The Home Machinist!

Russ, Congratulations! Fine looking Loco. A real work of art! I heard your Loco was a hit when it premiered at Kitsap over the weekend. Conrad said it was marvelously engineered and the detail and finish were amazing. Sorry to have missed you. An old friend was in the hospital and we were preoccupie...

Earlier this year I finally broke down and bought a plasma cutter. Best purchase I ever made. Currently I am making some coupler pockets and have one process where I need to remove a 2” x 3.75” rectangular piece from the center of a bunch of face plates that the pockets fit into. So a very similar p...

Dmaradei, I also have a SB Fourteen, same vintage as Charlie’s. If the SB tach gear you ask about is the small fiber gear mounted down near the floor, under the lathe bed, you can probably order one off eBay. I bought one last year, searching via google. Don’t spend any time trying to contact South ...

Decided to fab up a pie shaped bending jig to form the bodies for these draft gear. I think I will make 10 or 12 of these so I can retrofit standard size draft gear to my existing rolling stock - and have enuf let over to outfit the cars I would like to build this winter and next summer. The fixture...

OK. Grabbed a couple of quite shots of the finished draft gear, laid out on the business end of my MOW drop flat car. Installation tomorrow I think.

Evgen, I am curious why you selected 10 1/4” gauge track for your RR? Is this common in the region of Europe where you live? Also, have you considered a larger gauge? Say 12” or 15” gauge? The larger gauges are often more suitable for commercial operations, such as giving rides to the public. Here i...

Steaming10- Yes! Actually, can’t wait to get started. I have an old fashioned mail/passenger combo car in mind- to hold propane tanks, tools, etc...for when I finally convert from coal. Maybe with a partially removable clestory (sp?) top for one or two “first class” seats for passengers in the rear....

Made up a test coupler pocket yesterday for some RMI 2.5” couplers I picked up at the Trianneal last month. Actually, with a spring assembly attached to the back end of the couplers, the pockets will function as draft gear. This one is a test to see how well the design works in actual practice. I’ll...

Conservatively It’s been out of service for 5 years, maybe longer. never got a clear answer how long it had been sitting from the prior owner. 3”x4” isn’t to big if you scale the boiler size properly- say 12” to 14” diameter- which means a larger size engine. Say something over 2.5” scale. No reason...

Ryan, several other people commented on this as well. I opened up the steam chests today and found the lead was around 3/16” or better. So adjusted the D valve to close that down on both sides, and it sounds a bit more crisp. The exhaust ports at the petticoat are large as well, around 3/16th as wel...

Ryan, good question re : compressor HP . Short answer is I don’t know. You can run a fairly large live steam Loco at 40 PSI, so long as it’s not pulling anything. Might be a question to post on the live steam page. Plenty of folk have run their locos on air. I suppose one could calculate air consump...

Doug, 18 or so. Maybe even 26, if my budget allows. I would keep some extras for future cAr builds, Cattails Foundry would be a good choice, back in Lancaster County, PA. It’s run by an Amish family and they do superb work. They sometimes take a long time to deliver, e.g. months, but their price str...