The outside frame on your pony truck is awesome!
Thanks, Royce. I can't take credit for that part: it's a brass casting I got
from Pete Thorp several years ago. I considered making them myself,
then remembered that I had some, somewhere in my box of castings.
That sure made the job easier!
Hey, Keith,
Following your good info about coal ashpans, I was reminded of a
question I have been unable to answer about the oil-fired model I'm
building. The thing has a tank under the oil bunker that I took to be an air
tank at first. But on closer examination of the plans, there are two
Hi, Mike,
You can read full details in the Forney kit instructions:
http://www.nmia.com/%7Evrbass/fhpb/Forney/FHPB_Forney_Instruction
s.PDF
To install link-and-pin couplers, I just remove the Accucraft thing, drill a
hole in the beam and glue it in.
best regards,
-Vance-
Vance Bass
FHPB
in Alamogordo, about two hours to the south. They are well-known in
the area, so you were probably mistaken for one of them. regards,
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
depending if it has sound or not.
--- End of forwarded message ---
My bad.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
for bronze bushings. I'm not
sure where you'll find copper for bushings, either. Do not use brass under
any circumstances, as it will deteriorate in a matter of a few years and
become unsuitable for holding pressure.
You can buy bronze rod from McMaster-Carr's web site.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Dan, thanks for your reply, but the photos were stripped off by the list
server. Would you be kind enough to send them directly to my address?
Thanks!
-vance-
A dead man asks you to remember the highest ideal of the warrior is
that he lay down his sword. Jet Li in Hero
One of the steamers running at Marc Horovitz' garden railway convention
open house had a simple one made from a piece of nylon rod. It was
about an inch long with a passage drilled through the middle and
appropriately sized holes for the Ronson valve and the can's neck on
either end. Worked
ack! it's a cricket!
Close, but not quite. The Cricket's prototype had two cylinders vertically
over the jackshaft, where the Thunder has fairly conventionally mounted
horizontal cylinders below the smokebox. (The Cricket is rather like a
parallel Shay cluster, for you Unix fans.)
There's an
(with hot water!).
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
of 67.5mm (1371.6/20.3) and a boiler diameter of 70mm.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
encompass something you could use. What
you want is a tread diameter of about 37mm.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
Lady Anne bashers out
there, or would I end up with 172 in my estate?
best regards,
-Vance-
Vance Bass
FHPB Railroad Supply Co.
6933 Cherry Hills Loop NE
Albuquerque, NM 87111 USA
http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass/fhpb/
.
In any case, it's a little beauty and I'm really looking forward to running it.
Alas, not this weekend (sob!). I have to work this weekend and I'm not
really happy about it. Oh, well
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources
And our Ga1 buddies Bob and Carol Simpson were directly in the path of the last two.
Today's Albuquerque paper shows thousands of grapefruit floating in standing water in
an orchard like the one Bob and Carol farm. This is not a good time to be in the
Caribbean or southeast US.
-vance-
If
Bob, good news and bad news: The good news is that the Levy book (the one I have) is
readily available used for under $10. The bad news is that the Bridgewater book is
readily available used for around $60, and the second volume (More...) fetches about
$100.
If you had bought a hundred of the
Will,
Thanks for turning us on to the fetchbook site -- it's a good one.
Alas, I did the search for Bridgewater's More Wooden Mechanical Models, and while
there are several places that list it at $27 or so, they also say that the book is
out of
stock. The list is arranged by price, and the
I have been thinking lately that it would be cool to design one of those hand-cranked
valve gear models to laser-cut from wood. Is that something that would interest anyone
else?
best regards,
-Vance-
Vance Bass
FHPB Railroad Supply Co.
6933 Cherry Hills Loop NE
Albuquerque, NM 87111 USA
I am convinced that cheap glitching is less annoying than expensive glitching.
