The Home Machinist!

How do you regulate steam production during operation? Most importantly, I don't hear a chorus singing the praises of oil firing, I'm not discounting it yet, but I'm less enthusiastic about it then I was yesterday. Very interested in hearing more! You regulate steam by changing the size of the fire...

Dave Johnson, who drops by here once in awhile, has a 1" Pacific that runs very well on oil. Not sure what kind of oil he uses. My experience oil-firing was with a much larger engine, which would burn just about anything as long as you adjusted the atomizer, blower and firing valve appropriately. So...

One thing you can do is after the mask is applied, seal the edges by applying the background color again, and then after that has dried apply the desired foreground color. Personally I like stippling with a stenciling brush, I feel like that helps minimize bleeding by applying the minimum amount of ...

Sorry I wasn't clear, I was referring to US tracks, but yes there are several 5" gauge tracks in Canada. Winnipeg for one in addition to those James has kindly listed.

Jumping in here, but the US is almost exclusively 4-3/4" rail. The only 5" line I know is the St Croix Railroad high line in Hudson, WI, and that was done because the guys from Winnipeg LS were kind enough to loan the club their forms for the new high line footings. We reciprocated by adding the 5" ...

Sitting still with a little blower on and 13 inches of gas the fire box temperature is 2,200 degrees F. Put the valve gear is full forward position and move at a moderate speed with a light load and the temperature drops to 1,800 to 1,900 F. Are you turning the blower off once you start moving? Do ...

Marty makes a good point, but it's really up to you. Are you one of those people that stays awake at night thinking about it? Where are you in the spectrum of having something to run vs having a project to keep you busy in the shop? Personally I am one of those people that stays awake at night and I...

That's an interesting piece of history Mike, I am surprised it wasn't bullhead rail.

Spent a lot of time volunteering - outbound train inspection and garden rwy Monday, backshop Tuesday, garden rwy Wednesday, and loadout Friday, along with a lot of time wandering around meeting friends and making new ones. It was a good time, the weather was perfect. 42 trains through the inspection...

Yeah Chris, you're probably right. Triennial years kind of warp things.

Too many people for me. I'll attend the following Ops meeting. Shhhh, don't tell anyone about the ops meet, let's keep it our little secret. It was already pretty crowded last year. We had four trains waiting to switch at Phillips at one point. I'm probably an A-minus, I still have to pack but I ha...

you can get the bricks CHEAP from a place that supports fireplaces / stoves. RUTLAND PRODUCTS firebricks => $30 for a set of 6 There is a farm store here in Oregon called Coastal Farm. They sell the set of 6 for around 30 bucks, but they sell individual bricks for $3. :?: I bought the individual br...