Woodinville Shops

Discuss park gauge trains and large scale miniature railways having track gauges from 8" to 24" gauge and designed at scales of 2" to the foot or greater - whether modeled for personal use, or purpose built for amusement park operation or private railroading.

Moderators: Glenn Brooks, Harold_V

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Topics may include: antique park gauge train restoration, preservation, and history; building new grand scale equipment from scratch; large scale miniature railway construction, maintenance, and safe operation; fallen flags; track, gauge, and equipment standards; grand scale vendor offerings; and, compiling an on-line motive power roster.
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Pulled the corner inspection plate (lower left in the first pic) and found a couple of small cracks in the joint around the edge. So silver soldered them shut.
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Also found the existing bottom plate was a bit warped around the edge - where I cut out the old corroded piece couple of years ago. Apparently this warping wasn’t sealing well, and contributed to the major extent of leakage. So, scheduled major surgery. Welded new 1” x 1/2” flat bar frame around the edge of the inspection plate, built up 1/8” of weldment to “flatten the curve” around the edge of the opening, and ground it all flat and smooth with the little hand grinder. Then of course, had to reshape the new hatch plate to fit the new opening, and laid it in place to drill and tap couple more holes. Should be done tomorrow - if I haven’t created a hardened monster by heat treating the new frame with all the welding...

Each spring I stumble onto one major project. Looks like rejuvenating the tender is my major project for this summer.

Here is the almost finished layout - second photo show the new bottom of the tender- with three bolted plates: one large bit in the center rear, and two rounded inspection plates in each forward corner.
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Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Still fiddling with some warping and an imperfect seal on the inspection plate of the tender.

Did manage to renew the livery though. New paint on the front end, nice coat of wax on the cab and boiler jacket. Hope it lasts more than one firing...

All the brass jewelry is polished and ready to remount. Should come together over the next day or so...

Glenn
Attachments
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Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Finished up the front end refresh today. Think I will save repainting the wheels and cleaning up the frame for latter in the summer. Time to quit fiddling with the livery and fire the boiler to start testing out the new front end.
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Silver paint on the Steam dome and sand dome didn’t come out very well. Time to go with forest green, black and some gold trim perhaps. Rattle can repaint most likely. Quick and easy.

Quick note: forgot I had this old pic (below) from when I first bought the Ottaway five years ago. Makes a pretty good before and after shot. The old loco cleaned up pretty good I think.
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Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
rkcarguy
Posts: 1730
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by rkcarguy »

Looking good, will be interesting to see how much better it steams once you get it fired up.
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Ryan, Steams very well with the new front end. I put a write up of the new front end rebuild on the projects page. Suffice to say it acts like a new, and different, high performance locomotive.

Briefly, once the boiler popped off at max pressure (142 PSI), I started running and over multiple trips around the loop, never lost more than 5-10 psi- with constant steam generation, and steady, clear burning exhaust - sure sings of ideal draft and boiler performance. never did drop boiler pressure as was usual with the old original front end design.

So only one test so far, but very satisfied with what I’ve observed so far.


Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

been wanting to do this mod for a couple of years now. So decided to go ahead as I needed to re-route this blow down valve, to the other side of the footplate, to accommodate a new valve and piping for my rebuilt feed water pump. The blowdown valve comes out the center rear bottom off the boiler and historically has just hung off the left rear footplate. Unfortunately this is the exact position my new feed water intake line and shut off valve, coming from the tender, needs to be.

So moved it over to the starboard side of the footplate and brought it inboard a few inches to fit behind the injector water valve.

This required turning a small valve handle extension to raise the gate valve knob above the footplate. Made the valve handle to also be a bushing to hold the valve more securely through the footplate. And to complicate matters, made it as a threaded, screw on extension, pined through the shaft with a small SS cotter pin. A sure as Iam born, this thing will need to come apart for repair or service, sooner than later. So... pull the pin, unscrew the extension and the whole thing should drop out the bottom of the footplate. I hope.

