The Dispatch and the Texas

One of the more reliable locomotives in my small but mighty fleet is the #97, "Dispatch", and the #49, the Texas.  

The Dispatch and Texas are based on a historical locomotives, both built in October of 1856 by Danforth, Cooke & Co. Dispatch was built right after the more notable Texas, and would share a C/N that is numerically after Texas's.  Texas wore the road number 49, while the Dispatch was allocated the number 50 for most of her life.

The Texas, at the end of her life. Atlanta, 1900

As both the Texas and Dispatch could be considered sister locomotives, the respective models were built with an eye to keeping a family resemblance. The Cooke Locomotive and Machine Works, which was located in Paterson, New Jersey, manufactured locomotives from 1852 until it was merged with seven other manufacturers to form the American Locomotive Company, otherwise known as ALCO in 1901. ALCO continued building new locomotives at the Cooke plant until 1926.

The Dispatch vanishes from the record around 1880, and her fate in unknown. More then likely, she was disposed of as scrap as locomotive technology advanced and made her obsolete. The Texas, survived well into the 1900s, being renamed the "Cincinnati" in 1881, and renumbered 12, and then 212 by the NC&StL, before being finally stricken from the roster in 1908.

The Dispatch on the bridge over the old Pot Canal diorama

In my augmented history, the W&ARR&Nav Co, as the lessee of the state property, found itself the owners of a large number of older power and equipment in need of disposal, updating, or to be supplemented with more modern power. Part of the lease agreement stated that disposal of state owned property would have to be delegated by the railroad's board and the state, and the property replaced in kind. This left the new company with a few options, rapidly replace older power at cost owed to the state, or upgrade the current fleet.

Rather then dispose, the W&A went though an extensive rebuilding program. Conversions to coal, air compressors and brakes, injectors, and other modern appliances found themselves being hung on Civil War era frames. Locomotives like the Texas, Dispatch, and General found themselves standing toe-to-toe with modern counterparts. Their service lives greatly extended.

Part of this scheme involved a new numbering system. Emerging from the shops in 1890, the Dispatch, with airbakes, injectors, and coal grates in her firebox, found a new number on her smokebox: #97.

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As put by the eloquent John Ott; before the Victorians sobered up in the mid-to-late 1870s, locomotives were extravagant works of mechanical art with bright metals, polished woods, and colorful paint. 

No two locomotives were alike, even ones from the same builder. They were gleaming Victorian jewels of Russia Iron, paint, gilt, copper, paint, brass and polished steel. Their wooden cabs were crafted as fine as furniture, and stained and painted with pride. Most had names instead of numbers. Their crews, who often found themselves assigned a locomotive for lengthy periods of time, were proud of their machines and polished and cleaned them daily. Some even dipped into their own pay to obtain real gold leaf paint for numbers and names. 
 


Sadly, historical sources for old locomotive paint, colors, and decoration schemes have been scattered among out-of-print books and hard-to-find websites, and muddled by the likes of Hollywood and public misconception.

Building my models of the Dispatch and the Texas began with the Bachmann New Tool. Now, I've had experience with multiple models from the Mantua General, to the IHC 4-4-0. While I do intend to write up my experiences with each, I'll leave that for another day. For now, I will say that the Bachmann NT is a god-gift to those of us who model pre-1900.  

The original Bachmann HO Old Time 4-4-0 has been around for a long time, and was at one point the very bottom of the barrel when it came to 4-4-0 models in HO scale. With it's motor in the tender, poor pickups, thick and clunky molding, and out of scale proportions, it was hideous to look at and ran with all the grace of a beached whale. Then, the NT's hit the marked. The upgraded models had sharper tooling, better power pickup, crisper paint and detailing, and finally...the motor...WAS IN THE BOILER! Then, to add to the joy, the model came with DCC and sound right out of the box. 

The Texas, fresh from her 1890 rebuild.

First announced in 2014, the first batch had problems with quartering...well, damn. The next batch ran great and the sound was good, Hoorah! Strait out of the box, these locomotives were a reliable canvas for which to paint and detail, and there are a lot of neat creations already out there. 

The Dispatch started life as a stock YORK model. The Texas, as a stock TEXAS. Both underwent similar rebuilds. I cut off the stack and pilot beam, not being a fan of the front coupler and coupler-box that B-mann uses (It sticks out like a tumor). The new pilot is a brass horizontal iron strap pilot, as preferred by the W&A RR in the pre-1870. By the 1890s, these pilots had fallen by the wayside, and the more traditional vertical wooden slat pilots were far more common. However, I like the strap iron pilot, and I have a few locomotives with the wooden slat pilots representing that era on the W&A.

