Re: Track Roadbed and Operating Pit
Mike, I believe that there is some sort of coating on the Aristo-Craft track, possibly to improve conductivity or to distinguish it from LGB's. The A-C brass track takes forever to weather. I have had the track for almost a year outside. I could take a green 3M pad and scrub off the coating to expedite the weathing process. I would do this on a test section. On the other hand, my LGB track is nicely weathered. I went with the A-C track because it was ready-to-use and inexpensive. Oh well... "M. Paterson" wrote: Joe, recommend that you do not paint the rails. The brass will weather in (about 6 months here in CA)and turn a dark brown. Painting, I found causes numerous problems down the line because you either never full remove the tape residue or the paint flakes or both. I have painted al rail and unpainted brass, all code 320. The Al rail (Micro Engineering) is hand spiked in redwood home made ties, the brass (LGB)is in plastic. All rail is bent on site. mike --- Joe Betsko [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Charles and List, This page shows some of the progress I made today http://www.gardensteamers.com/track_install.html Right now, I have a level point to point set up and it's great to be steaming in the meantime! Charles, a drain pipe would eventually surface on my property after trenching about another 15 feet or otherwise it's "Steam in the Pond" for me! Or I could put in a pipe with holes - not sure of the exact term at the moment... I like the mat suggestion. Thanks! Charles Brumbelow wrote: Drainage to what? Sump pump? Or are you on a slope where the drain pipe would eventually surface? I suggest something removable to keep the feet off the concrete(?) floor. Door mats made of recycled tires is a possiblilty which comes to mind. And something to keep the butt off the concrete wall . . . Just a couple of thoughts . . . Charles -- Regards, Joe Betsko Pennsylvania USA Bala Cynwyd Railway: http://jsb.pennsy.home.att.net Primer for Novice Live Steamers: http://www.gardensteamers.com/tips.html Share Live Steaming Tips: http://www.gardensteamers.com/exchange.html iMac - Hey, I dont do windows! __ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ -- Regards, Joe Betsko Pennsylvania USA Bala Cynwyd Railway: http://jsb.pennsy.home.att.net Primer for Novice Live Steamers: http://www.gardensteamers.com/tips.html Share Live Steaming Tips: http://www.gardensteamers.com/exchange.html iMac - Hey, I dont do windows!
Re: Track Roadbed and Operating Pit
The Aristo track is a different alloy of brass than the LGB stuff. It simply corrodes slower. The Aristo alloy has more copper and conducts better. Seems it would oxidize faster that way, but it doesn't. :) Trot, the fox who plays with too many sparkies... ;] On Wed, 28 Feb 2001, Joe Betsko wrote: Mike, I believe that there is some sort of coating on the Aristo-Craft track, possibly to improve conductivity or to distinguish it from LGB's. The A-C brass track takes forever to weather. I have had the track for almost a year outside. I could take a green 3M pad and scrub off the coating to expedite the weathing process. I would do this on a test section. On the other hand, my LGB track is nicely weathered. I went with the A-C track because it was ready-to-use and inexpensive. Oh well... /\_/\TrotFox\ Always remember, ( o o ) AKA Landon Solomon \ "There is a \./ [EMAIL PROTECTED] \ third alternative."
RE: Track Roadbed and Operating Pit
Joe, Looking good so far! And you are right about the Aristo track. Same thing with me. Takes a 100 yrs to darken compared to LGB! Chuck Walters - President Central New York Large Scale Railway Society http://home.twcny.rr.com/cnylsrs -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Joe Betsko Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2001 10:13 PM To: Multiple recipients of sslivesteam Subject: Re: Track Roadbed and Operating Pit Charles and List, This page shows some of the progress I made today http://www.gardensteamers.com/track_install.html Right now, I have a level point to point set up and it's great to be steaming in the meantime! Charles, a drain pipe would eventually surface on my property after trenching about another 15 feet or otherwise it's "Steam in the Pond" for me! Or I could put in a pipe with holes - not sure of the exact term at the moment... I like the mat suggestion. Thanks! Charles Brumbelow wrote: Drainage to what? Sump pump? Or are you on a slope where the drain pipe would eventually surface? I suggest something removable to keep the feet off the concrete(?) floor. Door mats made of recycled tires is a possiblilty which comes to mind. And something to keep the butt off the concrete wall . . . Just a couple of thoughts . . . Charles -- Regards, Joe Betsko Pennsylvania USA Bala Cynwyd Railway: http://jsb.pennsy.home.att.net Primer for Novice Live Steamers: http://www.gardensteamers.com/tips.html Share Live Steaming Tips: http://www.gardensteamers.com/exchange.html iMac - Hey, I dont do windows!
