I still need to silver solder the truck frames together but my Clishay is rolling finally. It feels good to reach a mile stone after more than 20 years. There is still a lot to do but at least it is identifiable as something train related and not just a pile of parts.
By far I’ve spent the most time on the truck side frames. The design is good in that very little machining is required but there are a lot of parts that needed to be fit, pinned and then sliver soldered.
For those that are interested I have about $450 tied up in the project up to this point. About $250 was spent since this spring. The gear set was most expensive at about $150.
The other $200 or so was spent over the last 20 years. That consisted of mainly the wheel castings and sprockets. Most of the other steel was scrounged from wherever I could get it.
I estimate it will be another $700-1,000 to finish it up but that’s shooting from the hip and will probably creep up as I go. The boiler and piping are the big outliers at this point.
The near term plan is to finish up the rest of the frame details and then move on to the transmission. At this rate my goal of starting the engine over the winter is unlikely but not impossible. Still, I’ll be happy if I can get the frame and running gear done by spring.