I swapped cabs and tenders with a donor “TEXAS” model, and re-lettered them. The Bachmann TEXAS is a very close representative to the Wilber Kurtz paint scheme as seen on the prototype prior to it's 2017 restoration. For the cab and tender, I spray all surfaces with Tester's Dullcoat to cut down on the plastic shine.

Drawing by Jon Davis

Wilbur Kurtz collected an incredible amount of information on locomotive paint, patterns, and colors on the W&A RR. By the 1890s, most of the locomotives had gone from vivid colors to the dark blacks that started to eek into the industry as the practice of burning coal became more and more notable on the earlier bright pigments. However, given that my locomotives are fictional hypothetical rebuilds, I decided to reach back in time and do a blend of historical colors, and modern updates. My scheme for this two locomotives is based on the 1931 restoration of the Texas, and Kurtz's notes. The latter can be found at the Atlanta History Center, as can the former. Beautifully restored to her actual 1890s paint scheme.

Russian Iron, as seen on the Texas. 

The boiler, like all of my W&A Locos, got a coat of dark Russian iron blue. This is a very popular topic and I'll add my penny farthing to it. In my experience playing around with paints, and paint combinations, and having seen many samples of Russia iron from different sources. I tend to lean towards a dark charcoal color, as this seems to be the most typical for the era. I strongly recommend Model Master's "Gunmetal". It has an excellent color and creates a beautiful and accurate effect.

It should not have any overt blue, or absolute silver. Many otherwise excellent models have been done dirty by sky blue jackets or bright silver boilers. For more information on Russian Iron, there is a superb article by the PacificNG.com group. 

The cab roofs are the only part of the locomotive that I weather, as a rule of thumb. As this is the only part of the locomotives that the crew don't regularly get too. I usually do a very light dusting of black pastel powder up here. Then seal with dullcoat.

Texas, with her entrails hanging out.

The instillation of the decoder, keep alive, and speaker required the tender deck to be cut into, in order to make room. The original molded on wood-load was carefully cut out with the use of an X-acto. Then, once the electric components where jammed in, a "pyramid" was built over the top. The Dispatch is DCC equipped and has the standard sound system as supplied by Bachmann. Soon to be replaced by a Loksound ESU 4.0 Texas is also DCC equipped with the Loksound ESU 4.0. But her instillation software and the changes made to it are a whole other story.

 The coal loads where made from crushed coal. Made in a very sophisticated and delicate manner that involves a plastic bag, and a hammer. The top of the cover for the DCC equipment is painted black, and a layer of Mod-Podge glue to painted over with a Q-tip. I prefer to use Mod-Podge matte, as not only does it dry completely clear, but it leaves a nice flat finish. Coal is sprinkled on at select sizes and layers until enough is in place to give it a "just right" look. The W&A RR has converted fully to coal burning, and not only is coal found in it's locomotives, but has become a source of income as it's shipped south to the industrial heart of Atlanta, and run as bridge traffic over the line south from Chattanooga, from the Tennessee Coal, Coke, & iron Co. Located in Dunlap TN. 

Other details added to the locomotive include additional piping made from brass wire, single phase air-compressors from Keystone, new check valves, and a cross-head pump for the Texas. The Dispatch is equipped with injectors on both engineer and fireman's side. The Texas has a cross-head pump on the engineer's side, and an injector on the fireman's. Air hoses can be found on both locomotive's tenders, and the Dispatch has a set of switchman's steps on the back of her's. 

Texas also received a small personal touch in the form of a set of 43 Star US Flags on each of the headlamp candlesticks.  


Texas was given back her original number of 49. I'm not sure if the Dispatch was numbered after the 97 of folklore, or just happenstance. The truth is probably somewhere in-between. It's not that I'm unaware that the real locomotive had the number 50. It's just that I like the number 97, and it helps to represent the growth of the fleet as time marched on. Jackson McQuigg, vice president for the Atlanta History Center, has emphasized how much of the actual Texas had been modified or changed out during its half century of service. He notes the discovery of an 1871 stamp on the boiler as an example of this, and parts of the motion such as the crosshead and sidebars have stamps dating to the 1880s in them. So, my models, like my railroad, are rather a continuation of the evolution, rather then a historical representation of it. 

Dispatch and Texas, showing off their family similarities