The Home Machinist!

So, the "solutions" that are offered, most of them do work to some extent or another. If the tube is corroded from the water side > fireside, then likely, the end solution will be retubing. :( You may get a couple of days of steaming out of Sodium Silicate, or Ginger, or Sheep Poo. However, all of t...

So, as I'm a retired flood instructor, I might as well start with the definition of leak vs flood: you find a leak, a flood finds YOU ! Leaky tubes- you brushed them/"punched" them, and now at least one tube is leaking. What are the tubes made of ? Steel or Copper? Did you drive the brush through th...

I can JUST manage to get dragged around by a steam wagon with 2x7100btu/h burners. I'd assume the bare minimum then is about 14000 btu/h for one person or about equal to that in weight. This is also confirmed by a quick look at OMLET numbers with coal- that when I did OMLET with a 3.5" loco, I burne...

A brief one of the Kingston Hudson at Richmond Hill https://live.staticflickr.com/7081/7367501506_009e0ca7c7_n.jpg Kingston Hudson @ Richmond Hill by Peach James , on Flickr Dad's 4-6-4 tank engine, at about the same place: https://live.staticflickr.com/309/18975598255_abe42335e7_c.jpg M4H02479 by P...

Hand Pumps- somewhere out in dad's stuff is one I made in a day. No castings required- a piece of octagon brass (ug!, but good 4 jaw practice...) for the barrel, then 5/8" hex for the valves, 3/8" keystock for the handle, with a slotted hole for the plunger, plunger being something like 1/2" stainle...

Only requires one thing:



A new crew...

Jim, Yes, the 16' sections are much harder to setup on your own than the 10' ones. Dad might know why TSME went to 10' rather than repeating the 16', but I'd suspect a couple of factors- 1: Steel is sold in nominal 20 ft lengths, 2: 10' fits onto the tailgate of a 8' bed pickup truck, 3: they are fa...

https://live.staticflickr.com/5647/21731421582_ba03b0f738_c.jpg Thing2 by Peach James , on Flickr In dad's old backyard, setup. I think I set it up on the friday, and took down on the Sunday, in March, in Ontario. It wasn't particuarly warm, but it was above freezing... The plywood is to level the ...

The start for me was the extension of the TSME track in about 1987, when I was fairly young. It had all been welded offsite, wrong !, and required adjustment to make it all workable. O/C that little adventure, we ran on it for a couple of years- up till 1991 or so. (photos on Flickr). I then did a b...

Front and Rear trucks make a huge difference to ride quality of a loco. As does having appropriate sized wheels...though that's not to say you can't flog most 3.5" locos to speeds which you will regret. I have a Britannia Pacific (4-6-2, 2 cylinder) and a Caribou (0-8-0). Both have shortish tenders ...

Re: Physics Lesson up above: The answer is to make sure the last piece of track is sloped at a severe grade uphill, so that the train can't easily go over the end. I think I used something like 3.5"/8' (AKA a pair of 4x4's under the base...) when I had the portable track setup with Caribou. It was o...

Jack, We run with a mixture- but as Steve says, 14" or so is about the magic end for how long your arms will be. (unless they drag on the ground, like my Drill Instructor insisted mine must have...). My Caribou (I) has a plastic tender, inspired by the shorty CNR ones that some of the P5's got. The ...