Union Pacific Big Boy in 3/4 Inch Scale

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Carrdo
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Post by Carrdo »

Some of the latest pictures of the Big Boy. Richard will fill you in on what we have been doing.
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RET
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Post by RET »

Just a few pictures to bring you up to date. The chassis changes are now complete & as you can see, we've started to put it back together. The object of the chassis changes was to get the locomotive to hold the track properly while not doing anything that would change its appearance in any way. Even before all the changes were complete, it would go around both the Hamilton & TLS tracks in the forward direction & most of the way in reverse. Now with the final changes, it should do even better.

As you can see from the pictures, Gerhardt's workmanship is VERY good and it is even more impressive when the locomotive chassis moves on air under its own power. At present I'm designing & building a double acting axle pump that bolts to the black bracket you see above the trailing truck. The lever in front of the bracket is driven by an eccentric on the back axle of the rear engine and will operate the pump.

If you look at the ash pan, you will see that it isn't designed for coal or even oil firing; propane seems to be what was intended & it makes the most sense to me. The plan is to have the burner fire down onto a tray of refractory which will give the same radiant heat that a coal fire would do.

Anyway, the pictures show where we are at the moment; a lot still has to be done before we can even consider running it on steam. Perhaps next summer if we're lucky?

Richard Trounce
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Keith
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Post by Keith »

There could not be a more fitting memorial to a great craftsman, than for you to finish the model.

Keep up the good work.
Keith, From the land of Oz, although not the Wizard of.
RET
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Post by RET »

I don't want to put too much in this thread, but perhaps you might be interested in a little more detail on the builder & the history of this model. The following is the preamble from a record that I started last September.

This Big Boy was built by Gerhardt Kuhnt in Sarnia. He emigrated from Germany in 1969 and worked for Daimler Chrysler. He retired from the company in 1989 as an inspector. He never completed the Big Boy because he got sick with alzheimer’s disease. He died this Summer (2005). His first locomotive was a President series Pacific which he built with castings & plans from Ted McJanet in Woodstock. He followed the drawings quite closely and the end result is a well built, nicely detailed locomotive that has been run, but not much. He started the Pacific in 1990 and finished it about 1994. Don Carr bought it this Spring (2005) from Gerhardt’s son Gunther.

The Big Boy is a much more ambitious project. He would have started that about 1994 and was probably researching it before he finished the Pacific. Construction may not have started for a year or two, probably 1996. While there are complete and detailed model plans for the Pacific, there are no complete plans for a model Big Boy, especially in 3 1/2” gauge. To build it, Gerhardt used material from a number of sources; the Modeltec articles on Roy Johnson’s “Four Aces” (that’s where the throttle & superheaters came from, plus a number of other things), some 3 1/2” drawings from an English source “True to Scale Services,” and a lot of information from the drawings of the full size Big Boys that appeared in a series in Modeltec about the same time as the “Four Aces.” Much of the detail design has to have come from his own ideas which, as you can see from looking at the model, are very good. A lot of thought has gone into the combination of full size practice with the departures that are necessary to make a practical working model, but one that looks as much as possible like the real thing.
Gunther said that his father would go down to the basement early in the morning and work all day, just taking breaks for meals and any necessary housework (which was minimal). He would quit in the evening, but not before 9:00 pm. This meant that he was putting in a 10 to 11 hour workday. He kept that up for 5 years, and the results certainly show it. Gunther says that he wishes his father had kept some notes of his work, but his father’s attitude was “I know what I have done, nobody else really needs to know.” According to Gunther, Gerhardt last worked on the engine and tender in the winter of 2003/2004. When Don & I got the locomotive, there was no rust, but it didn’t roll freely. I oiled it and after a few days, it now rolls quite well.

That was written when we first got the model home. It is the first page of what is now a 12 page record in Word of our progress to date.
As for myself, I would never start a project like this because I know I would never finish it, but I can certainly admire someone who can. I work slowly and think about what I'm going to do before I do it. I usually go through at least two or three different methods or designs before I get to the point of actually building something. I am better at troubleshooting & getting things to work the way I think they should, even if that means inventing something to do the job.
Don resized the pictures to fit within the recommended board file limits, so that is why they are small. I don't know if you can resize them up or not. If desired, I'm sure that he could repost one or two of them.

Richard Trounce
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Harold_V
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Post by Harold_V »

RET wrote: Don resized the pictures to fit within the recommended board file limits, so that is why they are small. I don't know if you can resize them up or not. If desired, I'm sure that he could repost one or two of them.

