An homemade steam donkey

[MoodyLumberCo]

Hi folks,

12 years ago, a equipped my 2"-scale logging Forney with a gypsy-style steam winch to haul and load logs. Later the winch got addepted for my Shay loco. Power is provided by a PM research #5 steam engine. See below video, starting at minute 7:00 to see the steam winch in action.


During refurbishing of my 5"-gauge logging railroad, the winch went onto the storage shelf, as proportions didn't fit anymore in my opinion. But what to do with the old steam engine and winch assembly? Out of boredom, I looked for vertical steam boiler on eBay and made a find. The boiler is equipped with all needed gauges, safety valve ceramic gass burner. The price was reasonable as well. I got in touch with the seller to be sure about the meassurements and the boiler would turn out as 34" OD real size. Slightly under more common 36" boilers, but this makes only 7mm difference in scale.

With the steam engine available and the boiler on it's way to my workshop, I decided to build a steam donkey for my Moody Lumber Railroad. First idea was to simply combine the boiler and ols winch assembly on a wooden sled. But the old winch was made very crude and some parts were heavily worn out. It would also make sence to add a second drum as haulback line.

So, the final project will be a "homemade" steam donkey, somewhat between a single cylinder Dolbeer style as power sorce, combined with two drums as used on wide face donkeys. The whole engine will be mounted on a 24' sled as small skidder and loader. I look forward to make a plausible model out of the components I have.

First part is done, the engine base frame. I use the Harris plans as reference. Actually, I refurbish the PM research steam engine. This will become part two.


Regards, Gerd

[Fender]

All of a sudden, steam donkeys have become popular! My friend Charlie Pipes is also working to develop patterns and a design for a 1:4.8 scale model (2.5" scale) of the Harris donkey/winch. Your project is very interesting, Gerd!

[Bill Shields]

They are generally containable, manageable projects..as opposed to locos that can get totally out of control very quickly.

Same skill set needed to build a good one

[MoodyLumberCo]

Thanks for feedback.
I build a Shay loco to the same scale, which took me 4 years in general build, and 10 years later, I'm still improving, adding, develop and repairing parts.
The old winch had a 9.3:1 gear ratio and with help of blocks, we could lift 40lbs logs on guyline loading. It's fascinating, how much power a thumb sized steam cylinder can provide. With those experience, I'll reuse the settings in the new design, but improved in machining and look.
Steam trains are my favorite, but you need track to operate them. So the trains are stored at the club layout. The donkey engine will become my stationary steam plant for fun at home.

I made good progress on the steam engine repairs. I look forward to first test runs this week or the next. Update will follow.

Gerd

[MoodyLumberCo]

Hi folks,

I started work on the steam engine. This one was build 12 years ago from a PM research #5 kit, when I was far away of todays skills and knowledge.



This will need a second video to be covered, as there was some more action required on the valve gear and other parts.

Gerd

[MoodyLumberCo]

Here's an actual overview of the engine/winch assembly. The figure is 10" tall.


I made good progess on the valve gear, but ran out of stock material. So I've to wait for delivery to get the steam engine ready for test runs.

Gerd

[MoodyLumberCo]

Hi folks,

as usual on my projects, doing last steps in between is regular practice.

On my gypsy winch, I used simple 30mm blocks from the DIY store which worked okay, but were undersized, not very prototypical and at least not very handy in use. So I did some research on the prototype rigging gear used on classic high lead systems, heel boom loading and others. I came across the Skookum logging blocks and found them very simple to made in 3D.

I found 50mm OD rope pulleysm which had a 42mm ID, which is exactly 12" in the scale I model. So I started to design such a logging block in Fusion360.


Once finished and double checked, I uploadded on Shapeways, got shocked by the price and ordered one anyway to be printed in steel. And here's the result.

Next to the pulley I used before.


The top link is separate for placing the cable/rope. I made a compromise in adding the cable guards rigged to the top link. This way, an additional shakle will be needed to attach the pulley to anchors, lines or what ever.


The pulleys will work up to 6mm OD rope. This is 5mm rope, which I used on my old winch and might get reused on the new donkey.

I'll make matching bolts from stock material, facelift the pulley and they are ready to go. The final version will get some small adjustments and might get orderd, once my budget has recovered. Later on, I plan to make two such blocks with 18" pulleys.

Gerd

[Andrew Pugh]

It is safe to say the new pulley is a comparative beaut!

You definitely put in an effort on the portable layout, even having a bunch of small trees to set the feel. How much setup/breakdown time was involved in that exhibition layout? What is the normal function of the venue? If such an event was held in my area, I would expect it would be done on a skating rink or indoor tennis courts or something similar. I’ve never seen live steam fired up indoors in my area, it rarely makes an appearance at regular model railroad shows, and then only as static models or a short track outdoors.

-AP

[MoodyLumberCo]

Hi Andrew,

the whole event shown in the first video of this thread is called "Livesteam indoor meet/convention" and is held in Germany. The show calls itself one of th biggest indoor live steam meets in the world, covering any useage of steam, started by trains of all scales, up to traction, boats, stationary and what ever is powered by steam. The show was originally held in January and the initial idea, 20 years ago, was to have a possibilitiy to run our "outdoor scale steam locos" during the winter seaseon. Beside the show, there was a huge section to buy parts, castings, tools and all the needs in our hobby. Unfortuantely, the last section got smaller and smaller each year.

The convention itself is held in exhibition/fairground halls. For several years, the convention was home just a couple of miles from my home. Most part of the show is setup by volunteers and a project team. The tracks are owned by the organiser. It took several weeks to setup the whole track plan.
What I did is just a small section within the bigger layout, where I setup my own tracks, structures and so on to represent a US narrow gauge railroad with matching scenerey. Unfortunately, the large scale train comunity in Europe is mostly focused on locos and driving in circles. So any other aspect of "railroading" is seldom found. My idea always was, to setup the full arrangement in the ways possible. Most of my stuff was build for the annual event and stored the rest of the year. My own layout with round about 700' of track and some structures and trackside stuff took 3 days for setup, another one for brakedown. The event was held for 3 days Fri-Sun.

Some years ago, the location moved several hundred miles and I can no longer manage to participate with my layout. It's hardly missed by the organiser and spectators, but I couldn't combine it with family, work and other tasks. So I sold of all the non-logging equipment and structures, changed scale from 1:6 (30"gauge prototype) to 1:72 (36"gauge prototype) and only focus on logging railroading. Now it's time to build some project, which were to big in the larger scale. But don't worry, I joined a club nearby, which has great potential and interest, to setup some logging operation over there.

Gerd

[MoodyLumberCo]

Part two of the steam donkey is online.

This video got a bit speedy, as there was not so much machining work to show, which might be of interest. The excenter is made in two parts to replace the bushing I added. With the steam engine ready to run, I'll continue with some supply plumbing inside the base frame.



Gerd

[NP317]

Gerd:
My computer fails to show any video you post as part of your message.
I am interested in seeing your work!

Any possibility of posting hyper-links to your videos? I do not know why I'm seeing just a blank message space.
Thank you.
RussN

[BAdams]

Here ya go Russ
https://youtu.be/1qCEkwy85mY

Brook