This is a pearl of wisdom. Yet the people who buy Asters seem to have to fiddle with
them as much as (or more than?) the Accucraft owners to get a new locomotive running
smoothly. Who got the value for their money,
Let us all try and be helpful in this hobby and not PICK, PICK!!
It gets us nowhere ...
Geoff, that rarely stops most of us...
... and makes me madder than hell!
... but this will stop me in my tracks immediately!
You're absolutely right that Aster have earned our highest respect for
instead of a weigh shaft?
I think it will appeal mainly to Aristocraft fans that want to get
into live steam.
Agreed, but that's a market of unknown (to us) size. Maybe Mr. Polk knows something
we don't?
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live
, remember the extremely useful limerick:
Add water to acid in haste,
And the resulting solution will baste
Your face and your hands
As the mixture expands
Reducing your skin to a paste.
Always add the acid to the appropriate amount of water!
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Bob is right -- your best option is a mechanical fastener.
You CAN solder galvanized, however, and it works quite well. It is perfectly safe if
you're
using a soldering iron, which doesn't heat up the zinc enough to be dangerous. You DO
NOT want to use a flame to solder it, however, as that
OK, Arthur's note makes me wonder -- just what IS aluminum bronze good for? Just in
case I might need it and not know some day.
-vance-
Oh and it's the same old story ever since the world began
Everybody got the runs for glory nobody stop and scrutinize the plan.
--Paul Simon
Ken answered all my questions in his follow-up note about why he chose it for his
saddle. Quoting Roseanne Rosannadanna, Oh. Never mind.
-vance-
Oh and it's the same old story ever since the world began
Everybody got the runs for glory nobody stop and scrutinize the plan.
--Paul Simon
Well, the formula I've used is somewhat sharper than it is now. I know, you want
some
more precise numbers than that. How about 7.5 degrees sharper than it is now?
-vance-
Oh and it's the same old story ever since the world began
Everybody got the runs for glory nobody stop and scrutinize the
I ended up stretching the spring on mine to get more power
A lot of people have done this and think it's a good thing to do.
ONLY DO THIS IF you have a pressure gauge! Otherwise, you have no idea how much
you've changed the valve, and it's there for safety. Use it (don't abuse it) safely
and
so what would be a good pressure to stretch the old spring to?
According to the Ruby lit, it's supposed to be set for 40psi.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
I thought you were supposed to go to 400C... I don't know about
you but my oven won't go that high. } ; ]
Actually, it probably will. The self-cleaning feature on ovens made in the past 20
years
or so raises the temp to 900F (482C), which should be sufficient.
Arthur mentioned bedding in
I, too, have heard the warnings about stress deformations in cold-rolled. But I wonder
if
it makes any difference in this scale. I've seen loco frames made of brass -- much
softer
than steel -- which were quite rigid once they were stayed with three or four cross-
members. I feel like steel
hey y'all, watch this!.
For those of y'all who haven't heard the joke:
The National Transportation Safety Board experimented with cockpit recorders in
autos, in an effort to determine the most common causes of fatal accidents, and
perhaps diminish them.
On analysis of the test samples,
Jim, if I recall correctly, the Creekside Baldwin was just a heavily modified Mamod.
So
that leaves only the Cricket -- a sad and shameful record, in my opinion.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com
Kevin, the steel should thread well - be sure to use some oil and the usual threading
technique (full turn on, quarter turn off, etc.).
Annealing steel requires a heat-treating process you don't want to mess with, and
probably aren't equipped for (heat to temp, then cool very, very slowly over
some sort of tag put onto the subject lines of messages; i can do
this as long as people don't think it will screw up their filters, etc.
Dave, that would be great. SSLS works for me.
-vance-
Oh and it's the same old story ever since the world began
Everybody got the runs for glory nobody
until the wire goes
TWANG!. This hardens it into rod and also thins it down considerably. I don't
remember the exact thickness he gets -- something around .055 if I remember right.
