Prime clear vision front cab window

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Dick_Morris
Posts: 2838
Joined: Sat Jan 04, 2003 2:09 pm
Location: Anchorage, AK

Prime clear vision front cab window

Post by Dick_Morris »

To take the question about Prime Clear Vision windows a bit further than just the FEFs -

Jack Bodenmann described a nice example at http://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/vie ... ow#p264816

Chris Hollands also shows a nice example and shows how he made the spring clips, which are a very visible part of the windows - http://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/vie ... ow#p293240

Below are images and a description from a Prime ad in the 1941 Locomotive Cyclopedia. Aalso below are drawings that appear to be a copy of the Prime window.

I suspect the original Prime company drawings are long gone like they are from other component manufactures. (the exception is the massive collection of Nathan drawings at Steamtown.)

In my search drawings for the WWII USATC Consolidations I found a large collection of U.S. and Polish drawings used to maintain roughly 500 of the locomotives that they got after WWII and operated into the 1990s. A few appear to be tracings or reverse engineered drawings for items that came from suppliers to Baldwin, ALCO, and Lima. That's what I think that window drawings below are, with metric dimensions and Polish text.

I think I may 3D print the window frame in a high temperature resin (I have one that will withstand 320 f, another that will withstand 428 f). Although the windows could probably be investment cast from a 3D print, a plastic print should work fine for a non structural, non-functional part that needs a lot of fine detail.
Attachments
wind wing.jpg
Front window.jpg
narrative.jpg
Polish window pg030 resized.jpg
Polish window pg033 reduced.jpg
Polish window pg031 reduced.jpg
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Dick_Morris
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Joined: Sat Jan 04, 2003 2:09 pm
Location: Anchorage, AK

Re: Prime clear vision front cab window

Post by Dick_Morris »

The best photo have of the Prime window in the USATC Consolidations.
Attachments
window.jpg
window.jpg (7.44 KiB) Viewed 1873 times
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Dick_Morris
Posts: 2838
Joined: Sat Jan 04, 2003 2:09 pm
Location: Anchorage, AK

Re: Prime clear vision front cab window

Post by Dick_Morris »

Interior and exterior photos of the window in the drawings. Per the Lima card index for the locomotive it is a Prime #874-A-3. 557 only has one window in the front of the cab, on the fireman's side there is a door that was fabricated from flat bar stock by Baldwin. The Lima card index gave a number of Prime 893-5, another of the small variations between the same locomotive made by different manufacturers.
Attachments
557 window reduced.jpg
557 window 2 reduced.jpg
phil davis
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Joined: Sat May 05, 2012 4:12 am

Re: Prime clear vision front cab window

Post by phil davis »

thanks all for the info
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