[modeleng] Steam loco configurations

Hello all!
I am currently making a wooden toy engine, in 4-4-0 configuration, after the 
American "Wild West" wood burner style. Although intended as a toy, the 
original designer got a bit carried away, and did in fact design it to a few 
generic rules, such as the size of the wheels and lenth of the boiler. It is 
also supposed to be made from polished decorative hardwoods, to be a display 
piece, but my prototype will have to be more prosaic, and economical, while I 
sort out a few missing critical dimensions! One thing that is very noticable is 
that although there is a hitch for a tender, there isn't a tender actually 
shown, which I also want to make, if only for completeness. Can anyone tell me 
the approximate proportions of a tender for a wood burner please, compared to 
the loco itself,  including the number and size of it's wheels ( 4, to make it 
a 4-4-0-4?) please? Should the tender floor level be the same as that of the 
cab incidentally, or would I be allowed a step, and if so, which way - up or 
down into the tender please? A step down into the tender would ensure that it 
didn't look to be riding far too high on it's smaller wheels!

The existing guage is a highly nominal 2.7/8", depending on how thick the 
washers are to stop the wheels binding on the chassises (chassii ???), say 3". 
If this prototype works out OK though, then I will want to scale it up to 
3.1/2" guage. After all of the years I worked in a drawing office this will not 
be a problem, but what could be is when I change it to have 6 driving wheels, 
making it a 4-6-0, except it won't be as I would then make it into a 4-6-2 IF 
(!!!) one of you kind gentlemen can guide me on wheel and bogey configurations! 
I know that the A3's and A4's were 4-6-2's but should I consider 2-6-4 or even 
4-6-4 instead for what is intended to look a bit like a main line Express 
please?

I will in fact need to know the general proportions of whatever loco I decide 
to approximate, including tender length and wheel sizes, etc. Ideally I would 
like a set of plans for a 3.1/2" guage live steam model loco, but not only 
would these be in far too great a detail for my humble needs, they would also 
be far too expensive from what I have seen at such as Blackgates! I suppose 
that I could buy a Hornby OO-guage loco and tender - an A4, Black 5, Duchess 
class or whatever, and measure / scale off that, but can anyone direct me to a 
set of simple plans instead please? I had even wondered about getting hold of a 
set of pictures for some rough measurements, but getting all the required views 
in the same scale might prove difficult. Again, any help would be gratefully 
appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Tony.

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