Give it a try.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam
Hmmm, 0 gauge wire is something like 3/8. That seems a little too large. What system
is your #0 wire measurement in?
-vance-
Oh and it's the same old story ever since the world began
Everybody got the runs for glory nobody stop and scrutinize the plan.
Paul Simon
to change all my mail groups, notify all my friends and acquaintances, notify
people who link to my web site, etc. etc. Moral: be careful where you write your
e-mail
address on the wall -- you will certainly pay for it in mountains of spam, spam, spam,
spam.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Arthur, you need to find some stronger trees!
-vance-
Oh and it's the same old story ever since the world began
Everybody got the runs for glory nobody stop and scrutinize the plan.
Paul Simon
The Steamlines Shay delivers a huge plume.
Gary, given the same size cylinders, driver stroke, air temperature, relative
humidity,
etc, the thing that makes the difference in plumes is the way the exhaust and flue
gases
are vented out the stack. If your flue gases are really hot, the air the
Harry,
It seems like anyone who does investment casting could do that. I talked to a local
caster once who mentioned having cast a bronze auto model using a Revell styrene kit
as patterns. I don't know why the foam would be any different. Ask and you may find
that everyone will do it.
Right, Harry, I understand. But just because he hasn't heard of it doesn't mean it
couldn't be done. I know it can be done because my caster has done it. I would call
the
fellow back and ask if he'd be willing to try casting from a styrene pattern. He does
wax,
why not plastic? You invest it,
together the walls, you might even be able to stiffen it up enough by gently
twisting and shoving it in your hands.
As Harry noted, soft solder is perfectly fine for parts like this. They don't get hot
enough
to require silver soldering.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque
Could it be that we're ... outside running steamers? Spring has sprung here in a
serious
way, and I recall that the dogwoods and redbuds in Nashville were blossoming around
this time of year, too. It's time to get out and clean up the dead leaves, level the
track,
and boil some water!
Geoff, when you run them really fast, the steam moves so fast in the steam line that
it
just sucks the oil out as it races by. So, no condensate.
Or, something like that
-vance-
Be careful how you live; it is the only sermon that you preach.
William Ellery Channing
Jun, this sounds like a very interesting project. I look forward to hearing about your
progress and seeing photos of the locomotive!
-vance-
Be careful how you live; it is the only sermon that you preach.
William Ellery Channing
Casey, Wheldon's article discusses the traditional use of external quills on the
underside of a pot-boiler. I was thinking about putting the quills internally in the
boiler
(through the center flue). The principle is the same -- increase the heat transfer
area --
but the application is
This conversation makes me wonder -- are their other ways to increase heat transfer
without the complexity (and possibility for leaks) entailed with cross-tubes? We know
that most of the heat we generate goes up the stack rather than into the water, so
anything we can do to grab some of it
surfaces which pressed on each other by gravity. On a model,
however, I think you would want to connect the front of the front chassis to the
sliding
bearing, so when you pick up the locomotive the front chassis will not fall away from
the
boiler.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
by Lindsey Publications.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
Hi, Jun,
I hope I can answer some of your questions.
1 Please let me know in full detail how to couple the first
chassis with the second chassis.
The front chassis of a Mallet is connected to the boiler and main frame by means of a
universal joint (one that can move in the horizontal plane
to find drawings or
photographs that you could use.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
Chuck, I've never heard of the stuff. Please tell us a little more about it.
-vance-
This is the time in life that I am living, and I'll face each day with a
smile. For the time that I've been given is such a little while
Arthur Lee
be a good answer. If a momentum car
is your thrill, this could add some operational interest to starting and stopping your
heavy trains.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
is
that
these surges pretty much disappear.
And that's _my_ understanding of it. I remember from physics class that there are
formulae for calculating this stuff, but don't remember any of the specifics. Your
thoughts and comments are welcome here, too.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Landon Solomon wrote:
I understand the Ruby can get the same benifits from one. I actually
head of someone building a flywheel into their Ruby bash that was
powered from the rear truck (a Forney bash.)
