The Home Machinist!

The Erskine had some visitors on Saturday. One of our BN Conductors has a 1" scale railroad, and he does repair work for other folks. His latest project is a re-piping job on a Little Engines 1-1/2" scale Pacific. It belongs to Whitney Johnson from Iowa. At any rate, he doesn't have any 7-1/2" gauge...

I used to hand rake the length of the Riverside & Great Northern Ry. every spring. A machine like that would sure have come in handy. The Erskine Tramway has about a 5 foot length of pine needles, where it goes next to the pine tree in the right foreground. That's the most scenic part of the line :D...

Looks good, Marty....

At that rate, you'll have a long run soon.

Mike

Here's a picture of a Burlington waycar truck. I took it up in Billings, Mont. when I went up to my 'local' Railroad Retirement office to sign up. Billings Waycar Truck.jpg For a bolster, you could use the system we used at Sandley's. The ends of the bolsters are 'pins' that rotate in a 'spring plan...

I believe it's the same loco rebuilt with a chopped nose, ditch lights etc. That would be my guess. We had an SD9, #6158, that got in a wreck, and they put a new cab and chopped nose on it. The last time I had an SD9 on a Local, the number on the call sheet was 6158. It was after the Sani Flush too...

I use a program called ScalePrint http://raildriver.com/products/cycloped ... .print.php

All you need is one known dimension, and you can print a photo or drawing out at any scale you want.
I've been using it to make my drawings of Sir Arthur Heywood's 15" gauge equipment.

Mike

Thanks for all the feedback. I suppose this is mostly a 'working' railroad in the sense that it will provide avenues to the interesting far-flung parts of the property without trampling the hillsides with roads or footpaths. I'd love to try building John B's Class A Shay but 99% of the time I'm int...

The tonnage rating on the Rio Grande's narrow gauge engines was determined by how many, and how large, air pumps they had. They were as much concerned with how well they could control the train downhill, as how much they could pull.

Mike

I have about 90ac of hills to work with, with an elevation differential of ~200'. Much of it will need to be "benched" into the hillsides. It should be plenty interesting but I'm a bit afraid of pushing the limits for grade and curve :-/ It sounds like you have plenty of room. What kinds of trains ...

Our coal GE's, both U30's and C30's, used the same kind of alternator set-up. It also gave a reference speed for running the "Pacesetter" speed control we used when loading coal.

Mike

My solution for stability is mostly a low center of gravity where the seats are. Admittedly, my equipment isn't 1-1/2" scale, but 'full size for the gauge', and 24" wide. Here's a picture of my unfinished passenger coach pressed into service on the occasion of our daughter's Wedding. When the coach ...

Hi Jeff..... Welcome. The way I did the extension to my Erskine Tramway, was to first take my riding mower out and 'eyeball' some possible routes between the current end-of-track and where I want to go. You could call it a 'preliminary survey'. I did it first by eye, and ended up with three mowed po...