Southern Pacific S-14 in 1.6"

[AnthonyDuarte]

Hi everyone,

I started out in the hobby with a 1" scale L.E. Pacific back in 2010, and since then have been itching to build my own locomotive. I spent my college years studying music and thusly have little to no machining experience. However, I'm not afraid to make some scrap along the way - expect to see plenty of it!

In October I decided I wanted to build something in 7.5" gauge, but something relatively portable, and decided on an SP switcher. I've always had a soft spot for the heavier SP switchers with the short Vanderbilt tenders, and as a kid I crawled all over SP's S-14 #1285 at Dennis the Menace Park in Monterey, CA. The S-14 class was built by Lima, so the California R.R. Museum has a decent set of drawings for them and 1285 is still fairly intact, so between the real thing and the original construction drawings, I felt I had plenty of resources to scale down the loco myself.

In addition to lots of time in SolidWorks, I've also been collecting fittings, valves, headlights, etc for a few months but the actual construction began just this past week, and as such I feel it's time to start documenting the progress.

Here are some photo-realistic renderings of the locomotive that SolidWorks spits out from the CAD drawings.
There's still plenty to do, although it's getting close. The biggest component yet to be design is the brake rigging. I need to get down to the real thing to take some pictures & measurements.

[AnthonyDuarte]

Last week the frames were cut on a water jet, and the expansion links were cut on a wire EDM.
The links just needed some light clean up with sand paper, the hole for the bushing bored out, and an oil hole drilled/tapped on top. Pictured is a "finished" link and one as it came off the EDM. They were cut from O-1 tool steel and ground from 3/8" to 1/3". Scaling to 1.6" scale seems to result in a lot of thirds and sixths.

The outer plates for the links will be 3D printed in Stainless, so hopefully very little effort on my part will go into the final assembly.

[SilverSanJuan]

Nice, Anthony. That'll be a great locomotive.

Todd

[AnthonyDuarte]

This weekend's goal was to get a good start on the frames.
I tore apart my first 1" scale pacific a little over a year ago and discovered (unpleasantly) that the pedestal binders were NOT interchangeable. I want my locomotive to be held to a higher standard. I machined all the binders, then carefully tapped the mounting holes in the frame, and they all fit nicely into place with 10-32 cap screws. A very delightful feeling knowing I can take them all off and not worry about where they'll be going back.

The pedestals are all machined, and presently I'm working on squaring up the top of the frame.

[Harlock]

That SP switcher at Dennis the Menace park in better days. You're not allowed to climb on it anymore; it's fenced off.

I too climbed on it as a kid in the 70s and 80s.

-Mike

[Mike Walsh]

Have you looked into the machinability of final 3-d printed stainless parts?

I seem to recall the machinability of 3dP parts being poor, which could be an issue when it comes to machining your parts.

[Benjamin Maggi]

Harlock,
Did the city actually add handrails to the cab roof and the smokestack/smokebox to make it easier for people to climb on it?

[kenrinc]

Anthony,

Looks awesome! Glad to see you progressing.

Last weekend, I was talking to Steve Vitkovits about you. You need to bring that thing down to the GGLS "south chapter" build meetings! We usually meet in Steve's shop in San Jose. Steve's in the middle of a 90ton Mikado build. Perfect place to show n tell, BS and talk about building locomotives.

Ken-

[AnthonyDuarte]

Harlock,
Did the city actually add handrails to the cab roof and the smokestack/smokebox to make it easier for people to climb on it?

They sure did. It was only recently that California decided a steam loco wasn't safe playground equipment (insane!) The city was seriously considering removing the loco from the park completely, but I met the gentleman that fought to keep it there and is now working to make some sort of interactive display on the ground and allow kids to at least go into the cab.
He's generously offered to grant me access to the loco if I give sufficient notice. I've been meaning to get down there to take note of some final details on the engine and also get started on measuring/photographing the tender.

Mike W, I've faced some printed SS on the lathe before and it did alright. It's definitely not free-machining but it cleans up nice.

Mike M, WHERE did you find that beautiful photo of 1285? I've been scanning page after page of google image searches and looked through countless SP books and have only found one crummy picture of it in service at the Mission Bay yard and a handful of tiny low resolution photos.

[Harlock]

That photo came from Martin Hansen, a friend of mine. If you want a hi-res pic for reference I can try to talk him into it.

The railings on the engine actually look identical to the other engines that SP donated to parks in the area (Golden Gate Park in SF was another location) so I think the SP actually put those on. Not sure though.

Are you aware of the #1215 on display at Kelley Park in San Jose? It's in much more original condition having not been converted to playground equipment. They recently repainted it.

Regarding stainless RP: I've done minor cleanup on the shapeways stainless parts and it machines just fine.

-Mike

[MarshCreekMiningCo]

Looking great Anthony!

[AnthonyDuarte]

Are you aware of the #1215 on display at Kelley Park in San Jose? It's in much more original condition having not been converted to playground equipment. They recently repainted it.

I went over and looked at 1215 last summer and have tons of pictures of it. It's definitely more together than 1285, but it's an S-10, so there are quite a few differences. Smaller drivers, different running boards, no power reverse, different brake cylinder arrangement, and the frame has some notable differences as well. It's still been a tremendous help in understanding how these little 0-6-0's were built.