Re: Track Roadbed and Operating Pit
Interesting . . . If that's a ladder on the left instead of wide-gauge track BG you have quite a nice space. As for the concrete in the pit, can you slide the hole to the right a bit and make the concrete part of a step down? Charles - Original Message - From: "Joe Betsko" [EMAIL PROTECTED] This page shows some of the progress I made today http://www.gardensteamers.com/track_install.html Right now, I have a level point to point set up and it's great to be steaming in the meantime!
Re: SoCal Snow
In a message dated 2/27/2001 10:16:16 PM Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Where in SoCal? Lake Arrowhead-near Big Bear. The mountains east and north of LA Bob
Wheels - cont'd.
Message Number: 14 From: "VR Bass" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Wheels Harry, you mention a lot of hand work. If I understand it correctly, the EDM method creates spokes without a draft angle Vance, Yes, in most cases, but one could certainly use a tapered electrode . . . The advantage to using EDM would primarily be to get the spoke geometry, profile, and spacing dead-on and produce corners that only hawk's sight and a dental drill could do otherwise. The hand work would come in when you begin to work the rim, spokes, and hub to final shape and couldn't be avoided. Even if one used a tapered electrode that would result only in draft. Profiling and rounding off would continue as usual, at least to the extent it was required. This is not necessarily a bad thing in all cases -- True, some locomotive wheels (although mostly UK) did have rectangular spoke profiles. They'll be fine for outside-frame locomotives, where you don't really see the wheel except in silhouette. Yes, but then there goes the Mark Wood approach to wheels out the window doesn't it. This partly explains why we don't have such products here. (That and a lesser per capita ratio of compulsive behavior amongst the male population :-) when you work with a caster, be sure to talk about the necessity for concentricity, I understand for some (many?) there is a benefit from wheels that need a minimum, if not no, machining, but in the model engineering and real worlds this would be the exception rather than the rule. When either making a pattern or buying a casting I always assume I'll machine its critical surfaces. I think the lack of a raw material source was what was holding up the foundry I work with. Knowing that there are sources of gray iron bar means that we could get iron castings without worrying about what's in that Ford engine block. Once upon a time, and maybe still, you couldn't do better than an old engine block as you could be sure these were done in new iron. Then the usual source for aluminum for a lot of home foundries has always been busted up pistons. Admittedly most foundries doing structural or appearance grade casting in any metal always prefer to use fresh metals for quality control. (By the way there are companies that do nothing but supply pure metal in ingots for foundries.) The ones that make "trash" castings, dead weights, drain grates, manhole covers, and such don't much care, but in any case it's the foundryman who needs to know what he's doing. Even new metal needs admixtures, flux, degassifiers and the like, and careful control of pouring temperature. As you've seen from recent posts the moulding processes (molds, forms, risers, sprues, etc) are critical, especially where the sections are small, and ours are tiny. In the grand scheme of things the metal source seems almost secondary. Cheers, Harry
Re: Track Roadbed and Operating Pit
I play with sparkies also, and I have Aristo track that has been out in the snow, rain, mud and hot sun for over seven years an it hasn't weathered yet. Roger WPW
Re: Equipment and weather
We just had another blizzard here in central Nebraska, the only way I can tell where my layout is at, is by seeing just the tops of my Alberta Spruces sticking up here and there. We had no snow last winter and I ran all the time, now we've had over 3'. What happened to global warming? We need more steamers to warm the air! jerry(buried in Nebraska)
Re: Mikado exhaust
I run a Mikado and a SR #24 and have noticed that the #24 always has a steam plum out of the stack while the Mikado seldom does. You can put your hand over the Mikado stack while running Just stick in your thumb and pull out a plum. :-) Seriously, Roundhouse uses an extension tube to carry the exhaust up to the top of the stack without mixing with the smokebox gases. The exhaust is presumably colder than the flue gases, so the steam is closer to condensing coming out of the cylinders. If it mixes with the flue gases, it's reheated and the water stays gaseous longer, giving it time to disperse before it condenses. So, next question is "what's the exhaust arrangement on the Mikado?" Does it have an exhaust nozzle at the bottom of the smokebox, or something similar? If so, then that's probably the problem. Can you cobble up something like the RH exhaust extension? Don't know -- I'll leave that one for those who have a Mike to examine in person. regards, -vance- Vance Bass Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
Re: Ruby mod I'd like to see...
