Epoxy putty . . . now there is a product I never considered using in my models but is a great idea. I have always leaned to Bondo body filler as my go to putty (even with wood where I don’t need to stain it). Put I have used epoxy plumbers putty for various home and boat repairs. Would be much friendly to work with than bondo for small quantities.
Day 4: More Sanding and Filing, but No Fiddling
@PeterT , thank you for your kind compliment. That’s high praise given your skills, especially where the apply to giving life to derelict locos! We’ll see how I do transitioning from surface prep to modeling! Also, @Devon_Sinsley , I am glad I could contribute to your kit bag for a change. We discovered the epoxy putty through rocketry, where we use it to create fillets on larger rockets and those that use tumble recovery.
Meanwhile, this project moved along at the pace of drying putty. I was thrilled to see that the epoxy filled the holes in the boiler, but, after sanding, they did require a bit of modeling putty to fill dimples where it had settled. I also cleaned up the firebox, removing the last of the cardstock and mystery plastic, and I made fast the last bits of the styrene roof to the roof frame, though I switch to CA to ensure it flowed into loose spots. The roof vent didn’t adhere, so I reaffixed it with CA. I also cut vent hole. Novel, I know! The lots looks like this:
More sanding and filing tomorrow. Time permitting, I will also clean and prime the roof and boiler. Then I can turn to on preparing the chassis to receive all this stuff!
Eric
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Day 5: Ready…PRIME!
I used the remaining daylight after Kid-zilla’s soccer practice to sand off the excess modeling putty on the boiler, firebox, and roof. The smokebox door, boiler, and roof went the Palm of Spray Painting and are now a lovely shade of grey automotive primer. I may have overstated the corrosive effects of exposure to atmosphere, but I do feel better with all these parts under paint. Tomorrow is a late day for me, with fencing immediately after work, so these components will not get their final colors until Friday.
On track to focus on the smokebox, chassis, and baseplate over the weekend!
Eric
Day 6: Sand, Paint, Sand Again
The smokebox door, roof, and boiler went to the Palm of Spray Painting after some light sanding.
Naturally, I got a couple runs…
…and I missed part of the stack. I ended the evening with more sanding.
I forgot to mention that just before lights out last night, the night shift cut away the excess material from the boiler mount.
I puttied it up, and today I sanded it smooth. It’s ready to receive the boiler!
Eric
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I’d blame it on Ralph. From the red splotch on his arm I’d guess he still hasn’t mastered painting.
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Yeah, Ralph is more an artist than an industrial painter! You take what you can hire, and he has seniority, so what are you going to do?
Today, I fixed the paint, and it will do. I got back from the Palm of Spray Painting just in time to see the Triple O foreman bawling out the gang for this OSHA nightmare…
We had to prep the chassis by removing the old battery tabs, but safety first, even in 1:24! A Dremel made short work of it, and the gang soon was picking up the scrap.
I grabbed our sander and made the deck flush for the new styrene base that will go over it.
I also paused to evaluate where the project sits with a quick “dry assembly.”
I may push everything back a bit to make the cab flush with the back of the deck. I sort of like it as it is, as the steps can then serve either the cab or the future inspector’s deck. That will have to extend forward of the smokebox just enough for the 1:24 crew to stand during inspections. I had thought about having the inspector’s deck drop down forward of the smokebox to just over the tracks, but I worry it would not be durable (and thus no fun!). I think if it looms forward like the foc’sle of a ship, it should convey the idea while keeping the structure solid. I do plan to make the deck wide enough for the 1:24 gang to face outboard. I am width constrained by structures and plantings, though. In the end, the boiler will be semi-casemated. I am weighing a canopy over the forward deck. We’ll see.
Finally, I had to consider how to simulate the pushrods. I tried cutting piano wire to size, but it proved too flimsy. Then I remembered I still had bits from the original motor block kit ( Request Opinion – Smallbrook Studio Motor Block) I had otherwise botched, and found the cotter pins intended to serve the purpose. I tried fitting the cotter pin through the hole in the side rod and only managed to ruin the cotter pin. The other one I tried to make fast with a bit of bent wire, but that had too much play, and it bound up. Tomorrow, I will get a new cotter pin and see if there are rivets or something that will do the job. Failing that, I will remove the cross rods and leave the mechanical connections to the viewers imagination…or tram it up!
The other big focus this weekend is the cab interior. I have the styrene bits on hand (about $9 in new purchases and scraps) to make the after part of the boiler with basic details, do some framing (to include using styrene walls to plug that gap that presumable accommodated the drivers on the long-lost original creation, and prep for paint.
