Guide it by hand across a flat desk Set the locomotive and tender on a clean, flat desk and hold them by their bodies, never by the stack, lamp, lettering, or coupling bar. Align the tender's front bar beneath the locomotive's rear hook and lower the hook over the bar. Push the bodies gently: the wheelsets turn and the tender follows with a small angle. To release, lift the locomotive rear just enough to clear the bar.

Thirty named parts, two assemblies The locomotive takes 16 parts: frame, axle keeper, four driver wheelsets, a pilot truck with its own wheelset, keeper and pivot pin, the boiler with smokebox, dome cluster, diamond stack, cab, headlamp, and pilot beam. The tender and coupling take 14: tender frame, lettered tank, two truck bodies with keepers and pivot pins, four tender wheelsets, and the front and rear coupling bars.

Four large drivers set the 2-8-0 stance Turn the frame over and seat the four large driver wheelsets in the open journals, keeping every axle square, then lay the long axle keeper along the underside and check that each wheelset turns before securing any fixed seam. The small pilot wheelset sits in its own truck beneath the front pivot pin. Fit boiler, cab, domes, stack, headlamp, and pilot beam at their named seams.