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.
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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.
NP317 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 26, 2020 10:26 am
Glenn:
I enjoy seeing your resurrection of the larger gauge locos.
A labor of love, for sure.
RussN
Thanks Russ, always appreciate comments from the Master!
One thing for sure- these locos are certainly fun to work on. Sometimes I wish they were larger gauge, and sometimes I wish they were a whole lot smaller.
-G
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 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 27, 2020 1:00 am
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
Search water injection pumps, they make them up to 300 psi. Sflow, AEM, etc.
The Shurflow is common 150 psi and about 5 liters/min.
Couple of days ago, Decided it was finally time to move ‘Captain Elextron’ aka “Sparky”, my 1968 era center cab electric yard switcher project off the dead storage siding and do something with it. But the siding somehow never got connected to the turntable, and mainline, so no way to move it onto the shop. Project quickly evolved into turning out the track gang (me) for a couple of days of ROW prep, cutting torch work, track laying, sledgehammering-on-bitter-end-of- rail-alignment, ballasting, et. al., to finally connect the siding properly to the turntable and rest of the ‘system’.
Laying in the last 10’ of track. Th rail on the left has a production date of
1919 cast into the web. Imagine, rail from WW1 !
Moving Sparky onto the turn table.
Finally in place for initial T/I. Did I mention this is a project waiting to happen?
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....
Questions: Do you ride in it or behind it? Looks like it was made to ride inside of. Second question... does it have a door or do you have to slide through the window like Bo Duke? Can't tell from the pictures if there is an opening or door on the other side. I assume there is some way to get in and out easily. I also assume that one of the hoods is going to be room for your feet if you ride inside of it.
Might be a fun project and something you could use to maintain the railway and also for just running around the pike without having to fire up.
Yes, one rides in the cab. The door is on the other side- here’s a photo below. The cab length is 32” long, 24” Wide, with a 12” seat. So around 19” of leg room. Actually fairly easy to get into actually.
Interior of cab- needs some clean up.
Electrical panel!
I also have the overhead electrical contact pole that mounts on the roof- a long slender, bronze rod on a spring loaded base. Like the old electric busses used... The builder actually ran this old engine around his backyard track with a low voltage DC wire system that he strung up on an overhead wire around his track. Alas, the electric motor in the hood is now long gone. The new drive system would ideally be 24 volt electric traction motors on the trucks and batteries under each hood. Plenty of room for that.
I have slowly become a fan of the old 45 ton electric center cabs. So initially thinking about cutting the roof down a few inches and installing prototypical window arrangement, to establish a more proportional profile. Latter, narrow the two hood ends to look more like the GE and Whitcomb 45 ton center cabs. And new bright yellow paint scheme with some sleek black and red fire and lightening bolts on the nose - noses???
Or, maybe pass it on to somebody looking for a cool project.
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....
that looks neat. Really liking the brake stand... the resistance coils, maybe not so much. Technology has come a long way! 24 volt modern drive, controller and batteries would have that thing running great and hopefully turn it into a useful addition to the motive power stable. I'd fix it up, at least mechanically, and see how it does and how you use it. If you like it and use it, then your new body could be a wintertime project in a few years.
pontiacguy, thanks, that’s a good approach! Yes, the resistance coils are a bit unique days. It was built in 1968, from OLD parts... I think the gear box may be out of a model T Ford.
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....
Spent the last few days welding up a table for my NOS SB 9” lathe. Picked up the lathe off Craigslist couple of years ago, covered in sawdust, dried oil and cobwebs. As I suspected, the ways and bearings surfaces in the spindle and cross slide are pristine - still exhibit factory scrap marks and flaking all over. The lathe was manufactured in 1925, used for woodworking for a few years, then placed in storage until I bought it. The machine oil and sawdust made a terrific preservative. No rust or corrosion at all, until after I cleaned it all up.
End view...
Now also, the gear box needs freeing up. Not sure what’s happening, but the gear selector lever doesn’t move - so, assume dried oil and sawdust have gummed it up. Once I get the table built, I’ll take a crack at freeing up the Quick change gear box and see how it runs. (Am expecting good as new precision)
I started a small build log in the Chaski Lathe forum. So won’t go into much more detail here. Except to post a pic of the work to date.
Planning on painting the frame and mounting the table top and lathe soon after. Will post some pics when finished.
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....