Subject: Wilbur T. Frey

Mon, 07 Apr 2003

Wilbur Frey was born on May 12th, 1925 in Schofield, OR.  His parents came from Switzerland.  His dad immigrated in 1923 and his mom in 1924

As a child he didn't have any hobbies cause he was too busy farming  As many American stories go, Wilbur got to the 8th grade then quit school.  He was needed on the farm.

Wilbur was drafted in July 1945 as a PFC Tank Driver in the Marines.  He was getting ready to be shipped overseas for the invasion of Japan.  But the A-bomb put an end to those plans.  Even at the time of this interview in the summer of 1995 he still remembered his Serial number, "822060".

After the war, Wilbur married Gere Welsh in October 1945.  He continued farming before moving to Island Pond, VT.  He started working for the Grand Trunk railroad on August 7th, 1950 at the Island Pond round house. 

Starting as a laborer then working in the car shops. He had stories of cleaning out the tubes of steam locos from inside the firebox.  The engine would come off the mainline, dump the fire and the men would get inside the firebox with a compressed air hose to blow out the flues.  All the while the engine is still filled with hot water.  After being cleaned, the fire was relit and the engine sent back out on the line.

Wilbur and Gere have four children.  Surprisingly, none of them are interested in railroading.

The family moved to Yarmouth, Maine in 1966.  Then, after retiring they moved to Arizona on December 25th, 1985.  They had had enough of the New England winters.  In Arizona they had a view of the snow capped mountains from their Arizona home.  As Wilbur said, "That's as close as I like to get to snow."

All his life, Wilbur wasn't really interested in model railroads.  "I was only interested in the big railroads.  The real thing.  I enjoyed my job on the GT."  Working for the railroad was something Wilbur enjoyed.  He said it was a pleasure to go to work each day.

Wilbur built more than 175 of his beautiful locomotives.  He didn't keep any of the locomotives he built for himself.  His locomotives are spread throughout the United States and Canada.  Some are in museums and others are in corporate buildings.  Most are in private collections.

For a list of Wilbur's first 150 locomotives, see elsewhere in this web page for a list of his locomotives.  If you know of a locomotive Wilbur built, please contact us so we can update our records.

For more on the construction and history of Wilbur's locomotives, see elsewhere in this web page.

In January of 2002 Wilbur had an accident with his table saw that cut off several of his fingers on one hand.  They took him via a helicopter to the hospital to have surgery.  Fortunately, they were able to sew back on one of his fingers, the middle one.  But the others were lost.  Wilbur joked and would say; "I have to be careful how I wave to people now !"

After the accident, Wilbur was never up to building his locomotives in the capacity that he used to.  He could only spend a short time in the shop before getting exhausted.  A half hour was about as much as he could do at one time before needing to rest again.  Other complications ensued and  Pulmonary Fibrosis set in. Wilbur's body couldn't hold up any longer.  He died on November 19th, 2002.

Wilbur was one of the most humble, sincere gentlemen I ever knew.  Not to mention one of the finest craftsman I ever knew.  He could never figure why we were so excited about his locomotives.  And figured other people must be building engines like his.  He thought it was all so simple.

The first locomotive he built he gave to his foreman.  And fittingly, the last locomotive Wilbur built went to his 13-year-old grandson Jordan.  His wife Gere is equally a wonderful person.  Both of them are big supporters of their church.

Wilbur was cremated and buried in a local military veterans cemetery in Arizona.

We miss you Wilbur !  We'll meet you again on the high rail.

Wilbur built the first locomotive for his supervisor Charles Maw in 1953, the locomotive foreman at Island Pond.  The 6153* was in the roundhouse for a long while.  During that time he would build a piece of his model then come to work and look at the engine to determine the next piece to build.  He'd memorize the part, go home that day and build the part.  The next day would be another part and so on.

*  During the interview with Wilbur, he said the first engine he built was 6153.  However, a list supplied by Wilbur shows CN #40, a 4-4-0, was the first engine built.  6153 was a big 4-8-2 Mountain type.

