By Angus Macaulay

     Some artists might have been derailed by the daunting task of constructing a full-size replica of a 1929 vintage K-4 steam locomotive. But armed with an arsenal of Polytek materials, More Than Just Scenery's crew of talented artists and craftsmen produced a finely detailed 25-foot replica for the Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum at their Philadelphia, PA, shop.
     Although much of the replica's substructure was made of wood and carved foam, the unique elements that define the K-4 locomotive were cast in rubber molds. These rubber molds were made on-site using an authentic K-4 as the model. Polygel^® 40, Poly 74-30 and Poly 75-60 were instrumental in this process.
     Artists made molds of the marker lights, the conduit holders, the smoke box door and many other pieces, all of which were cast with Poly 15-3 and Poly 15-3X. A mold was even made of the 7-foot, 8-inch diameter drive wheel. This mold was used to lay up fiberglass reinforced Poly 1512 replicas. Once assembled and painted, the wood, foam, and cast resin replica is nearly indistinguishable from the original.
     More Than Just Scenery continued to find uses for the Polytek^® products in other phases of the project. Several more large Poly 1512 drive wheels were used in an exhibit describing the foundry process used to produce the originals. An assortment of materials, including PolyPoxy^® 1030, PolyPoxy^® 1060, and Poly-Optic^® 1410, were used to replicate dials, knobs, and lenses in an interactive exhibit of the K-4's backhead, where the engineer controls the train. In yet another exhibit, Poly 15-3X was even used as an adhesive.
     "We have tried many suppliers and found Polytek^® to be the best," said Charge Sculptors Danielle Webb and Kait Baltzer. "The Polytek^® Manual & Catalog has become the bible of our mold shop!"