The Home Machinist!

I can say from personal experience that the drive wheel casting are superb.

good thinking.....

when I run as PVLS or WLS, I have run on Welsh, but now run on green coke -> or in the future methanol....since the coke supplier is somewhat 'iffy' on the size -> sometimes it is good, sometimes I get a bucket of dust....

turning radius on the hudson is restricted by swing of the front truck before the wheels start interfering with the cylinder castings.

My Langworthy Hudson is very much a 35' + loco

most of these designs were specifically created with Welsh coal in mind because it was readily available, and "who would use anything else" ? good luck with what is called Pocahontas #3.....plugs tubes in short order and you are down for cleaning... all small scale builders need to keep fu...

it may be on a spline / key. LOOK VERY CLOSELY at the intersection area between the gear and the shaft....on both sides of the gear. if there is a key, you will eventually find the key slot into which it fits. if there are splines - you will see them looking at the right hand side of the gear -> sha...

but can you REMOVE the ash pan without removing the tender?

i remember not -> and that is a major problem unless you have really clean burning coal

having a 'bottom hatch' that you can release is also very well worth the effort if you want to run more than a couple of laps around a short track.

Been there, done that - yours looks good. Just an aside thought.. Before you get too far -> think about the ash pan. With the unavailability of Welsh coal, unless you burn green coke, you are going to make LOT more ash than you can easily remove. Any minor changes you can make to the design to allow...

Considering that you are just starting, strongly suggest you stay with a smaller loco.

A 2-4-0 in 3/4" is more fun than you can imagine.

Compare this feat of engineering beauty to what someone else is hoping to get $100,000 for on eBay.

well there you go - saved me going out into the camper and actually measuring the trucks....

IIRC Fred did it with a small chisel re-shaped tool to round the ends over, about 10 degrees at a time.

Doesn't that describe most of California in general?

It used to be that you knew your diesel was set right when it would shoot carbon balls out the stack after it had been idling for a while.