CN wanted to donate 6153 to the town of Island Pond but there were so many steam locomotives still around.  The town decided they didn't want it so it was scrapped at the roundhouse.  Wilbur was part of the crew to cut it up.  By dismantling the loco, he says he learned a lot about how an engine is constructed.  This greatly influenced how his model engines were constructed.  As Wilbur said, "When the running boards and pilot are removed from a locomotive, only then do you realize how "tall" a locomotive actually is.   The boiler sits way up high above the frame.  They look so narrow in comparison."

As time went on......

Soon Wilbur was building his wooden locomotives for friends.  Orders came from word of mouth.  Many of the engines being requested were engines the people have operated or their grandfathers have operated.  Or the engine is a famous/outstanding steam engine.

In the early years the most popular engines built were Canadian engines in origin.  When asked if there was always a waiting list, "Not always.  There was a time when people would order a locomotive and I would give them an estimated completion date.  Then I found I couldn't meet that date I would feel myself rushing to complete the model.  That really took the fun out of the hobby.  Since then I don't give any estimated completion dates.  I finish the locomotive when I get to it."

Many of Wilbur's first engines are in the Island Pond area.  When asked if he knew where the first engines are he said, "I don't follow where my engines go after I build them.  I'm just interested in building them."

  Some time ago, Wilbur was invited to a gathering (meet) at Island Pond, Vermont where everyone gathered with a locomotive built by Wilbur.   Positioned on a lazy Susan, was a GT Switcher number 7530.  And all around were his engines on a star of tracks radiating from the center in a turntable fashion.  He was impressed.

He mentioned that some of the engines were a bit dusty.  He said, "They should have told me they were in need of attention.  I would have given them a coat of paint."  (That's just the kind of guy Wilbur is.  Rather than thinking the owners should have taken better care of the engines, Wilbur feels a personal responsibility to take care of his fleet.)

To this day he has a framed picture of all those engines on the radiating tracks is hung on the wall in his shop in Arizona.

When asked, "From an aesthetic view, what's been your favorite locomotive you've built."

A:"No favorites.  The locomotive I'm currently building is my favorite. Then I complete that engine and the next engine is my favorite.  Whichever engine I'm working on tends to be my favorite."

Q:  "Which locomotive stands out as being the most difficult to build ?"

A:  "None are difficult any longer.  They're all the same.  Just some are bigger and some are smaller.  The Big Boy was a real challenge.  That was the first locomotive with a centipede tender.  And all the brakes on the locomotive have individual air cylinders.  There are 16 drivers and 16 air brake cylinders.  The brake system on that engine was tricky."

Q:  "Was there a locomotive you were disappointed in the results ?"

A:  "No.  If I don't like the way it turned out, then I just change it or make a new part.  Like the Timken, The sandbox just didn't look right after I made it.  It was too long.  So I just made another one and it looked fine."

Q:  "In number built, what's been the most popular locomotive you've built ?"  (Such as the B&M 3700 series.)

A:  "By far, the most popular locomotive is the B&M 3700 series.  I've built about seven of them with two more on order.  One guy wants the 3713 without the dome cover and another guy wants his engine with the dome cover installed.  I don't want to build anymore B&M 3700 locomotives.  I will build another locomotive.  But if someone asks for a 3700, I don't want to build the same locomotive I've built many times."

Q:  "Is there a locomotive you would like to build ?"  (That you haven't built yet.)

A:  "Well, I haven't built a B&M 2-10-4 Mudsucker.  Or maybe a SP Cab Forward.  But I've built so many, I don't have any favorites that I'm looking forward to building."

** Wilbur built a Southern Pacific 4-8-4.  He couldn't figure how to build the eight-wheel truck on the tender.  There wasn't enough detail in the photos.  But in a railroad encyclopedia, he found drawings for the front half of the truck.  From that he figured how the truck worked and got up over defects in the track.  From there he was able to build the rest of the truck and complete the model of that big 4-8-4.

** Several months after this interview, Wilbur was commissioned to build a model of the Southern Pacific Cab Forward 4294.  This is the last remaining Cab Forward in existence currently on display at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, California.

Q:  "Have you ever built a diesel ?  Would you ?"

