The Home Machinist!

Hi Glenn... The main reason I use those springs is that they don't compress much. For all I know, they don't move at all. They are more of a cushion than anything. My Heywood couplers are fairly height sensitive, they wouldn't handle the movement, between loaded and empty, in the original steel spri...

As far as I know, plastics, and nylon (a type of plastic) are polymers. Are we using the term "polymer" here to refer to a solid block of material used as a spring, as opposed to a conventional metal spring? The springs I use on my Heywood cars are Urethane Die Springs, sometimes referred...

I've given these a lot of thought, as I'm not looking forward to maintaining 1000' of track by shovel with a messed up back. Full scale stuff has weight on it's side, the empty car is heavy enough so it won't tip when dumping it's load. I'd be concerned that in scale, the cars weight would be too l...

Springhill-RR wrote: ↑Tue Aug 10, 2021 8:14 am Where can I purchase drawings, books, etc. about the 5" scale 15" gauge standards created by Mr. Erich Thomsen and William "Bill" Daney?

The standards drawing is on-line...but, sorry, I don't remember where.

Mike

Hi SC... Here ya go. A video of a wooden side dump on a 7-1/4" gauge railroad. You can see the car being loaded at about 3 minutes, and dumped at about 10 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6LKPKDoK4Y My, under construction, wooden ballast car will dump outside the rails like this one do...

Hero wrote: ↑Tue Jun 15, 2021 5:48 pm "Sparky" is a real dandy. Is that track a home track or a club track?

That's my home railroad, the Erskine Tramway. It's 845 feet long, out across the pasture.

Your steeple cabs are very nice too.

Mike

I just noticed this thread too. Here's 'Sparky', my 7-1/2" gauge tram loco. He's built on a Ride Trains 'Mini Motor Car'' chassis, with a wooden body. One 24 volt motor and two Interstate batteries with chain drive to both axles. Speed control is by a Syren50 controller, with manual control. I ...

We had a speed restriction of 50 mph on Moorcroft Hill, account they couldn't superelevate for the otherwise 60 mph track speed. If they'd done the higher super for the mtys, the coal trains going up the hill at 10-15 mph would have been leaning over too far. When I rode the Southern Crescent from B...

Looks like a good start.

Mike

Hi, OD... On the big railroad, before the radio controlled ballast cars, we used to push a tie with the front wheels of the rear truck to knock down and spread the ballast. (edit) Since it's unlikely that your car would have enough mty weight to not ride over the tie when the car was light on that e...

Any idea how many pumps were built and placed in operation? I think I may have actually acquired two or three extra steam chest castings for these pumps, and some other miscellaneous stuff. But don’t know yet exactly what the misc compomonets are, until they arrive and get unpacked. Glenn I don't k...

Thanks, Mike. Very helpful. I’ll beginning to understand the operation and complexity of the pumps now. BTW, I double checked, my pump has both inlet and outlet passages drilled square in center of the casting. Not sure if that is a mistake, or simply another version. Also wondering if that is a mi...