New build..But not yet

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.

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K. Browers
Posts: 94
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:57 am
Location: Philippines

New build..But not yet

Post by K. Browers »

Hello Friends,
I thought I would share what I am up to.

This is my planned build it will be a 12 inch gauge ride in Farlie. It will be neatly 10 feet long 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide tipping the scales at about 2600 Lbs. I have the drawings far enough along so that someone could build an example.

Why British outline? Well I sort of like the British narrow gauge and also plate frames make for somewhat easier construction. I have designed the engine to use mostly standard shapes and plate sizes. I am in a metric country so maybe another builder using imperial sizes might need to adjust the dimensions a little bit I plan on sharing all my drawing files and a little about how I plan on how to make the parts..

We will start with the rear bogie (truck it is British outline after all :wink: ). I think this truck would be very suitable for other railroad cars. The plans could be scaled for the cough...cough.. :D smaller gauges but if you can be patient I will do a series on building a ride in Farlie for 7 1/4 - 71/2 gauge.
Attachments
Loco.gif
Bogie.gif
K. Browers
Posts: 94
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:57 am
Location: Philippines

Re: New build..But not yet

Post by K. Browers »

Hello Friends,
Here are the first drawings. I will start with the General Arrangement drawing and follow the drawings by the numbers.
Bogie Side Frame.gif
The side frame is a straight forward machining job.
Bogie Pedistal.gif
The pedestals are weldments that I plan to assemble by welding in a jig, machine the areas that will contact the axle boxes flat and square, drill holes to mach the ones in the side frame, with hot riveting for assembly.
K. Browers
Posts: 94
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:57 am
Location: Philippines

Re: New build..But not yet

Post by K. Browers »

Hmmm. No General Arrangement... Try Again
Attachments
Bogie General Arrangement.gif
K. Browers
Posts: 94
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:57 am
Location: Philippines

Re: New build..But not yet

Post by K. Browers »

Next we will move on to the frame end brace and bolster
Bogie Frame End Brace.gif
The frame end brace can be a bit of a challenge to have the bends come out to the dimension called out on the drawing. The welder and a jig is our friend here. For each brace bend two pieces of flat bar into half the end brace leaving the center a bit long, drill the mounting holes in the short ends. Make a jig where the parts can be held in place at the proper distance, trim the center to fit and weld, the outcome should be very close to the size needed
Bogie Bolster.gif
The bogie bolster has more parts but it is a simple fabrication. You will need a section of 4 inch channel, 2 pieces of 1"x 3/8" flat bar, some slices of tube the outside diameter of your springs, a 8" x 1/2" steel disk, with lastly a 1 1/2" x 1/4"disk. I plan on having custom springs made but a source could be the rear springs from motorcycles.

Cut the channel leaving it about 1/8" oversize. Prepare for welding by beveling all the part edges. Tack the parts in position check your locations then give it all full welds. Be careful in welding not to do a very long weld bead, skip around to minimize warping. After welding check for straightness if needed a quick visit to the press should sort things out. Put off machining the ends and holes until the sizes can be verified by checking a trial assembly of the frame on the assembled wheel sets.
K. Browers
Posts: 94
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:57 am
Location: Philippines

Re: New build..But not yet

Post by K. Browers »

Hello everyone,
This post will cover the spring plank, equalizer, and spring plank pin.
Bogie Spring Plank.gif
The spring plank is fabricated like the bolster. I did include some round sections welded in to increase the bearing surface for the spring plank pin.
Bogie Equalizer.gif
The bogie equalizer is a piece of 10mm plate that can be simply cut out. the only important dimensions are the radius call outs that fit into the axle box pockets and the spacing of them from the center. The easiest way to do them would maybe use a water jet cutter but since I do not have one its back to the basics gas cutting and grinder :wink: .
Spring Plank Pin.gif
The spring plank pin is rather simple two holes in the ends for cotter pins. I plan to trial assemble the bogie and mark the hole locations before drilling and trimming to the exact length.
K. Browers
Posts: 94
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:57 am
Location: Philippines

Re: New build..But not yet

Post by K. Browers »

Hello Friends,
Next up the axle boxes and their covers.
Bogie Axle Box.gif
The axle box will be a casting but it could be fabricated from Durabar or steel.I think Aluminium could work but there might be more wear between the box and pedestals.
Bogie Axlebox Cover.gif
The axle box cover will be a casting also.
Bogie Patterns.gif
Here are the patterns needed for the bogie everything else is fabricated from bar, plate,or channel. Even these could be made from solid.
K. Browers
Posts: 94
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:57 am
Location: Philippines

