The Home Machinist!

Today is the second to last trip to the foundry. Load up with castings. Two reasons. One don't want to travel over the mountain pass in winter with heavy load. Two get this done before Back operation on Dec 11. L5 is push out and needs trimming. Hair cut for the back. One more trip for drivers to st...

I have seen Locomotive being Time wrong. Reason is main journal is not in correct height of what total weight of engine weight. Meaning if you rebuilding or working on valve gear. You need to take the time before you lift the engine to fine what the gap is under the journals is. Once you know this a...

I am only making Tender Kits for our engines. It would be crossing lines to do other Manf. tenders. I don't do that. If they contact me for this I can do so. But at a cost naturally. I have more than enough on my plate for Allen Models than to do others. We all are stand alone company's. I respect R...

Hi to all, Today I ship out the new tender tank kits. 5 of them. Intro pricing right now and by end of month prices are going up. I ran into extra cost for this kits that I did not expect. We are in the future developing other tank kits. Hopefully flare top sides for new style for the American and F...

Allen Models sales on these Tender has been great. I am having the pans weld up in the corner area's. Waiting for the angle brass to show up on order. Once these are done off they go. Most likely by end of week shipping. Just so most know we are going to develop other styles as we go. Not sure when ...

Allen Models is a stand a lone company. I do not use other company's products. So Far. This new tender follows the original drawing prints. Others have copy it to sell. We did make changes. We felt and ask for comments on the location of the water filler hatch. "It was to far forward". We ...

EP Plastic has made a new mold for the insulators. As always this is UV plastic. Soon they will have a picture up to see it. We are using this version on the new rebuild of the TCT Track in Tarzana Ca. This is flat 4 hole with a nub in the middle to stop the rails to touch. Still able to slip a bit ...

I have built a lot of shays and you need to crank the oil up until the stack looks wet. They take more steam oil to lub things. There should be a wet sheen to the stack top or ring. One customer was using Green velvet and he has steep grades, using the Johnson bar in revers to slow it down. Notice t...

I am so Proud of these guys. Really work hard to get this to run so good and sound so good. They kept there head in the game and tried everything to make it fire better and better. It pulls a good load and to see there smiles on there faces. It make me feel so good to see this. Being the owner of Al...

So get e-mails with questions about this. So need to clear some things up. 1 We do not have a price for a finish ready to run engine. This changes do to customers whats and needs. What is available at time of order and have all the jewelry pieces that change pricing. 2 I can not answer to Machine sh...

Hello from Allen Models I am in contact with a person from Canada that wants a Consolidation to be built ready to run. We have found a contact of a Machine shop to do the work. All is moving along quite nice on this adventure of putting the two together. Machine shop owner and the customer. Working ...

Sir Hello I am Steve Alley owner of Allen Models, So what kit is the best to fit your locomotive you want to build. Well you pick a difficult one. It has the looks in area's of a Allen engine but the cylinder is piston valve and we offer only Side valve. Other than that its fits with our castings. S...