Kombrink's American

[Bmalone]

Charlie, if you have it at Midsouth in the spring we will have to get some shots of mine and yours together. Mine is now done but I think I am going to make a era passenger car to hold my propane tank.

[Pipescs]

Charlie, if you have it at Midsouth in the spring we will have to get some shots of mine and yours together

Hey Bill

I am really looking forward to seeing your engine. You seem to have lost your thread to a general painting discussion.

Have you made any decisions on how to add brakes to the tender or a car behind it.

After you mentioned the car idea I have given thought to the same thing on the gondola car I have.

[Bmalone]

The original had vacume brakes on the tender that worked ok but took them off because they tended to drag and we needed all the power that engine could make, not wasting it on dragging brakes. I think I am going to build my passenger car for propane but also add a battery and a small compressor. Harbor freight makes a good one for about $25.00. I did this in one of my box cars and it works well. I did it remote control though. I added a two button wireless transmitter that is recieved by a recieved in the box car. That way I can use it on multiple trains. Plus I can set the brakes without having them hooked to an engine.

[Pipescs]

The bearings worked out great and quieted the valve noise a lot. Runs smooth with no binding.

Finishing up night classes at the local tech school this week and am looking forward to getting those two nights back in the shop. Worth the time though as I got a lot of lathe practice. The next semester is dedicated to more advanced lathe projects with the third on the milling machine. Work is in the way though so I will have to lay out next semester.

The floor for the caboose is built on a 3/4 thick piece of plywood scrap from the shop. It is 30 x 13 3/4 inches.

I was going to scribe the lines but it really looked bad with the oak grain being too pronounced.

Ended up planking it over with some spruce planks cut down on a model saw. One coat of yellow dye/stain and a coat of sanding sealer so far.

[Pipescs]

Mine is now done but I think I am going to make a era passenger car to hold my propane tank.

Hey Brad,

Curious as to how much you have run the propane? How does it fire and how long does a tank last you while running?

Mine is coal fired. Larry mentioned years ago that the engine fired very poorly and had trouble holding steam at the 8500 feet altitude he lived at. After a while he added an arch that solved all his problems.

Having only run the engine in Colorado a few times I remember that it seemed to run just fine. I was able to run it once here and it fired right off and burned with no problems. I believe the arch may also be helping with the ash as when I cleaned it out after the short run at MSLS there was no ash to speak of in the tubes or smoke box.

[Bmalone]

It fires very well on Propane. That's all we have ever run it on. Bill Conner built the burners for it. It has 6 burners plus a pilot. We run it on about 5 PSI of preasure. It does not have an arch. It's nice though because it only holds about 7 liters of water in the boiler so it is much easier to manage the fire with propane.

[Pipescs]

Scaled up Bobber Caboose by Rudy Kouhoupt

Framing started tonight

I have almost all the required parts to frame it up. Just need 35 mm bearings for the wheel.

[Glenn Brooks]

Hey Charlie,

Looks like you are having a blast with your American. I wish I could say the same with the Campbell locomotive, but I keep getting myself sidetracked buying stuff that needs more repair than the repair itself. Anyway, your consist is looking great! I hope to get started on my tender in January. AND seeing your caboose, I think I will work on the same also!

Thanks again for the wheels!

Glenn

[Pipescs]

Coming along.

[Dick_Morris]

Charlie,

Don't forget to add the caboose to the project list under your name.

[Pipescs]

It comes in spurts.

I am slowly sticking on the outside planking as I get a few minutes in the shop.

I have a little more than a fourth of it planked.

Tonight I also did the mill work to put the 3/8 inch notches in the sides of the Aluminum Journal Boxes. They will be larger than scale as I am making them oversized for ball bearings. The idea is to be a low maintenance car. Also there is the issue that the American was not really meant to pull a lot of drag so the caboose and gondola both have Ball Bearings.

[Pipescs]

Taking advice from Fender I went with a smaller bearing I had laying in the shop. He questioned my large bearings on a car that is to be finished out scale and not a load carrier.

This required putting the wheel/axle assemblies back in the lathe and turning the alxe ends down to .375 for the smaller bearing ID.

I am redoing my design drawings for a more scale sized journal box.