12" working railroad

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.
rkcarguy
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

Today I got back to working on the locomotive for a bit and finally finished a really difficult feature, the angled part of the headlight bump.
This took a lot of cutting, grinding, test fitting, and more grinding, until I was finally happy with it. I drilled a hole so my headlight wiring can pass through, roughed up both surfaces, and bedded them together with JB weld. Once its fully set, I'm going to toe in a few screws to assure it stays one piece.
lump.jpg
tapered.jpg
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steamin10
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Location: NW Indiana. Close to Lake Michigan S. tip

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by steamin10 »

Thanks for the honorable mention but the design was not mine. I used a simple box on wheels to maintain the 1.5 inch and pushed gravel off the end as needed. I jotted down a tipping hopper with wheelbarrow hoppers for the 14 inch, but it was deemed dismally small. And it was, the dedicated car was much better. I was frustrated in that only certain people could operate the JD loader, and that held up construction enormously.

There was an article ages ago in Live Steam about building a box, that had two compartments that was skidded along the right of way, and it dropped gravel and fill material to a set level making a path the the track panels were laid upon. With the base down, the panels were then over sprinkled with ballast, and it raked in by hand. After Nature the mother had a week or two to settle, you could go back and level and tamp the rolls and low spots. After about three passes over the year, all the bad spots were eliminated and there was a nice build layer under the ties and all stable for running. The lil gasser switchers were wonderfull at shaking out the loose track and the crew wasted no time in getting things leveled out. The heavy engines then did not effect the condition after just a few weeks of the little guys 'shaking down' the track. This was for an 1.5 layout.

I like the idea of laying down a more or less continuos stripe at one time to work on rather than trying to fill a bunch of whoopties under bouncy track. Depends on what kind of support equipment and manpower you have I guess.
Big Dave, former Millwright, Electrician, Environmental conditioning, and back yard Fixxit guy. Now retired, persuing boats, trains, and broken relics.
We have enough youth, how about a fountain of Smart. My computer beat me at chess, but not kickboxing
It is not getting caught in the rain, its learning to dance in it. People saying good morning, should have to prove it.
Glenn Brooks
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Dave, our track crew at KLS have a similar ballast laying hopper thing to that you describe, except on rubber tires. The hopper is set to lay new ballast at a constant height - Iam thinking around 3” off the ground , and the needed width of a single track ROW. 30-36” or thereabouts. It lays a nice even strip of ballast 36’ long in one go. Then back to the rock pile for more. Needs a good sized tractor to pull it around. Gravel weighs about 2300# to the yard. So pretty easy to get 5000 pounds in one load. Now that I’ve laid track both ways, I do like the idea of laying out long sections of ballast and preparing the bed before laying in track. But had to invest in knee Guards. Sharp rock chips are tough on the knees in short order!

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....
rkcarguy
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

I'm planning to get some grinding done on the riding car and put it in the roto-blaster after work today. Also, I've decided I'm going to put the truck sides in the band saw and notch out the axle clearance holes so the wheel sets can be installed and removed from the bottom.
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slsf1060
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by slsf1060 »

Looking good. I love old Baldwins.
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IMG_0071.JPG
Darren McNeely

and the sons of Pullman Porters, and the sons of engineers,
ride their father's magic carpets made of steel.

www.swlsonline.org
rkcarguy
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

Very nice! Looks like a VO-1000?
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slsf1060
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by slsf1060 »

Yes sir.
Darren McNeely

and the sons of Pullman Porters, and the sons of engineers,
ride their father's magic carpets made of steel.

www.swlsonline.org
rkcarguy
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Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

Well, I got the welds ground down on the corners of the riding car, and on the top of the frame where the floor will bolt down. When I went out to use the roto-blaster, I discovered some noob had left the table turning too long with the "shot elevator" off and jammed it up good so it just tripped the breaker. The shop had already been locked up for the night, so no access to the wrenches needed to remove the cover and shovel out the shot....hopefully the noob gets a lesson tomorrow in how to shovel out several hundred pounds of shot and climb up a ladder to dump it into the bin, and I'll try try again.
rkcarguy
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

Well yesterday was a success cleaning up my frame in the roto-blaster, I brought it home today and filed the seam out of the coupler pocket tubes, and test fit the couplers and the safety chain eye bolts.
I also ground the grease grooves in the "sliders". With my truck design, these will weld on each side of the truck side plates, capturing them on the bolster but allowing them to move as the springs compress. I want them to last a long time and not get seized up with rust, so I drilled and tapped these 1/4-28 for grease fittings and the grooves will allow the grease to flow to all the sliding surfaces.
ridingend.jpg
ridingframe.jpg
trucksliders.jpg
rkcarguy
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

Wow I just passed 20,000 views!
Last night I discovered an ancient remnant of 18ga galvanized sheet in the metal rack that was ok'd for me to use, so I sheared up the sides for my 34' hopper from it. Today I'll have someone form the top edge, if I can get someone to do it.
I have plans this weekend so I'm not to going to be posting any progress otherwise.
rkcarguy
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Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

I silver soldered some brass pipe nipples into the coupler pocket gussets to pick up my quick connects. Yes I'm using 1/4" air tool fittings as I want cheap, easily available, and quickly replaceable parts.
My plan is pretty simple for the brakes, the air pressure will hold the brakes off the wheels. I'll be using female fittings on the ends of each piece of rolling stock/locomotive, with coupler hoses with male ends on both ends. The hose stays with the part of the train being parked when I un-couple, allowing the air to exit and the brakes to set. On the two bulkhead flat cars, I think I can make an adjustable linkage, that by sliding the return spring up and down a slot I can adjust the braking power for light to heavy loads...just so I have enough air pressure and air cylinder to release the strongest spring setting.
I am planning to mix up a small batch of the epoxy paint and paint the riding car frame with my son this weekend. The rest of the hopper's steel work will be screwed and riveted on, I'm going to use a combination of JB weld and seam sealer to seal any lap joints.
airfitting.jpg
rkcarguy
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Location: Wa State

Re: 12" working railroad

Post by rkcarguy »

adjustablebrakes.jpg
Adjustable brake concept.
I could also move the air cylinder to the other side of the frame(pivot point) and make the slot longer for more adjustment if needed.
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