The Home Machinist!

Erskine Tramway wrote:...I expect the mainline to be about 1100 feet long.

Double track, high speed, signaled for both directions?

A bit of "former BN engineer" humor.

Thirty acres would be awesome; I have a 40 x 150 urban lot.

Mike,
I definitely think you should start working on adding to your motive power roster.

Some steam maybe like this for the heavier consists:
Or
(recently listed on Discover Live Stream)


Glenn

Well, Glenn.....

I am working on more motive power, but as long as this one is taking me, I'd never get a steamer built. Were I to actually build one it would be a 'Tinkerbell' style loco.

Here's the one I'm building:
And here's 'Tinkerbell' (in yellow) and one of her sisters at the Moors Valley Railway in England:
<<Double track, high speed, signaled for both directions? >>

Nope, single track, low speed, no signals.....no 'Officials' either

Mike

Very cool Mike! That loco will work great on your tramway. Keep plugging away
Glenn

Erskine Tramway wrote: <<Double track, high speed, signaled for both directions? >>

Nope, single track, low speed, no signals.....no 'Officials' either

Sanity prevails!

Today, I set up my chop saw to cut up the tie material, and here's the result. A car load, enough for the six panels I need to finish out this year's work and a few left over.

Mike

Your thread was a great read! I've got a messed up lower back, and like you I was looking for a way to collect firewood from my acreage and take the garbage can down to the end of a 220' driveway, and now I have a plan:)

rkcarguy wrote:Your thread was a great read! I've got a messed up lower back, and like you I was looking for a way to collect firewood from my acreage and take the garbage can down to the end of a 220' driveway, and now I have a plan:)

My back isn't in the greatest shape either, after all those years bouncing down the track in sometimes not so great seats. So, I try to make hauling stuff as easy as I can

I get the wood stacked next to the track, then I bring it down and re-split it into better sizes for our heater and stack it up for 'ready use' next to the track. I've got a cart to haul it in to the box on the porch.
Mike

I'm planning to install a wood stove in my place, and luckily it's placement is in the southeast corner of the home near the proposed RR grade. I'm a bit uphill of it though. If I can get the grade to a tolerable % I'm going to run a siding right up the house. Planning didn't have any problem with me proposing a "wood rack" in the living room with an exterior door behind it so I could fill it from the outside. Incidentally the width of my 2" scale equipment is 20" which is also the max log length the stove will take, so my bulkhead cars will also act as a no-go gage for the firewood. The less times I can handle the wood the better(beyond the train and switching of course)

rkcarguy wrote:I'm planning to install a wood stove in my place, and luckily it's placement is in the southeast corner of the home near the proposed RR grade. I'm a bit uphill of it though. If I can get the grade to a tolerable % I'm going to run a siding right up the house. Planning didn't have any problem with me proposing a "wood rack" in the living room with an exterior door behind it so I could fill it from the outside. Incidentally the width of my 2" scale equipment is 20" which is also the max log length the stove will take, so my bulkhead cars will also act as a no-go gage for the firewood. The less times I can handle the wood the better(beyond the train and switching of course)

My 1/2 scale Heywood wagons are 18" wide, but my free-lance bulkhead flats are 20" wide. Sir Arthur had some 10% grade on his home railway, but anything up to about 4% isn't unreasonable for a short distance. I'm trying to keep mine to 2% max. If it's downhill with loads, you'll want good brakes I used to come off the 4% into Minnekahta with rock trains with the brakes on the front 10 cars smoking from having the Brakeman 'set up' the retainers. It was the only way you could maintain the 10MPH speed limit cycle braking the #6 air on the SD-9's. It got easier when we started using the bigger motors with #26 air.

