1 1/2" Scale Narrow Gauge O. S. Krauss Bash

[Eric M.]

Hello Folks,

Firstly a quick intro. My name is Eric. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I am a professional model maker by trade. I used to do special effects models but transitioned into museum exhibit building about 12 years ago. I am now the Director of Exhibits at a small science center. I have been involved in live steam railroad modeling since 2001. My first live steamer was an Accucraft Ida. Now I own about fifteen or so various steam engines including stationary, ride-on, 1:20.3 scale, traction, etc. My real forte in model building is kitbashing. I like to look at the "bones" of a model and modify it to my taste. Currently I am building a ride on garden line in my yard that is dual gauge 4 3/4" and 3 1/2".

This O.S. bash started years ago when I traded a 1:20.3 scale C-16 for a used 3.5" gauge O.S. Krauss. The Krauss was bright blue like Thomas the Tank (yikes!) and it had been crudely converted to gas firing. It came with a 4 3/4" riding car and 1.5 gallon propane tank. I later had to chuck that tank because it wasn't equipped with an OPD. The Krauss proved to be a sweet little engine though. I have run it on some less than forgiving track and up at GGLS I just managed to haul myself, an adult woman and a teenage girl around the high track-- pretty impressive if you ask me considering that track is not all that level.


Initially I completed a basic Americanization by changing a few details and building a crude tender. This is the state that the loco was in for many years. Finally I decided it was time to convert it to a real tender loco and properly remove the side tanks. My plan was to build a nice wood cab and give this loco the character of a narrow gauge North American logging locomotive. This would be a fantasy creation, not something for so called rivet counters but something that "could have been". The scale of the Krauss in stock form is 1:10. I would be rebuilding my locomotive in the popular 1 1/2" scale. The gauge works out to be 28" which is sort of odd but it is close to 30" which was a well known industrial gauge. Now for some pictures to share how far I have come on this project. To get started I removed the side tanks and stock cab.



I purchased a laser cut wood cab kit for the Bachmann On30 Porter to use a s reference for my 1 1/2" scale cab. From that I made cardboard templates.



I began assembling the cab, board by board, from weathered poplar planks.


I scored a neat bell casting set on eBay. Some grinding, filing, drilling, polishing and paint finished it off.


A friend of mine machined this dome for me on his larger lathe.


I made a new pilot beam from a nice chunk of VG Fir.


Here are some of the new parts mocked up on the loco. Lots more to share. Stay tuned.

Thanks for looking

Regards,

Eric

[Eric M.]

Here is one of those interesting "projects within a project". I knew that I needed a good spark arrester for this locomotive to help communicate the scale of the loco. As you can see in that previous post I experimented by mocking up a cone shaped arrester in paper. This, like the cab, helped me dial in the proportions before cutting any metal. Once I had it worked out in paper I transferred the design to annealed brass sheet.


Here is the cone and ring that will make up the funnel shaped spark arrester. The cone has been silver soldered.


The cone is a decent fit inside the ring. I put some brass bolts through the tabs on the cone to hold the assembly together during soldering.


I used this MDF former which I turned to help shape the screen and it's support bars that fit in the top of the cone.



Here is the screen bolted in place.


A friend of mine machined this little clamp collar that also acts as an adapter to the stock Krauss stack


As viewed from the outside. This will literally drop right on the Krauss stack.


After bead blasting and paint.


And one more quickie mock up to show how the spark arrestor looks.

More to follow...

[jschoenly]

Keep it coming! That is some awesome kitbashing. Looks great!

[Benjamin Maggi]

That is really really cool! I especially love the detail for the spark arrestor.

[Mike Walsh]

Eric seems to be learning a trick or two from Henner... am I right? Looks great! I can't wait to see the finished result.

[Eric M.]

Thanks for the comments!

Eric seems to be learning a trick or two from Henner...

Maaaaaayyyyyybe Henner and I have been friends for over ten years now. If there is any "family resemblance" between our projects, it is no coincidence. I help Henner with paint, weathering, woodwork and the occasional silver soldering task and he helps me with machining. In fact the 2nd and 3rd pics up at the top of the post were taken in Henners kitchen.

Anyways lots of details to add and ground to cover.


Original tender frames I fabricated nine years ago for the first generation of the bash. Henner helped out by machining the Reeves axle boxes to accept some small ball bearings.


Henner also machined these Reeves iron wheel castings. I locktited them onto 3 1/2" gauge axles machined from steel drill rod.


The tender frame was widened to be a more appropriate width for a 30" gauge loco. The new side sills are made from poplar. The end beam is VG Fir to match the pilot beam.


The water tank is solvent welded from ABS plastic. It will be clad in steel that has rivet details added.


Last mockup with the tender before disassembling the boiler from the chassis for paint and plumbing.

More to follow...

Thanks for looking.

[rwmorris]

Eric,

Awesome work! I saw these pics from David's site and hadn't had the chance to send a note yet to say DYNAMITE!!! It looks great. Thanks for sharing.

Robert M.

[JBodenmann]

Hi Eric
Very cool modeling. I look forward to seeing more of your work.
Jack

[Ray Cadd]

Hey Eric- love it.

[Eric M.]

