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

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

I notched, formed, and riveted in some 1/2" aluminum angle "furring strip" into the top of the cab and then attached the roof to the cab last night. I still have to trim the one side of the roof even, but the rivets pulled it down tight and the cab is now very solid. Again, it appears to me the Baldwin S-12 was of welded construction, so with the exception of a few rivets I'm leaving exposed to simulate bolts, the majority of them are being installed into countersunk holes which I will bodywork smooth before paint.
The front of the cab is still solid plate, it will be trimmed out to clear the PTO side of the engine and hydraulic pump once I start fitting the body to the finished frame(which will be awhile obviously).
rkcarguy
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Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

Last night I attached the cover to the top rear of the body and installed the last 2 rungs on top of it at each side, then re-attached the cab to the body. I think I may try bending the hood "lump" in one piece, if I use some scraps and "bump" it in the brake on very close centers I should get a nice curve once I figure out the center to center and degree's of each bend. Then I need to rivet some angle into the opening where the "grating" will install in the top of the body, make some of the little bolt on steps for the rear and sides of the cab, and this part of the build is winding down.
rkcarguy
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Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

I need a little help with this one, anyone know of a source for regular hex head 4-40 "bolts" in stainless or brass?
The only hex head #4's I've been able to source are Tek screws, and I've got some details to bolt on that are going to need to be removed and re-installed several times and will need to use real screws. I will also use them in my headlight, the Phillips head screws aren't cutting it in the appearance dept. Every place I've been too locally only goes down to metric M4 in hex head and that's almost 2x the size of 4-40.
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DianneB
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Location: Manitoba, Canada

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by DianneB »

You don't say what part of Washington State but if it gets snow, that will be a problem. Even rain can make rails slippery.

You might want to consider convenience as well. A train trip to the end of the driveway would be nice on a good day but if the weather is miserable and/or you are in a hurry, some other form of garbage-transport might be more appealing and save the railroad for recreation.
Glenn Brooks
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Rick,

I think I’ve seen 4-40 bolts at Mcclendon’s hardware, but they’ve been bought out and now use new suppliers, so no telling. Other local source might be Tacoma Screw. If not try the ubitious McMasters-Car for online sales.

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

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

Thanks Glen!
Looks like a bag of 100 in 18-8 stainless runs about $10.

https://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-hex- ... s/=1ahdgms

Ryan
rkcarguy
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Location: Wa State

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

DianneB, yes it snows here but not much. Maybe a week of the year at most. Rain, quite a bit yes. I'm hoping with all 8 wheels being driven and not being shy with weight on this beast, that I can get enough traction to deal with most any condition. I was originally targeting about 650#'s, but with 8 wheels to distribute it to I'm thinking of bolting some extra plate into each end behind the bulkheads and try for an 800# "wet weight". My only real concern is ice, at 100#'s of weight per wheel, even with such a small contact patch I don't think it's going to break through any ice. It shouldn't be a problem though, as I'm not going to have any area's that will build up water that will freeze over the rails. It would have to be freezing rain, which also happens.
More important, I'll be using this 6 months of the year for firewood hauling, so it's important that it will work in snow even if I have to make a plow or blower car to do it. I can always stock up the pile next to the house when it's forecast to snow though and save myself the trouble, but sometimes they just miss the forecast or we can have a windstorm and lose power for a couple days so the more adverse conditions it will operate in, the better.
rkcarguy
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

Another point to add to above, is from the house to the road I have a route there that should yield less than 2% grade, and the garbage can won't be very heavy. More worrisome, is the firewood will be coming out of the "low" on the property and this is where I'll have the steeper grades and more weight to move. I won't know for sure the exact % until I start surveying and staking the route as I just did some plotting and elevation profiles from google earth. Then there is the matter of how much dirt can move from the high spots to fill in the low spots which can only be figured out by actually doing it lol.
rkcarguy
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

I ran a strap of aluminum scrap through the brake and it worked pretty well, just very time consuming. .060" material with 1/8" spacing of each "bump" produces a smooth radius for the corners of the hood lump on the front of the S12. Time to figure out the "spread" on the piece(in it's flat state), cut it to size and get busy forming.
rkcarguy
Posts: 1730
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

Work was crazy today, didn't get to get out and bend any of my plate pieces unfortunately. I did find a new in box .998" reamer on Ebay tonight for $35 and grabbed it, my axle shaft material is 1.000" with +.000 -.002" tolerances, so this should work pretty well for reaming my plate cutouts and having them be a tight fit on the axles.
rkcarguy
Posts: 1730
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

Got a question for the home builders out there:
The frame for this locomotive is going to be around 84" long, and the height of the sides of it scales out to 2-3/8" tall and I need just under 3" of horizontal surface exposed for the walkways. I also need a fairly square corner so tube steel is out and I'm going to use angle. L3-1/2x2-1/2x1/4 do the job for an 800# target weight? or should I go to 5/16 or 3/8 thickness?
The way the aluminum body will mount to the frame, I can't have the frame flex much. But then again even the 1/4" is 5# per foot, the 3/8" is 7.2# per foot. So the weight range just for the angle frame around the outside is already 90-135#'s alone.
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NP317
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Location: Northern Oregon, USA

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by NP317 »

Use square steel tubing for the frame? Adds rigidity.
~RN
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