The Home Machinist!

The Bog Boy shown in the link, looks like it is finished and running. There is even a video. It is a monster even in 1" scale!

This 5" big boy as just appeared i don't now much about its history but i think it will be for sale soon.

https://youtu.be/nECPY8A9uj8

http://www.steamworkshop.co.uk/

Gary, I've been following your R class build from the sidelines and wow!!! Beautiful model of a beautiful loco, I hope I'll see it around sometime. I'm heading to the Steamrail Newport open day in March, hopefully I'll be able to get up close and personal with either 711 or 761.

Hmm, a lot of 5" gauge big boys seem to be appearing at the moment for some reason. Stranger still, where they've been up until now seems to be a mystery, no one knows anything about their back stories!

In recent shop news however I've made a start on the ominous task of cutting, shutting and splicing Challenger castings to produce Big Boy pieces. Roger Goldmans Challenger castings are impeccable, consistent wall thickness, accurately located and well finished cores. It hurts a little bit inside taking the slitting saw and dismembering them. In what was an effort towards standardisation and cost minimization, the UPRR engineered proven design, similar shapes and construction into Big Boys from the Challenger design. Luckily for me, this means with a few select cuts the Challenger castings can be rearranged and repurposed into prototypically accurate pieces for its bigger brother. Lots of silver soldering ahead...

A few more.

DanSmo wrote:Richard, yes i considered doing something similar but I'm using pre-hardened and ground bar stock for my axles which means further machining is not an option. Instead I've drilled a fill hole in the top of the journal box and a drain hole in the bottom, that way i will be able to fill it with oil, then later drain it when it come time for a service... just like in full size. The drain plug will also have a magnet in it to trap metallic particles just as many automotive applications do.

Hey Dan,

A small carbide drill will make short work of the cross holes. Especially if they're just case hardened.

Andy

Hi,

As Andy says, carbide drills will work OK on the hardened surface. I'm sure that's how they tap the shafting 1/4-20 or bigger to fit the shafting to the Thomson support rails. Also, if your hardened shafting is like the Thomson shafting that is available in standard lengths, the center is softer (you can center punch the center of the Thomson shafting) and can be worked with standard drills. That makes tapping possible as well.

You are doing such a great job that it would be nice to have all the little details the best that is possible as well. The running environment for something like this is even dirtier than in full size because it is closer to the ground. For working models, there are departures from full size practice that should be made for practical reasons.

Keep up the good work, its impressive to say the least!

Richard Trounce.

For those interested in a few details about the 5' g BigBoy (1' scale) in the video above -
Here are a few details about its origins gleaned from one of the SteamWorkshop guys (but happy to stand corrected);

Built by Brian Taylor from the Beech Hurst club over a 25 year period; its the only one complete and running in the UK.
Sadly, the builder passed away a couple of years ago, and the loco recently sold - and is not for re-sale - but will remain as part of a personal collection.
It has a coal-fired copper boiler (imagine the size of the grate!) but the loco requires a little re-commissioning work before its back on the track steaming in anger.

Here is a short video of it running some years back at the Beechurst track. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnbV1Qb0wkY



Needless to say its a beast of a thing, and probably more suited to ground-level running with a driving position on the tender; otherwise its Gadget-arms and a firing shovel...!
~ Phil

A few weeks back I mentioned that the Big Boy tenders had a rare sprinkler installed to keep the first few cars in the train from catching on fire from cinders. I finally found the rare image taken back in the summer of 1950.

Here we see an unknown UP 4000 class steamer assaulting Sherman Hill with the seldom seen in action tender sprinkler doing what it was design ed to do. Notice the small white plume of water spray at the top rear of the tender. It drifts back to keep the first three or four cars moist preventing fires on the wood equipment which was still quite common at that time.

Image is not the best as cameras back in the day were not what we can find today. Most shots were taken in yards and terminals where speed was slow or stationary resulting in sharp images. Here we see a roadside grab shot as father did not worry much about the weaknesses of his camera, he wanted to capture the monster engine at work and just happened to catch the tender sprinkler in action that day. A very rare image showing the sprinkler in action and one of the very few I have ever seen showing the sprinkler.

Enjoy the trip back in time to somewhere on Sherman Hill during the summer of 1950.

Cool, I guess I should add one on the Clubs UP 4026, use it to keep the kids from goofing around....ha.

It gives thought to what a transient in those times would have thought once the train left town and the cold shower was allowed to work its magic. Riding the tops of the first few cars might have been quite the ride. For the uninformed, it was probably a serious surprise. Cold water spray and hot cinders mixed in, an ugly ride for sure.

Someone has to step to the plate first and create the first tender sprinkler in 1.5 scale that actually works. Perhaps after the drought is declared over.

After posting the photo of the Big Boy with tender sprinkler Robert sent me a copy of the original to see if any enhancement could come about. There was some shadow detail that sprang forth but it brings noise with it. Took out a couple of the larger blemishes in the sky and added a little color to the sky. Cropped the right side so there is more of the train in the photo.

Speaking of cinders;
In 1984 we rode behind the UP 3985, a 4-6-6-4 Challenger type that is not much smaller than the Big Boys. Cinders from the 3985 almost destroyed my original video camera. As we were entering Sherman tunnel, heading East towards Speer and Cheyenne, WOW, a cloud that looked like a swarm of locust, only magnified and denser, attacked those of us in the dark about such phenomena and who chose to stick ones neck through open vestibules. My wife spent many an hour cleaning the zoom and focus mechanism on the camera but from then on it grated in use.
It is easy to see how the cinders would build up along the right of way. Surprised the world had enough coal to feed those monsters.

Oh, and by the way, Dan dem's some sweet looking parts. Looks like a world class 4-8-8-4 will be polishing the rails in the, hopefully, not too far future.

Donald

Roger had his Patterns made by a very skilled patternmaker which is why the walls are uniform and castings are way above average. Patterns are the most important thing in getting good sand castings. You can never get a good casting from a lousy pattern. You are doing an exceptionally wonderful job and it will be a beautiful engine when complete. Keep up the good work. Richard