I am looking for answers to the following questions, any help is welcome so don't feel shy. (and good luck!)

1.) The K's, P's, and MS's were built with tenders that look identical from the photos I've seen. Do these tenders share the same dimensions? 2.) The K's and P's were built with D slide valves, when did the Southern shop the K's and P's into the KS-1, KS-2, and PS-2 by replacing the cylinders? Also where was this conversion done? 3.) From the pictures I've seen the steam locomotives of the 30's had silver fire boxes... if this is true when was this practice begun? All the color photos from the 40's and early 50's show a graphite color fire box. Did the Southern repaint the fire boxes (and if so when?) or let them whether into the graphite color? 4.) How many of the MS-4's did Southern own? How many where in the first batch with out the feed water heaters, and how many were in the second batch with the feed water heaters? What years were they built, and who built them? They were #ed 4801 and up, correct? 5.) Dose anyone have a list of the short lines Southern RR steam locomotives were sold to (such as the 630 and 722 to the W.N.C.&E.T.)? Also, I am interested in color photographs of the 630 & 722 on the W.N.C.&E.T. as #'s 208 & 209. Can anyone point me to a source or if anyone has some they would be willing to share, you can email me them at the address below.

Any answers to these questions would help me (and hopefully others) model SR steam more accurately. THANKS! Evan.

-- Evan Whatley (fwhatley@bignet.net), January 13, 2001

Answers

I suggest you find a copy of R. E. Prince's Southern Railway System Steam Locomotives and Boats. It might cost you a bit, but you should be able to answer a lot of your questions from it. The book includes dispositions of Southern steam engines and diagrams of many of the classes of steam locomotive. Also the series of articles on Southern steam locomotives in Southern Railway Historical Association's Ties Magazine are very informative.

-- Jack Wyatt (cjwyatt@bellsouth.net), January 16, 2001.

Ok, i dont know much about the first question, except, just by a visual inspection, the tenders dont really look the exact same. I also agree with him to look up Ties Magazine Ms-4 articles. They were published later in the 90's, like in as 98, and 99. They shed some light on the subject for me. Also, just as a reminder, the 722 and 630 were sold to the East Tennesee and Western North Carolina RR, not WNC& ET as there engines 207 and 208. Hope this helps. Good Luck!

-- Hayes Smith Jr. (drummerdude125@yahoo.com), April 26, 2001.