In a message dated 01-02-27 23:55:14 EST, you write: I don't have the funding, or the time, but I'm suprised no one has done this yet. It seems like a natural conversion. :) As one of my mentors once told me, " whatever you do to it it is still a Ruby" I think it would be easier to build something like this from parts from the various manufacturers. But then what do I know-- :-)
Re: Equipment and weather
In a message dated 01-02-28 11:28:23 EST, you write: What happened to global warming? Jerry It is up here in Oregon, The past three days have been sunny and near 60. I have even seen some flowers in bloom. Is this still February??? Salty
Re: Ruby mod I'd like to see...
I think that the notion of "...it's still a Ruby" has proven to be something akin to "it's a Baldwin." Anyone who has looked at Vance's Ruby bash page can see that folks are indeed flexing there creative muscles with this little gem. At DH, the only Rubys that looked anything like each other were the ones which were fresh from the box. That, I think, is reflective of exactly what Accucraft was trying to do with this project. While, you can put all the gift wrapping on the locomotive you want, it still has the same performance. The good news is, the performance has thus-far proven to be quite solid. And if Accucraft is as good about standing behind its products as Roundhouse and other quality builders, I don't think we're going to have to worry about hanging our heads when we say "it's still a Ruby." Later, K
SoCal Gold Snow
For those who don't know, Lake Arrowhead is a gorgeous lake glittering like a diamond among the mountains in Southern California. Air is clean up there! Big Bear is a nice lake, but less gem like. Of course Lake Arrowhead is fairly well and lavishly developed during the last twenty five years. Big Bear had lots of gold mined from the area, in fact more gold was hauled from that area than most or any other county in California. Any RR pictures from that era available? ~Gary of Eugene, OR once a Southern Calif fellow - Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: "Multiple recipients of sslivesteam" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2001 5:47 AM Subject: Re: SoCal Snow In a message dated 2/27/2001 10:16:16 PM Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Where in SoCal? Lake Arrowhead-near Big Bear. The mountains east and north of LA Bob
AristoCraft track
AristoCraft track has no coating...just different alloy. I installed AristoCraft stainless steel rails in LGB and/or AristoCraft plastic sleepers/ties. This rail never will tarnish. Great for sparkies, less cleaning! I did spray some rail with tan stain. Looks a bit rusty. - Original Message - From: "Joe Betsko" [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: "Multiple recipients of sslivesteam" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2001 3:22 AM Subject: Re: Track Roadbed and Operating Pit Mike, I believe that there is some sort of coating on the Aristo-Craft track, possibly to improve conductivity or to distinguish it from LGB's. The A-C brass track takes forever to weather. I have had the track for almost a year outside. I could take a green 3M pad and scrub off the coating to expedite the weathing process. I would do this on a test section. On the other hand, my LGB track is nicely weathered. I went with the A-C track because it was ready-to-use and inexpensive. Oh well... "M. Paterson" wrote: Joe, recommend that you do not paint the rails. The brass will weather in (about 6 months here in CA)and turn a dark brown. Painting, I found causes numerous problems down the line because you either never full remove the tape residue or the paint flakes or both. I have painted al rail and unpainted brass, all code 320. The Al rail (Micro Engineering) is hand spiked in redwood home made ties, the brass (LGB)is in plastic. All rail is bent on site. mike --- Joe Betsko [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Charles and List, This page shows some of the progress I made today http://www.gardensteamers.com/track_install.html Right now, I have a level point to point set up and it's great to be steaming in the meantime! Charles, a drain pipe would eventually surface on my property after trenching about another 15 feet or otherwise it's "Steam in the Pond" for me! Or I could put in a pipe with holes - not sure of the