# The Return of the Ten Wheeler



## Bruce Chandler (Jan 2, 2008)

Back in May, my 1:20 Ten-wheeler fell off the highest part of the elevated section of my railroad.











Things did not look good. And, on closer inspection, they looked worse.







I decided that I would need to build a new tender _*and*_ a new cab. 


First up was the tender. I was able to salvage the trucks and a few detail parts; the rest were created from styrene. I used a lot of tips from David Fletcher's Masterclass articles to build the frame sides.











While the original had a wood cab, I wanted to modernize the look of the locomotive and give it a new steel cab. The base structure was made from .040" styrene and then covered with .020" styrene that had the rivets embossed into it. The roof has two layers of .020" styrene; here it is without the final layer:











I painted it with Krylon satin black, but had some issues with a clear coat fogging up. But, today she was ready for a trial run and I took her out for some pictures. I had forgotten how nicely the BBT chassis runs.






































I'm not sure if I need to do anything else, but at least it's ready enough for the Invasion this coming week.


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## CCSII (Jan 3, 2008)

Wow, could I send you my ten-wheeler to crash and fix?


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## Dougald (Jan 2, 2008)

She looks real nice Bruce - your usual high craftsmanship shows. I hope you find space to bring her and your Accucraft shay to the Invasion. I have a short string of very nice drop bottom gons that need some track time - I wonder where those came from!

Regards ... Doug


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## Mike O (Jan 2, 2008)

Bruce, 

That really came out nice. it will be a head turner next week. Usual cool images too. 

Mike


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## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

That is really gorgeous. I'm kinda glad it fell. This thread is a bash keeper.


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## steam5 (Jun 22, 2008)

Looks great Bruce! 

How did you do the rivet details? 

Alan


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

Bruce, 

If you'd posted the 'before' pic in May, I'd have sent you a steel, riveted cab off a Ten Wheeler!







(I think the 'Chattanooga' set had one - I know I have it in my parts box.)


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## david bunn (Jan 4, 2008)

Really nice Bruce,like it better than the 'pre-wreck' 
Regards 
Bunny


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## Steve Stockham (Jan 2, 2008)

You really outdid yourself! I also agree that it looks better than pre-wreck!


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## Bruce Chandler (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks guys. I like it a lot better than the original as well.


Alan,
I used an embosser that I got from Micro Mark. Actually, it's a combination of tools (EMBOSS-IT MODEL RIVET SIMULATOR,'PRESS-IT' PRECISION ARBOR/PUNCH PRESS, and RIVET EMBOSSING SET FOR EMBOSS-IT MODEL RIVET SIMULATOR...ooh, and NOW they're on sale!







)
Anyway, it's a great tool for doing rivets. 










Pete, this cab is quite a bit bigger than the normal ten-wheeler cab; in fact, it's closer to Connie size, which is what I used for the original. This shot shows the old one compared to a Bachmann Ten wheeler.











Maybe I can get a shot comparing this one to a Ten Wheeler. Of course, I'll have to go to Canada to get the shot.


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

Thanks for posting the pixes on the rebuild.

I keep trying to tell myself I *need* that MicroMark rivet/arbor machine.... What features do you find most worthwhile?


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## Bruce Chandler (Jan 2, 2008)

Les,
You sound just like me. I debated for some time before acquiring all those pieces. And, then I thought some more. Would I use it more than once? I initially bought this to help me build a 1:20 Mikado and I used it to scratch build a tender for that. With the crash, I've now built a second tender and cab, so I'm already using it more than I first thought. Plus there's a few other projects in the future. I want to try it on some rivet detail for some boxcars.


It does take some time to set up, especially for a long piece, like the side of a tender. In fact, for a side like that, you're going to have to setup at least a couple of times as they're isn't enough travel to accommodate the entire side in one pass. 









The coolest thing is being able to get the rivets spaced so evenly. One full turn of the wheel gives you .050" between rivets. They have divisions marked to .001". Now, I have not checked to see how accurate it is, but it looks good enough to me.











In the photo above, the bottom row of rivets are 2 turns apart - or 0.100". The two middle rows are 4 turns apart: 0.200". Either way, I like how uniform the rivets turned out. The downside is that it's not REAL exciting; it can get tedious counting four turns (or was that 3?) and then pressing the punch in place; repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. 

Initially I had some issues with getting some of the rows straight, but paying more attention to setup seemed to alleviate those problems. I'm also glad I bought then extra set of dies; I have not used the one that came with it, but I did use different ones for the tender and the cab.


I'm really glad I got it.


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## steam5 (Jun 22, 2008)

thanks for the tip Bruce.


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

Bruce,

Thanks for the pixes of the setup. And the insights. You've certainly done a masterful job on those rivets, and I believe the tool was at least part of the game. The ability to keep the spacing even and the row aligned is not an easy thing, for the few test pieces I've done with a hammer and punch.

My problem is, I'm a tool-nut.







I've gotten to the point where I think hard before buying another. I have to, I'm running out of space to store 'em.

Les


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## Bruce Chandler (Jan 2, 2008)

Les, it's a small tool.







Thanks for the compliments. I've found it to be very worthwhile so far.


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

When I made 2 tenders, I used a ballpoint pen. The results were pretty good, but my thumb had a bruise for weeks.


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## silverstatespecialties (Jan 2, 2008)

Bruce, 

That's outstanding! Thanks for sharing the photos of your rivet embosser, obviously it works very very well.


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## joe rusz (Jan 3, 2008)

Sigh, another loco to add to my bashing file. Great work, Bruce.


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Way to turn tragedy around Bruce. Fantastic job as usual


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## Bruce Chandler (Jan 2, 2008)

I took my ten wheeler up to Canada for the Invasion. 

Here's a shot of it in front of Doug's BIG station.









Ken Brunt had his Connie out and I got some pics of them side by side for comparison.

















It's not much different in length when compared to an Annie:









But you can see the height difference.


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