The Home Machinist!

That GSC bed photo is a "stock" photo and has been used several times in railway histories (one I have is by Richard Prince) to represent an example of the cast steel frames being used in their locomotives.

The generally accepted rule is no brass in the pressure vessel structure (shell, stays, bushings, etc), for the reasons you state. For external renewable/replaceable components (tubing, fittings, gauges, etc) brass is acceptable although bronze is preferred. The exception is low pressure, low volume...

Greg and all, Many years ago MSC offered a bewildering array of very reasonably priced "special" taps and dies which included 40-TPI. I began to buy a few, thinking this would be a good way to economically acquire 40TPI "ME" taps and dies, but what I quickly realized was that these US 60° thread for...

I found my fitting table (Cad) but it seems to be incomplete and needs to be checked against my source which was probably published in Model Engineer magazine. I'll see what I can do.

I have a table of these and when I'm back at my home computer later today I'll post it (if I can find it.) IIRC my table is based upon ME threads but the proportions are good for whatever thread system you want.

As kids we tried never to miss Walt Disney's Disneyland on Sunday nights (ca.1954) and in those years there were regular segments on the development of Disneyland (Park), including the park railroad, but I don't recall ever seeing a segment on his home railroad. There may have been, and I missed tha...

I would say you are not losing more heat on account of the plate thickness. Heat loss depends upon the thermal conductivity of the material, its thickness, and exposed area, so heavier plates would actually help with heat retention as it would take longer for heat to migrate though the material than...

Very impressive Rick.

Refrigeration capillary tube.

You might have a look at this account, which looks to be generally complimentary of the locomotive, and I've never heard a negative whisper about Station Road. http://www.gentoosjournals.co.uk/

To answer the second part of your question . . . ideally stays should be perpendicular to flat surfaces and co-radial to curved surfaces, and also symmetrical. That is, identical on both sides of the firebox. That's the ideal, but things don't always work out that way. You can see in the illustratio...

From the Copper Development Association site:
https://www.copper.org/applications/plu ... _prop.html

Somebody should set them straight.