Ulin Locomotive Works

[Greg_Lewis]

Greg, how did they calculate what to charge you for the drivers?

What metals do they pour grey only, or ductile, bronze, brass, too?

It's been such a long time that anything I could tell you would be obsolete. I suggest you contact them directly. The price at the time was more than fair. I gave them a loose pattern and they mounted it on a board. They were extremely friendly and helpful, had a reasonable lead time and the metal was clean and easy to machine. Other live steamers have used them with good results.

[Rob Gardner]

I spoke with Rich about this a few years ago and he had been running into this issue with the foundries around Longmont and Greely that serve the sugar beet industry. It was nothing new to him at the time and he had already stopped marketing his really nice 1.6" cross compound air compressor as a functioning kit because he just had no guarantee of the quality of the bronze castings he was getting at the time. Yes, even with the porosity issues he was running into, you could sleeve the bores and still have a working model, but he felt that was a serious compromise and didn't want to openly market that as a "fix". I felt bad for him. My guess is that unless he could find local sources, he just wasn't going to try and run a business using out of state foundries.

Wish I had bought two of those kits years ago before I got married, lol. Like anything specially produced in this hobby, nothing is getting any cheaper.

Rob Gardner