The Home Machinist!

I'd probably make new axles. It would be easier to get the center holes axial to the O.D. if you start with oversized material and turn it to size between centers. My second option would be to cut keyways on the existing axle and Loctite. If you do that you will probably want to slightly reduce part...

If I understand correctly, you machine all but the journal before pressing/Loctiting on the wheels and then take a few thousandths off the journal after the the wheels are in place? You have center holes, so make a dog to drive from the face plate. Clamp to the O.D. of the wheel or the axle between ...

I have to admit to some mixed emotions here, but it is a nice looking locomotive.

A good place to start would be the articles by Gail Gish and Warren Weston describing construction of a pair of Rio Grande T-12 ten wheelers. There is a complete set of drawings. These locos were 1-1/2" scale rather than the 2-1/2" scale needed to built a 3' prototype to 7-1/2" gauge....

The Alaska Railroad, built and owned by the Federal government until the 1980s, was built from surplus Panama equipment. I've been browsing early Fairbanks newspapers recently and came across the attached article from the Fairbanks Daily Times of January 16, 1912, during the time that the politicing...

This is a steam locomotive answer and doesn't have much relevence to the original question. :? Just off the top of my head, the only cross equalization I can think of is in front of the front drivers on a locomotive with a two-wheel front truck. There is a beam from the cross equalizer to the front ...

about the size of a dime The question may have been prompted by the showing last night on TV of "Mega Movers" where they moved a RR station in Oregon and large steam locomotives in Amarillo and Houston(?). One locomotive was moved using a shoo fly, the other on a trailer with about 15 axl...

One thing going for Allen's designs is each new model was derived from the previous ones. Even though each has unique parts, many of the parts are common. In an early RRSC catalog they projected marketing a family of USRA locos, each borrowing parts from the last. I don't think they got past the fir...

I've been watching suppliers to the hobby come and go for the last 35 years. In my opinion, due to CNC and other modern production methods, mass production is more practical today than in the past. My observation is that the problem is the lack of a mass market to produce to. The number of people in...

Bill Shields wrote:I didn't say that I like them, just that I have seen them.

Bill, not aimed at you or anyone in particular, but at the circumstances that you described and the wisdom that sometimes prevails that "It passed hydro, so it must be safe."

I have seen many boilers with un-anchored girder stays that pass hydros.

If a typical design safety factor is 8 and a typical test of a new boiler is times 2, the place to put your faith is in the math, not the test. But we all knew that, didn't we?

That's going to look nice when you get it done!