After visiting New Zealand last year and crawling all over both surviving restored Rogers locos, I decided to have a go at
building a model of the loco.
Per my usual ways, I chose to model K-88 as she looked in her 'as built' configuration, including the capped stack added to the
loco when in service in NZ, which differs from the stack shown in the Builder's photo.
The model is built to a scale of 1:24, which is the correct scale for this 42" gauge loco. The drive wheel block is a stock
Hartland 4-4-0 brick, LGB quality, reliable and tough, with wheels that scale to 48" at 1:24, only 1" shy of the prototype's
49" wheels, (add flange depth and you're there!). The brick also has an exact 6' axle to axle spacing, a match to the Rogers
prototype. The rest of the chassis was scratch built around the Hartland block, but also utilised the new hartland 2-6-0 modular
cylinder set, altered to a more 'stretched' look. The side rods are also Hartland modular rods, as designed for their new
2-6-0. The pilot and trailing trucks are scratch made on the inside, including electrical contacts, however the outside journals
and frames are bashed from Aristocraft Rogers 2-4-2T trucks. (a Huge thanks to Tom Farin for supplying those to me!). The pilot
is a Hartland unit, with all the staves cut out, and brass wire staves inserted. The piston crosshead water pump on the
engineer's side actually works and was scatch made from beads and brass tubing.
The superstructure is scratch built, including the classic Rogers wagon top boiler made from 3 sizes of PVC pipe. The cab is also
scratch built from styrene, based on measured drawings of the K-88 today. The headlight is an old Bachmann 4-4-0 unit. The NZR
capped stack and classic Rogers sand dome top are made from Mr Walas' polyclay! I have no idea how I could make that dome cap any
other way! The steam dome is a stock AMT 'General' dome from the kit (a left over from earlier bashes!), it happens to be the
right size, style and is from an actual Rogers prototype also! The basic tender shell is also a left over from the Rogers 'General'
kit, with a new chassis, and upper- the styling and size was perfect. The trucks are also from Hartland. A big thanks to Phil
Jensen at Hartland for supplying me with the parts for this model. If you want parts, you can joint the Hartland club on-line and
have access to cheap quality parts, including all their current drive units, via the on-line store.
The colour scheme is based on the few words of the eye whitness in 1877, mentioning the colour of the loco being 'Purple', translated
to US loco schemes of this date, it is likely the locos were painted plum in colour, with a painted cab, polished wood interior
and possibly polished wood external panels, although K-90 onward appear to have 100% painted cabs. Gilding on the wheels is based
on the eye whitness words as well as the K-87 photo, showing this detail.
Being a simple 2-4-2 design, one would think she should handle tight curves, not so! The bulk of the pilot and trailing truck,
along with the tight tolerances around the firebox and cylinders mean she can't run on less than a 4ft radius.
A special thanks to K-88 restorer, John French at the Plains Museum, Ashburton NZ, for his information and kind use of the measured
drawing set. Also a big thanks to Neville Simpson, owner of K-92, for his kind assistence, photos and info.
Well that is the story of the Mud Rogers!
