Now that I have the chassis and wheel assemblies in place, I can put a few of the other pieces together to start to get a sense of what the engine might look like.

Since I’ve cut out most of the pieces, I took some 1 1/4″ sheet metal screws to temporarily tack the pieces of the cab together so I can set it on the chassis.  I’ll eventually replace all of the screws with stainless steel truss head screws, but that’s for later.  The truss head screw has a broader head for the screw size, and will more closely resemble the steel boiler rivets that were used in the steam engines.

I’ve also set the sixteen gallon steel drum on the chassis to help with the overall effect.  Here’s the upshot:

I’ve also built the cow-catcher (twice).  Lots of odd angles and lengths to get right.  Here’s some photos with the cow-catcher sitting on the front of the engine.  Also note the smoke stack.  The stack is a piece of six inch duct in a two foot length from Lowes, along with a duct reducer I bought online.  I’ll have the shorten the smokestack and figure out how to attach the stack to the drum with a clean look: