Lisa
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Posts: 806
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Post by Lisa on Dec 14, 2015 2:17:44 GMT
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Lisa
Statesman
Posts: 806
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Post by Lisa on Dec 11, 2015 5:45:52 GMT
So this is one of these? ... with a pony truck tacked on. If so, she's got plenty of power, but not enough weight to make use of it (even with a briggs boiler). Dad's used to stamp her feet at every opportunity till he bolted a thick steel plate with lead bars on it to the bottom of the chassis. The dimensions for the southern valve gear were based on the NSWGR D55 class, dad's (built by Bruce before he had cataract surgery) was the first to get southern as far as I know, I have the original D55 valve gear plans here from NSWGR. I also have a box of odd castings here, so if you find you're missing something, I might have it, maybe. I'd also suggest avoiding the flangeless centre wheels, following an incident* dad had flanged tyres added to the middle driving wheels in about 1990; we still managed to squeeze the loco around a 25' diameter curve several years later, so the flangeless wheels aren't needed. *this involved the loco nearly falling on me when she slipped to the side while being rolled out of the car and onto her work stand.
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Lisa
Statesman
Posts: 806
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Post by Lisa on Dec 9, 2015 5:08:44 GMT
Brian, 4472 was her LNER number, she was renumbered as 60103 by BR.
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Lisa
Statesman
Posts: 806
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Post by Lisa on Dec 5, 2015 7:25:51 GMT
I made this little jig early this morning while the workshop was a reasonable temperature, it's for drilling crankpin holes on the cranks for the earlier mentioned 16mm scale loco I'm working on. Should probably do something about the rust on the drilling table.
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Lisa
Statesman
Posts: 806
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Post by Lisa on Dec 5, 2015 7:02:56 GMT
Usually I just hum and/or sing to myself, occasionally sets the neighbours' dogs howling; whether as accompaniment or complaint I'm not quite sure. I rarely listen to the radio, as my musical interests are far too broad for one station to deal with; actually, all of them combined wouldn't cover half what I listen to.
Dad always had talk radio (4BC) on when in the workshop.
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Lisa
Statesman
Posts: 806
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Post by Lisa on Nov 29, 2015 7:38:31 GMT
Did some work on a side project, cutting out the frames for a 16mm scale / gauge 1 steam loco. Intending to build and sell, to raise some much needed funds. Propped up against some scrap so everything's leaning roughly were it should be.
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Lisa
Statesman
Posts: 806
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Post by Lisa on Nov 28, 2015 3:59:55 GMT
Me too, enjoyed reading it - twice! I did suggest another section a little while ago, one where all the dedicated build threads could be kept, same time we were talking about something else. Can't remember which thread that was but there wasn't any kind of comment or action on it. One was the projects/builds forum, the other was for CAD/CAM/CNC I believe. I think all three would be welcome.
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Lisa
Statesman
Posts: 806
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Post by Lisa on Nov 27, 2015 9:01:13 GMT
I knew someone who used to use ball bearings in place of the sliding bush in the die block for hackworth valve gear.
Obviously different usage due to the natures of the two valve gears, so not sure if it'd be a usable idea for walschaerts or not.
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Lisa
Statesman
Posts: 806
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Post by Lisa on Nov 26, 2015 12:41:37 GMT
Roger, just looking around earlier I noticed that Southern Boiler Works have some pictures of copper boilers for GWR loco's with that little overhanging bush for the turret/manifold on the top curve of the backhead. Just recalled mention of it somewhere in your thread so thought I'd bring it to your notice, if it wasn't already. Not sure if they'd offer any assistance if you're not buying a boiler from them, but the photo's on the boilers page of their site might be useful to you.
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Lisa
Statesman
Posts: 806
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Post by Lisa on Nov 25, 2015 12:34:05 GMT
Model Engineering Supplies mesupplies.com.au/Australia A range of common designs by Martin Evans, Don Young, and LBSC, as well as Blowfly and Sweet Pea. Plus several traction/road and stationary steam engine designs.
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Lisa
Statesman
Posts: 806
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Post by Lisa on Nov 24, 2015 13:14:20 GMT
Made a trip up to the post office to pick up a package of small metric bolts from Knupfer; they also sent chocolate with the bolts, which - after a few minutes in the freezer to unmelt it - didn't last very long.
The postie here has taken to not even trying to deliver parcels lately, I was only 10' from the front door yesterday, when the "we tried to deliver, but you weren't home" card was dropped in the mail box.
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Lisa
Statesman
Posts: 806
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Post by Lisa on Nov 24, 2015 13:02:02 GMT
Probably wouldn't have been such an issue with the test piece, but with the actual rod(s) it would then mean having to turn it around, while hot, to solder the other end. Anyway I've got 8 joints to do (2 coupling rods + 2 connecting rods - later - with 2 joints each), so I might end up experimenting with standing it upright.
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Lisa
Statesman
Posts: 806
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Post by Lisa on Nov 24, 2015 12:56:55 GMT
Darkrose. I hardly think that most builders construct a loco to thrash it around the track. I wasn't suggesting they do. However, I've often seen small loco's run at quite high speeds. Which is, I feel, quite a shame; lovely little loco, well built, nicely detailed, but being driven so fast the exhaust sounds more like a petrol engine than steam. It's almost always at club tracks though, so I suspect they're just trying to keep out of the way of the larger passenger haulers. On the subject of buying vs building; my dad never built a loco*, but did buy several**. He did however get quite a bit of enjoyment from maintaining and improving*** them over the years. He figured that with miniature steam there are drivers, builders, and collectors; and that he was a driver. *Other than a gauge 0 loco, which he didn't finish, but built the chassis on the kitchen table of a caravan, while moving around between jobs with the miniature railway. He later hooked it up to a Mamod boiler just to see it run. **Standing joke at QSMEE at one point was to polish your loco if you saw him coming, just in case. ***I remember the switcher ran with a meccano reversing lever for a while, as it was built with a screw reverser, which dad found to be a nuisance when combined with the regular stop-go style of commercial running.
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Lisa
Statesman
Posts: 806
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Post by Lisa on Nov 24, 2015 7:45:15 GMT
On the other end of the extremes from not running, I've never understood the desire to take a lovely scale model and thrash it around at race track speeds.
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Lisa
Statesman
Posts: 806
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Post by Lisa on Nov 24, 2015 4:33:56 GMT
Roger, the rod is threaded into the boss, so the parts can't shift apart anyway. I used the flux straight from the container (after a bit of mixing), which was a good thick paste that seemed quite ideal. Nice idea with the lights, I working in the middle of the night I had wondered if I had enough light at the time; was probably ideal by accident!
Ed: I did actually consider holding it upright, I just wasn't sure how to hold it in that position.
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Lisa
Statesman
Posts: 806
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Post by Lisa on Nov 23, 2015 15:34:11 GMT
I just did the experimental silver soldering with some offcuts of the coupling rod material. Which turned out ok, but I'm glad I did a practice run. About 5 minutes after taking the heat off, here's how it looked. This is still hot, and resting on the (vermiculite) fire bricks: After cooling and cleanup, this is about how I'd hoped the join would come out: The other side though shows my over eagerness with the silver solder. This was the bottom, which I couldn't see, and I fed a little too much solder in afraid that this side wasn't done; now I know better: Lessons learned: 1. Don't be shy with the heat. 2. Really don't be shy with the heat. 3. Don't use so much silver solder, though a bit too much is probably better than not enough, maybe. I ended up using my biggest burner, which isn't really surprising given the size of the boss (32x25x10mm), heating till the steel was just a dull red, and would stay that colour with the heat off it for a few seconds. By this time the flux just looked like a translucent stain on the metal. Then heat off, apply solder, and heat back on the boss till it all flowed into the join and looked nice. P.S. Julian, I just noticed I misspelt your name, oops, sorry.
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Lisa
Statesman
Posts: 806
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Post by Lisa on Nov 22, 2015 7:58:06 GMT
It's been about 10 years since I've had (at least access to) a loco in running order. Though the Blowfly's chassis occasionally gets pushed back and forth, does that count?
When there was a loco though: When I was little, and before we started running commercially, there was a 3½" gauge track in the backyard, dad had built me a "battery steamer" as we used to call it, which I would run at every available opportunity, I was about 5 at the time. The loco was made out of wood (even the wheels), an electric mixer motor, and a motor bike battery, with the body made from old real estate signs, and a chimney from a foam milkshape cup. Dad would run his (first) steam loco every month or so, in between club visits. Between the "battery steamer" and dad teaching me to drive his actual steam loco at that age, I was hooked for life. Oh there was also a Burrel traction engine, about 1-1½ inch scale I think, when I was about 8 or so this was most amusing for chasing the chickens around. When we ran commercially it was about 6-10 hours every saturday and sunday, plus anywhere up to an hour for setup and 30 minutes to pack up. Except for when we had permanent tracks somewhere, in which case running was usually 10am till 4-6pm 7 days. After we'd stopped running commercially, we'd go to club running days at least every other month, plus the odd visit to other clubs; so probably about 8-10 times a year. Plus we'd laid a track around the house again, and that got used quite regularly; the (Maxitrack Simplicity) battery loco was run most nights, and the sweet pea was brought out every couple of weeks or so.