A little progress to report. A while back I disassembled the boiler from the chassis I had to remove the blast pipe and some other plumbing. After removing the boiler I noticed a severe problem with the chassis. The longitudinal frame plates were pretty badly bent, or wracked, to one side just behind the rear axle. It suggested to me that this loco had been in an accident-- perhaps a tumble off the high track at GGLS. Ironically I ran this loco for years without noticing. It obviously didn't affect the performance. The bend was bad though. The middle point of the rear cross member was about 3/8" off center from the centerline of the loco!!!!

To fix the problem I found myself doing one of the most bizarre things I have ever done in the hobby. I clamped a plank of wood that fit between the frame plates to a stout workbench. I then grabbed the chassis in a bear hug. With the plank in between the frame plates, I threw all my body weight into the chassis to try bending the frame back into shape!

To my surprise it worked perfectly. The Krauss has outside valve gear and O.S. put a solid block of iron between the frame rails where the drivers are so I was confident that the iron block would protect all the critical geometries. Sure enough I was able to straighten the affected area.

With that fiasco dealt with I was studying the chassis and I decided it looked much better without the curvy deck plate installed on top of the frame. The problem was that the leaf spring hangars and some of the reversing linkages mount to the deck plate. So I decided to MODIFY the plate but still retain all the mounting points for those parts.


Here is the chassis just after being separated from the boiler. The curvy deck plate is still in place.


Here is the deck plate. I have marked out some lines that show where I am cutting material away to give the frame a more open Americanized look. Cutting has commenced in the upper right corner with the nibbler.


Nibbling.


Here is the completed part after paint. I have also installed some running board support brackets and cross stiffeners around the mounting point for the reversing linkage.


The same part with running boards mocked up in place.

The next thing I had to deal with was painting the drivers. This was something I had been planning on doing for a long time. With the loco more disassembled than ever before, I had a good opportunity to finally do away with the German looking red wheels.


The drivers were hand primed and painted with a brush. There are three coats of black enamel.


On to the boiler. The barbecue black paint I sprayed on years ago was wet sanded off exposing the factory color. Yikes! Smurf blue.


I applied gloss black paint to the boiler jacket. The boiler bands were painted in satin black for a bit of contrast (not yet shown.) Notice the original Bill Harris Shay on the stand in the background.

That wraps it up for now, but, as always, there is more to come.

Thanks for looking.

Regards,

[Postwarbob]

Eric very nice work. Plan on showing this cutie off at an upcoming meeting at GGLS. As far as track at club goes we invite you to help in the leveling of it. 3 years ago my son and I replaced many of the stringers but niether of us have had time to do any repairs since then.
Bob M .

[Eric M.]

Bob, I will show it off at GGLS for sure. I seem to have a hard time carving out time to get there these days. I used to go and run every weekend but that was ten years ago when I lived in Berkeley and didn't live on the other side of the bay like I do now.

Further progress to report on. I have been working on the tender There are two water feed lines for the two different pumps, one return line for the axle pump bypass and the fuel line which carries the propane to the burner. Additionally I am placing my fuel control valve and hand water pump on the tender instead of in the cab. Firstly I give you an overall shot of the tender. There are still coal boards to be fabricated and installed and many parts to be painted but you get the idea:


I decided to conceal the fuel control valve as a brake stand. Since this bash represents an extremely diminutive narrow gauge locomotive I used 1" scale (standard gauge) brake parts because most of the 1 1/2" scale parts are too big. The brake staff passes through the deck and is connected to a small fuel valve underneath:


I needed a slick way of hiding the hand pump when it was not in use so I made a tender toolbox that flips open to access it. I had to make a special hinge similar to a cab roof hinge on a gauge one loco, to give enough clearance for the pump lever:


There is another toolbox for the other side. I had to make it shorter because of the placement of the bypass valve. My research indicates that anything goes with these toolboxes particularly on industrial locomotives so the two sizes don't bother me. All the valves piping and handwheels will be painted black. Unlike the toolbox that hides the water pump-- this one is just a toolbox. Should be handy for coupler links and pins-- stuff like that:




A peek underneath shows the stub-outs for the various water lines. The fuel pipe stub-out can be seen just above the axle. All this plumbing needs to be bracketed to the underframe for strength. I will be using a high pressure hose with a woven fiber jacket and miniature quick connects for all the water connections. The fuel line will be black neoprene hose:


This is the tender water hatch. Fabricated from brass:


I also have a bit of locomotive jewlery to show off. The AmeriKrauss will wear these lovely builders plates on her smokebox. Belive it or not, they were machined in brass with tiny engravers bits by Adam at Solidesign: http://www.solidesign.bizland.com/index.html

He did a great job and the plates have more relief than an etched version. Porter and Glover, both manufacturers of small industrial locomotives had shield shaped builders plates so I used the same shape but put my own name on it since this is a freelance creation:




I also hauled the engine out of the shop into the daylight so I could snap a few pics of it with the shiny new paint job on the boiler jacket. As you can see the boiler has been re-united with the chassis and the plumbing has been reworked. Sorry for the blue tape on the cab but it is still only mocked up. Construction on the cab should re-commence soon.






Thanks for checking in!

Regards,