Woodinville Shops

Discuss park gauge trains and large scale miniature railways having track gauges from 8" to 24" gauge and designed at scales of 2" to the foot or greater - whether modeled for personal use, or purpose built for amusement park operation or private railroading.

Moderators: Glenn Brooks, Harold_V

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Topics may include: antique park gauge train restoration, preservation, and history; building new grand scale equipment from scratch; large scale miniature railway construction, maintenance, and safe operation; fallen flags; track, gauge, and equipment standards; grand scale vendor offerings; and, compiling an on-line motive power roster.
Glenn Brooks
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Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

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 will considerably speed up the metal bending process, and give me highly repeatable accuracy for each coupler pocket. The picture below shows the completed jig and a length of raw stock bolted to,the jig, in preparation for a test bend.

First step, was to square up and layout out the pocket dimensions on a big, rusty, round piece of 1” steel plate - (waiting around in my scrap bin for this very opportunity!) I immediately discovered that yellow marking paint made it a lot easier to scratch the outline on the old rusted surface, with a stylus.
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Also, on a whim, I center punched each corner point of the design, particularly the mouth ends of the coupler, and the top dead centerline that bisects the design. Now I’ve got fixed and permanent reference points permanently inscribed in the jig for measuring accuracy and quickly orienting the finished bends. Also used a big 1” cold chisel to punch in the outline of the sides of the pie shaped body. Now, I don’t have to worry about my pencil lines or stylus marks disappearing a year from now when I might make up some more.

Next, welded a 1.5” width of angle iron at 90* to the center line at the bottom of the jig. This becomes the interior bending point for both right and left legs of the pie shaped body. Note that I mistakening drilled the hole in the angle iron at the center point for the completed weldment -not the raw stock. Hence The work piece is bolted to the jig 1/4” proud of the foundation! Necessitating two 1/4” strips of flat bar to ‘guide ‘ the bending process square.

Also drilled and tapped holes in the baseplate for 3/8” bolts. The bolts help control the final placement of the bends.
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Finally, bolted the flat bar to the bending point, heated to cherry red with a torch, and fairly easily bent up the shape of the pocket. (I decided to go with 1/4” flat bar rather than 2” x6” rectangular tubing to save time and eliminate a few steps in cutting the tubing to size and milling the cut ends flat. Probably saves 30 minutes to an hour for each piece, using pre formed 1 1/4” flat bar. Cheaper material purchase also.
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Made two of these in just 15 minutes or so. Overall accuracy within 1/16” of each other. So almost a mirror image of each other. Couldn’t be happier.

Next step, trims the ends to my new, smaller length, and cut and weld top and bottom plates. Then machine the face plate and weld that in place.

It’s like a real production line. How about that!!

Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
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Harold_V
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Location: Onalaska, WA USA

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Harold_V »

Well done, Glenn. The time it takes to make shop aid fixtures is generally repaid in both production and precision, or repeatability.

H
Wise people talk because they have something to say. Fools talk because they have to say something.
Glenn Brooks
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Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Finished a couple more. I call the oval one the Art Deco “West Coast Flyer” model. It will retrofit to my Pullman rear platform observation car. Sort of a tribute to the old ‘streamliner’ days.
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Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
rkcarguy
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Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by rkcarguy »

Looking good!
I'd say I like the one on the right, of the three. On the prototype...at least on freight cars, they had a row of bolts/rivets across the top and a couple down each side. You gonna bolt or weld them on?
Glenn Brooks
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Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Ryan,

Thanks, I welded them on. Considered rivets and also bolts, but the framing and gear to hang them at the right height pretty much dictated a weldment.

I did add some prototypical reinforcing detail - scale channel, welded vertically on the new end plate, and gussets inside the end plate, running fore and aft to stiffen the structure. Maybe I’ll put some rivets in the channel for show at a latter time. Right now I’d be happy for this little side bar to just be done and back on the track to complete trials. :roll:
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Design wise, the square one on the right is a classic freight draft gear mounting plate. I went with the Art Deco look for the passenger car as I plan to add some more detail latter on, cut in windows, add window framing etc, and wanted to experiment with a more ‘elegant’ style benefitting an opulent first class car.

On the up side, they welded right to the frame, so no extraneous structure required as with the drop flat.

Glenn
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Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2929
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Had a pretty successful open house today, with kids from the neighborhood, honored members from Kitsap Live Steamers, some great Chaski folk- including our very own Harold and Susan, and Patio! (Great to see you guys) And a good size bunch of Seattle Metalheads. We got a couple of videos of the Ottaway in action, one of which I think I can post below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjrYVWu ... ture=share

Yep, there it is.

Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2929
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

And, what happens after you run out of steam at the end of the day... listen closely: Faster, Faster!

My boy calls this the push kart Video. Who needs a locomotive anyway, when you have foot power.

https://youtu.be/1qGye9IKJvA
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
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Harold_V
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Joined: Fri Dec 20, 2002 11:02 pm
Location: Onalaska, WA USA

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Harold_V »

Those who weren't fortunate enough to attend the meet at Glenn's place really missed out. I have to apologize for not remembering his good wife's name, but those two hosted an event that will be hard to duplicate. Weather was reasonable until it was over (we had a few light showers off and on, but nothing severe).
Their property, as one can easily see from the videos provided, is beautiful, with fairly old (and tall) Western Red Cedars and Douglas Fir trees in abundance, along with the typical Western Washington undergrowth. A wonderful experience, made all the better by Glenn's endeavors in building his 12" track around the property. We were fortunate to enjoy displays of a working English wheel, 3D metal printing, several flea market types of tents, where one could acquire shop related things, and some of the best food one could hope to enjoy.

Glenn, thank you sir, for a very pleasant day.

Harold and Susan
Wise people talk because they have something to say. Fools talk because they have to say something.
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2929
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

https://flic.kr/s/aHsms8Mmew

One of the guys at yesterdays meetup posted a bunch of photos of the various events. Here is the link above.

GPB
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
Patio
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Joined: Wed Oct 06, 2010 3:14 pm
Location: Centralia Wa

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Patio »

Thanks Glenn, for having all of us up to your place. It was very nice to meet you. I had a great time, got to meet a lot of people and ate some good food. You have done an amazing amount of work setting up your train and track, to get it where it is today. The vendors where generous in their pricing and interesting to talk to also, so I have a couple of, new to me, tools now. :)
Patio
Live for the moment!
Prepare for tomorrow!
Forgive the past!
rkcarguy
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Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by rkcarguy »

Looking really good Glenn! I wish I could have made it to the open house.
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2929
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Thanks for the nice comments. Yes, a great get together. We figured maybe over 100 folk showed up. Likely more, as people were coming and going throughout the afternoon. So nice turn out.

Here’s our last shot.
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Cinder - Ella, parked for the night at Burma Station.

My boy caught the shot just at twilight, when the yard light went on.

Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
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