A:  "I have built a couple Diesels.  But Diesels they don't have the same "life" as a steam engine.  They're nearly as exciting as a boxcar.  A Diesel will look the same on both sides.  A steam engine will be different from railroad to railroad.  No two steam engines are the same."

Q:  "Other than a steam locomotive, have you built any railroad anything ?"

A:  "Yes. Several cranes and cabooses.  I don't remember how many or where they are now."

**Wilbur has built models of engines nosing out the front of a round house doorway.  I believe these engines are noted in his list with an "H" to signify "Half" an engine.  I would like to get a more detailed description. (Photo ?)

Q:  "If you were back in time during the early 1950's, and you had the power to save a couple steam engines, which would they be ?"

A:  "Hmmm...  Well, lets see.  I think the Canadian National 6200.   ...and of course the Southern Pacific Daylight.  ...and the Southern Pacific Cab Forward... and the Union Pacific Big Boy and Challenger.  I have a book on the MoPac engines and those are really nice engines.  And the big B&M 4100 series engines with the big centipede tenders."

Q:  "Why do you keep building loco after loco - day after day ?"

A:  "I enjoy it and it keeps me busy.  "It's a hobby !"  As long as people enjoy my engines, I'll keep building them."

Q:  "What's been your longest waiting list ?"

A:  "About 45 was the longest list.  That's more than four years worth ! 

It was a bit overwhelming.  I used to do ten engines a year.  Now I do about eight a year.  Currently, there's still a three year list and not taking orders.  Every year I just have to get away for a vacation.  In the fall I get away for a week."

Q:  "How did you come up with the cost of a large locomotive being the same as a small locomotive ?"

A:  " I charge just enough to cover the materials to build locomotives. 

People have said I should charge a thousand dollars or something but that takes the hobby out of it.  This isn't a business, it's a hobby."

Wilbur's 20 x 24 foot shop is located in his  garage.  He does all his building and painting in the same room.  Most everything is done on the big 4x8 foot bench with four outlets run up through the floor.

Here's a list of his tools

        1.  Dremel scroll saw.  High speed at 3800 rpm.  "My first scroll saw was built in 1952.  Then I got a Sears scroll saw but at 1500 rpm it was too slow.  I gave that to my son and got this Dremel saw.  A big 15" throat. 

This machine gets a lot of use."

        2.  Small grinder

        3.  16 speed drill press

        4.  Lathe 12"x36"

        5.  Another grinder

        6.  Belt sander that used to be his father's.

        7.  New Sears band saw since he moved to Arizona.  13"x18"

        8.  Cut off saw that moves on a pair of tubes.

        9.  A  7" table saw.

        10 And a 10" table saw

        11. A hand held Dremel type grinder made by Sears.

The scroll saw gets the biggest work out.  He used that to cut nearly everything with detail.  The wheels, the cab.

When asked about the building materials Wilbur said,  "Everything is cut into four foot lengths so it will fit in the van for the drive home.  I have about a one year supply of materials.  I work with birch, maple, big 2" maple, 1/8" birch plywood all the way through.  Not the birch plywood that's backed with luan or mahogany.  That stuff chips too easily.   I use the 1/8" birch.  I use this mostly for the building the cabs and cylinder saddle."

"It's hard to get good wood out here in Arizona.  I have to order it through a place in Tucson.  The only pine available in stock is usually warped and full of knots.  But since I was out here, someone at the lumber yard asked if I would be interested in Alder.  This wood was new to me but now I make all the couplers out of Alder.  And all the ties are made out of redwood."

Q:  "How do you research a locomotive you're about to build ?"

A:  "The people who order the engine will send me the information I need to build an engine.  Usually just a photo is all I need.  I've built so many engines that I often use a photo of the same engine I've already built."

"Unless I get a photo of the cab interior, I build it the way most of the other cabs are built.  After building enough cabs I find they're all pretty much the same."

*** "I took a photo of every engine I build.  I put the completed engine on the top of a trash can and take the picture.  I put it on a trash can so you can see it's a model and not a real steam engine."

Q:  "What materials are used to build a locomotive ?"

