Very Cool Video

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JBodenmann
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Location: Tehachapi, California

Very Cool Video

Post by JBodenmann »

I found this video on U Tube. Now to me this is what it is all about, running hell bent, firing on the run, too much fun. I like how the little engine is really ripping along and the cab roof is even bouncing up and down. Big engines are no more fun than tiny ones. This video inspires me to get out in the shop and get to work on my 3-1/2" Ga. 0-6-0 so I can go to Waushakum and run on their wonderful elevated track.
See You In The Funny Pages
Jack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NASQ59J ... re=related
sncf141r
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Location: Canada

Re: Very Cool Video

Post by sncf141r »

Jack;

I have had my 3-1/2" gauge Tich there, running around the track, and my 3-1/2" gauge 2-8-2. Wonderful place, wonderful people. Go, if you have a chance.

My Tich had no problems doing 1 lap between fire cleanings; it had no problem with the grades; in fact, it would just "dig its heels in" and climb like a little champ. This was when the track was like a "dog bone", the final loop underneath the far bulge in the dog bone was not completed. Still, it was the grades that worried me; no problems there; the extra distance should not be a problem.

Hope to go again this August.

JohnS
Ottawa.
JBodenmann wrote:I found this video on U Tube. Now to me this is what it is all about, running hell bent, firing on the run, too much fun. I like how the little engine is really ripping along and the cab roof is even bouncing up and down. Big engines are no more fun than tiny ones. This video inspires me to get out in the shop and get to work on my 3-1/2" Ga. 0-6-0 so I can go to Waushakum and run on their wonderful elevated track.
See You In The Funny Pages
Jack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NASQ59J ... re=related
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Bill Shields
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WLS

Post by Bill Shields »

You have no idea how challenging that track really is.

It's a 3/4" rollercoaster - the only place where it is level is where it changes from UP to DOWN and back again. Even leaving the station is an uphill climb to the covered bridge.

Image

The first time Jim and I took our Tom Thumb up there to run, Charlie Purinton warned us "you better know what you are doing, or someone is going to be pushing you back into the station."

How right he was.

We quickly found out that unless we literally had the pressure on the peg, TT would not go up the back hill with both of us (350# of riders).

No matter what, it would not go up the hill with 400# of riders without considering tying the safeties down (frowned upon, even there). so Jim and I have good reason to watch our diets.

Playing with the axle pump is a way of life in smaller locos.

Getting over-enthusiastic on the long down-hill from the covered bridge to the bottom and pumping in a lot of water is a major mistake - you get to the bottom of the hill, with a LONG climb ahead of you - and PHHT, a boiler full of cold water and no pressure to make the climb.

It's a challenge - probably the premier 3/4" track in the country.

Image

The picture above gives you an idea of the elevation differences. The 3/4" track loops around under itself.

By all means find the time and go. Having a 'Tupperware' loco that travels easily makes it all the more fun.

Joe Ng also has a very nice video of a ride around the same track behind his 1" Pacific.
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JBodenmann
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Post by JBodenmann »

I watched Joe's video and was amazed that he roared along, and along, and still along and never put any coal in.... Simply amazing! Believe me Waushakum is at the very top of my list.
Jack
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Steve_in_Mich
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Post by Steve_in_Mich »

I like the OP video but I personally think this is COOLER especially this time of year here in snowy Michigan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BaBX1fEtt0

It's been a long time since I first saw this video but I keep going back to view it. Every time there is fresh snow to break thru and some lucky fellow having a blast clearing the track.
Just because you don’t believe it - doesn’t mean it’s not so.
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JBodenmann
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Post by JBodenmann »

Hey John S
What is the grate area of your Tich. One of the things I like about running tiny engines is that you have to be "One with the loco", that is you have to pay close attention and fire carefully and often as you are really working the engine. I have run 1-1/2" 4-8-4 propane burners that were "easy to run" and they were just that. No challenge, how do you stay awake! Might as well be a diesel. Big engines are no more fun than small ones.
Jack
sncf141r
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Tich grate area

Post by sncf141r »

Hi Jack;

The Tich is somewhere slightly below 4 square inches.

A Tich is great if you like a challenge, in a small, easy to carry package, and you don't really care for riding around in circles all day; in other words, it is not for everybody! It took me many attempts and head scratchings before I figured out when/how much to fire.

Was going to convert it to oil firing once (from plans in Model Engineer) - had most of the parts complete, when I decided to give coal another try, and it finally "clicked".

BTW - I used to do a lot of full sized stuff; Tich is more interesting than firing and driving, say, the local 50 ton shay here, where the problem is keeping the oil fire low enough so that it does not blow off, nor too low that it gets sucked out. (I'm licensed by the province of Ontario to do the full sized steam stuff) Steaming along in Poland doing commuter service with your hands on an OL49 2-6-2? Now, that's fun, too!

JohnS
JBodenmann wrote:Hey John S
What is the grate area of your Tich.
Andypullen
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Post by Andypullen »

As I've said; if you can run a locomotive with a small grate and keep pressure, you can run anything. The small grates make operation a real challenge and that's the fun of operating, to me.

Andy Pullen
Clausing 10x24, Sheldon 12" shaper, ProtoTrak AGE-2 control cnc on a BP clone, Reed Prentice 14" x 30", Sanford MG 610 surface grinder, Kalamazoo 610 bandsaw, Hardinge HSL speed lathe, Hardinge HC chucker, Kearney and Trecker #2K plain horizontal mill, Haas TL-1 lathe.
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Bill Shields
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Big engines are / can be a snooze

Post by Bill Shields »

My big engine is almost a snooze to run in comparison to our Tich or Tom Thumb.

With propane firing, automagic blower control, water feed set just right, all you really have to do is watch the signals and be sure that the tender doesn't run out of water.

Tich grate is about 2" square.

Heaven forbid you get a clinker - cannot drop the grate, have to pick the loco up and shake the sucker out the firedoor.
sncf141r
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Re: Big engines are / can be a snooze

Post by sncf141r »

Yeabut - you can do it with one hand; the other hand holding a beer....

(somewhere I have a photo of me shaking Tich clean with one hand; the other waving in the air as I'm chinwagging with someone - probably trying to talk them into parting with a beer... scots ancestry here! ;-)

JohnS.
Bill Shields wrote:
Tich grate is about 2" square.

Heaven forbid you get a clinker - cannot drop the grate, have to pick the loco up and shake the sucker out the firedoor.
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Bill Shields
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Scots

Post by Bill Shields »

I thought you folks all drank Scotch.... :lol:
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