Spitfire's G3 Workbench

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Peter

Western Thunderer
Overseer said:
American Locomotives - An Engineering History is the second edition, published in 1997, of White's earlier (1968 I think) A History of American Locomotives. I only have the 1997 version but it says in the preface that 92 pages and 45 new illustrations have been added, mostly previously unpublished drawings. The earlier book will be good, the later edition is better. White was employed by the Smithsonian so had good access to sources. His other books The American Railroad Passenger Car and The American Railroad Freight Car are also well worth acquiring for early US information.
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Hi,

I agree with Overseer's recommendation for these three books.

Peter

Edit:

A History of the American Locomotive Its Development: 1830–1880 9780486238180 is the 1968 edition of American Locomotives: An Engineering History: 1830-1880 republished by Dover Publications Inc in 1979. It does not have the additional information of the 1997 edition.
 
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Spitfire2865

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
Peter said:
Hi,

I agree with Overseer's recommendation for these three books.

Peter

Edit:

A History of the American Locomotive Its Development: 1830–1880 9780486238180 is the 1968 edition of American Locomotives: An Engineering History: 1830-1880 republished by Dover Publications Inc in 1979. It does not have the additional information of the 1997 edition.
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Do you have the ISBN of the 1997 edition? If I can even find it.
If not, is there a major difference between those two editions, as you say the 1997 edition has the extra information.
 
P

Peter

Western Thunderer
Spitfire2865 said:
Thanks!
Ive just gone and bought the 1997 edition, so hopefully its pretty useful. Ive also found his freight car book online so I went and bought that too.
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Hi Trevor,

Should you want to purchase The American Railroad Passenger Car, you should be aware that the hardcover is a single book whereas the softcover is in two parts.


The ISBN are:

The hardcover of 1978

The American Railroad Passenger Car ISBN 9780801819650


The softcover of 1985

The set of two

The American Railroad Passenger Car Parts I and II ISBN 9780801827433


Individually

The American Railroad Passenger Car Part I ISBN 9780801827228

The American Railroad Passenger Car Parts II ISBN 9780801827471


Peter
 
Spitfire2865

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
Well I have received the two books. The freight cars book is quite impressive, however the loco book is a little less so. Oh well, all still useful.

And I won an Ebay auction for a scratchbuilt 1/24 logging loco built to 1.5" gauge. Im trying to convince myself that I dont need to build 3' gauge stock to go along with the planned American standard gauge.

But to actual modelling.
Up next on the bench is a pair of LNWR D12 bolsters.
Cleaned, dried, and primed and there were still some areas the primer didnt want to stick. Luckily they kept to the underside.
So at the end of today I have "interiors" painted and bolsters ready for chainwork.
Just realized the bolsters could use a wash to tone down the colour.
20180602_201607-1.jpg 20180602_201236-1.jpg 20180602_201247.jpg
Now somehow I managed to snap one of those bolster stops off right before I was going to paint. Luckily from chopping up cliff barker track, I had a sliver of plastic just the right size on my desk. A quick couple holes drilled where the stop was, carved into a slot, and a quick dab of glue. Yes the plastic was polypropelene but its not like itll get much wear to knock that paint off.

I had a start at drilling out axleboxes however my usual drillbits arent big enough this time. Axles measure out to 4.00-.02 and my drillbits are 3.98-4.0. Well that wont work! My next size up is 4.36mm.
Anyone know a source of drillbits around 4.1mm?
 
Spitfire2865

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
Well I got the loco I won on ebay.
20180608_205807-1.jpg
1/24th, 1.5" gauge.

ITS HUGE!
20180608_205820-1.jpg
I thought narrow gauge stuff was supposed to be smaller.

When I got it, a few bits were broken, and I had to figure out if I could get it working.
Strangely, it appears to be built over a regauged G scale chassis with a replacement motor/gearbox and completely redone wiring.
And theres a speaker in the boiler, however I had the loco completely apart and its straight DC, with a rather interesting directional lighting system. So with power, the speaker just buzzes. Anyone ever hear of such a thing? Its wired to get straight track power.