A: "Wood, cardboard, wire, and a piece of stove pipe for the boiler."

Q:  "How have materials changed from early locos compared to the ones built now ? (i.e. more cardboard ?)"

A:  "Hasn't changed.  I used to be able to get small chain but I can't find it anymore so I have to make it out of copper wire."

Q:  "What is the most difficult part of the locomotive to build ? (Wheels, running gear, boiler, cab, painting)"

A:  "It's all pretty much the same.  I've built so many that I don't have any trouble with any part of building."

Q:  "How many hours would it take to build a standard 4-6-2 Pacific ? 

...over how many weeks ?"

A:  "It would take about three to four weeks to build an engine.  Let's see, from 7:30 in the morning till about 4:00 in the afternoon.  I usually take Friday off to do chores and shopping with my wife, Geri."

**  That includes Saturday & Sunday .

Q:  "What section seems to be the most enjoyable ?"

A: " It's all the same.  It's a hobby.  Three quarters of the time is spent building the engine and the other quarter of the time is spent detailing it.  All the pipes and handles and other small stuff like valves take time."

"Painting an engine a different color is different.  The Daylight I built came out real nice.  There was the New York Central Hudson (Dreyfuss) I built for a guy that was gray.  But the picture I had to work from was colorized so I hope the gray came out all right."

"Then there was the B&M Paul Revere and the B&M Flying Yankee.  The Paul Revere was a nice Blue and beige.  The Flying Yankee was a two tone green. 

Those came out nice."

Q:  "Do you make many measurements during construction ?  (I heard you don't take many measurements.)"

Q:  "Since the valve gear works on your locos, which is the most difficult valve gear to build ?"

A:  "The Baker because I have to cut out a part of the two inch valve frame and put all the pieces together again inside."

Q:  "How did you come up with 3" between the rails as a gauge ?  ...is this constant with all your locos ?"  A:  "It all has to do with the size of the nails in the smokebox. I had a bunch of nails that had the head in the shape of a rivet.  To use those nails, the smoke box had to be big enough to make the nail heads look to scale.  And with that size smoke box came the rest of the locomotive.  ....and that led to three inches between the rails."

"These nails where made in a New Hampshire before they went out of businesses and moved to Boston.  I called the Boston location and the salesman said he would look into where I could get more of these nails. 

Well a couple months went by and I hadn't heard from him.  So I called again.  He found some so I bought 15 pounds of those nails !  I'm still using that batch.  I wasn't going to go through that again."

"Same thing with some brads I use.  I was paying $.90 a package at K-Mart. 

I called the supplier in Tennessee and bought 100 packages for a third of the cost."

Q:  "What loco parts are pre-build in bulk ?"  (i.e. airpumps, bells, headlights, wheels, check valves, generators)

        - Airpumps      10 to 20 at a time

        - Bells         10 to 12 at a time

        - Headlights    2 at a time

        - Generators    3 to 4 at a time

        - Tie plates    About 500 at a time

"Building 10 airpumps will take about a half a day.  Everything else on a locomotive I build as I need it.

The only time I will build anything in advance is when the same engine is going to be built within the next couple engines.  If that's the case, I will cut the driver blanks, frame, cylinders and saddle.  I'll put those pieces into a box and put it away until that engine is going to be built.  Many of the orders coming in are for B&M engines.  Since the B&M used those big generators on most of their engines it makes it that much easier to construct several generators at a time to keep on hand."

Q:  "Are most parts pre-painted before assembly ?  ...how many coats of paint ?  ...what kind of paint ?"

A:  "After I build a part, I shellac that part.  Then the next day I will put a coat of paint on it.  Then I usually put a second coat of paint after that.  I found that I have to shellac the parts right away.  Otherwise, I'll come back the next day and that part will be all warped."

"I used to use Rust-O-Leum but it got real hard to find.  K-Mart, Ace hardware, and Sears all stopped carrying it.  But I found this other hardware store that carries a good black enamel and that's what I've been using.  The cost is $3.00 a half pint, but it comes out real nice."

"The red is water based.  I found it to be the only good red and it's water based.  I use the red on all the controls and in the cab."

