4-8-4 - 4500 Class Or Series Blue Prints, Designs, Drawings Or Plans - Inquiry

Guys,

I am looking of the design/builder drawings or any drawings that would include specific measurements.

Does anyone know where a set of drawings of the 4-8-4 4500 class locomotives may be obtained?

I did not know if these would have burned in the Springfield, MO museum fire or perhaps be in a collection or museum somewhere else across the country.

Any help or input would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Jared Childress
Monett, MO

 

I'll assume that Jared is looking for bluprints or erection drawings as I have for a number of years now. The closest thing that I have seen is the "blueprint" of the 4500 that the marketing folks handed out that appears on ebay every so often.
I'd love to have copies of the erection drawings for the 4500 and 1500 class, but have not found a source yet. They may not exist any longer. Didn't I hear a horror story years ago that the Frisco had a bonfire in a turntable pit years ago and burned most of the steam loco information, or was that just a rumor?

Darren McNeely

 

There are drawings for nearly everything Baldwin built after 1940 preserved at the Pennsylvania State Archives in Harrisburg, PA.

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/state_archives/2887

John Sanders
Springfield, MO

 

Thank you John, I will attempt to get ahold of them soon to see if they have the drawings from the 4500 series locomotives.

 

Yes I looked at both of these threads, but like Darren said I am looking for more of the erection style drawings that would have more specific measurements and information available in regards to these engines.

 

I helped sort linen tracings there several years ago and did see some of the 4500 to 4502 tracings. If I remember correctly they are 1 1/2" scale. Baldwin had a very odd classification system, but the drawings at the archives, I think, are filed in drawing number sequence which may have been the order they were drawn. I have several contact names that I will dig out tonight. The volunteer staff may be able to zero in on your drawings more quickly, but the full time staff is very helpful too.

John Sanders

 

Ok, thank you John I will attempt to call them within the next few days. If you could send me those numbers or post them here it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for all the help!

Jared Childress

 

Sorry for the multiple replies, but would these drawings be available for copying or are they strictly archived and for viewing only?


Jared Childress

 

Sharon Nelson was the curator/manager of the railroad portion of the archives. The main phone number, should get you in touch with her.

The tracings were available to copy when I was there. If most of the drawings exist it could be a pretty large bill!

Also the local history archive at MSU may have the specifications created by the Frisco (Mr. Ryan and Mr. Buffington) that were sent to Baldwin for quote. I saw them in the Frisco Museum collection years ago and hopefully they survive. One interesting item was a change to the tender and oil bunker (4500-4502). They were redesigned to be one fabrication to save about $1,500.00 in material, labor and Social Security taxes! I do not have a contact at the MSU Library.

John Sanders

 

If you can't find the official "erection" drawings, there was a nicely done HO scale drawing (Of a 4500 Meteor oil burner) published in Railroad Model Craftsman (??) years ago and it's been circulated all over. I think it's also in the old FMIG news letters archived on this chat board. I'll try to locate it. That 4500 Meteor drawing is archived in F.M.I.G. Newsletter #5, page 16. It's a scale drawing with several sections through the boiler and a side and both end views of the tender. I'm thinking a skilled modeler could build a 4500 from these plans. There's also a scale drawing of a 4200 2-8-2 in the same newsletter.

Tom G.

 

I just received a copy of Reading Model Engineers sheet F-35 that is blue azo-print on a piece of 16" x 25" paper. It was drawn by Mr. Edward Wiswesser to 1/4" scale (1:48) and looks very much like the print from FMIG #5, though it differs a bit in arrangement and includes a few more details. A hand-written note on the FMIG drawing alludes to a Penn-Craft Book dated 1959. The date on the RME sheet F-35 is 8-84, so it could be an enlargement to 1:48 scale from the Penn-craft source.

Reading Model Engineers also lists a 2-8-2 freight locomotive drawing for its sheet F-34, but it turned out to be a 4300-class 4-8-2 Mountain so it is a much better deal!

George Nelson

 

Penn Craft and Railroad Model Craftsman used to be connected (Part of the same company or published by the same company etc??).

Tom G.

 

The Penn-craft/RMC connection for the RMC Steam Locomotive Plan Manual # 5 is spot on; there is one offered on E-bay right now.

Steam-Locomotive-Plan-Manual-and-Album-1959-Railroad-Model-Craftsman-/251247210772?pt=Antiquarian_Collectible&hash=item3a7f803114

George

 

Could any of you just send a a photo copy of the scale drawings? I would be willing to pay the shipping but am on a very limited college budget so am trying to find them as cheap as possible.

 

You can copy it right off the archived newsletter. Just go to the NL #5 PDF and run it off.

Tom G.

 

Can you send me the link to this? I could not find it anywhere on the blogs.

 

Haha I did search it but for some reason could not find it. Thank for all the help, sorry for being a pain!