Not sure what I'll do with running the Blowfly when (if) it gets finished, other than a track around the house. I don't drive so that mostly rules out club running.
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Lisa
Statesman
Posts: 806
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Post by Lisa on Nov 21, 2015 12:13:20 GMT
...I can't see a mine being viable on the back of heritage railways... Maybe a heritage mine is needed, charge tourists to dig it out for us!
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Lisa
Statesman
Posts: 806
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Post by Lisa on Nov 21, 2015 11:42:33 GMT
The temperature was getting near 40°C today, so I spent most of the day in front of the air conditioner vent. While I was there I dug out a few photo's I thought I'd share. Quality's not so good, as they're photo's of photo's, but hopefully there's something of interest to someone. In roughly chronological order: Southport, Gold Coast, summer of 1988/89. 5" gauge by the sea. Dad had got permission from the City Council to lay a track in a park that also held a full-size C17 4-8-0, that I can well remember climbing all over that summer. The loco, known to us as "the switcher" was dad's first 5" gauge loco, built by Bruce Teasdale (the last he built as I recall). Just under the cab can be seen the whistle, the plans for which I posted in the whistles thread a little while back. No shoes on the passengers! Wouldn't get away with that these days. Early 1990's sometime, Ettamogah Pub (Now Aussie World), Sunshine Coast. Dad got a permanent track in here, which remained for much of the 90's. A bit of a family shot this, at the end of a day's running; my sister driving "the yellow flyer" a railmower that served as the main backup loco; my brother wandering near an early Maxitrack Simplicity battery electric; and dad near the switcher, being blown down on the turntable in front of the train shed. The track here used to go around the house, and was dual 3½"/5" gauge, but the 3½" rail was ground off and used to make more track when it was moved here. Note the 18" long sleepers, paid for by the owner of the site, they were made the same width as the passenger carriages as an experiment in stability combined with the ½" rail height. Toowoomba, about '96, portable track in the carpark across the street from the Darling Downs Model Railway Club during one of their open days. Yours truly driving dad's (highly) modified Sweet Pea, this was just after a rebuild, and so the old "temporary" cab was in place, and it looks like there's no sanding gear fitted at this point either. Camera flash decided it hated me for this one. I still don't know why dad ever bought this loco as it was terribly built, I think in the end the only thing that hadn't been replaced, remachined, rebuilt, or otherwise reworked heavily was the smokebox door (even the original boiler was scrapped, which resulted in a boiler inspector and boiler maker getting into a bit of trouble) - it was often referred to as Sweat Pee in its early days. A bit blurry this time, but here's dad with the modified Sweet Pea about 2003 at an antique machinery rally near Toowoomba. One of the last commercial jobs he did. The is an off-side shot, we always ran clockwise in the later years of commercial operation, thus the "inside" or right side of the loco had the mechanical lubricator, sand box, and sanding gear. About a year after this I replaced the weighshaft and reversing lever/stand, and did some work on the valves and ports. Plus rebushed everything that could be rebushed, I would have completely replaced the valve gear, which I was never overly happy with; but by then dad had decided to sell her, and didn't want me to bother.
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Lisa
Statesman
Posts: 806
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Post by Lisa on Nov 20, 2015 9:39:56 GMT
I wouldn't mind seeing something like that in a "live diesel" loco. Most of the live diesels I've seen tend to be "railmowers" using off-the-shelf mower/brushcutter (or car in some larger cases) motors; which I'm not a fan of.
There seems to be two things getting intertwined, and possibly confused, in this thread; miniature steam loco's, and model engineering.
Model Engineering I don't see as ever disappearing; that is, small(er) scale reproductions that work just as the full-sized counterparts. Exactly what is built, or most commonly built, though will no doubt shift and change with time.
Miniature steam loco's though? I tentatively agree that the "golden age" has passed. Newer loco builders seem to primarily stick with IC and electric powered designs; though it is nice to see scale models coming from this area of the hobby. Whether they will go on to build a steam loco later varies, there's a mix between those who see diesel/electric models as a stepping stone, and those who just genuinely aren't interested in steam. I don't see the construction (and operation) of miniature steam loco's as dead or dying though, and am not even sure that there's less steam being built, or more IC/electric loco's being built that are shifting the balance.
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