Q:  "In what order is a locomotive constructed ?  Imagine you're building a standard 4-6-2 Pacific."

A:  "Well, every engine is different.  Sometimes I do some things first depending on what will come next or what I've just done.  But most of the models will be done in this order:"

        1.      Driver

        2.      Frame

        3.      Axle bearings

        4.      Springs (Coil and wooden)

        5.      Lead truck

        6.      Cylinders

        7.      Smokebox

        8.      Boiler

        9.      Fire box

        10.     Run the lighting wires

        11.     Ash pan

        12.     Brake rigging

        13.     Trailing truck

        14.     Cab details

        15.     Cab construction & installation

        16.     Domes and Stack

        17.     Steam manifold

        18.     Side rods

        19.     Valve gear

        20.     Tender truck

        21.     Tender frame

        22.     Tender tank

The following are detail parts added in no particular order.

        +  Air pumps

        +  Bell, whistle

        +  Running boards

        +  Reverse gear

        +  Front end detail

        +  Plumbing & hand rails

        +  Tender details

        +  Detail paint

        +  Lettering

        23.     Base manufacture

        24.     Base finishing

        25.     Assemble the locomotive and tender onto the base

        26.     Build a shipping box

Below are details of how many of the sections of the locomotive are built.

        1.      Drivers

        The drivers are marked out on a birch board then cut out as blanks on the band saw.  Then a blank is mounted on a face plate and turned to the correct diameter with the flange.  Turning the front of the driver is a delicate task.  I have to get the right thickness for the spokes and leave enough space for the counter weight.  Sometimes I have to look at it 4 or five times before I get the right size.  When all the wheels have been cut to the same diameter, I will marked out the spokes with a pencil.  The next step is to drill an 1/8" hole in the spoke hole closest to the axle and a hole 3/16" to 1/4" in the corners closest to the tire.  Now I cut out the spokes and lightly sand off the burrs.  Before quitting for the day, I will insert the axles and shellac the finished drivers so they won't warp.

        2.      Frame

The way the frame is built depends a lot on the locomotive.  The larger engines have frames made in a couple sections and then screwed together.  The smaller engines are made in one piece.  The frame is made with the slots cut out for the axle bearing boxes on the bigger engines.  To get the measurement between axles, the wheels are put on the track I use to build the engines and spaced so they look like the photo.  Now I can mark in pencil where the axles will go through the frame.

        3.      Axle bearingsAxle bearing boxes are put into the frame with the larger engines.  With the smaller engines I just drill a hole through the frame for the axle.

        4.      Springs (Coil and wooden)

In the larger engines I drill a hole through the frame and put a 5/16" spring, 3/8" long into the frame so the driver is sprung.  The wooden leaf springs are only there for looks.

        5.      Lead truck

        6.      Cylinders -

The cylinders are made from solid maple dowels with 1/4" holes drilled for the piston rods.  The saddle is made from 1/8" birch plywood.  Depending on the type of valve gear will determine the valve cylinder or slide valve box.  Then everything is covered over with poster board, shellacked and painted.  The piston rods, axles, crossheads and all moving parts are coated with Vaseline to help with friction.

        7.      Smokebox -

The smoke box is a solid piece of pine and covered with poster board.  It's tuned from a 4"x 6" timber to the correct size.  There's a recess drilled into the front of the smoke box to allow for the wiring and the smoke box door.  The smoke box door is turned separately from a piece of maple.  The rivets around the front of the smoke box are Gimp tacks.  (These are the tacks that dictated the scale of Wilbur's engines.  See "It started with a nail!" for more info on these tacks.)  A fine hole is drilled first to relieve stress before the tack is hammered into place.