exact term at the moment... I like the mat suggestion. Thanks! Charles Brumbelow wrote: Drainage to what? Sump pump? Or are you on a slope where the drain pipe would eventually surface? I suggest something removable to keep the feet off the concrete(?) floor. Door mats made of recycled tires is a possiblilty which comes to mind. And something to keep the butt off the concrete wall . . . Just a couple of thoughts . . . Charles -- Regards, Joe Betsko Pennsylvania USA Bala Cynwyd Railway: http://jsb.pennsy.home.att.net Primer for Novice Live Steamers: http://www.gardensteamers.com/tips.html Share Live Steaming Tips: http://www.gardensteamers.com/exchange.html iMac - Hey, I don't do windows! __ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ -- Regards, Joe Betsko Pennsylvania USA Bala Cynwyd Railway: http://jsb.pennsy.home.att.net Primer for Novice Live Steamers: http://www.gardensteamers.com/tips.html Share Live Steaming Tips: http://www.gardensteamers.com/exchange.html iMac - Hey, I don't do windows!
Re: Mikado exhaust
If the Mike is the Aster Mikado, which is alcohol fired, you will need the exhaust nozzle to be low down so that it can provide draught for the fire. So if you raise the nozzle, you may get into problems of not enough fire. the SR24 is I think gas-fired so draft from the exhaust is not needed, Peter Trounce. -- From: VR Bass [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Multiple recipients of sslivesteam [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Mikado exhaust Date: Wednesday, February 28, 2001 11:38 AM I run a Mikado and a SR #24 and have noticed that the #24 always has a steam plum out of the stack while the Mikado seldom does. You can put your hand over the Mikado stack while running Just stick in your thumb and pull out a plum. :-) Seriously, Roundhouse uses an extension tube to carry the exhaust up to the top of the stack without mixing with the smokebox gases. The exhaust is presumably colder than the flue gases, so the steam is closer to condensing coming out of the cylinders. If it mixes with the flue gases, it's reheated and the water stays gaseous longer, giving it time to disperse before it condenses. So, next question is "what's the exhaust arrangement on the Mikado?" Does it have an exhaust nozzle at the bottom of the smokebox, or something similar? If so, then that's probably the problem. Can you cobble up something like the RH exhaust extension? Don't know -- I'll leave that one for those who have a Mike to examine in person. regards, -vance- Vance Bass Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
Re: AristoCraft track
For about the same money you can get nickel silver rail from Aristo. It will take on a beautiful brown patina AND remain electrically conductive. I use N/S on my elevated track and illuminate the passenger cars behind the Hudson or K-4 when night running. One advantage of N/S over stainless is the ease of soft or silver soldering the N/S and the ease of machining, drilling, tapping, etc. This is very handy if you are building turnouts, etc. You can get 8' lengths of brass, aluminum. S/S or N/S rail shipped via UPS and use Aristo of LGB flex ties. I do not manufacture N/S rail any more, so I have no monetary interest in either the rail or ties. Aristocraft Trains does manufacture and market a rail bender based on my design and I do get a small royalty on the benders. Keep your steam up! Walt Lunk
Re: AristoCraft track
http://www.aristocraft.com/ I checked Aristocraft's web site and could not find Nickel Silver rail. Is it manufactured by AC or another company? ~Gary Eugene, OR on a dry day! - Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: "Multiple recipients of sslivesteam" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2001 1:07 PM Subject: Re: AristoCraft track For about the same money you can get nickel silver rail from Aristo. It will take on a beautiful brown patina AND remain electrically conductive. I use N/S on my elevated track and illuminate the passenger cars behind the Hudson or K-4 when night running. One advantage of N/S over stainless is the ease of soft or silver soldering the N/S and the ease of machining, drilling, tapping, etc. This is very handy if you are building turnouts, etc. You can get 8' lengths of brass, aluminum. S/S or N/S rail shipped via UPS and use Aristo of LGB flex ties. I do not manufacture N/S rail any more, so I have no monetary interest in either the rail or ties. Aristocraft Trains does manufacture and market a rail bender based on my design and I do get a small royalty on the benders. Keep your steam up! Walt Lunk
