The Pennsylvania A3 Switcher: The First Project for the Beginner

The Pennsylvania A3 Switcher is the fourth construction project offered by Kozo Hiraoka?a remarkable record of beautiful locomotives described impeccably in word, drawing and photo. Live Steam magazine and its readership have been enriched by the four construction series Kozo has provided.

Prior to the Pennsy Switcher, Kozo produced a highly successful series of construction projects featuring ther three major geared locomotives: the Shay, Heisler and Climax. With each locomotive, Kozo added more detail and included projects that could be built rather than purchased. With the Climax series, he described the fabrication of every single part of the locomotive.

Now in the ¾" scale Pennsy Switcher project, Kozo has gone even further: he is so highly detailed and thorough in his description of part fabrication that any novice machinist can build the engine with ease and confidence, fabricating all the parts from stock materials.

And his choice of the Pennsy locomotive is ideal. As an 0-4-0, it does not demand an enormous number of parts, but it is still unique among steam locomotives. Its proportion is suitable for a Live Steam model engine in several technical aspects. Foe example, it has a simple wheel arrangement an an ideal geometric balance between the boiler shell and the firebox, and it has that easily identifiable sloped-back tender. In designing and building the working model of this engine, Kozo's efforts were concentrated upon a single purpose?to establish a guidebook for beginners.

Even if you happen to be an experienced machinist and engine builder, here's a locomotive you would be proud to build and run. The plans also provide a scaled-up version to 1½" scale.