Bumper for HOn30 Keystone Shay & NWSL Kit

Well I have made some very slow progress on my Shay. I decided to work on my front bumper. The back bumper I didn’t add any details, but it was a great learning experience and allowed me to connect to my cars. And I built the step from scratch. That was a project in its self. The train I am modeling is the Hume-Bennett Lumber Company #2. I have only found three good pictures of it. And none had a good view taken from the front. So I located a photo of a similar shay in “The Whistles Blow No More” by Hank Johnston. It was the Fresno Flumes and Lumber Company Shay #1 (see page 58.) I then imported the photo into my CAD program. I use A9Tech a free CAD program (http://www.a9tech.com/).

Here is a zoom in on that.

And a view of the CAD drawing.

Then I printed it with 3.5 mm to one foot (HO scale).

Here is the bumper printed out. Under it you can see the Keystone bumper provided in the kit. And to the side is the cut Popsicle stick that I will use as the bumper…

Thumbtacks were used to mark holes. But using thumbtack to hold paper was a mistake because then the holes were put at an angle. Maybe tape would have worked better…

Then the holes were drilled out.

The bolts were then placed. I attempted to use Grandt Line HO 1” SQ NBW (Square Nut Bolt Washer), but it was to big the washers overlapped. So I inserted the NBW backwards so they came through too far. I then painted them. And pushed them back to the desired location and cut the heads off (now on the back side). Note in picture left with NBW removed right with NBW.

A little bit better view.

Now the metal plates needed to be installed. A friend said that they are actually called "poling pockets." I found the info at: www.trainscan.com

Poling Pocket - indentation or cup on a rail car or locomotive in which to insert the pole. The pole was about 12 feet long made of hard wood with a steel cap on each end. With the pole inserted between the poling pockets of a locomotive and a car on an adjacent track, the locomotive could push the car. This was dangerous to the crew as the pole was difficult to place and often broke. Poling is rarely if ever used today.

After finishing I found that you can buy the “poling pockets.” Here is one link to a web site, but I am sure there are more. www.walthers.com

I got a thin sheet of brass and soldered 1/16” rod (I used copper because I didn’t have brass.) In picture is one complete and one just soldered to brass plate.

The brass sheet is then cut/filed square.

Then placed on bumper. But it will be painted then glued.

Now the metal plates are done.


Now the bumper is installed.


I filed down some brass to make the brackets that hold the step. Notice how I used Krazy glue to hold the pieces to a Popsicle stick as I filed them into shape.


Here is what the pieces looked like after I had filed them into shape.


Now they are soldered.

The step was then placed to verify fit…

I then tested my rust technique. Here I paint the part with a dark brown and put rust on the wet paint and allow to dry. I got the rust, by sanding something rusty. I know that there are better was but for someone that only has a handful of Testors paints it works.

Now the Little People have come to inspect it. It is ready for service.

Now a side-by-side picture with the original Hume 2 spot shay (from The Whistles Blow No More by Hank Johnston) and the model. Yes, the stack on my model is different because at one time this shay did have a different stack. Also I decided to go with the knuckle coupler, but if I found the right parts I could go with the link-and-pin seen in the picture. This shay was later converted from narrow to standard and then a knuckle coupler was used. But I am trying to model the narrow gauge…


Please feel free to comment or give your 2 cents.