Speaking of Steam
In a message dated 01-02-28 16:08:29 EST, you write: SR24 is I think gas-fired so draft from the exhaust is not needed, Right you are it is butane fired. And speaking of steam. Looking at the ads in the new GR St.Aubin Station has listed under live steam an Excelsior 0-4-2, what is it??? Second question is Butane is a poor performer in cold weather so I am told. Am I correct in my assumption that this is not the case with "Meth" fired locos, that they run ok in cold weather. Salty CCBW
RE: Speaking of Steam
Here is a link to a picture of the Excelsior. It appears to be a European version of the Ruby (same valve gear, etc). http://www.accucraft.com/pg-news.htm Chuck Walters - President Central New York Large Scale Railway Society http://home.twcny.rr.com/cnylsrs -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2001 5:17 PM To: Multiple recipients of sslivesteam Subject: Speaking of Steam In a message dated 01-02-28 16:08:29 EST, you write: SR24 is I think gas-fired so draft from the exhaust is not needed, Right you are it is butane fired. And speaking of steam. Looking at the ads in the new GR St.Aubin Station has listed under live steam an Excelsior 0-4-2, what is it??? Second question is Butane is a poor performer in cold weather so I am told. Am I correct in my assumption that this is not the case with "Meth" fired locos, that they run ok in cold weather. Salty CCBW
Blackening Ruby Cylinders
It's highly likely that the cylinders on the Ruby are not actually brass, rather bronze. I don't know, but that would be my first suspicion. (I know Argyle uses bronze for their cylinders.) I've had similar difficulties with Roundhouse cylinders, so they may be made of the same stuff. Perhaps someone who is a bit more in the know could enlighten us. Anyway, back to the topic at hand - getting some kind of a finish on the Ruby cylinders. If you've cleaned them and the chemicals aren't making a dent, then I don't think heat will make any difference. Neither will lighting candles, ancient chants, or human sacrifices. (Although I know of a few folks I wouldn't mind volunteering in the name of science.) So, your next option is paint. Any high temperature paint will work fine. Again, just make sure the surface is clean. Make sure the wheels and any other surface are well masked. ***Tip*** If you want to keep paint from sticking to a surface near which you are painting, but can't effectively mask, try painting the surface with a bit of steam oil. It's thick enough to not run off, but does a great job of keeping the paint from sticking to the surface. This works GREAT!!! on wheel treads. (A fact I remembered _after_ I painted the pilot and trailing trucks, mind you...) If you want to go one further, you could make some kind of lagging for your cylinders. These add just a bit of heft to them, and in my opinion, bring them to life. I made mine from .015" brass sheet bent around the outside of the cylinders and a layer of 1/16" cork. On top of that, I layered .005 shim brass, which I folded over the edges to hide the cork. I've got pictures of this at: http://home.rochester.rr.com/kevstrains/Rubypage.html If you use brass sheet on this, you can blacken it to match the boiler lagging, or you could paint it as I did. I left the cylinder ends brass (steam oil trick) for looks. Later, K
Re: Blackening Ruby Cylinders
If you want to be a little more accurate in your masking, try using a little melted paraffin and one of those old fashioned ink lettering pens with the adjustable width. The pen must be warm or the paraffin will "set up" in the pen. Keep your steam up! Walt Lunk
Re: AristoCraft track
The last I heard, they were still manufacturing it and selling it. Try giving them a call or e-mail them. Walt
Re: Speaking of Steam
That little Plymouth isn't bad, either . . . Charles From: "Charles W. Walters" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Here is a link to a picture of the Excelsior. It appears to be a European version of the Ruby (same valve gear, etc). http://www.accucraft.com/pg-news.htm
Re: Speaking of Steam
