The Home Machinist!

NP317, Regarding the Woodland Park Zoo Train, I understand from John Taubeneck, a local Seattle Railroad historian that the Zoo actually had four railroads over the years. John reports the 4-4-2 steamer in the picture above lasted only for two years or so (1947-48 maybe). Then in 1950, someone else ...

Yep the go fund me site is what I was thinking also. PayPal charges 10% for business transactions, nothing for personal funds transfer, so I assume Go Fund Me takes a similar amount. Might be money well spent as everyone has to pay their bills, and the service these apps offer are extremely valuable...

Thanks Steve, buried down in my project list is a partially finished propane furnace, which I could quickly finish off and make operative - if a need arose. Hence my question about air tempering. Iam sure I can put a lot of heat into the furnace with a propane nozzle, just don't know what the temp d...

Yes, indeed, cutting out a boiler and installing a gas engine is a lot like putting lipstick on a pig, in my estimation. I even feel a bit put off when I see the proliferation of propane powered locomotives... But for better or worse, it's all part of the Park Gauge live Steam lore... I think in the...

. 4. Temper by heating to an even dark blue (not the initial light blue). Regarding the tempering step, I did this by carefully laying batches of the leafs into a pot of molten lead for sufficient time for the spring to come fully up to the lead temperature (probably around 10 minutes, but longer w...

I just noticed the news item at the top of the forum regarding the moderators and Mike, the site owner trying to upgrade Chaski to cloud based services. But see that only a few people so far have noticed the post. Hence I thought I would try to call attention to Mikes request for assistance. So, I w...

Had an occasion to research Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo Train today, which ran at the Zoo from the summer of 1947 thru the late 1960's or early 1970's. Here is a photo of the original steam engine being operated near Green Lake, on the north side of the zoo. In latter years this steam locomotive was...

Mike, I've been on the lookout for similar size leaf springs for a tender I need to build for my 12" Campbell 4-4-0. No luck thus far. Not sure they exist anymore. In the interest of time, Maybe your best bet is to go with the McMaster Carr stuff and temper to suit to get you through the end of...

The seem to be two general approaches to construction - authentic modeling of traditional riveted channel iron frames, or perceived quicker method of welding box steel for a 6' stand off appearance. Both work well and are functional. The thread mentioned above is a really nice example of traditional...

MTC G-16 just listed for sale on Discover live Steam. Looks like it has been nicely reconditioned.

There are several on vintagemachinery.org. Not sure which matches yours. Here's one that the owner says is 100% original: http://vintagemachinery.org/photoindex/detail.aspx?id=1403 Steve Yep, mine looks like this one, except it's painted olive drab and doesn't have the extra set of pulleys on the l...

Chip,

wow, big drive pully! that's exactly the info I was looking for. Thanks Very Much!

Glenn