Larry Bangham (the designer of the momentum boxcar, as well) did that one. He sent
me a
Hi, Matthias,
Something like 4-6 inches (10-15cm for you German-Canadians :-) would give cars that
looked right with Lady Anne and would handle short radii.
-vance-
This is the time in life that I am living, and I'll face each day with a
smile. For the time that I've been given is such a
written to complain about it, so my guess is that no
one
used it.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
with a couple of e-mails.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
Bob, the definitive drawings for the K-27 (indeed, the only ones with any detail) were
in
Model Railroader back in 1972 (two-part article). Do your best to get those two
issues,
and you'll have the ones almost everyone uses. I'm not aware of any other source for
this loco, but there may be
make any modifications to the jet in the burner? How about
the
air adjustment?
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
understand the American arrangement -- it's the British practice that puzzles me.
Do
you know why it was done that way? Thanks for any enlightenment you can impart.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com
were built so the lagged boiler and
smokebox were the same diameter, but the majority still had a smokebox that looked as
if the whole end of the boiler was inserted into it.
It gives them an unmistakably British appearance.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico
if you want. The deluxe model
comes with it
standard, but it's available as a retrofit from Accucraft.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
The G1MRA coarse profile is somewhat coarse for 1:30 scale, but
are almost exactly 1:20 of the AAR profile. So, G1MRA coarse =
1:20.3 finescale.
-vance-
I'd never just want to do what everybody else did. I'd be contributing
to the sameness of everything. Captain Beefheart
(contact me off-list).
The standard calls for minimum bridge and tunnel clearance of
11.75, so I'd say you need to build a somewhat taller bridge.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
into a somewhat sharper shape. When it's shaped,
squeeze some 400- or 600-grit sandpaper on the tip, followed by steel
wool to polish the surface.
This has helped me on a Mamod and a Ruby, and it's a tried and true
old remedy for runaway steamers.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Does anyone on the list know what has happened to
www.7eighths.com? The site seems to have disappeared and I
haven't been able to track down a relocation or explanation. Carlo, are
you there?
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam
Check my plans and drawings page for a link to the Cracker
information. The link is at the bottom of the page.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
.
I think you could take a couple of Graham Single motors and make a
splendid Byers model, similar to what many have done with the
Graham Twin for Shays and Climaxes.
http://www.trainweb.org/gearedsteam/byers/byers.htm
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
I thought at first that Walt was talking about a single-tongue switch,
but on re-reading his note I think he's talking about an ordinary stub
switch with some sort of modification at the crotch. Is that right, Walt?
So, what's a single-tongue switch? There's a good photo of one at
Bertram
Tom, my first reaction was to laugh, You want to run this beast for
_more_ than an hour at a stretch? Good trivium: They used to call
Walter Cronkite Old Ironpants for his, um, personal endurance while
drinking cup after cup of coffee and broadcasting the Apollo flights
24/7.
OK, let's
Tom,
I believe Jack Verducci has a pressurized water stop on his railroad,
so no, that's not new.
My previous suggestion -- a syringe with an appropriate tip to fit your
Goodall valve -- still sounds like the best fit to your requirements.
They hold 50-60ml and will deliver water as fast as
Harry, not today, but a couple of weeks ago I was seeing the same
thing -- messages allegedly sent from my computer but being rejected
by some remote host and sent back to me.
Obviously, somewho who knows us both (and doesn't keep his
address book up to date) has a virus that is forging the
Baldwin used crimson lake for a cab color.
But not until some years after the 42 was built, and only if the tender
was painted lake, too. Lake was more of a brown with slightly maroon
tint, rather than the somewhat lurid maroon on the Accucraft cab. So,
the cab should be black to match the
main page.
