The Home Machinist!

I'm guessing the builder incremented the serial # by 1 to separate it from the original.

Jack, what is the insulation wrapped around the feedwater heater line?

Thanks,

--Mike

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you know mike i wouldn't of thought of that, thanks for pointing that out. jack you can delete that particular post if you want. my apologies. keep up the good work.

Hello My Friends
Hi Dan, why would I want to delete a post that is constructive criticism. I welcome all comments and questions, both positive and negative as long as they are presented in a friendly manner. After all to me that is what this site is all about, the exchange of information and opinions. So please, if you have something on your mind concerning one of my posts I want to hear it. One of my great joys in life is helping and answering questions for other model builders.
Mike asked about the insulation around the hot water line to the pump. The insulation is just plain old garden variety friction tape available at any hardware store. It is the stuff designed to be wrapped around tool handles and such to give your hands a better grip. Hence the name, friction tape. It comes in rolls that are about 3/4" wide so I rip it in half as it comes off the roll. When wrapping it make sure that the ends of the tape are on the back side of your work piece so that they won't be visible. A shot of satin or flat black rattle can paint finishes it up quite nicely.
Happy Model Building
Jack

ok cool, you know ive said this before and i think it's nice that hudson's are making a comeback in live steam not too many people often build them. but i was telling a friend of mine today that hudson's are just an iconic locomotive. when people think of a hudson most of the time they think Lionel because Joshua lionel cowen loved hudsons. and of course the new york central being synomous with havin 275 of them. so yea hudson's are just iconic locomotives. whether it's the J1's or the J3's.

Dan

Oh I think they do! And you pointed out why Dave in the very same post! Getting it running is only half the battle. That's why I don't see very many well detailed locomotives. And sometimes, it doesn't really matter. As Jack says, to each his own, some like to run, some like to detail, some like both others don't really care. And it's all good. Glad to see engines with this level of detail. It's awsome!

Ken-

Hello My Friends
Here are a couple snappies of John's Hudson. The first is a shot of the back head. Some Superscale angle union valves, just the thing for a steam turret. Also some Bob Dean water glasses. The Superscale valves for the bottom of the water glasses were modified with a 3/16" outlet on the bottom to allow fitting up of a 3/16" globe valve to function as a blow down valve. Is the water glass completely full? Or completely empty? A squirt out the blowdown and you will instantly know. This happened to me once. Someone who should have known better handed me an engine and the first thing I did was have a look at the water glass. "Hey there is no water in this thing". "No" the person said, " it is all the way full". So I gave the blowdown valve a squirt and you guessed it, no water. The person was quite embarrassed when I handed the engine back. No damage was done as the glass was a safe distance above the crown sheet. But that little blowdown valve can be most important! Never assume nothin'.

One more for now. A shot of the side of the fire box with a nice view of some more little Superscale trinkets. Lifting injector with a 3/8" water line coming from the tender. No restrictive elbows, just nice smooth sweeps. The overflow is 7/16". Some 7/16" unions were made up as the real deal had a union there, and once again no restrictive sharp elbows just nice smooth sweeps. Some fiddling had to be done to keep the injector tight against the boiler so as to fit under the full width steam turret casing. The casing will still have to be a tiny bit oversize. Go with what you got! Some of Jim Kreider's super cool check valves will be stuck in the delivery line down the boiler to the right. He made them up for the Nickel Plate Berkshire but they just happen to be perfect for a New York Central J1e. Also visible is the new Superscale boiler blow down valve. Ah...I just live that beautiful locomotive jewelry. A good model has plenty of eye candy like this, the more you look, the more you see. Compared to a Nickel Plate Berk the Central's J1e's were a bit plain, so they need all the little baloney you can hang on em'.

Last one for now. Air reservoir's and some more cool little Berkshire bits from Jim Kreider. The combination air tank, running board support, and plumbing brackets. The air tanks will be functional on this engine as John has some working air pumps. Little steam air pumps are a cool trinket, and they will be set up to snort up the stack, too much fun. Roll into the station and turn em' on for that panting sound of a hard working engine fresh off the road. But you don't want to have to rely on them for actual brake air. So there will be a 12 volt compressor and battery in the tender. On the engineers side the air tank, running board, plumbing brackets will hold the water line from the turbo cold water pump to the feed water heater. The cold water pump hangs off the fireman's side of the engine in front of the trailing truck. The line exits the pump and crosses across the front of the fire box to the engineers side and then forward under the running board where it turns upward into the feed water heater which is hidden in the smoke box. There isn't an actual feed water heater on this engine but the water line will run through the smoke box where it will pick up some heat, then out the fireman's side of the smoke box to the hot water pump and then to another of Jim's check valves. The running board brackets will also hold the dummy steam line to the trailing truck booster. Also visible in this photo is the cardboard mock up of the front of the steam turret cover. Most of the main shape of the turret cover will be mocked up in cardboard, just to make sure everything fits. Cardboard is easy to change! This turret cover was a fairly unique New York Central feature. My guess is that it helped keep things from freezing up in the winter time. Just my guess, anybody out there have any thought on this. Like I said a most distinctive New York Central Hudson feature.
See you in the funny pages..
Jack

JBodenmann, I don't post much but I lurk a lot. I am simply amazed every time I open one of your posts. You make it look so easy.

I hadn't really thought too much about this, probably because in my work I used cardboard models so often they became almost unconscious, but I've mock-up a number of things on my latest project. Since it's a selectively re-scaled TICH, a funny little bird anyway, I wanted to make sure the original overall proportions remained generally in balance. I'm about to begin cutting material for the water tanks which were mocked up in chipboard and then adjusted a couple of times until they looked right in proportion to the rest of the loco. It adds additional building time, but it's much cheaper and easier than ruining good metal.

Jack - sorry to hijack your thread. BTW I like those sweeping bends - so much better for injectors than pipe runs that zig-zag across the landscape like a Kansas state road.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

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GWRdriver
Nashville TN

Jack,

I always like to see a detailed model, regardless of what it is. Look'in good!

That blowoff valve is a cutie! There is lettering on it at just about any angle you look at it. An exquisite detail, imo!

Regards,

Doug

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Building a 70 ton Willamette in 1.6"
Building a 80 ton Climax in 1.6"

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unbelieveable, she's lookin better and better with every new progress photo jack. keep it up.