The Home Machinist!

The SVLS was started when a few of us who were either building or interested in live steam started getting together at each others houses for meetings. We started looking for a place to build a railroad and ended up at Hagan park in Rancho Cordova. Many weekends were spent at the park laying rail. W...

All this talk about coefficiants of friction tractive efforts etc. reminds me of something an old engineer ( now deceased) told me. He said that the diesel switchers would pull much better after having their wheels turned. The turning machine was not a lathe but a milling machine that was brought up...

The shay is sold.
LSGOD

Have general arr, short hood ,trucks ,truck frame,brakes etc.

lsgod

PS these are Southern Pacific drawings from General Motors origionals. I have Quite a few drawings for these Loco's.

Talking about how badly people take care of their equipment, I built a 1.6 WP 257 class 2-8-8-2 for a well known rice farmer (since deceased) He ran it at Train Mountain SVLS and other tracks including his own. One day I stopped by to see him. It had rained earlier. The engine was on the steaming ba...

On the subject of main rods with split bushings, I took on the job of reboring the big end on the SP 0-6-0 # 1269 at the Sacramento RR Museum. The bearing was in two halves and was badly worn. I had to mill as I recall about 3/8 of an inch off each side where they meet . I then mounted the halves in...

Buy the NMTB40 tooling. It is superior to R8.
LSGOD

I agree that cast iron would be best but I think aluminum would work with careful workmanship. I thought about the galling problem and thats why the polishing and lube would be very important. I use a lot of aluminum in loco parts and lost wax molds. I prefer 7075T6 if I can get it. Machines great. ...

I have been using Bobcad for years. It is inexpensive and I can write programs for my CNC equipment. The programs for all the parts for the SF 2900 were designed and written on Bobcad.

LSGOD

Aluminum will probably work for a drive wheel but heat treat it first. Don't do like so many people do and use undersize axles and crank pins. You need as much press fit contact as you can get. You should use as much press fit as you can , at least .002" . Polish the steel axles well and provid...

Many years ago my grandson Scotty ran my cabforward a lot. I don't remember how old he was but probably 5 or 6 when he started.

LSGOD

I was just wondering if anybody recognizes these cylinder castings. They are 1.5in scale and I was told they came from somebody out on the west coast. I'd like to use them on my 2-6-6-2 but I had a few questions and I'd like to find some drawings if anybody out there has some or could tell me who c...