Re: New build..But not yet

Post by K. Browers »

Nearing the home stretch,
The last parts needed are the axles wheels and the pedestal tie bar.
Bogie Axle.gif
The axle for me will be a between centers job. It will not fit through my spindle bore :wink:
Bogie Wheel.gif
I plan on facing the wheels on both sides, boring the hole for the axle and pressing them on the axles. The tread and flange will be profiled between centers. I will use the new recommended IBLS standard for the tread
http://ibls.org/files/Standards/IBLS%20 ... 0Gauge.pdf
Pedistal Tie bar.gif
The pedestal Tie bar is the last part in this assembly.

I hope this might have been of interest to some of you and who knows perhaps it might be useful. I purposely did not make the truck a swing link truck to simplify construction. I have specified mostly 3/8-16 tapped holes and 3/8 through holes as these fasteners are common and available in many grades I do suggest at least grade 8. The truck will weigh approximately 190 lbs. when completed and should be capable of supporting more than 2000 lbs.
I do hope to start the real build log soon.

Thanks for looking
Karel
Pontiacguy1
Posts: 1565
Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2012 10:15 am
Location: Tennessee, USA

Re: New build..But not yet

Post by Pontiacguy1 »

Very impressive looking work. Appears that you've put a lot of thought into this. Good luck on your project. I don't know if you've built any locomotives or equipment before, but if not, I would just like to say that it WILL take longer and cost more than you think, and also don't let any short-term setbacks stop your progress. Those will happen too. Keep plugging away at it and you'll get it done eventually. I do like the idea of building sub-assemblies, one at a time, and then assembling them together once a lot of the work has been done. Like your 'bogie'. It keeps the storage space to a minimum while you are working, instead of having to work around a 10' long chassis sitting somewhere.
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2929
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: New build..But not yet

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Very impressive work. And thanks for posting the drawings!

One thing to consider regarding gauge and scale. When tank engines exceed 2x the gauge, this style tank loco will carry a lot of excess weight outboard in the tanks. As a result, they are unstable and prone to toppling over. All the WW1 trench engines(600 mm ga) that Baldwin and Hunslet produced were prone to toppling over as the high center of gravity and weight distribution was excessive for the gauge. Baldwin’s more so than Hunslet, as they were wider and had undesirable weight distribution from the loaded water tanks. The Australian Railway battalions in Flanders went so far as to remove all the side tanks from their locos and mounted them on boogies, towed behind the engines, tender style, to improve stability.

You might consider changing your gauge to 15” or more, to mitigate some serious operating difficulties, once your engine is built. Something to consider...

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....
K. Browers
Posts: 94
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:57 am
Location: Philippines

Re: New build..But not yet

Post by K. Browers »

Hello Friends,
Thank you for the compliments, I have a firm grasp of the effort and cost to do this (I hope). For my living I have been doing this same type of thing for years. No not building steam engines but fabricating in steel and wood. The sub assembles will be like mini goals for me.

I have thought long and hard about stability one of the reasons I did not make the truck swing link is to have it a bit stiffer laterally to help stabilize the locomotive if needed. The center of gravity is 15 inches above the rails it looks tall but that is mostly the cab and that is light compared to the rest. The locomotive is 3 times its gauge. similar to The Colorado narrow gauge, the Maine two footers, and less than the South African railways 60 cm gauge Garetts some now run on the Welsh Highland Railway.

The war department Baldwins are a funny case as I remember reading somewhere that the balance pipes between the tanks would clog and the level in the tanks would throw the engines out of balance so they would tip over.

This is a video of the locomotives in Exbury Gardens in England. When I first saw these I thought they had to be 15 inch gauge but no only 12 1/4. https://youtu.be/-9HVae62GdE

Cheers
Karel
h2ogasnz
Posts: 65
Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2011 7:43 pm
Location: New Zealand

Re: New build..But not yet

Post by h2ogasnz »

Hi Karel,

A little birdie tells me you have some photos of wheel castings to share with everyone for this build?
K. Browers
Posts: 94
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:57 am
Location: Philippines

Re: New build..But not yet

Post by K. Browers »

Hello friends,
I must confess yes I have had the patterns for the wheels along with the axle box patterns visiting the foundry and have received the castings. I will take a few snaps tomorrow. So I guess this could be called New Build .. But not yet only castings no chips. :D
Karel
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