Large Scale Central

1st class service to Sweet Water

Mike the engineer and his dog, Mike the Mutt, taking the morning local up to Sweet Water. Got a few pics on the big curved trestle as she went by. First class passengers get a great view. Except for the Miller twins in the back. Those two gals just yak and yak all the way. Russ is guarding the strongbox in the boxcar.

Nice!

7/8 is great for adding detail. Are the nbws and door hardware from Ozark? The step is a cool addition.

Nice modeling,

Tom

Tom,

The NBWs for the most part actually function to hold things in place. They are different gauge 14-16 brass round head pins of different lengths.

Fitted with a #2 flat washer and #2 nut. A pilot hole is drilled and the tip of the pin dipped in glue and sunk in using a brad setter with a concave point.

I also use glue between the wooden parts as insurance. Some of the NBWs are cosmetic. I’ve also used 12 gauge pins with #3 and #4 nuts and washers in some places.

The door hardware is Ozark’s.

Excellent John,

I want to learn to thread brass rod and hold my cars together with nuts and washers like the real thing. I often use brads to reinforce wood joints and add nbws to conceal the brad heads.

A soon to be started project (when we get settled in our new home) is to convert some Lord Steamy 7/8 goods vans to reefers for the fictitious Sumter County Citrus Growers Cooperative. I was inspired seeing some Tropicana reefers nearby. Of course they’re refrigerator units while my cars will have ice hatches. The train (3 reefers, three flats with unknown as yet loads and a guards van) will be hauled by a black Fairymead with a leading truck, cow catcher, air pump and generator plus appropriate plumbing.

Also in the works is a passenger train behind my wife’s green Fairymead, a tram (Regner Willi) and passenger coaches for our granddaughter Jessica and a Decauville with coaches for our granddaughter Jennifer. Lots of sculpey passengers are in my future.

Have fun,

Tom

You could use bolts and lag screws from http://www.microfasteners.com/

I have quite an inventory of bolts/nuts from Microfasteners.

Unfortunately their lag screws are too short for the size of the framing parts I use.

I’m going to try pinning the joints with wire brads then using the lag screws to hide the pin hole.

Tom

Tom is suppose to be working on reducing inventory, organizing, moving, downsizing, getting a house ready for sale and other “honey do’s”. I’m guess his brain just wonders every once in a while. FOCUS SON, FOCUS! gheeesh!

I am focused Ric,

All the named projects are already in house and the “when we get settled” aspect is being firmly adhered to.

This weekend I’ll be giving away and selling magazines and books and some remaining train stuff at a steamup.

Anyone know where my pictures went?

I didn’t touch anything.

I put them back using my 7/8" album as a source.

John Bouck said:

Anyone know where my pictures went?

I didn’t touch anything.

I put them back using my 7/8" album as a source.

Bet Rooster stole them… (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

Andy Clarke said:

John Bouck said:

Anyone know where my pictures went?

I didn’t touch anything.

I put them back using my 7/8" album as a source.

Bet Rooster stole them… (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

Nope…but who ever did they are back (or maybe never left ?)

(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

They were gone and had that little icon in the big square. So I reloaded them from albums here on LSC. They are stored on my FB photos instead of a Freight shed here, so that was the glitch, prolly.

Who knows?

Years ago I bought this tap and die set from Micro Mark and made my own with brass rods and thick plate drilled and cut out for bolts. One could also drill a rod and slice off nuts…

or since they are standard threads, buy the nuts… but I was making square nuts for car ends…

Get some Cutting oil at Ace and go for it.

Remember to back out often to clear chips and don’t rush. Let the tools cut.

I want to learn to thread brass rod and hold my cars together with nuts and washers like the real thing. I often use brads to reinforce wood joints and add nbws to conceal the brad heads.

Like John, I have a bunch of taps and dies. I do recall reading that the standard brass rod is not the perfect size for the die - you have to skim some off to get it to grip to start the thread. But once you do it is pretty simple - just take it easy and do i/2 turn each time, then back it off to clear the debris.

Biggest problem I had is holding everything at right angles. NWSL makes a tap holder to assist but it isn’t perfect for a die.

I did that with my hoppers.

But, other than to say I’ve done it now, I’m not sure it served any real purpose.

When you run a die onto any rod, you always have to chamfer the end of the rod a little.

Even if you use ready-rod (fully threaded rod), after you snip off the length you want, you file a semi point on it

to clean the cut burr and re thread it a little.

You can also use brazing rod … softer… cuts like a champ!

I usually thread stuff but when it is too much bother, I’ll slice off bits of square or hex tubing and solder or glue them to a brass rod…i’ve even been known to use square strip wood and a washer made from a bit of thin plywood using a paper punch.

Eric Schade said:

I usually thread stuff but when it is too much bother, I’ll slice off bits of square or hex tubing and solder or glue them to a brass rod…i’ve even been known to use square strip wood and a washer made from a bit of thin plywood using a paper punch.

I prefer the cheat method to acquire the desired affect myself.

at least “clock” the nuts,Bruce so all the flats are the same and horizontal! LOL OCD is strong on that picture