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

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by rkcarguy »

I think the electric ATV winches would be a good way to go, or you could get a multi-valve hydraulic system and go gas hydraulic instead. One pump, then a series of control valves and motors/cylinders could move all the different aspects and even self propel the crane if you wanted.
rkcarguy
Posts: 1730
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by rkcarguy »

I was out in the area again and the MOW cars and crane were still there, but it was dark and I couldn't get any good pictures. Went out yesterday after work and it was gone! I'll try to grab pics if I see it again.
Glenn Brooks
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Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Thanks, no problemo. Maybe they will end up down here somewhere.

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....
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Putting in a bit of time in the shop yesterday and today. Bolted a main bearing to the frame and laid out and drilled, tapped and screwed the two secondary HI def plastic secondary bearing plates just outside the main bearing plate. Should work fine.

Soon as I can layout and bolt on all the bits and pieces on the other end, it will be time to reassemble the trucks and lay on the wood decking. Then get this beast out of here.
Attachments
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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: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Getting close to the end. Finally tackled the two most onerous jobs of this build - making up 48 roller bearings to replace the ones in the trucks that had rusted and galled from exposure and old age; and forcing the suspension springs back into the truck frames.

First off, each axle end takes 11 bearings, so a total of 88 bearings for the two trucks.
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I was able to salvage about 40 existing bearings - they were made from 3/8” drill rod originally. All the rest I discarded after two or three rounds of derusting, buffing and inspecting.

I had a nice existing length of NOS 3/8” drill rod in my prized collection of junk yard steel. So made up a little jig with some welding magnets to cut the correct lengths with my small table top bandsaw. Each bearing needed to be 1.560” long, Max. Setting up a temporary stop with the big triangular magnets just outside the bandsaw blade made it a quick job - 15 minutes of sawing maybe. Turned out to be not as big a job as I expected.

The best part was what happened next - using my 100 year old Dalton 7 1/2” lathe to turn each piece down to correct size - 1.560” (+.000, - .006). The Dalton uses 1/4” bits, so I could also throw a quick, tiny bevell on each end of the new bearings. This squared each end and cut off the jagged bits from the saw work.

I really enjoy working with the Dalton. It’s a high end lathe from yesteryear, that typically exhibits almost no bed wear after 100 years use. They factory named it a “Dalton 6”, as it was advertised as capable doing 6 different machining operations with all the optional attachments. It’s great fun to use to make small parts.

These lathes were shipped to the Western Front in huge numbers during WW1, supporting the French, British, and finally, American artillery units, trench railways, and Army depot maintenance shops for the Allies. Many lathes ended up mounted in mobile, railcar machine shops. A side note: 100 of these lathes were shipped in the hold of the LUSITANIA , when it was sunk by a German U-boat, and still reside on the bottom of the Atlantic. Mine is the same model, a “lot 5”, but was produced in summer of 1919, just after the Armistice, and sold new to a farmer in the agriculture industry in the Skagit Valley, here in Washington State, where I found it for sale 3 or 4 years ago.

Here’s the lathe in action
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The lathe still has the original bits and pieces. including a set of change gears, and a nice little steady rest. I added new thrust washers, replaced the bronze spacers on the spindle, the yellow metal bearings in the headstock, and sourced some replacement drip oilers for the ones that somehow walked away. Also gave it a new coat of paint and a QCTP.

The brass builders plates were all complete and still in good shape. I used little brass split rivets to reinstall all the plates after the paint dried. These rivets are similar to a cotter pin, but with a brass rivet head on the proud end. Actually the same style as the factory installed 100 years ago. Amazing you can still buy them over the counter. The ends of each rivet stick through a hole in the casting and easily bend over on the inside of the housing, to secure the plate to the casting.
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Turning the ends of the bearings down to tolerance, and cutting small bevels.
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Finally re-assembled the trucks - which consisted of chasing the inner and outer springs all around the truck frames until they seated properly. And applied the upteenth coat of spot paint to repair the nicks and gouges on the trucks after wrestling with the springs.
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Trucks, ready to roll. 2 ea.

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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: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Fitted and welded the draft gear to the frame ends today. As usual, measuring, checking, measuring, rechecking, rechecking again took 3 times as long as the welding. The big thing is the trucks (+ wheels, bolster and main bearings) on this flat car are a couple inches higher off the rails than the other cars. Maybe 3” scale, versus the 2” to 2.5” scale of the original Ottaway equipment. So the draft gear is a unique height from the rest of the rolling stock. which necessitated quite a bit of white board time to ensure the math for the center height of the couplers turns out all the same.

Also laid out a jig using the rebuilt trucks in the rails, to confirm the new bolster height and coupler center line. Very reassuring to find the actual distance matched the theoretical (whiteboard) math.

Here is the truck/bolster jig.
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The little white disk on top is the exact height of the top of the master bearing (king pin that holds the truck to the frame).
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And the draft gear weldments... with 2 1/2” scale couplers from RMI.

Note- the frame is upside down in most of the pictures. Draft gear mounts under the frame and hangs down 2 1/4” to coupler center line.
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Anyway, frame is done, awaiting undercoat and more paint.

Last step, Milling and bolting home the deck planks.

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....
rkcarguy
Posts: 1730
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by rkcarguy »

Looking good Glenn! FYI if you can get a freebie CAD program you can use it to "cheat" at figuring coupler box height. :D
Glenn Brooks
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Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Small diversion today.

