# X-mas Annie make over



## John Wagner (Jan 29, 2008)

Hello all. Another project has begun at the Wagner Car Shops ( as my friends call it ). I call it my garage. I had the pleasure of showing some of my work at the Big Train Show last June and I had my two 10 wheelers on display. They are both Costco Christmas engines. I painted the first one many years ago and was able to acquire another in stock paint to show the before and after. Well I knew it would only be a matter of time before I started getting all sorts of crazy idea's on what to do with her.

Here they are on display at the booth.









Having been ruined throughly by spending some time in Chama the last two summers. I had some basic ideas where I wanted to go with her. Now its a freelanced design. Rivet counters will nail me on things
and I do not blame them. I just wanted to incorporate some basic NG design elements. I wanted a green boiler first off. The shade I chose is not dark enough but it will be a hard working weathered loco. 

Time to paint.









Yes you also get a look into my spotless garage. Amazing the U50 came from the same area.

The tender is going to change big time. I got plans for her.










Green paint time.



















The cylinders also got a little green paint added to them.










The smoke box got a coat of paint and the cylinders came out pretty good.










The photo was taken on my un-finished N scale layout. Can not afford the track yet.

The tender is going to have a new coal bunker made. I do not like the way the stock set up is.










The cutting out the old stuff began quickly.










As you can see some of the design elements are starting to show up on the tender. New backhead, side boards, hatch, air tank and light relocated.

Time to fill in the gaps.










My goal was to have a half coal load in the bunker so I made a bunker for it. The speaker and circuit board set the level and slope. The center area will be covered in coal. Real coal from Chama I brought back with me.










The last photo shows one of my crazy idea's I had. I wanted a dog house.

The air tank size left me with some room for one. Now I just got the idea and started mocking up one without a scale. I just eyeballed it. The frame was just made very quickly to see if the idea could fly.










Well it scaled out pretty good once I found my scale and checked it, so I used it.



















I have plans for a canvas door. Now is where my sickness for details take over. I made a floor for the house, painted it, spread dirt on the floor, swept the area clean where the crew man would walk then hit it with Dulcote. The floor has to be dirty. A spittoon will make it in there soon.

Bad photo of the dirty floor. No one will see it but I will know its there.










Here is s side shot of the tender as she sits now.




























A new ladder will be added soon. Marker lights and conduit runs for them and the headlight will be added also.

The space between the loco and tender was to much. I cut some out and it helps the overall look I think.



















Much better now. A draw bar will be fabricated. The radius on the layout at the house is 8 feet so it should work ok. 










That's all for now. More updates to come in the near future.
Thank you for viewing and Steve for making me start a thread. I did not think people would like to see ANOTHER annie bash. It might not be prototypical but its different in many ways.

John


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

What an improvement!


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Great job so far, John... Looks super.


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Mine wasn't an Annie, but....








I tried selling it to make room for other projects, but nobody ever made a decent offer


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## nkelsey (Jan 4, 2008)

Nice work...


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## John Corradini (Jan 2, 2008)

Looking good John. Can’t wait to see more


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

FUN STUFF! Dont let anyone fool you, the paint fumes help with the creative process







...Looking forward to progress


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

Great job, and thanks for the pixes. I never get tired of looking at other people's work.


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## MikeK (Jan 3, 2008)

John, 

That's a great, and clever (with the doghouse), makeover you've done to the Annie. 

The green color is also much better than the garish red....


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## John Wagner (Jan 29, 2008)

First off thank you all for the comments and looking at my stuff. I appreciate it big time. This project was going to just be a re-paint. Well you know how one thing leads to another. The loco will be left alone. I would love to shorten the pilot, and re-detail the cab but that will have to wait for another time. I needed a running mate for the first one and that X-mas paint was just to much.

The lonely loco 










She now has a running mate but it needed a paint job.










They run together great. Love double headers, mid train helpers and rear end helpers. Just need more cars...........

This is the front of the tender on the first loco. I took the easy way out and just threw some details on it and painted it. Its always bugged me that the coal looked un-natural they way it was laying. One hard stop and it would spill out all over so I decided to do the second one different. I do need to find some prototype photo's of the front coal doors for detailing purposes.










The dog house idea came from my trips to Chama. I have always loved the dog houses on the Pennzy, especially the ones on the big M1 tenders as a kid.

Here are some prototype photo's taken in Chama.
First is Ronnie topping off the tank at Sublette.










484 heading out with the daily train up the hill.










And Matthew getting dusted at the ash dump.










Thanks again for viewing and more to follow......................


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

These help? They're of Consolidation tenders rather than Ten Wheelers, but similar vintage



















more pix here http://www.the-ashpit.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=277


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## on30gn15 (May 23, 2009)

_Well you know how one thing leads to another._

It does?








With model train projects?
Who knew.


She's a good looking machine. Happy highballing


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## John Wagner (Jan 29, 2008)

Hello all. I keep saying in my head over and over, _Its just a re-paint! _Funny now you hear it but do not listen.

This is how she sits as of yesterday afternoon.



















Just allot of painting of late. The coal doors are done and the path I chose came from an old photo I remember seeing from the days of childhood memorizing every photo out of my first loco photo book.
The funny thing is the design is similar to the photo's Mik posted. Thanks for that.
The sliding lower gates have not been mounted yet. They need paint still.





































There has been a donation of detail parts to the Wagner Car Shops from a friend so many more detail parts will be added to the _Re-paint_. The pilot will be made into a switcher type pilot. Why? I do not know. Just to make her look different that the other's I guess. I understand that the shops would not spend the extra money for fancy green paint on the boiler for a loco that will just spend its time in the yard. Those loco's were usually left for trains people will see. 
If anyone has photo's of a basic switcher pilots please let me see them. I am leaning to the side of the type with footboards and a small tube catcher in-between down low. A road/switcher type. 

Thanks for viewing and more to follow soon.

John


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## MikeK (Jan 3, 2008)

Dear John,

Your "repaint" is looking great so far.

Is this what you might be looking for in regard to a road pilot?


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

While you have it off, don't forget to re-install the brake staff on the fireman's side where it belongs......  

logging pilot pix


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