Richard Trounce
Sigh! Last night, once again, I was admiring the engine, and wishing that the pictures were not small.

Resizing to make them smaller in file size by reducing pixels is not the way to go. While it's important that the picture not be larger than 800 pixels wide (750 is perfect, 770 acceptable), once you've reduced the pixel size, they don't enlarge well. It's far better to reduce the file size after the picture has been reduced to the proper pixel size.

If you don't have the capability to reduce file size, here's a link to IrfanView, which is a free download. http://www.irfanview.com/

I use that program when I resize the pictures posted on the board.

When you started posting the pictures you'd reduced, I tried enlarging them, but the quality was lost, so I left them small. The file size is still way too large considering you post them in multiples. By the time a thread is well saturated, it takes literally minutes for all of the pictures to download for those of us with a dial-up.

Having said all the above, if you can't resize the pictures by reducing file size, please continue to post them as before, and I'll resize them. That way they end up large, with good detail. The quality of your pictures is as good as I've seen, so they respond very well to file size reduction.

By the way, thanks for posting them, and for sharing the interesting story about the engine.

Harold
RET
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Post by RET »

Sorry about the pictures Harold. Here are three in JPEG format. When we get things sorted out, we'll try to do them the way you want.

This is the first time I've tried to post pictures. Its a bit of a learning curve.

Richard Trounce.


Richard,

No problem with the pics, which I have resized. Thanks for posting them. Wonderful engine and workmanship!

Harold
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Front Engine
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RET
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Post by RET »

Now & then we'll add a bit to this record. Today's bit covers the new style superheaters. Because of the large amount of external steam piping, good superheating is even more important on this model.

As you can see from one of the previous pictures, Gerhardt planned on using superheaters in the model, but he put in the traditional "Curly" style that didn't go into the firebox & had a return block at the end. From my reading & personal experience (which I must admit is rather limited) I've found that to be useful, superheaters must extend into the firebox. Otherwise their effect is so slight that it isn't really worth the effort. If you also look at the pictures (including the present ones), you will see that the return blocks are quite large & would block the flues too much.

The "new design" is made from thin wall stainless tube (about .018" wall thickness) with an id. just under 1/4" & an od. just over. The ends are bent & then sawn so that they will meet at about a 35 to 45 degree angle, then you take them & have them TIG welded. The large included angle is necessary so that you can TIG weld the inside of the bend (I found that out the hard way). After the weld is done, heat the joint up to a bright red (with more heat on the outside) and when it gets softer, slowly bend the joint until the tubes are parallel.

You can see the difference between the lengths of the new & the old superheaters because the old ones didn't even go into the combustion chamber, let alone the firebox. I've found out that I could get the new style past the combustion chamber water tubes & the new ones will go to within 1" of the back of the firebox. You can see that there is a little buckling at the bend due to the thin wall but they should perform OK. This is the same style as those in the Boston & Albany & that works OK except that they don't extend far enough.

In a week or two we should be ready to show the axle pump pictures.

Richard Trounce
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RET
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Post by RET »

I forgot. The old style is the copper one with the brass return block.

Also; Harold, are the pictures OK this time, or did I mess it up again?

Richard Trounce

Pixel size is very acceptable, Richard, although I did resize the file size.

No big deal!

Harold
tasharv
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Re: Union Pacific Big Boy in 3/4 Inch Scale

Post by tasharv »

I know it's been a long time since anyone has posted to this thread, but my Dad was doing some digging and found this. Gerhardt was my grandfather and I remeber him working on Big Boy. It was so wonderful to see these pictures! Just out of curiosity is Big Boy still a work in progress or is he complete? Any updated pictures would be wonderful!

Katherine Pollard
mjahn
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Re: Union Pacific Big Boy in 3/4 Inch Scale

Post by mjahn »

Oh I hope this project is being continued...
Mattaniah Jahn

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operating on the Manatee Central RR
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steamingdon
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Re: Union Pacific Big Boy in 3/4 Inch Scale

Post by steamingdon »

Five years is a long time between posts,I think? :?: :?: :?: :wink:
steamer
Carrdo
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Re: Union Pacific Big Boy in 3/4 Inch Scale

Post by Carrdo »

Yes, the Big Boy is still being worked on. Richard is doing all of the work. I can take some photos of what he has done the next time I am over there.

Richard, maybe you can give a verbal update.
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