It’s a phone

(Photos by BobbaLew.)

My neighbor’s son lives across the street with his father.
He’s in his fifties, and still pretty spry.
His father is 79, and inherited his house from his father, who died some time ago.
Son has become a pretty good friend. He helped repair my lawnmower a few times.
His father is also a good neighbor, although we’re always making snide remarks, and giving each other the business.
Son apparently attended an estate-sale, yard-sale, whatever. He knows I’m a railfan, so bought what’s pictured above.
It’s a model of a Southern Railway Ps-4 Pacific (4-6-2).
But it’s also a telephone. Plug it in, and it makes whistle, bell and chuff-sounds when it rings.
The Southern Ps-4 is perhaps the prettiest steam-locomotive ever.
And it’s actually green. The president of Southern Railway wanted green-painted locomotives, just like in England.
Most railroad steam-locomotives were black, with a silvered smokebox.
Although Union Pacific had a series that was gray; its 800-series of 4-8-4 Northerns.
Only one (#844) is left, and it still operates. It was never retired. But it’s no longer gray.

#1401, which I’ve seen.

Only one Southern Ps-4 is left, #1401 on display in the Smithsonian in Washington DC.
It’s not operable.
The fact it’s not outside keeps it from decaying.
My model looks pretty good.
It’s fairly large, not O-gauge, but larger than “S.”
What impresses me most is the side-rods and valve-gear.
It’s very well done, and looks just like the real thing.
Baker valve-gear, which the Ps-4 had, is right out where you can see it. It’s outside the drive-wheels, not inside like earlier Stephenson valve-gear.
Baker is relatively intricate to model.
Yet every rod and lever is there; I’ve seen some models that scrimp on valve-gear.
Of course, its just a stationary model; it doesn’t hafta work.
Look hard, and you see flaws.
The reverse cylinder, a plastic casting, isn’t attached to the valve-gear. And I notice both sides have the driving-wheels in the rods-down position.
Rods-down was the most photogenic view, but rod location wasn’t identical side-to-side.
The rods for one side were 90 degrees ahead of or behind the opposite side.
And that reverse-cylinder is what reversed the valve-gear so the locomotive could back up. It was attached to the valve-gear by an actuation rod.
Details — details.
It still looks mighty good.
The rods are even carved away inside, just like the real thing.
I don’t know what I’ll do with it. My smartphone also has a locomotive whistle as its ringtone.
My brother-and-I recorded it long ago.
I’ve been tempted to dump my landline. I never answer it any more; I don’t have caller-ID on it, and it’s usually someone after my wallet.
I give out my cellphone-number any more; if someone important, like a relative, calls my landline, they’ll leave a message.
But for now, this Ps-4 telephone keeps my landline going.

• “O-gauge” is 30 millimeters (1.181 inches) to 33 millimeters (1.3 inches) between the rails, S-gauge is 0.883 inches (22.43 millimeters) between the rails. Lionel toy trains were O-gauge; A.C. Gilbert’s American-Flyer trains were S-gauge; which I preferred because American-Flyer was two-rail, as opposed to Lionel, which was three-rail. —My phone is one inch between the rails.

U.P. #844 in gray.