Alcohol-fired locos have no problem at all running in cold, even very cold, weather, Peter, (Canada) -- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Multiple recipients of sslivesteam [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Speaking of Steam Date: Wednesday, February 28, 2001 5:16 PM In a message dated 01-02-28 16:08:29 EST, you write: SR24 is I think gas-fired so draft from the exhaust is not needed, Right you are it is butane fired. And speaking of steam. Looking at the ads in the new GR St.Aubin Station has listed under live steam an Excelsior 0-4-2, what is it??? Second question is Butane is a poor performer in cold weather so I am told. Am I correct in my assumption that this is not the case with "Meth" fired locos, that they run ok in cold weather. Salty CCBW
Re: SoCal Gold Snow
Not too far from Canon(sp?) Pass . . . or the Roy Rogers Museum AIRC. Beautiful country through there. Charles For those who don't know, Lake Arrowhead is a gorgeous lake glittering like a diamond among the mountains in Southern California. Air is clean up there! Big Bear is a nice lake, but less gem like. Of course Lake Arrowhead is fairly well and lavishly developed during the last twenty five years. Big Bear had lots of gold mined from the area, in fact more gold was hauled from that area than most or any other county in California.
SF bay area BAGRS steamup?
Do any CA folk know if the steamup layout will be at the BAGRS meeting in March? GaryB
Re: SF bay area BAGRS steamup?
At 5:50 PM -0800 2/28/01, Gary Broeder wrote: Do any CA folk know if the steamup layout will be at the BAGRS meeting in March? Glad you asked ... Current members of BAGRS are welcome to come run their steam engines on the BAGRS oval at group's annual meeting, March 9-10 in beautiful downtown Foster City, Calif. The event will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. For registration information, point your browser at http://www.bagrs.org/Annual_reg.htm Harlan Barr will be setting up on Friday afternoon if you want to help -- and we have a rather limited amount of time to tear down on Saturday afternoon, so many hands at that time will be helpful (bring your Allen set to take apart the rail clamps). But note that word "current" ... I just sent out the March issue of TRELLIS TRESTLE with more than 100 names of people who haven't renewed their BAGRS membership yet ... strikingly, many of those names are members of this list ... \dmc ^^^ Dave Cole Gen'l Sup't: Grand Teton Everglades Steam Excursion Co. Pacifica, Calif. USA http://45mm.com/ mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] List Mom: sslivesteam, the list of small-scale live steamers mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Editor: TRELLIS TRESTLE, the newsletter of the Bay Area Garden Railway Society http://www.bagrs.org/ mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web List: Pacific Coast Live Steamers http://p-c-l-s.com/ mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ^^^
Re: SoCal Gold Snow
Yes, this is a little corner of paradise here, even when it snows. I much prefer spring, summer, and fall though; especially spring. Don't usually get this much snow, it is snowing again right now. As far as railroad history here, there is plenty. This area was settled by the mormons and was heavy into the logging industry at one time. I don't have my facts in front of me,(a friend never returned my book) but I believe the logging company was called Brookin's and they used shay's as motive power. Their No1 shay was sold and was bought by a well known lumber company but I can't remember which one. They operated mostly out of an area up here known as Green Valley Lake, but came all the way down to just a few miles from my house. Another point in railroading was the building of the lake here in the turn of the century. A couple of 8 ton Porters were used in the construction and as was the case with these small loco (considered expendable) one ended up at the bottom of the lake. I did pick up the diamond stack on my fish finder once. The other known as "Black Annie" was on display in the Lake Arrowhead Village for years, before I got here. It was sold to a casino in Las Vegas and was displayed there for a long time, and is still somewhere there. Maybe Clark can tell us where. Anyway, this place is the summer home of many famous people and it is beautiful here. Even Bugsy Segal ran his business out of here in the 20's. I just love it here, you hide in the back woods but in 25 miles you can be in the bustling city and in an hour at the beach. Bob
