Information to aid in the restoration of the Alco Firefly
Much effort was put into color matching the paint used on the Alco Firefly. Specially calibrated digital technology was employed to get as accurate a representation with modern paints as possible.
The mild steel base plate that the generator set rests on as well as the cast iron parts of the Stuart Sirius engine have a red oxide primer base coat. Not enough primer was exposed on my original pieces to perform a high-tech color match on the primer.
I purchased the Red Oxide Primer spray paint from Midwest Military, which is described as “primer used on WW2 era and later vehicles and equipment.” It appears to be the correct shade of red in a side by side comparison with exposed specks of original primer.
The green color on the furnace, boiler, generator set base plate, and Stuart Sirius steam engine is an exact match to Benjamin Moore Artichoke (2141-10) enamel. (Semi-gloss is the best bet.) However, a very close second, and what I ended up using on two reproduced base plates and the engine numbered 1244 was Signal Corps Green, Type One from Midwest Military. That paint is described as “an authentic shade of semi-gloss Signal Corps Green used on many MILITARY WWII era radios and communications equipment.”
(Note: the images on the Midwest Military website for Signal Corps Green, Type One look nothing like the actual color. I bought and tested an array of OD Green paints from Midway Military and other sources and it just so happened that Signal Corps Green, Type One was the best among the WWII-era military reproduction paints.)
Blueprints and procedures for making:
There are at least two editions of the Alco Firefly manual, both dated February 1944. The first edition has errata inserts, while the second edition is printed with corrections. (Thanks to Tim Bell for this information.)
Helge Fykse, a radio enthusiast from Norway, has a first edition manual and scanned it. The manual is available here: https://www.spycom.org/WW2/1_DOK/steam.pdf
He also posted a video on YouTube of his set running on steam: https://youtu.be/urDFAZwsYPI (Please note that the ammeter is a non-original replacement.)
If you take your engine apart, ensure it is properly reassembled. Otherwise, operational performance will suffer. The engine has been “broken in” or “run in” as it was originally put together, making it run smoother. Mismatched parts and wrong orientations ruin this. Specifically:
I restored an engine that had been in pieces and put back together randomly before I received it. Through trial and error, I figured out the correct assembly. Proper reassembly makes a remarkable difference in performance.