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
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

We are pushing 12" and it's still snowing hard. Hearing that it's turned to rain and is melting off down south.
Glenn Brooks
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by Glenn Brooks »

I just heard 18” in Monroe.
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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....
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Harold_V
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by Harold_V »

Yeah, it turned to rain, and melted considerably, but as night came, it cooled down and started snowing again, which it is still doing. We now have more than 24" on the ground.
Will it never end?

H
Wise people talk because they have something to say. Fools talk because they have to say something.
rkcarguy
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

It warmed up to about 30* and I thought we were going to see rain tomorrow, but that grey sky is looming again and the forecast just changed to another 1-4" of snow. I don't know when it's going to end.....
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NP317
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by NP317 »

rkcarguy wrote: Tue Feb 12, 2019 7:07 pm It warmed up to about 30* and I thought we were going to see rain tomorrow, but that grey sky is looming again and the forecast just changed to another 1-4" of snow. I don't know when it's going to end.....
Hell is freezing over...
At 1650 feet elevation we were snowed in for 2 days, and have an accumulated 2 feet of snow remaining.
Rained earlier today and it's snowing again tonight.
Whatever.
~RN
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10KPete
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by 10KPete »

Ehhhh. That's the PNW. If ya don't like the weather, just wait a bit.

Pete
Just tryin'
Glenn Brooks
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Well, winter it may be, but we saw this little guy on the beach yesterday.
11207968-3931-4ACC-BD8A-70E9B8EF7E74.jpeg
As they say, when the pig runs on the beach, you know spring is right around the corner. Of wait, was that supposed to be a hedgehog. Never mind...
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
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Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

Lol, get out the pineapple and the BBQ:)
It looked like it was over last night, the snow was starting to melt. I get up this morning and it's 25* and we got another 3-4 inches, I plowed snow with my bumper until I hit the main road which had been plowed.
rkcarguy
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

steamin10 wrote: Tue Dec 11, 2018 12:12 pm For my home shop I have a gutted out fridge with a plate glass front fitted into the door and covered with a piece of screen wire to deflect the sand. Thsi keeps the sand from etching and clouding the glass. Teh glass panel was stolen from an old cabinet style TV and held with a small angle iron for a mount. some RTV seals the gaps. A walk tread grate makes the floor about door level, the freezer door is reversed with the main door. The snad gun and hopper mostly sit inside the cabinet, and a small sand lot shovel reloads the dusty sand for another run. The blower unit is from a junk window air unit, and has a soft clothes dryer duct that leads outside. A light switch turns it and the two cabinet spot lights on for ample lighting. Two hand holes in the door are covered with rubber slits, to keep the majority of the sand in the abinet. The walls of the cabinet are lined with scrap plywood, and get replaced when blasted through. (has not happened yet, but are showing the many hours of wear.) The biggest problem is keeping the ceramic nozzles in stock. They break easy and only take a bump when used. I have been taking some copper tube and using that for a nozzle as they dont shatter, and are very cheap to make, but dont last all that long. It should be noted that any sand / grit/ media blasting is noisy, creats dust, and requires a lot of air. I have a 80 gallon Ingersol -Rand to run the thing, but you wont do it with a 20 gallon portable. I used a 100 lb LP bottle for air storage, to get started, and get that puff of air to do some work and then wait forever for the air to catch up. (I had stinky air from the used tank). But you can get the idea that we worked around the problems of the hobby. Blasting things to a a matte finsh was very nice and saved time over hand sanding and wire brushing to remove tooling marks..
I just saw the post in another sub-forum that Steamin10 passed away Feb 12th. :(
RIP Big Dave.
rkcarguy
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

Moving forward...we ran 5 different thicknesses of plate through the laser today, so I had all kinds of stuff get cut. The blanks for my large sprocket hubs, the coupler pocket plates for the locomotive, and Rev-3 of my switch stand I've been working on. I stayed after work and TIG welded the coupler pocket plates together, they are small and it was tedious work, but I managed not to melt any of the little parts.
couplerpocketPL.jpg
rkcarguy
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Location: Wa State

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

Things are getting down to the exciting part now, at least for me. I got the coupler boxes TIG welded to the pilot assemblies Monday(on the inside). Around the coupler box plates in the pictures above, I didn't want a "giant" TIG bead to show on the outside, so I found some 1/16" silicone bronze TIG rod that I am going to wet into the corners tonight. I practiced on some scraps and because it has a ~1200* melting temp it wets out into the gaps and fillets nicely before the steel starts to melt. Once I get that done, it will finally be time to weld up the crossmembers, pilots, and frame rails into one piece. The only work that is going to remain on the pilots is drilling holes for the hand rail and grab rail bolts, which I will do by hand when I install them. I think the SIB rod will also come in handy for assembling the handrails, as it will allow me to weld on them without melting the small diameter round bar.
rkcarguy
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Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

There ended up being a little more weld than I liked so I got out the grinder and smoothed things out. There is a little more work to do yet but I needed a smaller carbide ball burr so some more are expected Saturday.
I'm thinking I may change out the safety chain eye bolt for one that's a little smaller, at least just on the locomotive. I've sort of tucked them under the ends of my rolling stock.
S12pilot.jpg
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