        8.      Boiler -

Wilbur uses five inch stove pipe to construct the boiler.  The stove pipe is rounded to the diameter of the smokebox and extended backwards toward the firebox..  During the construction process, the boiler is added and removed several times to get the proper dimensions for other parts being constructed as sub assemblies.  The boiler isn't connected to the frame until everything on the boiler and frame is completed and looks right

If the engine has a conical boiler, a wooden ring is made to go around the boiler where the boiler jacket starts and ends the slope. After the rings are in place the space between them is covered with poster board.  To make a ring, a 3/4" piece of birch plywood is turned on the lathe to the outside dimension of the boiler with a taper on the edge.  Then the inside hole for the stove pipe is cut and the ring is placed in position on the boiler and made permanent.  Other rings are added as necessary.  Another ring is added at the firebox front and backhead.  The sides of the firebox are made of 1/8" plywood covered with poster board glued, and tacked in place.

After the shape of the boiler has been established, the domes (usually made of pine) are cut and sanded to shape.    The stack and generator are made of maple and added last along with the steam manifold.  Next to be added are the boiler bands.  The bands are made of thin 1/4" strips of poster board.  Then the running boards and sand piping are added.

The diamond plate for the running boards and cab floor is made from poster board.  Wilbur will mark a piece of posterboard with lines 1/4" apart. 

Then press against the poster board at the intersections of the lines with a nail to create a diamond plate image on the other side.  Cut to size, shellac, paint - you have instant diamond plate.

During the construction of the boiler it's necessary to run all the electrical lines for the lights.  The headlight and marker lights on the smokebox and the red light in the firebox are wired during the boiler construction.  Black wires are used for 12 volt lighting and the light colored wires are for the 6 volt lighting.  Everything in the engine is running at 6 volt, but a 12 volt bulb in a 6 volt system will not glow as bright.  This works great for marker low level lights in the markers and the firebox glow.  The brighter 6 volt bulbs are used in the head light, cab and back up light.  Some engines have inspection lights under the running boards.  In these areas, micro light bulbs are used. 

Unfortunately, when these burn out, they're not replaceable.  All the wire are run back to the tender where the chargers (6 volt AC adapters) are located.  Sometimes if there are a lot of bulbs used in the engine, Wilbur will add an additional AC adapter to handle the extra current draw.

*Wilbur built a Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 Big Boy that required four AC adapters and 27 light bulbs !  A total of eight in the firebox alone.  (Two in the ash pan and six behind the over fire inlets.)

        14.  Cab details -

The details to the backhead are added before the cab is installed.  Unless a picture of the cab detail is supplied, Wilbur will add all the details of a standard locomotive of that type.  If a photo is supplied, as it was with a Nickel Plate Berkshire 765, Wilbur will add as much of the detail as possible in all the right places.

        15.     Cab construction & installation -

The cab is constructed as a sub assembly then added to the rest of the engine.  The cab is made of 1/8" birch plywood covered with posterboard. 

The inside of the cab walls are posterboard with pencil lines on a green background to represent the green wooden boards on a prototype steam locomotive.  The assembly is shellacked and then painted before adding it to the rest of the locomotive.

        12.     Brake rigging is added now.

        13.     Trailing truck -

Surprisingly, the trailing truck isn't constructed or added to the engine until after the cab is added.  Since Wilbur doesn't use measurements, jigs, or patterns, there isn't any way to tell just what size that trailing truck is going to be until the engine is nearly complete.  When the cab is added to the rest of the engine, Wilbur can see exactly how long and tall the truck will have to be to fill that space.

14. Side rods -

The side rods are rather simple to construct, but getting them to the exact spacing is the challenge.  Remember, these wheels are quartered and can turn.  First the wheels are turned so the crank pins are at the bottom of 

the travel on the wheel.  At absolute bottom dead center, a piece of two inch maple is placed to touch the crank pins and the relative location is marked with a pencil.  Now the exact spacing of the crank pins is known and the crank pin holes can be drilled.  The maple is put in a movable vice on the drill press and the fluting of the side rod can be cut with a milling machine end-mill cutter.  This will often take several passes before the right depth is established.  Now the outside shape of the rod is cut. 

Edges are sanded, fit, shellacked, and painted.  If everything is perfect, the wheels will roll; even after the valve gear is added in the next step.

        15.     Valve gear -

Over time, valve gear has been a trial and error procedure.  Since Wilbur has built so many engines, building valve gear is just another step to building a model steam engine.  Building the valve gear is a similar to building the side rods.  I.e., find the distance between each connecting point, drill the holes and shape it to the right proportions; shellac and paint with two coats.