Mike

That's pretty crazy, I've never been in or driven a real locomotive.
So you undoubtedly experienced the bumpiness of the old ~40' bolted railing that used to be the norm?
One of the reasons I remember the Milwaukee road so much, is as a kid we had a grade crossing not far from home. When we had to wait for a passing train, I remember how much the hopper cars would pitch from side to side on that lumpy rail. One was so rocking back and forth so violently as it got closer to the crossing, I remember my mom backed up further away from the train lol!
Hey, being you have a lot of locomotive experience, I wanted to toss my control layout at you. Sorry If I hijack your thread just a little.
Looking at the limited info and pictures I could find online, it appears the controls sit at an angle to the left of the engineer. The top lever to the left is pulled back to engage the brakes, the center/upper is the throttle and also pulls left to increase, and the center/lower would be direction?
I'm wanting to make a small "engineer stand" to mount on my riding car and hope to make it somewhat realistic.

rkcarguy wrote:That's pretty crazy, I've never been in or driven a real locomotive.
So you undoubtedly experienced the bumpiness of the old ~40' bolted railing that used to be the norm?
One of the reasons I remember the Milwaukee road so much, is as a kid we had a grade crossing not far from home. When we had to wait for a passing train, I remember how much the hopper cars would pitch from side to side on that lumpy rail. One was so rocking back and forth so violently as it got closer to the crossing, I remember my mom backed up further away from the train lol!
Hey, being you have a lot of locomotive experience, I wanted to toss my control layout at you. Sorry If I hijack your thread just a little.
Looking at the limited info and pictures I could find online, it appears the controls sit at an angle to the left of the engineer. The top lever to the left is pulled back to engage the brakes, the center/upper is the throttle and also pulls left to increase, and the center/lower would be direction?
I'm wanting to make a small "engineer stand" to mount on my riding car and hope to make it somewhat realistic.

Yup, rk.........there are speeds you are not supposed to run on jointed rail to avoid 'harmonic rocking'. As I recall, it's between 11 and 21 MPH. Sometimes, you can't avoid it though. We had places, before they put in 'Continuous Welded Rail', aka 'Ribbon Rail', where running at coal train track speed, which was 35 MPH then, an SD40-2 would literally 'hop' along the track. You knew that the wheels weren't leaving the rail, but it sure felt like it.

Here's my favorite Control Stand, the 'AAR Standard'. This one looks like an EMD (General Motors) stand, based on the various control switches, GE used different style ones. I hated that stupid 'desk' that they started with the SD60's, though the newer motors went back to a 'real' Control Stand about 2007. From left to right, the Red handle is the Automatic (Train) Brake valve. It's in 'Release' position in the picture, you rotate it forward to set various amounts of brake on the train. The black handle below it is the Independent (locomotive) Brake valve. In the photo, it's in the fully applied position, though the motor is obviously 'dead', account there is no air pressure showing on the gauges. To release the locomotive brakes while you are 'setting air' on the train, you push down on the Independent handle, colloquy known as 'bailing off the drivers', account on the older diesel brake equipments, the handle pushed down on an external curved 'bail'.

The grey handles are, from top to bottom, the Dynamic Brake handle, push forward to increase the braking force; the Throttle, pull back, with 9 notches (Idle through #8) of power. Below the Throttle is the socket for the Reverser, which is pulled out of this one. You move it whichever way you want to move. When I'd go away from the motor, I'd pull it out and stick it in one of those little pockets on the right leg of my 'bibs'. I called it the 'key', account without it, you aren't going anywhere. Pulling the Reverser handle out locks up the other two handles so they won't move. The box above the air gauges is the Air Flow Gauge, it shows you how much air is going back into the Train brake Pipe. You can tell if you've got a significant leak anywhere by looking at that one. The fancy colored meter is the Ammeter, sometimes called the 'Amp Gauge', it tells you how much power (to the right) or Dynamic Braking (to the left) you are applying. Above that is my favorite speedometer a 'back lit' 'Pulse' brand' If you had one that was graduated in single miles per hour, it was easy to tell if you were accelerating or decelerating, and how fast, though I ran 'by the seat of my pants', and I could pretty much tell that way. The rotary switches for the headlights are on the bottom corners of the stand.
There, more than anybody ever wanted to know about the Control Stand, hope that helps

Mike