The Home Machinist!

I have a pair of the Allen archbars under my Fitchburg Northern tender. They are excellent, but not available as RTR. I asked about the cost of getting them machined and the price was outside of my budget. I was hoping for something priced more inline with the Bettendorf trucks that Tom Bee and othe...

Yes Arch bar Trucks are on my list of items to add to our product line. My question to you and others, is what scale to do first 1.6 or 2.5? I would take either. I have some 2.5" scale cars that use 1.6" scale trucks mainly for compatibility with others. I can use 2.5" trucks, but ne...

Any chance Accucraft will start making archbar trucks?

My father-in-law had a Sears compressor that he had "fixed" by putting screws into the rust holes. He owned/operated his own dump truck service and when the tank blew he was on the other side of the truck. Fragments punctured the tires on the side of the truck that the compressor was on. H...

skyloop440 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 16, 2021 1:06 pm He built several cars in there and a diesel switcher as well.

Matt

I bought the "diesel" from Rich a bit before he passed. It is a 3 3/4" scale Plymouth gas hydraulic that he built sometime around 2012. (That was Rich's answer when I asked him.)

Damn, I spent a lot of time talking to Rich and it never occurred to me to collect his personal history. I wish I had done that.

Actually every steam engine will give you a bath until the pipes and cylinders warm up. Only takes a few seconds. John B. I used to own an 1891 Groton traction engine. We were having a family steam up and my wife's Uncle walked up to the engine just as I started the engine up. He got showered with ...

Shipped two packages via USPS, both priority, bot sat in Denver for 5 days. One of them took 15 days to reach the destination. There are severe staffing shortages caused by Covid illness or quarantining because of exposure. Colorado moved postal workers into a higher priority for vaccination.

I met Rich Ulin (and Linda) when I joined the Colorado Live Steamers. I was in awe of his WSL #13, the C&S #70 and the WSL/C&S cars that he built. He was a great source of how-to information that helped me get my Mich-Cal Shay running again as well as input on construction issues as I contin...

I wonder if the flangers were added for rocks more than snow. I live in Colorado and rocks are falling from cliff sides year round. You have to keep watch for them on the road when you are driving in certain areas.

Thanks, I ordered brass bolts and nuts from Godshall (support your live steam suppliers!) along with some other bits. I am going to follow the other recommendation to recheck all the nuts/bolts every fall after the last run for the year. The smokebox is a hellish mix of heat, steam and flue gases. I...

There are 3 bolts for each of the 2 smokebox braces and 4 for the headlight stand. (So 10 total.) The smokestack uses four 10-24 bolts and the petticoat is held to the bottom of the stack with three 10-24 cone point set screws. Based on the mangled metal, I suspect that the previous owner had issues...