Here’s the shaft extension, internally threaded, turned with a 1/2” shaft to act as a bushing through the footplate, and a 3/4” collar to hang the shaft extension on top of the footplate. This should provide an extra point of support for the blow down pipe.
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End filed square to accept the old valve handle. Drilled and pinned with a SS cotter pin to keep the shaft extension from unscrewing from the top of the original shaft.
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And all the parts for the 70 YO Gate valve. Not much to look at, but I like working with these old school bronze castings, nice finish work, and the high quality material used in earlier days.
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Finally, the completed assembly, seated in its new home. It should nestle right inboard and between the injector valve and STBD side feed water line.
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Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Took a day off from working on the railroad to go sailing. My boy bought me a new boat, so we spent the afternoon on the water.
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https://youtu.be/Pzg6d4E4mSc
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
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NP317
Posts: 4557
Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2014 2:57 pm
Location: Northern Oregon, USA

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by NP317 »

Sweet! And when will you make it steam powered like my former sailboat?
RussN
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Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Russ,

Thinking about how I to install a tiny solar powered water jet or prop to add some propulsion. It actually navigates around the pond pretty well under sail, throughout the day - much to the dismay of the three Koi who haven’t figured out what this dangerous intruder is actually doing, yet.

Well, back to the Ottaway and finishing touches on rebuilding the air brakes and cross head water pump.

The new brake cylinders went back on fairly easily and work well with an external air supply off the shop air. But the old three way valve in the cab is worn out. Vents air to the atmosphere in all three positions, so needs replacing. Iam seriously considering converting the whole system to hydraulic with a simple automotive master cylinder. Gathering suggestions if anyone has done this...

Also rebuilt the auto water feed plumbing - three times it turns out. I decided to run the return line and needle valve back into the cab. (Originally was Installed on the running boards, with no access while underway). Basically the small copper lines brass fittings in the photo below comprise the feed water system. The big, 3/8” low pressure intake line, on top, comes into the pump from the back, under the footplate. The smaller, high pressure output line leaves the pump and splits at the blue panted Tee fitting; a 1/8” feed line works its way up to the boiler, and a 1/4” return line circulates back to the LP tender feed. You can also make out the new air brake line running right to left, cross the middle of the picture - it connects to an air tank on the right side of the photo, crosses under the boiler and runs down below the frame to the brake cylinders, between each set of drivers.

Here’s the spaghetti bowl plumbing in all it’s fresh, bronzie glory. This is actually the most complicated design - but it allows decent access to all the fittings.
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Note: I do intend to route the return feed line separately back into a standpipe discharge mounted through the bottom of the tender. But putting that off for a winter upgrade, when I have more time, AND after I see if this system actually works.

This backhead shot shows the new 300# pressure gauge, needle valve, and nifty antique blow down valve I was gifted, all mounted down low on the left side of the loco. (blue for water, red for steam...) Hoping this will enable me to set up a constant, small, dribble of feed water into the boiler, while running around the Shortline.
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And one showing all the dials, gauges, and gadgets. These Ottaway’s were originally built for continuous, daily, commercial operation in small amusement parks and State Fair venues. So everything is redundant, two or three times.
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This all will be a big improvement if this works. My new front end has dramatically improved steaming capacity of the boiler - which is a super good thing. The downside is, man you’ve got to stay on top of keeping water over the crown sheet. Iam a short line railroad. So, lots going in the cab, every 10 seconds/50’ or so. Setting up an auto water feed will simplify running a lot. I hope.

Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
User avatar
NP317
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Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2014 2:57 pm
Location: Northern Oregon, USA

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by NP317 »

Glenn:
I enjoy seeing your resurrection of the larger gauge locos.
A labor of love, for sure.
RussN
rkcarguy
Posts: 1730
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by rkcarguy »

Glenn,
I watched a youtube video of some DRG&W narrow gage live steam builds running on a 7-1/2" RR and could hear the noise of what sounded like an electric pump to feed water from the tender to the boiler. The operator pushed a button and watched as the water level rose in the sight glass. They have these high pressure pumps used and designed for water/methanol injection (methanol is very corrosive) and I wouldn't be surprised if that is what this guy was using. Sure, it's not "steam politically correct", but would sure make things simpler and easier..at least if you have power to run it :)
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Ryan, Interesting. I’ve thought about 12 v systems several times. Some folk build tenders with a battery and controls compartment, which enables all sorts of modern goodies. Unfortunately, mine is all water tank. Now, a quick google search showed a variety of small rev pumps, but all I saw were limited to around 45 PSI. Wondering if the video you saw was a shop build pump of some sort...

GPB
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
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