RE: Speaking of Steam
There's also another live steam loco named "Excelsior" on the UK market right now. Poor timing, it seems. If I remember correctly, it's a Finescale SM32 loco, but I'll have to check again if anyone wants particulars. regards, -vance- Vance Bass Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
Re: pinholes (was Photographing our engines and lots of others)
Marc's method is to insert the pinhole between the optical elements of the lens, pretty much where the iris is. You can get to this by taking out the back element(s) on most SLR lenses. I bought a 50mm Olympus lens cheap from a camera repair shop because the shutter was sticky. Who cares, since I'm overriding it anyway? A pinhole by itself is not a sharp focuing element, though it has great depth of field. In order to get rid of the soft-focus characteristics of the pinhole, you have to use optical elements or go to a zone-plate aperture, which is a whole different discussion. There's some guy who advertises in the photography mags that installs pinholes in popular SLR lenses. Check around, or try a web search for pinhole and SLR. -vance- "Another day goes by in the time machine. I've been breaking my brain over what it might mean just to claim the time to turn away and make today today." --James Taylor
Re: SF bay area BAGRS steamup?
Gary, You've joined the rest of us! (2001 vs. 1969) Michael Martin [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: Speaking of Steam
At 08:22 PM 28/02/01 -0700, Vance Bass wrote: There's also another live steam loco named "Excelsior" on the UK market right now. Poor timing, it seems. If I remember correctly, it's a Finescale SM32 loco, but I'll have to check again if anyone wants particulars. Another Accucraft effort, this time designed by Ian Pierce. Aside from a rather noisy burner, there've been good reports of it on the 16mm list. rta, pf
Forney kit information
Live steam fans, I have posted the Official Publicity Photo of my Forney conversion kit on my FHPB web site (link below), for those of you who are interested in seeing the final product. The first kits are almost ready to ship. I'll have more detailed technical and ordering information in the next day or two; I can send you details directly if you can't wait. I'll also link a PDF file with the instructions in the next week or so, so you can see what you'd be getting into with the kit. If you need further information, please contact me off-list. regards, -Vance- Vance Bass FHPB Railroad Supply Co. 6933 Cherry Hills Loop NE Albuquerque, NM 87111 http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass/fhpb/
Re: Track Roadbed and Operating Pit
Hi Joe and all, I agree on the raised tracks issue. But also suggest its a matter of "horses for course,s". I also looked at the ditch digging idea,s and wrote them off very quickly. But no two landscapes are identicle, so maybe there are reasons to dig ditches for some layouts. I suggest much more convenient to achieve the eyelevel view by building up, not digging down. Also the drainage problems are eliminated. Reviewing my landscape and options gave me no choice but to build a totally elevated track. By careful measurements I found I could have two steaming areas at 36" high at the side of the house, with 18'" high "scenic runs" across the front of the house, (and not to imposing) without adding or disturbing to much landscape. Some guys may want waist high tracks for total length. I have seen several well landscaped waisthigh tracks also. Including one track that goes from knee high to an unreachable 14' . high . But sometimes to keep the rest of the family happy, the track should not be too intrusive. Also suggest easier for guests to step over a low track, than risk falling into a ditch?. I suggest the bottom line is to have a track immediately at hand 24 hours a day, which suits the owners pre-requisites, and can still be comfortably utilised and enjoyed by friends and associates. Tony D. At 03:48 PM 2/27/18 -0500, Jim Curry wrote: Joe: My layout is elevated all the way around. With an undulating yard I vary from 6" to 44" off the ground with the main steaming area 24"-30" up. No site work necessary! Jim
