A Bona-Fide McConnell Stack

[Mike Trent]

Howdy. A few months ago, I mentioned to local 3d Wizard Dave Ferrier that it might be a great boon to early and Pre-C&S (CC and DL&G) modelers to be able to have an accurate model of the famed UP McConnell (aka "Pancake") stack. Last week I saw Dave and he asked if I'd send him some information on them. I had accumulated a lot of various information while I was building my #7, and that included both a copy of the original UP Drawing of the stack, and C&S Folio sheets. So, I sent them to him. Over the course of the last few days, he and I have collaborated on details and he has produced a fantastic replica of this distinctive item. As you may recall, I had cobbled up a fair version of that stack for my #7, and another for my perpetually under construction #22. #7 will receive one of these in the next few days following priming and painting. I'll add a couple of photos later. But we'd like to introduce this to you now.

Dave can print these in multiple scales , and I'm sure some of you would be very interested in them. To make it worthwhile to Dave, we think a price of $20 plus shipping each would be a bargain to anyone who needs them, and to make Dave's time worthwhile. You will not find them anywhere else, that's for sure. Some of the details may disappear in smaller than the On3 copy here, because they are so small. But they are there, including the distinctive anchor brackets at the bottom.

Like diamond and probably even Congden stacks before them, the McConnells were set in place on a cast iron stack base, which was mounted to the smokebox. The top on the stack base was a flange which extended a few inches into the cast band which was riveted to the bottom of the fabricated sheet metal stack. The upper assembly was anchored to the smokebox by two brackets which were fixed at the top of the band and bolted to a pair of studs on either side of the stack. These are a critical part of the new McConnells.

Among photos used were an elevated and a wrecked view showing the flat screen and lifting rings with which to lift the stack off the base. We also identified the riveted seams if the top, and a seam and offset rivets at the front behind the headlight which formed the vertical stack. These are scale, and, as noted, they may disappear in smaller scales. They may disappear on On3 sale as well under paint. We'll see how that comes out soon. But the dimensions seem to be dead-balls on. I'll prime one of them tomorrow, for #7, using Tamiya Surface Primer Gray.

Photos are of my old backdated PFM/United #22 project:













   

[Keith Hayes]

Sweet!

[Jim Courtney]

Mike and Dave have exchanged emails with me last eve and this morning. I will be ordering 5 of the McConnel stacks for my slow to materialize 1901 locomotive roster.

Up until now, I been struggling with the old Leadville Shops S scale brass castings. So far I have 2 assembled, but they require removal from a large casting sprue, a lot of filing to clean up the attachment points and a lot of finicky filing to make the male flange of one half of the shallow diamond fit precisely into the female receptacle on the other side. The two pieces are sorta circular and sorta symmetric. Then the three pieces have to be sweat soldered together with a torch.

The details on Dave's printed part is far finer than the assembled brass stacks.  Mike is teaching me that backdating locomotives doesn't require being a "brass purist" . . .

[Mike Trent]

I made good use of time today painting and installing #7's new McConnell stack.

The details came through just fine, and I'm sure pleased with the upgraded results of the engine's appearance.  I primed it with Tamiya Surface Gray Primer, and then painted it with Testor's Flat Black. I put some Vintage Reproductions "Soot" inside the top, but it's hard to see it. Which is OK, as this engine represents a newly turned out brand new locomotive.

Again, thanks to the miracle of 3D printing, and a very talented engineer to use it, it is now possible to finally have an excellent depiction of this very distinctive stack. Thanks again, Dave!