D.L.&W. or C.R.R. of N.J. Camelback – (4-8-0)

How did I choose to build a live steam model of this engine?

It started several years ago when I purchased a partially build Little Engines (early) 4-4-0 from a friend. You know the engine – red wheels, big brass balloon stack and a tiny copper boiler. I love 19th century railroad equipment. However, I knew a tiny little boiler on a small engine in 1/8 scale would not have much power. It might pull me up a 1-1/2% grade, but not with a heavy train in tow. So I started researching possible alternatives.

The drive wheels scale up to 54 inches. That size is more typical for a freight engine later in the century than most of the larger 4-4-0s. A consolidation would be a good choice – I could even model the original 2-8-0 built by Baldwin in 1866 for the Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad.

I soon discovered the Lehigh Valley built a number of mastodons (4-8-0). Many of these engines were converted to camelbacks around the turn of the century.

I started planning to build one of these engines. I sent Marty Knox a drawing for a camelback locomotive boiler drawn by my friend Alan Francis. However when Marty actually started to make the boiler he did not like the Lehigh Valley firebox design. The 45 degree sloping side sheets made the steam space above the crown sheet very cramped and it reduced the number of tubes he could fit in the boiler. He chose to make a “fat” firebox as seen on the Delaware Lackawanna & Western Railroad and the Central Railroad of New Jersey engines. Both railroads had nearly identical locomotives built by Brooks in 1899.