But I'll leave it at
that!
Also watch those pilot deck heights, they also vary from loco to loco. I think I may still add another 1mm packer under my deck to lift it higher. There is very little gap
between the deck and base of smokebox from the photos of #7...I still have too much gap
So far I have the domes, cab, basic stack and pilot underway. Most are near done, but need sanding and finishing. Here are some photos of the CCRR #7 underway..lots of work
to do yet! My steam dome tops are drawer handle escutchions - same as I used on #4..I like their shape..cost $1.00 ea...otherwise Rick's kit contains plastic disks for
sanding! The small sand dome is the Hartland 'Marsh' steam dome with a Hartland sand lid. The shapely top is appropriate to this loco
Also note, #7 like many Porter 2-C-T locos had no smokebox braces. My overview of #7 in the PDFs shows braces! Again watch the photos!
The cab, dome rings, smokebox front, pilot and underfloor firebox/lower cab are all from Rick's laser cut kit sample. Note that the cab is still a pre-production version, and
differs from the final version (which has opennable side windows)
The headlight bracket is in the kit. Its made from 5 parts, plus the real support which is the brass rod platform below it
An 8-18-D..why thats a Baldwin 2-6-0 is, depending on era, much like the Bachmann Centennial 2-6-0! (8-20-D), you're doing a straight boiler version?
I think the #7 may have had a larger boiler than say the #4, but we'll never really know. Its interesting that the rear steam dome of #7 has an upper ring at about window head
height..lower than the other locos
I've started painting the sub-assemblies- she's going to be a gloss wine colour with crimson linework and red wheels..one of Porter's known colour schemes from the 1870s
In terms of black - on the narrow gauge, the D&RG may have been one of the first to aquire black locos in late 1880 - these were gloss black, gold and red linework, very
classy. They were done this way for 'style', not for road dirt..think 'Steinway Grande'. The concept came from the stylish locos Baldwin had been building for the Penn RR from
the late 1860s. For our lil locos in Colorado, it wasn't untill late 1884/1885 that these locos took on the black scheme under UP management. For most of the Porters of
the CCRR, thats 10 years of colours!
CCRR Porter #7 is now finished and running. I had a couple of hours late this afternoon with good weather to went out and ran her for a while. All the
decoration work on this loco was developed on cad and printed by Stan Cedarleaf, the set now available for other builders. The colour scheme for my model was
worked up with the help of Jim Wilke, using Porter concepts at the time. Gold lettering and linework, brown bands and drop shadows and red finer lines. The
brown and red lines are real subtle. I can put this loco side by side with the green CCRR #4, and both are the same size with the exception of the pilot
truck, yet #7 just 'looks' larger for some reason! I like em both.
