12" working railroad

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.
Pontiacguy1
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by Pontiacguy1 »

How are you going to move it when you are not hooked up and the air lines pumped up?
rkcarguy
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

I don't see this being a common issue, but if I must I could charge the piece of rolling stock with my portable air tank or include some kind of lever under the frame that I could pull to release the brakes. I could even have the brake wheel(wheel would be "normally on") pull a cable that would pull the brakes off the wheels.
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NP317
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by NP317 »

I vote for the brake wheel solution.
You'll like it,
and maybe feel more like a railroader...
:lol:
~RN
rkcarguy
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

Yes I've been brainstorming about the brake wheel idea. I think I can use one of the bolt on commercial truck strap winches, weld a wheel onto the hex, and run cable through the slot. This would give me a counter clockwise ratcheting mechanism that would pull the brakes off the wheels, and a release lever when I want to engage the brakes. They are a bit big, but I can bury most of the mechanism in the end of the bulkheads on the flat cars.
The riding car won't need one, but definitely anything that gets unhooked from the train and parked would benefit.

http://www.uscargocontrol.com/2-Lashing ... SYQAvD_BwE
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steamin10
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by steamin10 »

Those winders are ugly. i think I would invest the time into making a bolt through a ssquare tube cube with a water valve handle on it. the ratchet could be brazed/soldered to the bolt (shaft) anfter sawing the teeth for the pawl. The pawl could be made loose to allow gravity to drop it so there would be no springs or fiddly things to mess with. Quite simple really.. For the purist, you can cast your own brake wheel in type metal and get away with it. Make a lead mold from aluminum or tight wood and cast the few you need.

This kind of imagineering is why I like the larger scales.
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.
rkcarguy
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

I was thinking I could have brake wheels laser cut and carefully TIG weld them to the hex on the ratchet winch, it wouldn't really show behind the wheel. As another alternate, It would be easy enough to cut one of the winches apart and narrow it up.
My kids and I brush painted the riding car frame Saturday. There is a few drips and sags, but it's just a protective coat not a finish coat as the riding car will wind up being a reddish brown color. Only a couple area's will show that I can block sand smooth and then finish coat when I'm ready. The grey color of the paint may be a dead on match for the southern pacific grey, so I think it's going to work well on the locomotive as long as I can find a place to actually spray it on.
Nothing I had on hand would clean up the brushes used in this paint. In fact I just left the brush in the remains of the paint in the cup and this morning I couldn't get the paint to part from the brush or the cup with all my might!

Work is about 2 weeks away from the installation of our new toy...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOxsc78As7c
rkcarguy
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

I stayed after work tonight and welded up my truck frames for my riding car. I made some spacers from pipe on the lathe to hold them the proper distance apart, then dropped in the "sliders" on each side, inserted 2 layers of paper as a spacer, and then tacked them up with the TIG welder.
The bolsters slide pretty nice up and down the side frames even without grease. Now just some spring perches and I'll be ready for wheel sets.
trucktig.jpg
trucktig2.jpg
rkcarguy
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

Looks like the overall width of the trucks from the end of the pillow block axle collars is going to be 17-1/2", for locomotives and rolling stock that are 20" wide. I think it's going to look ok. I could have tightened it up another half inch, but this would have left me having to trim each pillow block bolt to the exact length and use low profile nuts on the inside to clear the wheels.....either that or change my design to drill and tapping the holes in the truck sides. I don't like that for such an application because if the holes strip it would be a bunch of work to fix.
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Harold_V
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by Harold_V »

rkcarguy wrote: Mon Jul 23, 2018 10:23 pm I stayed after work tonight and welded up my truck frames for my riding car.
Pretty welds! Well done.

H
Wise people talk because they have something to say. Fools talk because they have to say something.
rkcarguy
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

Thanks Harold, as a welder I always feel like I could do better :)
It was strange, the puddle didn't want to wet out onto the rectangle tube very well, and preferred the thicker laser cut slider plates. Maybe if I'd flap wheeled the outside ends of the tube I could managed a smaller bead.
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Harold_V
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by Harold_V »

One question. Did you purge the ID?

H
Wise people talk because they have something to say. Fools talk because they have to say something.
rkcarguy
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Location: Wa State

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

No I did not, I've only purged the few stainless pipes I've done that were food grade. This was just a matter of stomping on the pedal and stuffing the rod in there, move quick so the heat doesn't build and "grey" the weld.
These are the "light duty" version of my trucks for my riding car. On the load carrying trucks I'm going to be using solid 1x2 bar instead of the 1x2x.120 tube for the bolsters.
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