The Cary USRA boilers haven't disappeared - they are just a little harder to find. They show up on eBay with some regularity. Selling prices are frequently in the $20-$30 range, but some auctions have a much higher starting price. I suggest to wait until a reasonable priced auction comes along. There are four versions of the Cary USRA boiler for Mantua/Tyco Mikes and Pacifics. There are both Heavy and Light versions, in both lead alloy and zinc alloy. The USRA Heavy boiler is larger diameter and gives a more massive look to the loco (but not as massive as the Mantua Mike boiler). The front of the firebox on the Heavy is behind the rear drivers, while the firebox slightly overlaps the rear drivers on the Light boiler. The lead alloy versions of the boiler are significantly heavier, and are the older version produced by Cary Locomotive Works before they were bought by Bowser. After Bowser bought Cary, they changed the material to zinc alloy, like the rest of the Bowser line of steam kits. The zinc alloy is harder, but lighter than the lead alloy. You can distinguish the bolier material from the auction pictures - the lead alloy boilers have a distinct metallic sheen, while the zinc alloy boilers are a dull gray color. Be sure that the cast brass smokebox front is included, although the part is available separately as a Cal-Scale casting.

I should also mention that the more recent Cary boilers (both the lead and zinc versions) do not have running boards as part of the casting. You need to make these from brass sheet. I believe there were older Cary versions that had cast running boards, as well as some cast on piping details.

Dennis K

--- In yardbirdtrains@..., "John Hagen" <sprinthag@...> wrote:
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> Just for general information the September 1977 issue of Model Railroader has an article by Dean Shepherd on building a USRA Mike using Tyco (Mantua) parts. He used a Pacific boiler on a Mikado drive although he note that since he had built it Don Stromberg had introduced his Cary USRA boiler which Shepherd states ?€?will make the conversion easier.?€? He also chose to keep the Tyco long distance tender calling it a replacement for the original USRA tender on his road. The resulting loco certainly does look USRA-ish enough for the most modelers which would also mean it could be used for many subsequent prototype locos built that were based on the USRA design.
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> Kinda funny how things make a circle. Using a Pacific boiler on a Mikado chassis was one way of building a convincing USRA or USRA clone until the Cary shell appeared. Now there are no more Cary shells and Alan is back to using a Pacific boiler.
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> John Hagen
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> From: yardbirdtrains@... [mailto:yardbirdtrains@...] On Behalf Of Alan Kilby
> Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2012 10:00 PM
> To: yardbirdtrains@...
> Subject: Re: [yardbirdtrains] Re: Mantua 2-8-2 mikado Ideas
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> If boiler mounting holes are in back of frame as I suspect they were originally,making a mount further back than original on mike frame would not require as much work(filing)and make for an easy conversion.I look forward to completing this faze and moving on to detailing,the mechanism and valve gear is completed.
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> Alan
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> From: Alan <albyrno@...>
> To: yardbirdtrains@...
> Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2012 7:48 PM
> Subject: [yardbirdtrains] Re: Mantua 2-8-2 mikado Ideas
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> The boiler I got had been modified already,it looks to me going by file marks that the pad where mounting holes I will be using were filed into boiler(not original?)to fit the mike(shorter?)frame,not having a pacific to compare am not sure.Other than milling out some material from inside of pac boiler to accomodate worm,with high speed dremel cutter it took me less than a minute to do,the rear mount is the only thing you may need to change I'm using a 1/4 x 1/16" brass for mine with screws coming up from bottom into tapped holes in boiler support to mount to frame.I am using these holes that line up with frame perfectly but back of boiler sticks up which is why I cut notches in rear of frame and made new boiler mount plate.I do not like the large space between frame and bottom of boiler on these locos so I also lowered the front saddle by filing down frame where cyl.rests and removing additional material by cutting/lowering cyl.saddle,if lowering you will need to remove the nubs inside top of boiler,this is not neccesary but is more prototypical height.Its not difficult only drawback your arm may get tired from filing for mount.
> Alan
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