PFM P-73 Pacific 1156-1161 – Tender question

[Anonymous]

Hello! I picked up a Pacific Fast Mail brass P-73 Pacific which looks like a great model of one of my favorite locomotives. My plan is to paint it and convert it to DCC. The locomotive looks faithful to the pics in the MOPAC POWER book of loco #s 1156-1161. The tender though has a doghouse, and I can’t find a picture that supports it on that series of locos, and the book notes that they ran out their careers without doghouses added. The 6601 series looks like they used the same tender and some did have doghouses. Does anyone know if the 1156-1161s ever ran with doghouses? If not, I may remove it.

Here is a general pic of the model: https://www.brasstrains.com/Classic/Product/Detail/103448/HO-Brass-Model-PFM-Pacific-Fast-Mail-Samhongsa-MP-Missouri-Pacific-Mopac-4-6-2-P-73-Unpainted-1976-Run

Thanks!

[peggyrothschild]

When Joe Collias helped PFM with this model he’d sent reference photos so they got the tender details right. He’d told them not to add the doghouse.
But it obviously got lost in the translation between PFM and the Korean builder. As you mentioned these were only on the 6600’s and not the 1158 group. If you have a way to remove it it would be more accurate for the locomotive.

[Bud Moss]

Agreed, no doghouses on these locomotives. I think the doghouse is attached with a screw, so a hole will need to be filled. Keep the doghouse and put it on a 2-8-2! Jerry Michels

[Anonymous]

To add some value hopefully- the doghouse is soldered in and deeply integrated into the tender, so no easy way to remove it unless you a very skilled. The model itself looks great, even though it doesn’t actually represent anything ever run by MoPac if you include the tender. Regardless, a really beautiful locomotive.

It is very easy to convert to DCC- the can motor has low current draw and can crawl after replacing the rubber drive tube. I used a TCS WOWsteam with keep alive. Rapido makes Commonwealth tender trucks that match and have pickups for each rail, and with that addition the loco runs beautifully. I used a 32MM speaker over the holes already drilled in the tender.

[Author]

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