Building WCNG Shay No9
Mid winter
I got the itch to build another locomotive, I had a pristine Bachmann Pardee-Curtin
Shay and a few extra trucks. I had been toying with the notion of
building a “last locomotive” for the Western Conslidated. I figured
why not make it the most modern machine Lima had to offer. Something
purchasd on the eve of the Great Depression, and only lightly used thereafter
until the coming of the World War II traffic boom? Steel girder frame,
piston cylinders, superheated, yeah a real beast of a locomotive.
And while I’m at it, I got a two spare trucks, one powered one dummy lets
make it a full fledged Class D! YEAH!!!
Fig 1
I began by stripping the trucks
and engine assembly off the PC Shay, Figure 1 and trading the discared
reamains for some other valuable Shay parts for future projects.
From there I had to figure out eactly what dimensions I wanted to work
with, and just how long overall this unit was going to be.
I discovered early on that I was going to have to make extentions to the
sliding sleeves on the drive line.
Another challenge was to upgrade
the stock Bachmann Arch bar trucks to a cast steel simulation. Actually
this was a lot easier than I originally thought it would be. One
simple resin casting (master shown in Figure 2) took care
of most of the problem, wth one additonal casting for the gear covers.
Fig 2
Fig 3
I laid the shape of the frame
girders out in CAD and printed it off on cardstock to make a pattern.
I used the pattern to cut the actual members out of 1/16 poplar I milled
on the table saw, and 3/8" cross bracing. Figure 4 Using
the same patterns I cut out the styrene overlays from .040 styrene.
The girders were simulated by using 3/8 inch styrene angles then rivets
applied by the “Fletch” method. Figure 5 The supports
for the cab floor, running boards and the air reservoir were fabricated
from stryrene. Figure 6
Fig 4
Fig 5
Fig 6
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