        16.     Tender -

By the time Wilbur starts working on the tender, the engine is finished with the exception of super detailing and the lettering.  The beginning work of the tender starts with the tender trucks.  The trucks are made of maple.

Next is the tender frame.  Anything around the shop is used for the tender frame bed.  If the bottom sides of the frame are exposed (an "I" beam frame), the frame is flutted by running the frame on end through the table saw with a datto blade  The rest of the tender is built to shape from 3/4" pine.  The entire tender is covered with poster board.  But the poster board, in this case, is not glued to the pine.  It's first tacked with tiny brads as rivets.  So where ever there's a rivet, there's a brad nailed in by hand.

**  On my 4-8-4 Timken tender there are 15 columns of rivits from the top of the tender to the bottom with more than 40 brads per column.  That's 600+ brads !

After all the brads are in place and the poster board has been cut to represent sheet metal, the entire tender is shellacked.  When the shellac dries, Wilbur has found it will cause the poster board to shrink and pull against the brads causing a realistic indentation effect.  This makes it looks very realistic.

By now the engine is three quarters completed.  The detailing of the entire steam engine and tender takes 25% of the time to complete the engine.  The following are detail parts added in no particular order.

        +  Air pumps

        +  Bell, whistle

        +  Reverse gear

        +  Front end detail

        +  Plumbing & hand rails

        +  Tender details

        +  Detail paint

        +  Lettering

It should be noted that all the hand rails and most of the plumbing is made from #12 copper wire.  At

the joints of the hand rails and electrical boxes the wires are soldered. 

There are steam pipes on the real steam engines that are insulated.  Wilbur uses a supply of old cloth covered electrical wiring.  This type of wiring isn't used anymore and Wilbur was in constant search of new supplies when his stock ran out.

The air hoses are #12 copper wire too. Nearly every locomotive that Wilbur built had white air hoses on the front of the locomotives.  His reason was simple.  The Canadian passenger engines used white brake hoses and as Wilbur put it, "I  liked it so all the engines I build have white air hoses."

The raised lettering on the tender and cab sides is first drawn on white poster board then hand cut with a razor knife and glued in place.  Wilbur doesn't use stencils.  This is the same procedure used for the front number plate on the smoke box.

The sanders are the last detail part to be added.

        17.     Base manufacture -

Again, Wilbur didn't spare the base of the model any of his talent.  The material is pine or spruce.  Since good lumber is hard to find in Arizona, sometimes there are more knots than there used to be when the models were built in New England.  Other things have also changed over time.  For instance the ballast is brown since he moved to Arizona.  That's because the ballast is actually "chicken scratching" purchased in 90 pound bags at feed stores.  In New England, the ballast was nearly white because it was made from Northeastern granite.  The chicken scratch used in Arizona comes from California where a brown type of granite is used.

The rails of the early engines where made of wood compared to the later, which are made of "G" gauge aluminum.  Or in rare instances, brass.   Contrary to stories, the metal rail was more difficult to use than the wooden rail, according to Wilbur.  He went to the metal rail because it was sometimes difficult to get the same dimensions of the rail from one engine to the next.  (Remember, Wilbur doesn't measure anything.  He cuts till it looks right.)  As Wilbur explained, "I went to a hobby store called Arizona Trains and I found this brass G-scale rail in five foot lengths.  I took it home to see if the rail would look good and it did.  The first engine to get the first metal rail was the Nickel Plate Berkshire.  So I went back and bought a bundle of aluminum rail and ordered another bundle.  There's about 12 to 15 rails to a bundle at $95 to $100 a bundle.  Well, when my rail order came in, it was the brass.  I used it up but from then on I've been using just aluminum."

The difficulty with the metal rail comes with the use of the tie plates.  With the wooden rails, the rail was just nailed through the rail to the redwood ties; one nail per tie.  Now Wilbur puts one tie plate and two nails per tie.

        18.     Base finishing

        19.     Assemble the locomotive and tender onto the base

        20.     Build a shipping box

"Off it goes !"