The Home Machinist!

Hey Bill, How much rail are you looking for? I could send you a sample of mine and you're not too far away. If you need rail joiners, the TrainMountain type slide on joiners fit my rail perfectly (so I am told). I could meet you somwhere between you and me for delivery/pickup. I will be visiting rel...

well Jesse,
I must be half asleep. I thought he was looking for the Raritan castings...I'm gonna erase that post and get some coffee.

Post deleted by Bruce_Mowbray

Jesse, Swing motion trucks were "thought" to be the answer to bad track. They would reduce the amount of sideways shock delivered to the car body above them. The problems with them were the added costs of manufacturing and maintaining the extra parts on the swing motion trucks. Another pro...

Back in February, somebody was asking about archbar trucks. I found an interesting page showing the assembly of a set of (full size) wood arch bar trucks. Good photos that show good details.
Enjoy

http://spcrr.org/NARFGrantWheels.html

Bruce, the last remaining of the twelve engines is located at the Nevada State Railroad Musem in Carson City. They have no plans of making her run, last I heard [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/frown.gif"%20alt="[/img]. Kevin, You are right. When I was visiting Carson City, Nevada on a side tri...

I think that the smaller wheels would result in a shorter locomotive, not a lower axle-center. It seems like it would be far simpler to rework the pilot truck to a lower stance than to extend the horns to make up for lower axle centers. Also, inclining the cylinders looks to be a lot of work for a ...

Dave, my RRSC American has inclined cylinders to allow more freedom of movement to the pilot truck or so I have read somewhere. Jesse, Here's an interesting bit of history that might explain why the cylinders on our CP173's are inclined. (this is my explanation anyway) When the Norris locomotive wo...

[quote If dies like you mention are used the material will wrinkle and form creases around the perimeter. Imagine doing this same operation with a sheet of paper, the same thing will happen with copper. [/quote] Stephan only needs a 1/2" flange around the edge and he is using .050" copper....

Willy, The main reason is that short, but wide ports open fully much quicker than long narrow ports. This is good for getting as much steam into the cylinder in the shortest amount of time. Secondary reason is that short valve travel also means less wear on the valve face and less movement of valve ...

Joe, I made my own tool to crush my rivets for my brass tender. I used small allen head bolts to hold the sheets together while riveting but I highly reccomend the clecos (Locoparts has them). See my web page on my "riveting" experience. http://www.geocities.com/trainhead391/rivet-tool.html

SMT, I have been doing a lot of work with copper sheet lately (building a Victorian house) and find that it is the easiest, most forgiving metal to form either by hand, with sheetmetal tools or with a die. Simple dies can be made out of aluminum if your quantities are under 1000 pcs. Fence post caps...