The Home Machinist!

LALS uses plastic 2x4s on edge the steel rail on Kadee tie plates(Zinc). One problem we have is corrosion on the bottom of the rails due to the decomposed granit we use a ballast. It is acidic but free.
Cary

Are you sure it's not a canteen or? That great jar lid on the front wont let much light through. Cary

I don't know about 6 months but I do remember fellows talking about a bet that Frank took. Someone bet him that he couldn't build a 1.5" steamer in a year. He won the bet with a few weeks to spare. I think this was his Mike.
Cary

As David states that is Frank Mann and his Pacoima, CA RR. The photos are probably circa late 1950s or early 1960s. That is his first 1 1/2" scale loco. He was a most interesting man. He was an instructor for the Tuskege Air Men (The Re Tails), he worked WITH Howard Hughes at the Lockheed Skunk...

Having been a member of LALS for over 40 years I have seen a number of Winton's design engines running there and else where. None I have seen in all wheel arrangements has had the described problem(s). There is/was one 4-8-0 also built an it ran well. I suspect that there is an error in there some p...

Bruce Ward also used small horizontal propane tanks with his 3 1/2" gauge 0-4-0T and the Invicta. The small one used with the small engine was (I think) a WWII surplus aircraft oxigen tank. It fit cross wise in a slot in the front of the flat riding car he made for use with it and the 4 3/4&quo...

A small comment. Blanchard grinding is a form of surface grinding. It is less precise than the average surface grinder give. The Blanchard grinder has a large horizontal stone, which on larger machines, can be segmented. The stone leaves a circular pattern on the surface where a surface grinder leav...

What Jerry didn't mention is that the zinc alloy he used is of very high quality. It came from old carburetors he scrounged from local junk yards. This ZAMAC alloy has zinc of a very high purity and highly controled contmination (very little) which is death to zinc alloys. Talk to someone who has a ...

And they never hit one of those fence posts!!!!!
Cary

The late Bruce Ward built a modified Julietta 0-4-0T in the 1970s. This engine ran on Propane from the start. I now belongs to Jim Kreider. There are photos of Bruce sitting in the lotus position on his ridding car. The small propane tank sat cross wise in a slot in the front of the ridding car. The...

As to the AC-9 Gary Kubacik was getting ready to build one when he died. He had a pretty good collection of prints for that loco and some wheel castings that he wasn't to happy with. What happened to that part of his estate I can't recall.
Cary

A couple of interesting sides on loco cast loco beds. All locos used in Britain had flat plate frames. However, Beyer Peacock's late Garretts had cast loco beds from GSC. Also the So. Africans used cast beds in the last series of Garretts that they built. The cast frames came from GSC. Some of those...