Things That Can be done to Get Running Quickly
-Stuart Hand Pump - Every boiler should have at least two ways to get feed water into the boiler while it is under pressure. The first two ways I picked, are the axle pump and a hand operated pump. The pump I have is one that I machined many years ago from castings from the Stuart company. This pump can be seen in the section on "Water Tanks & Plate Work". I mounted this hand pump directly on the right hand running board. It was piped such that it's feed was from a small tank, also mounted on the running board just aft of the pump. The tank was fed from the water supply in the tender/riding car. The tank also served as a "dump tank" for the axle pump. The axle pump by pass valve was mounted directly on this tank. The dump tank also allowed me to steam the locomotive without having to build the water tanks. The water tanks required many hours for me to construct.
-Prefabricated Whistle mounted directly on turret. I purchase a small whistle from PM research. It was mounted directly on the steam turret. When the cab and roof was constructed, it was removed as it was too tall for the roof. At that time, I installed a larger whistle under the right hand running board.
-Lubricator. My lubricator pump was a commercially made item I purchased from Blackgates. It is of course possible to make your own, but, it will take more time.
-No Insulation & Jacket. Before the boiler is properly insulated and jacketed, it is quite possible to steam successfully without these things.
-Pressure Gauge. My pressure gauge is a commercially made item purchased from Blackgates. Some folks make their own from scratch, but, it takes more time.
-Drain Cocks. These are another set of items that I felt better if purchased, rather than made by myself.
-Boiler Materials Kit, Flanged, Unflanged, or, Complete and Finished. I purchased my boiler kit from Blackgates. The kit was a "flat" kit, that is to say, none of the plates were flanged. I chose to not get them flanged, as I needed the flanged plates to be of a custom size. My firebox is narrower than what is shown on the drawing because of my re-gauging the locomotive to 4-3/4". To have someone else make these modifications might be asking for trouble, so I did all of the flanging myself. The kit itself really simplified gathering all of the right materials to make the boiler. It is also possible to have a commercially made boiler. There are several people in the U.S. and England that make miniature steam locomotive boilers. If you have the cash, this will save a vast amount of time, but, you will have to specify the modifications to the boiler so it fits the locomotive frames when re-gauged for 4-3/4" track.
-Riding/Tender Car with water tank, coal bunker and brakes. If you are planning to steam this locomotive, you must be able to ride on something behind the locomotive. I really have no interest in building a riding car, so I contracted Ride On Railways in England to build one for me. This saved a tremendous amount of time. This is a "stock" item in their catalog. Normally, they build their rolling stock for 1" scale railways as 5" gauge, but, they had no problem building a car for me gauged for 4-3/4" track and they were easy to work with. Because it is a tender/riding car, is has a bunker area for coal, and a tank for water which I have piped into the supply for the locomotive. Also, the car has a hand brake which works well for stopping. The brake on the locomotive is really only a "parking brake" and should not be used to stop a train.