Enjoyed watching the video link

https://youtu.be/Q4E0M7ESn04

and reminiscing about S/V Dolce, my old 1968 Alberg 30 sailboat, I restored over a period of 10 years and passed along to a promising young guy from Canada who sailed her to Hawaii, and then on to indo China- where he is now moored in Mainland China. The guy in the video is not the owner, but crewed over to Hawaii with Dave, the new owner, and then took the boat on the next leg from the Ala Wai harbor in Honolulu to the Marshall Islands, other side of Micronesia. This fellow has posted several video’s of the boat, on his you tube channel, “Routes of Change”, that I have enjoyed watching also.

Dolce is an old Carl Alberg CCA rule plastic classic design, originally laid up by Whitby Boat Works in Canada. Whitby produced around 600 of these hulls from 1960 through late ‘70’s. Mine was hull number 318, if I remember correctly. 4 of these boats have circumnavigated thus far, all singlehanded. Dave will be #5 if he keeps going - which I am sure he will, eventually.

Every background shot in the video, I think - Hey, I had a hand in getting these guys there. renewed every nut, bolt and screw on that boat, glad to see she’s still doing well, or, aha, hand rubbed 8 coats of teak oil on that bulkhead- still looking good! Ohhh, nice downwind run- glad all my new rigging is pulling like it should!

Anyway, nice to see the old boat off on new adventures.

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: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Back to railroading, sort of.

Earlier in the summer, decided to add a bit more “wilderness” to the ROW. So built up a couple of small earthen mountains to complement “Burma Station”, ala “Saikei” method. Saikei is a Japanese gardening technique, similar to Bonsai, but related to growing miniature landscapes on large rectangular pots or slabs of rock. Some well established scenes are live steam scale and exhibit trees more than 100 years old. Of course my grand designs exist only in my imagination. But decided to give it a try, and expand “Burma Station” with some views of my favorite old Alaska stomping grounds. My initial plan called for an arboreal forest growing up the mountain to the left, and an alpine meadow on the right. Maybe a dry creek bed and mossy tundra down the valley in the center. Couple of weeks latter, my boy showed up to lend a hand, and we ended that day with twice the size of the design I started with- naturally.

Then finally, with all the landscaping plants at hand, at the last moment, literally with the shovel underfoot, I decided the whole landscape really needed a waterfall, coast line, and more rugged “mountain peaks” like we used to see in Prince William Sound and out on the Alaska Peninsula. So dug up the whole thing and put in a pond to simulate a fjord, and started building a waterfall and towering range of mountain tops with loads of rocks. Large order for a small space.

Progress as of today. It’s pretty small scale, but hopefully when the northern forest and glaciated alpine meadow gets planted in the next day or so, riders and train crew will have some interesting wilderness scenes to admire, whilst on their journey.

Here is the existing Burma Station - which is the railway’s primary passenger cross country embarkation point for the “Western Division”.
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And the new layout- with jagged mountain peaks rising north in the distance.
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This is the pond area, still under construction. Not sure how much detail really shows up in the photo. Maybe click to enlarge will show a more clear scene. A small waterfall in the center of the photo will flow down into the pond, from between the vertical rock cliffs in the center of the valley. Plus the low mountain top on the right will be much simplified when the scrabble of rocks tossed up on the mountain top will be removed, when the plants go in. This right side area will be an alpine meadow scene with grasses, moss and lichen, and one or two windswept junipers, maybe a yew barely clinging to life. Off to the left, under the peaks, I plan a small arboreal forest in the uplands - with bonsai stock conifers to keep everything to scale. The lowlands will be a jumble of dense undergrowth- grasses, low willows and some kind of woody alder, similar to what we used to hack through out on Kodak and the Alaska Peninsula. Large screening plants to the rear to frame the whole thing in. Been looking for a nicely shaped, gnarly, semi large, Japanese pine to set off the left side. But thin pickings this time of year in Seattle nurseries.

The idea is to use different size scale plants, and a vanishing horizon such as you might see in a painting, to give the illusion of depth. That way, with a bit of imagination, a rider might catch a glimpse of the far jagged peaks just beyond the trees and waterfall. Hopefully.
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If a bit of cement work around the back of waterfall sets up enuf tomorrow, I’ll start planting the ground cover and trees. Then fill the pond and see what happens.

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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NP317
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Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2014 2:57 pm
Location: Northern Oregon, USA

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by NP317 »

Glenn:
You crack me up!
I really enjoy your brute fabrication of railroad machines, and your artistic endeavors mixed in.
Don't stop!
RussN
LIALLEGHENY
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Location: Bohemia, NY

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by LIALLEGHENY »

I like the pond and the landscaping. You need bigger rocks like the one behind the Buddha. Once you start planting the smaller rocks will disappear behind the plants, and you won't see them. You need a quarry on the railroad where you can mine your rocks from, it will give your railroad some purpose. Wish I had a yard I could do the same.

Nyle
Glenn Brooks
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Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Woodinville Shops

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Nyle and Russ,

Thanks guys. I appreciate your comments. Yes, the pond should be interesting. The big unknown is how effective the waterfall will be.

Thought about scaling up this new landscape area with larger rock material - but decided larger scale would diminish the initial scene. So decided to experiment with the old time Saikei miniature landscaping methods from Japan - basically use the two “mountains” as a bonsai rearing area for small trees, - pre bonsai stock really- and fill in the open space with low ground cover. In Saikei, gardeners will use small scale plants and trees in the back, and create the illusion of distance and depth, by placing the taller, larger trees up front. So hoping the various scale plantings will complement the smaller, one man rocks I laid up in the back.

As with the original planting, my back up plan is to remove the trees and transplant elsewhere along the ROW if they grow to big. So Right now Iam set to plant a couple of cedar and maple forest stands, around 7-9 plants, about 18” - 20” tall up front, and a bunch of really small stuff up in the highlands. Then some small shubrey and windswept junipers amongst the rocks. With pruning, I think I can get 3-5 years controlled growth before having to transplant. Should be interesting...

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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