I will close by saying that the project has crossed a creative threshold. To date, I have focused on salvaging and renewing the creative efforts of the original builder. As of tomorrow, the finished product they enabled is all on me. And a lot of PLAYMOBIL. Can’t forget those guys!
Eric
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Loving the multiple news stories coming out of the Triple O yards. Are you having to compete for work space and is there an air of competition, collaboration or is everyone just plugging along with their own projects?
You are doing a fantastic job of recycling that loco. Looking like a brand new machine.
Love the proportions. Looking great so far!
ERIC… Caution on pushing the boiler back… The smoke box and the smoke stack, needs to aline with the cylinder, as the exhaust from the cylinder is vented up thru the stack… Stack and cylinder need to align…
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Thanks. Pushing it back seemed “off.” I had assume engineering reasons; now I can state engineering reasons!
Eric
I got lost here. Are you talking about the crosshead support rods? Or the rod going in to the cylinders from the connection rods - known as the piston rod?
I think the latter, as you are talking about a cotter pin. A nice long one should work, once you figure out how to attach it to the rod. A short self-tap screw that jams in the rod could be cleaned off at the back by the dremel.
Sorry Eric, that was supposed to be a thumbs up but my phone won’t let me change it.
No worries. I have a real issue trying to hit the various “buttons” when I try to use them via the phone!
Eric
Day 8: Of Rods and Decks
To begin with, sorry, @PeterT , I am still learning the names of steam engine bits! I’ll address the issue of rods, first. The cotter pins are supposed to go from the disconnected rod that connects to the rear driver into the cylinder. This cylinder has holes high and low, presumably for the one that is the actual drive rod and the one that is for the “D-valve.” Experimentation showed that the cotter pin should run to the upper hole. Kid-zilla helped me to find tiny little machine bolts and nuts at the hardware store today (~$2.00) when he helped me get paint to match the tender (~$9.00). These worked, but the cotter pins would bind. I made guides using styrene tube, drilled out the holes in the cylinder a bit, and shortened the pins a bit.
This worked great, until we tried to push it along the track. It binds and slides along. Now, when we weighted it by mounting the powered tender on top, it worked pretty well. I really don’t want to lay out that sort of money for weight. I will try shortening the cotter pins a bit more, and, if that doesn’t work, remove everything but the connecting rods. Once the deck is in place, the detail won’t be seen, especially when looking down at the loco as it rolls through the garden.
Puttering with the rod system set me back well over an hour. I was not able to turn to on the boiler backhead at all. To boot, I managed to glue something to the steam dome, setting me back on the painting! Needing a victory, I began working on the deck. This phase began with cardstock at the tightest point on the line.
Once the 1:24 gang and I had the proportions right, I used the measurements to cut the styrene deck and reinforcing frame.
Unfortunately, I forgot to account for the frame when I measured the deck length, so the deck will no extend as far forward as intended. Live and learn!
This will work.
By day’s end, the crew and I had used angled styrene to simulate a frame, and we used scrap sheet styrene to fill those “holes.” Tomorrow, I’ll putter with the boiler and backhead as I determine what to do with the rods. The latter may dictate how I make the safety rails around the deck. I and intendend them to affix styrene posts to the frame and then use sheet to make a cheap wall. I may extend those walls downward and make this a “tram,” adding additional sheet and small styrene rod “hinges” to simulate access panels. We’ll see.
Eric
Bill, space is at a premium…
…and tools, glues, and sandpaper are tending to go adrift, with folks forgetting to put stuff away after use. By the end of the day, there were work stations set on the floor and on the little picnic table in the background. I spent an hour today just getting things back into some semblance of order, as parts and projects were starting to get entertwined.
By long established precedent, material put in a “project bucket” is considered “claimed.” Material in the sundry “gemuckabuckets,” buckets sorted by material type, are open for grabs, though there is usually some discussion about it before the grab is made. Actual model railroad bits, such as wheels, couplers, air hoses, etc. are controlled by me (they actually cost $$$$).
Eric
Well, the lower hole is for the drive rod (piston rod) and the upper is to the valve chamber (not necessarily D-valve, there’s lots of types.)
But the connecting rod from the rear wheel goes to the bottom hole, as that’s how the piston transfers horizontal back-and-forth motion to rotary. You may also note the bottom hole is directly in line with the wheel centers, to assist with even power transmission.
Most early locos had inside valve gear, so all you saw was a rod on a pivot rocking back and forth.
I would say you need a longer cotter pin, in the bottom hole.
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Hope this drawing helps a bit .
Note that the center line of the cylinder is on the centerline of the drivers.
