The Home Machinist!

Hi Folks...

In case you ever wondered how Heywood couplers work, here's a little video I put together this week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STDMyTAb1F0

Enjoy, Mike

Very Cool. Literally! Looks like that plow might be happy on the front end of your electric power unit! RussN Thanks, Russ... I only plow 75-100 feet to haul the wood, so it's easier to just push it. In general, I try and avoid having to run trains in the snow by stacking a couple weeks' worth of w...

Hi Folks... A couple years ago, I bought one of those plastic wedge sidewalk snowplows from Amazon. I've been using it to help clear the track whenever the snow depth and consistency will allow. Running it with the 'road' wheels outside the rails works OK, but it has a tendency to hop over the ties ...

Glenn, I was surprised to see pillow blocks on a park train. Gives me hope for my flange bearings! Here are some photos I found on line of that “ugly duck” outline. At Sandley's we used pillow blocks, flange bearings, take-up bearings and roller bearing 'cartridges', aside from plain 'anti-friction...

It's called 'sub-purlin' rail. It's intended purpose was as part of roof framing in (usually) steel buildings. In the late '50s, early '60s there were a couple clubs in suburban Chicago using it for rail.

Mike

Pete is making the nameplates for my Erskine Tramway equipment. They are patterned after Sir Arthur's, and a friend in England, made the patterns. 278051916_381625613883392_959308999061884957_n.jpg Here are some of the production plates. The rectangular plates go on the wagon frames, the ovals on th...

When I was asked to specify new ties for the track that washed out at the R&GN several years ago, I specified 4x6x36 ties on 20" centers. That's pretty much what Sir Arthur Heywood used, except his ties were cast Iron.

Mike

ChipsAhoy wrote: ↑Thu Sep 22, 2022 7:08 am
Maybe... split the axle and install a slug and sleeve in the middle to widen the whole mess.

That would work, assuming there isn't a gear or something in the middle of the axle that would interfere. I'd mill a groove in the axle to fit a key to keep the quartering correct before I cut it.

Mike

Is this something like what you are looking for? This is the Sandley passenger car…. Mike Mike, How tall is this car? What size window openings? Also roughly what scale? Looks almost 6” scale in length. Thanks Glenn Hi Glenn... The cars are 64" tall. The windows are 16-3/4" wide by 18-3/4...

You have plans available for those? The excursion car looks very interesting to me. We have a volunteer arcihitect working on pullman similar to the Sandley as time allows. He sent me some .stl files that I 3d printed to begin on the concept. 20220824_164120.jpg Scotty Hi Scotty... I don't have wha...

Is this something like what you are looking for? This is the Sandley pattern passenger coach.
This is the Excursion Car style coach that we built for the Milwaukee Zoo.
Mike

While maybe not as sensitive as Paul's version, here is my track surfacing car. DSC_0037.JPG Besides a level, it holds my stadia rod for raising track. There are a pair of 'hooks' that clamp the car down to the rail for lifting and levelling with the trailer jacks. Fortuitously, the stock-size pads ...