The Home Machinist!

Bill. Jack, and Dick, Thanks you for your kind comments in regard to my previous post. I decided to finish the machining on the bottom of the cylinders, so put a few bolts through the holes to attach the halves and mounted the pair on a 90-degree angle plate on the mill. What Mr. Coventry called the...

Jeanluc83, 100% agree with Bill about the ash pan. His is a very timely comment. I have 3 locos built a-la-LBSC with the ash pan integral with the fire-grates, and when the pan gets full the day's steaming comes to an end. A spring-loaded bottom-dumping ash pan would be a big improvement. Regards, A...

Scott, Make the gauge 3 9/16 on the curves. My father had an elevated track with 17-ft. radii. His Virginia and Heisler both ran well at the 17-ft. radius. I never did run my Raritan on it, but surely it would have done well. Again, make the gauge 3 9/16 on the curves. Regarding rail, Dad for his el...

It was a real pleasure running THE highline last weekend. All that work .... so much work ... what a great railroad. Disneyland for us steamers. I had concerns about that 1.5 percent grade from the beginning. But when the pressure builds from 60 to 80 psi going upgrade and hearing her bark, well, ha...

Ah, the thrill of finding somebody else's mistakes.
Congratulations on resurrecting the loco. And keep up the posts!
Regards,
Andy

Christian and Ralph,
Your note indicated your trip would be "via LA ", so if you do go through that huge metropolis, by all means try to visit Los Angeles Live Steamers, Orange County Model Engineers, and Riverside Live Steamers.
Regards,
Andy

Very, Very nice.
Thanks for sharing.

Before: and
After: (This is on my 7.5-inch gauge Mogul.)
Andy Pullen's snifters are very nice.

Here's the final product: IMG_4542s.jpg These were made from one 6-inch-long bar of steel turned between centers, leaving a disc between the fingers to facilitate holding in the mill vise. The taper is a lot closer to the prototype than Mr. Coventry's original design. I also fancied-up the sleeves a...

For the majority of my working career I was active on quite a few National Standards committees. "Standard" does not really represent something as being good or even appropriate for the application. "Standard" is the lowest level of quality that the lowest quality participating o...

Yes, that was the light that came on.
I intend to make Parts #2127 back to back as Siamese pair in the lathe, then mill, then part off.

Thank you Bill and Odyknuck for your very kind comments.

Regards,
Andy

Very pretty. Will you add a curved handrail to the face?