Woodinville Shops

Discuss park gauge trains and large scale miniature railways having track gauges from 8" to 24" gauge and designed at scales of 2" to the foot or greater - whether modeled for personal use, or purpose built for amusement park operation or private railroading.

Moderators: Glenn Brooks, Harold_V

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Topics may include: antique park gauge train restoration, preservation, and history; building new grand scale equipment from scratch; large scale miniature railway construction, maintenance, and safe operation; fallen flags; track, gauge, and equipment standards; grand scale vendor offerings; and, compiling an on-line motive power roster.
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NP317
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Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by NP317 »

Harold said:
"I'd explore the concept of the diameter of the paddles being a guide (pilot) to keep the valve in proper orientation, yet allowing fluid to travel through the valve when it's open."

That was my first thought, too.
~NR
rkcarguy
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Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by rkcarguy »

Nice work Glenn! What kind of lathe is that?
I tried to post last night and for some reason the submit button wouldn't do anything...
Glenn Brooks
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Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

elm53 wrote: Thu Aug 16, 2018 6:22 am Glenn, have you considerd lapping the checks rather than making new parts? You may have to do it even with new to get a good seat in the valve. Just a thought. And nice work on the loco!
Elm, I did think about lapping. Then I noticed a pretty good side nick, or gouge, in the cone seat, which is to deep to polish out. Figured this might be contributing to the back pressure venting in the line. So decided to try my hand at making a new seat.

Later in the evening, saw where these valves in bronze are selling on line for as much as $60 each. So hoping the new parts will do the trick.

Harold and Russ, thanks. Makes sense these fluted ends are a guide of some sort and designed to enable water flow.

Ryan, this lathe is a lot 4 Dalton 7x48”. Old timer, made in 1919. Really a nice, stout little machine. I rebuilt it a couple of years ago and usually do all my small work on it. Great fun to work with.
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Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
elm53
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Location: worcester,ma

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by elm53 »

No problem .the extension below the cone is a guide for the cone to keep straight and allow water,air or steam to pass through. I have seen safety valves made tjat way. Best of luck!
James A
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Location: Chiloquin, Or

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by James A »

Glenn Brooks wrote: Tue Aug 14, 2018 9:28 pm Ran the Ottaway on the main line today. Worked on firing technique - keeping the right level of water in the boiler, proper bed of coal, and a head of steam. Mostly successful, except the original check valves for the injectors seem to be starting to fail. They allow back pressure from the boiler to counteract the injectors flow. Steam back jets out the injector overflow line. So tomorrow, off to look for replacement check valves.

Here’s a few pics, after Cinder-Ella got cleaned up after the days steam up.

BTW, the spark arrester seems to be doing its job. Also discovered it cleans up pretty well when hitting it with a blast of water from the hose.


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Glenn

Wow, that looks really nice. GN my favorite. I rode behind that on Saturday for so many years.
Glenn Brooks
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Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Thanks James!
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
Glenn Brooks
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Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Finally finished milling the ends of my replacement seat for the check valve, in line between the injector and the boiler. Milling the four flutes out on each end proved to be something of a chore, as I couldn’t get the end mill into one end without damaging the seat in the middle. Eventually was able to invert the part and hold it in a vee block to finish milling the water passages.

It holds 100PSI in the valve, so the seat seems to be working.

Here’s the final product just prior toparting off in the lathe.
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Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
rkcarguy
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Location: Wa State

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by rkcarguy »

Very nice, you can kind of see the old valve was tired on the conical portion(seat).
For the cost of all those little brass tidbits, the lathe starts to pay for itself pretty quick. :)
Glenn Brooks
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Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Made up a test coupler pocket yesterday for some RMI 2.5” couplers I picked up at the Trianneal last month. Actually, with a spring assembly attached to the back end of the couplers, the pockets will function as draft gear.

This one is a test to see how well the design works in actual practice. I’ll put version 2.0 on all my rolling stock and a couple of cars I plan to build next year.

Right now, a have two cars I can use for the consist: a drop flat, I use use as an MOW car, and an Ottaway kid’s riding car. Usually Ottaway’s came in sets of three riding cars. I only have the third, Pullman Platform style car, with a nice little miniature platform on the back end. No idea where the other two riding cars went off to. Some prior owner scrapped them I guess. Can’t image why someone would do that.

Anyway, the flat car only has a Coupler on one end. I want to cut it into consist immediately behind the tender, so it will get the new, experimental draft gear. Which means the Pullman car needs a matching coupler. So a second draft gear is in the works, for the Pullman.

I wanted the draft gear to be pie shaped, to accommodate the arc the coupler travels when going around corners. But couldn’t come up with an easy method to fabricate such a complex shape.

Finally hit on the idea of cutting a 1.5” piece off the end of a length of 2” x 6” x 3/16” rectangular tubing. Then cut one end off, and heated and bent the parallel arms out to the pie shape I was looking for. Basic blacksmith stuff. But lots of fun! drilled a hole in the back end to secure the couple, then lastly cut and welded some 3/16” pie shaped plate top and bottom and Walah! Draft gear. Very satisfying to come up with something that seems to work.

At 1 1/2” each, I figure a 2’ length of box tubing will make 12 to 16 pockets- enuf for 8 cars - more than I will ever need.

Here’s the construction sequence:

Shaping
Shaping the rectangular tubing, sans 9ne end
Shaping the rectangular tubing, sans 9ne end
Set up a clamp to drill the back end for the coupler spring gear
Set up a clamp to drill the back end for the coupler spring gear
Front of coupler with rounded face
Front of coupler with rounded face
Testing the coupler and pocket. The 1” square metal stud is the rear mounting post. Too gets welded to frame.  The front of the pocket will be bolted or welded to the end plate.
Testing the coupler and pocket. The 1” square metal stud is the rear mounting post. Too gets welded to frame. The front of the pocket will be bolted or welded to the end plate.
Draft gear, separated into components.
Draft gear, separated into components.
As a prototype, I think it will work pretty well. Might shorten the body 1” on the next one, to give the coupler more room to compress into the pocket.

Today added a 4x6” faceplate, but forgot to take a picture. I’ll post a photo of the final assembly tomorrow - with mounting brackets welded on...

Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
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steamin10
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Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by steamin10 »

Having only one observation car is an excuse to build a mail car, express or other slab sided 'filler' for your train. Make it short and sweet like any short line would. Not much more than a box on wheels, it can be for tools, pop, or just about anything you can think of.
Big Dave, former Millwright, Electrician, Environmental conditioning, and back yard Fixxit guy. Now retired, persuing boats, trains, and broken relics.
We have enough youth, how about a fountain of Smart. My computer beat me at chess, but not kickboxing
It is not getting caught in the rain, its learning to dance in it. People saying good morning, should have to prove it.
Glenn Brooks
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Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Steaming10- Yes! Actually, can’t wait to get started. I have an old fashioned mail/passenger combo car in mind- to hold propane tanks, tools, etc...for when I finally convert from coal. Maybe with a partially removable clestory (sp?) top for one or two “first class” seats for passengers in the rear. Been accumulating materials, but still working on existing punch list of fixes. Soon, hopefully.

GPB
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
Glenn Brooks
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Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

OK. Grabbed a couple of quite shots of the finished draft gear, laid out on the business end of my MOW drop flat car. Installation tomorrow I think.
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Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
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