Looking for input
Looking for input
All the locomotive projects I have built over the past 40 years( gee has it been that long, guess time flies when your having fun..lol)..have all been commercially available locomotives, that I have "kitbashed"..in one form or another...the newest locomotive, that I keep finding myself thinking about, is the texas pacific 2 10 4... ...my biggest obstacle is the baker valve gear...I have never designed a valve gear from the ground up?.....is there information out there, a website, a computer.program, that can help you lay out and build the valve gear ???
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Re: Looking for input
Charlie Docksteader's program on the Bitter Creek & Western will let you see what happens in a graphic way. The "best" way to work your way around how the different adjustments is to make a mockup set, probably 4x larger than the model will be.
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Re: Looking for input
Dang... You're looking for a BIG project! That would be an awesome model, but that's a lot to deal with, especially trying to run it on smaller layouts. A big club track would work fine, but probably not on most of the private tracks out there. It sure would be a puller, though. A pair of brothers from up around Detroit built a C&O 2-10-4 several years ago. It was a behemoth... a lot bigger looking and heavier than most of the 4-8-4s I've ever seen in this scale.
At least you have something to go look at since the T&P 610 is still around.
At least you have something to go look at since the T&P 610 is still around.
Re: Looking for input
Re: Dockstader . . . I found Dockstader to be more of a "Proving" program than a design program.
You first make a stab at designing the gear using whatever graphic capabilities you have, including mock-up building, and then test the results on Dockstader, adjusting to optimize the events. I first assumed it would be the valve gear Magic Bullet, a plug-and-play no-brain design program, but my first attempt at designing a Walschearts gear showed me that wasn't the case.
You first make a stab at designing the gear using whatever graphic capabilities you have, including mock-up building, and then test the results on Dockstader, adjusting to optimize the events. I first assumed it would be the valve gear Magic Bullet, a plug-and-play no-brain design program, but my first attempt at designing a Walschearts gear showed me that wasn't the case.
GWRdriver
Nashville TN
Nashville TN
Re: Looking for input
Why not use Krieder's Berkshire castings and simply extend the design from a 2-8-4 to a 2-10-4? That'd be pretty darn close chassis wise to the TP locomotive. then put a 12 inch boiler on it instead. this would get you around having to design a lot of your own castings, patterns etc which would significantly speed up the build project and no one would know the tiny differences that remained. there's a reason so many "custom" locomotives use as many commercially available castings as they can. For example I think Duncan's N&W J was based loosely on LE pacific drawings, with roger goldman VG and cylinders then Krieder berkshire drivers.
Attached are pics of a TP 2-10-4. It was built from RRSC mikado castings including walscheart valve gear with a custom trailing truck.
Keep in mind with something this big, it will likely be the largest thing run at any club track and will always find the bad spots regardless of it they don't affect anyone else. Be ready to always be on edge when running this at a club track etc bc you will be the minesweeper for track alignment, gauge etc.
Attached are pics of a TP 2-10-4. It was built from RRSC mikado castings including walscheart valve gear with a custom trailing truck.
Keep in mind with something this big, it will likely be the largest thing run at any club track and will always find the bad spots regardless of it they don't affect anyone else. Be ready to always be on edge when running this at a club track etc bc you will be the minesweeper for track alignment, gauge etc.
Last edited by Berkman on Thu Feb 27, 2020 6:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Looking for input
I had the same thought, I just completed a rrsc mikado last spring..I also thought about using the chassis for the texas type.....I never thought if the berk ?...it allready has baker gear...interesing !!!!!!
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Re: Looking for input
Go for it!
The rest of us can live vicariously through your build
The rest of us can live vicariously through your build
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....
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....
Re: Looking for input
So far, its just in the dreaming stage...lol
- Bill Shields
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Re: Looking for input
You can use lbcs's Baker design for a 3/4 loco and double it. It is well documented and easy to follow. The standard ratio of input to valve travel is very standard for baker.
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
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Re: Looking for input
Standard Baker valve gear has a ratio of 4 to 1.Bill Shields wrote: ↑Fri Feb 28, 2020 7:05 pm You can use lbcs's Baker design for a 3/4 loco and double it. It is well documented and easy to follow. The standard ratio of input to valve travel is very standard for baker.
Tim
He who dies with the most unfinished projects: Should of put more time into their hobby.
Re: Looking for input
Roger Goldmann of Live Steam Locomotives has a long and short frame Baker gear as well.
Re: Looking for input
Just seen a video on youtube of lew soibelmans santafe 2-10-4....and found a brief story on it in the sept/oct 2008 issue of live steam......wish the issue had more info, like what kind of radius it can take...does it have blind drivers ?....theres only one track in my area that could possibly handle it?.....still in the dreaming stage ?