Bill Shields wrote: ↑Fri Jan 15, 2021 7:43 pm
Been a member off and on for quite some time..even though I live in delaware...and was living in the middle east when they moved.
Yes...I have geo diamond pictures..at WLS and PVLS and i think some at LILS and possibly at NELS.
I knew he went to Pioneer Valley but didn't know he went to these other clubs. Those would be nice to see!
FKreider wrote: ↑Fri Jan 15, 2021 4:38 pm
The members of WLS have plenty of pictures of the Norfolk street location.
Are you a member of WLS?
If not you should become one, live steam clubs need all of the support that they can get these days since it is expensive to maintain facilities and pay for insurance.
Not a member, but when I get my loco near completion I want to become one. You're a member? Tried to visit the other week, but the chain was up so had to back right back out. But a couple years ago when I visited it looked like the club has learned lessons about maintenance, they've got the concrete piers now, they don't paint the track anymore cause it traps moisture in the wood and they screw the rails down instead of spiking them. Now that it's almost all in the woods, I guess it's easier to repair damaged track that a tree branch fell on once in a while than it is to maintain a lawn, isn't it?
Yes I am a member, there is not much activity there in the winter months and unfortunately we currently remain closed to the general public due to the pandemic.
There are many reasons to join before you have your own engine completed, you can get advise/help from other local members as well as get rides with other members, chat with folks with similar interests, etc.
Yeah, can you tell me more about joining. What's it cost and how does it work? Do you pay annually? I already know there is a chain and padlock for the entrance, do members get a key and can go anytime they want? During one of the annual meets when I visited there was a storage container used as a small workshop. Are there any quartering fixtures or reamers sets in there? Would certainly rather give my money to this club than own tools I'm only going to use once or twice in my life at most.
Quartering fixtures are generally assembled per loco. I have 6...one for each steamer I have built except for those that I did in a lathe.
reamers? Unless they are very large get your own...you will use them every week...part of the $$ of building a loco. Too many ways to ruin a reamer... most folks to not lend them out.
"Would certainly rather give my money to this club than own tools I'm only going to use once or twice in my life at most."
You can expect to spend a good portion of your work shop time making one off, one use tools and jigs you'll probably never use again. If you micky mouse around trying to "make things work" you spend more time at it and do a worse job. Part of the hobby and part of the fun!
Steamer Al wrote: ↑Sun Jan 17, 2021 10:16 am
"Would certainly rather give my money to this club than own tools I'm only going to use once or twice in my life at most."
You can expect to spend a good portion of your work shop time making one off, one use tools and jigs you'll probably never use again. If you micky mouse around trying to "make things work" you spend more time at it and do a worse job. Part of the hobby and part of the fun!
What are some more examples of this? I'm expecting to have to make pieces to bend flanges on for the boiler. I'm expecting to have to make a fixture for quartering. What else is there?
Hi Bill
In the fourth photo, the valve is for water, we never had air at the Norfolk St site. And Yes the cable running around the track is for the signal system, the signal system was put in by Webb Reynolds. But every time we had a thunderstorm it would havoc with the signal system.
I will post more of the 1976 meet, sometime today, I am glad you are enjoying the photo, Pat.
Steamer Al wrote: ↑Sun Jan 17, 2021 10:16 am
"Would certainly rather give my money to this club than own tools I'm only going to use once or twice in my life at most."
You can expect to spend a good portion of your work shop time making one off, one use tools and jigs you'll probably never use again. If you micky mouse around trying to "make things work" you spend more time at it and do a worse job. Part of the hobby and part of the fun!
What are some more examples of this? I'm expecting to have to make pieces to bend flanges on for the boiler. I'm expecting to have to make a fixture for quartering. What else is there?
I dont have any experience building your planned loco, but there is usually countless drill jigs, special clamps for holding parts for machining... etc. Have a look through the thread about "show us your special tools".
Thanks Alex, Pat you've really made my day with these excellent pictures! So all of them are from 76? I guess the engine houses in the back of the layout came later cause most of them aren't there yet in that 2nd picture? Always wondered about that switch also in the 2nd pic. Can't run from the turntable onto the mainline with your feet hanging from the riding car like that can you ? At least not if feet are on left side. What locomotive is that in the 3rd pic? Rear driver is in middle of frame and doesn't look like room for a trailing truck. Looks like it would do nothing but wheelie when finished!
Pat, do you remember a day in the mid 80's when a huge garden snake was slithering around under the bridge supports at the far end of the track? I remember someone was taking a bunch of pics of it. Was it you?
Hi Bill
As for the snake no I did not take pictures, of it. In the back of the property was all swampland and the snakes like the swamps but they also like the heat of the concrete base of the track.
Here is some more shorts of the 1976 annual meet, at that stage I was shooting a lot of B&W and developing my own negatives, and doing prints. Let me know when you had enough of Norfolk St.
The loco front and center of the bottom picture is parked in my basement (for the duration of covid) 20' from where I am sitting -> George Thomas' Nellie.
One VERY trick and unique loco and more fun than a barrel of monkeys to run down any track.
