Built by the Reading shops in 1918 for the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad
#1251 was pieced together with parts from a previous 2-8-0 consolidation. She
was well liked by crews and served for 45 years performing switching duties at
the Reading shops. Upon her retirement from the Reading in 1963 #1251 was used
for a short time pulling passenger excursions on the Maryland and Pennsylvania
RR before being acquired by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in
1968. #1251 is now preserved and on display at The
Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.
This model uses Big Ben Bricks new
medium size drivers. I wanted to keep
the little B4a in scale with my
other steamers but the
large BBB drivers were a bit too tall. Thankfully Ben Fleskes was kind enough to
send me a few of his new medium drivers which worked out perfectly for the scale
I wanted. She is unpowered but moves very well when pushed by another
locomotive.
This is a really beautiful engine. One of the best looking steam engines I have seen. Way to go! -Matt (17 years ago, 19-Nov-07, to lugnet.trains, FTX)
(...) --snip-- (...) Hi Cale, I think it's a fantastic build with lots of great details. The one bit I'm a little unsure of is the middle section (I'm sure it has some special name but I don't know it) behind the dark grey boiler and in front of the (...) (17 years ago, 20-Nov-07, to lugnet.trains, FTX)
(...) --snip-- (...) Hi Cale, I already wrote one response but it seems to have vanished so apologies if this ends up appearing twice... I really like this switcher. The attention to detail and accuracy are superb. I do have one bit which I'm not (...) (17 years ago, 20-Nov-07, to lugnet.trains, FTX)
(...) I just wanted to add a 'me too' to your steamer. I really can't add anything that hasn't already been said or addressed. I agree that the tank shroud around the boiler could be more smooth, but the aforementioned cheese slope additions should (...) (17 years ago, 26-Nov-07, to lugnet.trains, FTX)