The lights DID work, but in my repairs I seem to have burnt out the grain of wheats that are trapped inside the lamps. There was also a "firebox glow" done with red grains of wheat but those were pulled as I find the effect tacky at best. The lamps will have to be repaired, probably with LEDs to simplify wiring instead of the arrangement of diodes that completely confused me. Im impressed how lighting power was done. The end irons actually carry the power to the lamps.

But a few repairs and its good as "new" aside from the dead lighting.
Now Ill have to build some track for it to live on.
 
Spitfire2865

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
So apparently that loco was wired for whats called PFM, an old DC sound system from the 70s that used low frequency radio waves through the track to power onboard speakers.
Ya learn something everyday. Oh well, as Im in no position to ever obtain a PFM system now that theyre both rare and a bit outdated tech-wise (athough apparently the sound was of equal or better quality to current DCC) it is of little use to me as it currently sits.
I wonder if I can squeeze 8 AAs in it somewhere.
 
Spitfire2865

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
Well my LNW D12s are coming along.
Still have to paint illiterates but it looks pretty good as is. A quick rummage through the garden got me a few suitable branches. 20180616_202233-1.jpg
While building, I noticed the bolster hoops as supplied were 2mm too short and didnt give room for the chain to move around the bolster corner.
So I drew some up and had them made in brass from Shapeways.

Now that Ive got all the chains in place, the dummy turnbuckle just doesnt do it for me. Now I have to find a funtioning G1 coupling for these wagons.
20180616_202252-1.jpg
 
Spitfire2865

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
So, a little diversion from normal, but still G3.
Ive finally actually broken ground on the 4-4-0 American type.
The wheels, which will be a considerable expense, are possible, so there is no reason to wait on the design.
119 6-28-18.png
Quite a few hours with AutoCAD and engineering drawings had the frame outlines. This was then imported to Solidworks and assembled.
Each chassis side is currently made up of 5 parts which all locate via rivets. This should allow me to use beam compensation with the pushrods sliding through the frame. While not perfectly prototypical, it should allow me to easily build functional compensation.

Trying to decipher hundreds of engineering drawings when you have no assembly drawings is quite a task. By the end of this, I should know this locomotive inside and out.
 
Spitfire2865

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
Well, its currently 1:30 AM, I got home at 4PM, so Ive been at my computer for about 8 hours so far.
But Ive designed the beam compensation. 119 (2) 6-30-18.png
Each axlebox has 4mm of travel currently, however Ill probably pack the boxes out with plasticcard to decrease this. The real issue will be balancing it when the motor is added on the rear axle. As the motor will sit in the firebox, I should be able to design a cradle to take almost all weight off the axle while still allowing movement. So far on the chassis, there are 5 different parts that will require casting for strength. Maybe Shapeways wont be too costly.

And what really took a lot of my evening, the sand dome.
I figured Id tackle this one first to get those curved profiles out of the way. 4 separate parts that hopefully can be 3D printed at little cost. 119 6-30-18.png

Certainly more to come.
 
Ian@StEnochs

Ian@StEnochs

Western Thunderer
3d cad is very difficult to master and I have been a bit ambivalent about its use. However reproducing that dome by conventional model making skills would be even more difficult!

Ian.
 
Jon Nazareth

Jon Nazareth

Western Thunderer
I have a vague memory of someone scratch building a dome like that. The top was made up in segments like an orange and then soldered together, I think.

Jon
 
Spitfire2865

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
Jon Nazareth said:
I have a vague memory of someone scratch building a dome like that. The top was made up in segments like an orange and then soldered together, I think.

Jon
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Thats exactly how I did it, although digitally. Id hate to do it by hand. Im lazy enough when I have to make one of something, let alone 20!
 
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