An O.S. Porter Journey

Where users can chronicle their builds. Start one thread and continue to add on to it.

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mikeyg
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Joined: Tue Jun 26, 2007 4:31 pm
Location: Garden Grove, CA

Re: An O.S. Porter Journey

Post by mikeyg »

A pre-Christmas post...

Now we start to decipher the height of the frame in relation to the trucks. We see that we need to bump it up about 1/8” and the idea is to create the little rockers we see on the drawing and place them on the spring retainers. The bolster pin will be a little loose so the springs can capture the weight of the tender.

Wondering how best to approach this, we look at the original drawings and stare at the spring packs for a while. I decide to duplicate the cool little rockers that the drawings show.
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Rockers
Rockers
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mikeyg
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Re: An O.S. Porter Journey

Post by mikeyg »

The spring packs are made the same way for the entire model. Individual bronze springs are stacked in size order and secured in a retainer with a 2mm bolt through them. All of the retainers for the kit have a little "nib” on each side. These nibs fit into slots on the journal boxes for the engine but are unnecessary for the tender. At first I try to think of a way to machine something that uses the nibs but I give up and decide to bolt through them with a longer 2mm Allen bolt and slice the nibs off.

The rockers are slotted using the mill, small shaft heads made and soldered on and then the whole piece is shaped using a drum sander before cutting them off. I devise a little fixture for sanding them to the same dimension.
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Spring pack
Spring pack
Slotting
Slotting
Shaping
Shaping
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mikeyg
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Re: An O.S. Porter Journey

Post by mikeyg »

A little hand jiving with the file set, bolt through to the retainer and they look like the prototype! The springs have about 1/8” travel available and provide the load path to the trucks as well as raising the frame to clear the flanges.

That's all for now. Merry Christmas everybody!
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IMG_3857.JPG
IMG_3858.JPG
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Dick_Morris
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Re: An O.S. Porter Journey

Post by Dick_Morris »

Nice. I was looking at resurrecting a project which uses a similar style truck just yesterday and was trying to figure out how to keep the trucks from binding when they turn. I like the way you supported the springs.
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mikeyg
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Location: Garden Grove, CA

Re: An O.S. Porter Journey

Post by mikeyg »

Well…that was a long hiatus. Between the effects of the pandemic on my time at work, the receipt of another project in 15” gauge, and preparation for a trip to Train Mountain, any thoughts of documenting work on the little OS has been pushed aside. The good news is that I took pictures along the way so over time, I’ll be able to catch up. But we’ll start slow as I’ll soon be out of town for almost two weeks.

Back in March, I shifted away from the tender frame and returned to the smokebox front and the overall appearance of the locomotive. I was unhappy with the Porter look and found inspiration in the world that Baldwin made.

The feel of a locomotive is in my opinion, largely defined by its “face” so we’re of course working on the smokebox front. But we also have to work on the front deck and pilot support too and since one thing affects another, we’ll do that first.

The OS deck is ok, but it has flathead screws holding it down and too few of them to boot. So we patch, re-drill and new-drill for 2-56 bolts in a traditional Baldwin pattern. We also design and fabricate the pilot supports. Looking at the Glenbrook the entire time, we have a good source for appearance. Glenbrook has an extra set under the front deck, but we have no room here for that.

Next episode, we’ll finish up that very cool looking Baldwin smokebox door.
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Angle of the dangle
Angle of the dangle
Drill and redrill
Drill and redrill
New bolts
New bolts
Side view
Side view
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mikeyg
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Re: An O.S. Porter Journey

Post by mikeyg »

Back to the smokebox door where I left off some months ago.

As a reminder, the Porter door didn't look right and in fact, didn't look like any Porter door I'd seen. And since we're emulating Baldwin practice, we look towards one of our favorite locomotives for guidance. Glenbrook is at the Nevada State RR Museum and was stunningly restored by the staff there. And as a narrow gauge example, it fits perfectly.

The back plate and door were roughed out on the lathe (shown earlier) but I left a nub on the door for holding. The Baldwin door has four bolt bosses and two hinges in addition to the unique shape. The bosses and hinges were the focus here.
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Glenbrook
Glenbrook
Rough door
Rough door
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mikeyg
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Re: An O.S. Porter Journey

Post by mikeyg »

Turning the door on end and holding it in the dividing head by the nub, I machined the grooves for all six pieces with a long end mill. Yes, it swam around a little but we got pretty close. Then we fabricated the pieces which protrude through the door face and silver soldered them in using the Sievert torch. after a little blasting, it looks nice.
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Nub holding
Nub holding
back side
back side
Front side
Front side
Soldering
Soldering
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mikeyg
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Re: An O.S. Porter Journey

Post by mikeyg »

almost done for today...and for some reason the system didn't like the two middle pictures.

Then back to the lathe where we part off most of the nub, leaving some for the final shape. I hand-jived the shape mostly by eye with a sample drawing held close. Sometimes it's good to be lucky.

Somewhere in the process I soldered hinges onto the back plate but no pictures taken. Drill and tap for 0-80 bolts, two 1-/16" rivets for pins and we're pretty much done.
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Still nubby
Still nubby
Bolts
Bolts
Nub departure
Nub departure
Finished profile
Finished profile
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mikeyg
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Re: An O.S. Porter Journey

Post by mikeyg »

And now mounted on the smokebox!
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Assembled
Assembled
With nameplate
With nameplate
Pontiacguy1
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Re: An O.S. Porter Journey

Post by Pontiacguy1 »

That looks mighty fine to me!
GregE
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Re: An O.S. Porter Journey

Post by GregE »

Beautiful!
Greg Easter
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JBodenmann
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Re: An O.S. Porter Journey

Post by JBodenmann »

Hello My Friends
Now just because it's 3/4" scale there is no reason to get lazy. :D Mikes Mogul here proves that quite apparently. His attention to detail, fit and finish is exceptional. 3/4" scale is such a delight to build in. Once again...too much fun!
Jack
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