(Hint: If you do feel the need to mess with it, I make laser-cut
replacement cab and pilot kits for it. See link.)
best regards,
-Vance-
Vance Bass
FHPB Railroad Supply Co.
6933 Cherry Hills Loop NE
Albuquerque, NM 87111 USA
http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass/fhpb/
. It's every fool for himself!
You can find good books on the subject at Sulphur Springs.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
lengthwise and folds the flaps out to form
legs. Between these he solders a crown sheet and throat plate, with
water only in front of the throat plate and above the crown sheet. His
boilers seem to work fine with that arrangement.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New
,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
In case you haven't gone to Marc Horovitz's site to see his latest
Loco of the Month, there's a mechanical lubricator on the Hugh
Saunders War Department 2-6-2. Marc includes a closeup of the
lubricator. http://www.sidestreet.info/locos/loco38.html
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
(looks like borax in water, but has other
stuff in it, too) works the best. I guess I'll stay with it.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
Speaking of, I had occasion to use CA for its original purpose on
Saturday. I was dicing tomatoes and mistook my left ring finger for
one, taking off about 1/8 of the fingertip. Ordinarily, I would have just
cursed and danced around the kitchen, but I was supposed to perform
at a party about
-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
All, sorry to use the list for what would otherwise be a personal aside.
Tag, I tried to send mail to you just now, and the madasafish
address I have was rejected. Where have you moved to?
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam
try servicing and running one of your
locomotives during an open house. That's enough to give the willing
an opportunity, and not in-your-face aggressive.
OT: Pete, thanks for the note offline. I got Fletch's message and have
contacted him.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Mike, this is a cool idea! It sounds like you're seeing the same thing I
have. There are a lot of people who aren't interested in live steam
simply because they don't know it exists, and there are some of those
people who get interested enough that they might get into the hobby
themselves,
this spring or early summer. I intend to have a steam-and-batteries-
only open house, and will teach anyone interested to fire a Ruby or C-
16.
If we all did it and got one person interested in live steam, think of
what an impact that would make on our overall numbers!
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
interested. :-)
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
, if your main or sole priority is run the
locomotives, then the raised track is clearly the best solution. Like I
said, de gustibus non disputandum, there's no use arguing about
matters of taste.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam
,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
Total length of main line, min radius, max grade?
Well, I didn't expect this to generate much interest!
The main line will be around 140 ft., minimum radius 10 ft, max grade
1% (at least, for the first few months! :-).
It's basically going to be a big loop, though our lot tapers towards the
Chuck, please put a note on the SitG discussion board, so anyone
who's not on this list, but is demonstrably interested in small-scale live
steam, can participate. The more responses, the better!
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam
could
get one -- then, there's room for competition. A one-off scratchbuilt
model is of absolutely no interest, because there's no competition
possible. Weird.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com
but what is the outside frame job?
Art, that's the Quincy Torch Lake No. 6, one of the sisters to the
Crystal River 103/DRGW 375 (the C-25 class).
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
and the other nice folks. Now that I have (relatively)
big bucks I can spend on my hobby, I'd rather use them on live steam.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
I am really disappointed in your attitude and
description of an organization to which you probably
don't belong.
Attitude: definitely needs adjustment, and an apology was already
offered for the overgeneralization.
Membership: I was a member for many years, and I had a column in
the
seeing this done?
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
of iron ingots -- I believe I saw some at one of the big
suppliers like MSC or Grainger -- and do some of the metallurgical
research yourself. But if you could get it done, and get it right, you'd
sure have something a lot of people would be interested in!
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
and
Accucraft (the Ford and GM of the industry) run on gas. So I wonder,
who's buying these things, the best-sellers for the general public, and
who's answering the survey?
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http
Aster owners, I suspect) would prefer what Aster
has already made. It would be really interesting to see the same
survey conducted by Roundhouse or Accucraft.
regards,
-vance-
Vance Bass
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Small-scale live steam resources: http://www.nmia.com/~vrbass
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