The boys in the shop were scratching their head on where to start on the pilot. It has to have a working coupler on it and the pivot has to move so that it can be hidden, as the original does. I told the boys to go look at the Big Boy to see what has been done before. After a few measurements and false starts, the boys made what you see here. What is usually easy to mount to the frame, this one is not. It had to be mounted to the bottom of the smokebox, because the chassis has to flex to go around a five foot radius curve. The chassis is mounted to the boiler in only two places, between the cylinders and under the firebox. The chassis is hinged between driver 2 and 3, and to support the weight of the boiler, there is a hidden roller mounted to the bottom of the boiler that rides on the top of the chassis near the hinge. With the pilot mounted at the correct height it is time to move on to the details that make an engine what it should be.

   Piping and details seem to take the boys many hours to add to the engine, but the end result really makes things look good. Pumps, ladders, pipe and fittings, handrails, electrical connections, and other details all have to be sourced or fabricated and installed. This is the first engine that BLW has built with smoke lifters, or elephant ears on it, and will most likely be the only one, as I think it hides a lot of details that should be seen.  --  Barry