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.

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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.
rkcarguy
Posts: 1730
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

I bought several sheets of aluminum during the great recession, we'd had a vendor go out of business and another one bought their stock so they had some super cheap pricing. I got 2 sheets of .065" 4x8, 2 sheets of .090 bright tread plate 4x10, and a sheet of 1/8" 3x8 all for $225. Now it's way up again and I just sold the tread plates for $225 lol. I'm using the .065 and 1/8 for my loco body, and still have one full sheet of .065 and about half the 1/8 left.
We also got certified around the same time, and any remnants that weren't or couldn't be job # and heat # labeled were cleaned out and recycled. We had some aluminum I-beam, angle, and T remnants that weren't going to go for much at the recycler, so I was given the green light to help myself in exchange for donuts and coffee for the office:)
rkcarguy
Posts: 1730
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

I built my headlight "tube" tonight, and added pics to imageshack.
I used a 2" PVC "insulating bushing" for the ring, cut out a circle of lexan, and then cut a sliver of the threaded portion of a male coupler to sandwich it into the bushing. I'm going to bend some of my .065" aluminum into a little bracket, and actually have this headlight frame hinge open.
The face of the plate I riveted to the end of the tube is rough cut, I'm going to let the JB weld cure and then file it to match the tubes outer diameter. I tossed my light in the tube behind the lenses and it's pretty bright, I'm pleased with how it's coming together so far. I don't really want anything nearly this bright on the back of the cab shinning in my face, so I'm definitely going to use something dimmer on that one.
rkcarguy
Posts: 1730
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

I sent a message to SMS Rail Lines in NJ a couple days ago looking for some pictures of the top of the hood of the S12 so I could see what the hatches and grilles look like, and received some pictures via text this morning! Huge thanks to them!
I transferred the pictures to my imageshack.
rkcarguy
Posts: 1730
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

rkcarguy
Posts: 1730
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

Tonight I worked on the signals some more and then built my headlight frames for both ends of the locomotive. I wanted them to hinge open like the real thing, so I made some tiny aluminum hinge plates, drilled one side with a thru hole and the other tapped it #4-40. Then I cut little pockets into the rings and bedded all the parts into them with JB weld.
rkcarguy
Posts: 1730
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

Got the headlight assemblies all done. As the rear one will be painted grey with the locomotive, I left the film on the lexan and will remove it when the final paint is done. These things were a lot of work but I think they look great and were worth it.
I am going to be copying SP #2120 in the picture I linked a page back or so. Originally I didn't like them due to the goofy washer/dryer lights, but not all of them had them.
rkcarguy
Posts: 1730
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

I started on the nose tonight, it's going to be a job with all the front corners being radiused, and those compound radius hood corners will probably require some hammer persuasion and bondo for sure.
I also found a piece of perforated metal via dumpster diving the scrap bin to use for my vent in the top of the hood, on the real thing it's serrated grating. Unfortunately they don't make that in 1/6th scale, so this 10ga 3/8 square opening perf metal is the closest I'm going to get.
rkcarguy
Posts: 1730
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

The body was getting pretty floppy in the middle when I was working on the nose, so I had to abandon that and start framing in the inside of the body some more. I cut two pieces of 2" aluminum channel and got one of them riveted into the bottom edge of the hood on one side, I'll do the other one tonight. The rivets won't show here, so it's been slow going drilling the holes, countersink them, clean out the chips, then install the rivets.
rkcarguy
Posts: 1730
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

Well the radius pieces of the nose and channel along the other side of the body are installed, it's starting to look like an S12 finally.
Soon it will be time for the details, some ladder rungs, the grille, the top of the cab, and the cab vents(at least that is what I think they are, there is some angled things like drier vents sort of, one on the front of the cab and another on the back). Then I need to make the "lump" for the nose that the headlight tube goes into.
I really want to do something about the louvers and not leave the sides smooth, but there is 118 of them on EACH side! They scale out to less than 1-1/4" long....
rkcarguy
Posts: 1730
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

I got the headlight mounted on the nose, coped the headlight tube to fit, and took some pictures. I had to cut a hole in the body and drop my led projector light down into the body a little bit to get equal light to both lenses. I'll need to cut a slice in this tube and angle the back down into the "lump", but want to fit that once I've made it.
It looks like I need some 2" pipe for the side radiuses on the lump so working on that is dead until tomorrow. I'm going to rivet some rectangle tube into the rear of the cab after dinner to beef it up.
rkcarguy
Posts: 1730
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

Progress continues, I installed a cabinet hinge so the cover plate over the "engine" area flips up to allow filling of the hydraulic and gas tank, and riveted more 2" aluminum channel into the inside of the hood to stiffen it up. The body is starting to get a little portly...
Yesterday I purchased some 3/16 brass round bar, and cut+formed the rungs that go up the side of the engine in front of the cab. I'll be soldering little brass tabs onto these and then using #6 stainless tek screws to mount them to the body. The tek screws have a plain hex head, and mimic a full scale bolt nicely unlike the other screw head types.
On a more comical note, I was eyeing my daughters Ken doll, thinking his upper half would fit into the engineer's side of the cab above the engine, fitted with a hat, cigar in his mouth, and some clothing I can use to change oil with before I put it on him:)
rkcarguy
Posts: 1730
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

I made and attached the rungs and grab handle to the body, the detail they add really makes it start to look like a locomotive and dispels the smooth side look I don't care for. The SP #2120 I'm modeling had few railings and body mounted grab rail on the side, so I bought 12' of 5/16" aluminum round bar and will be working on these next.
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