The Home Machinist!

Scott, Welcome to the world of 3/4" scale! I used 5/8" high aluminum rail, which I believe was intended for 1" scale. It is oversized for 3/4", but will outlast me. I'm not sure where you can get this size now. I was fortunate to get a lot of good used rail over the years. In reg...

Here are three more photos at the Lafayette track. Not sure who the owner/builder is of these engines: Lafayette.jpg This one is, I think, built by Adam Kroam (sp?): Lafayette_3-4_440.jpg And the final one is Bud Titus with his NYC Hudson on the concrete arches: Lafayette_Buds-Hudson.jpg I have more...

I have more photos, but thought I'd throw these out there for now. As a side note, part of this track still remains. They started replacing the elevated track with concrete arches. These arches remain back in the woods now. You can see them from Google Earth, I believe their imagining date where you...

Here are some oldies from the Midwest. These are photos of the track at Lafayette, IN, taken by "Bud" Titus of Mattoon, IL. I'm guessing taken sometime in the 1950's. I don't know the names of almost all of these individuals, nor who built these engines. The last photo is of Dr. Youngdahl ...

So the gauge change per degree for a 3/4 inch scale rail setup would be exactly half of 1.5 scale track given the same temperature difference. Only if 1.5 scale track gauge were 2X 3/4” scale gauge. But now we’re getting into minute numbers, so it probably doesn’t matter. Close enough, maybe? :P Co...

No, just make sure you take both expansion and contraction into consideration, and where you place your ties. Also the type of plastic you are using, they all have different expansion/contraction rates. In the ground/ballast, you have the ground to stabilize the temperature a little better than out ...

Ken, In this case, it's not expansion that is the issue, but contraction. In my case, the gauge "shrunk" by 1/32". While you may not think this is not that much, if the gauge is set at 3.500", and using a back to back of 3.281" + 2 flanges at 0.094" = 3.469" which ...

Yep, got my rotary snow plow out having fun! Nothing slows the Pennsy down. Just kidding, the only thing I’ve done outside is shoveled the driveway once. I see more shoveling in my future, either later tonight, tomorrow, or both.

Eric L.

UPSteamfan, Yes, there are gaps at every rail joint. Similar to what Maracopa did, I developed a table of rail gaps based off rail length, “setting” temperature, with a maximum temperature of 100F. The problem is that the expansion/contraction rate of the plastic ties is about 4-5X wood’s expansion ...

Great responses!

Marty, when basing the stack ID off of the flue area, do you use 25% as for coal, or have you found something larger or smaller works better?

Same goes for the 1/7 ratio for the blast orifice, something larger or smaller?

Keep the replies coming!

Thanks!

Eric L.

There have been many discussions on burner designs, arches, and turbolators for propane fired engines, but nothing in regards to the front end design. I've had a few private messages with a couple people about what they have done, but thought I'd open this topic up to the entire community. So, that ...

Wayne,

I think you might be thinking of someone else. The G5s is a 4-6-0 ten-wheeler.

Eric L.