By driving the wheels from the rear wheel, cuts down the amount of the angle that the main rod has to traverse in its stroke.
The main rod is outside of the connecting rods, but attaches to the wheel pin on the same shaft, just outside of the connecting rods for clearance.
The Top hole is for the valve gear to control the sliding valve, to use that hole to drive, you would get binding due to the severe angles from the offset of the pins.
Hopes this helps along with Peters explanation .
Dave T.
EDIT: BTW keep the bearing clearances really loose on the connecting and driving rods bearings, to prevent binding.
I’ll add my 2 cents because when I first started here modeling steam I knew nothing about how a steam loco actually works. So what these guys are telling you I will try to put in layman’s terms. So to move the drivers ( the big wheels on the loco that power it) you have to take a back and forth piston motion and turn it into a circular motion. So inside the cylinders is a piston. Steam is applied to either side of said piston to push it back and forth. Which side the steam is applied to requires a valve of some sort. So coming out of the cylinder is a drive rod (might not have the right name) this rod is driven forward and backwards by the piston. Then you have a connecting rod that connects that drive rodnto the drivers. It pivots on the drive rod end. This allows the end connected to the wheel to rotate at the same time it is moving forward and backward.
So they are right you need to run your cotter pin in the lower hole. What the upper hole is for is another rod that is attached to an eccentric “gear” that is for timing. It pushes what we call the valve rod in and out of the upper hole. This pushes a valve in the steam chest forward and backwards. This valve is what determines which side the steam is applied to the piston.
Dave said this all needs to be lined up with the boiler and there is a good reason for this. Steam is produced in the boiler and channeled through a big hunk of iron that acts as the cradle for the front of the boiler. It has passages in it that allow steam to travel from the boiler to the steam chest and drive the piston. When it exhausts it goes through another passage in that big hunk of iron and into the smoke box. This acts like a supercharger. The escaping steam rushes up and out the stack and in doing so creates a draft that pulls the hot gasses (smoke) from the fire box through the boiler and up the stack. This draft really fans the fire and creates way more heat. Giving the locomotive a lot more oomph.
Hope that made some sense. They are really cool designs and once you start to understand what each part actually does it makes more sense why parts have to go where they do.
Day 9: Rods and Boiler
Gents,
Thanks so much for the education. The bonnie ship CHICAGO, a uranium burner, was steam turbine and considerably simpler. I re-routed the piston rod to the lower hole, aligning it with the piston. It still bound up on the front of the stroke, as the pictures show…
…but at least it fell out of the cylinder entirely at the end of its stroke, unless it bound up somewhere along the way. I am sure there are long dormant math skills I could access to figure this out, and, were this the Laplace or Fourier Challenge, I suppose I would. For today, I set the chassis aside and worked on the boiler.
The 1:24 gang reported for work, and we collected our styrene.
We opted to do our ideating on the cardstock cutout, lest the glue spill and screw up everything.
After salvaging appropriate scraps, I busted into the new stuff, and then sat there as we debated how to proceed. The options were:
- Glue the original top firebox to the cab and build sides and fronts in situ.
- Build a nice frame from carefully measured bits of styrene, assemble it all, and insert it into the cab.
In the end, I opted for option #1.
Beyond not trusting my ability to make a straight cut, I really wanted to build out from the foundation of the cab, using the wall to frame and anchor this part of the project. Despite gluing myself to the cab, boiler, backhead, etc., it came out OK.
It got some Tamiya Putty, and tomorrow it will get some basic details, using a B’mann 10-wheeler backhead as a rough guide.
After this, it was time to take it to the tracks for some ideating. Naturally, I again applied non-Euclidean geometry to augment the challenge.
You’ll note the cab wall doesn’t quite drop to the deck. Schimpf 
A bit of styrene not only helped to support the boiler, but it also hid the gap along the front of the cab.
But how to hide the gaps along the side? That’s when it dawned on me that this is essentially a MOW unit. Toolboxes? No, too high off the rials and no way to access them? Chains and ropes and stuff? Sure…I suppose an open top bin that held items the crew could access from the deck would work. Then I noticed the space in question is perfect for spare track ties! Works for me, and I can use the chains elsewhere.
I have never been happy with the idea of gluing a safety railing to the observation platform. I think that would last exactly one evening before an Act of Dog broke that off. That’s when I remembered some dude wrote to GR about using old wire trays for safety railings. Trays I have not; random mesh I have.
The plan is to bore holes into the deck frame, remove a the lowest horizontal bars, and glue this into the holes. I can cut a bar out to allow the crew to pass through, adding a grab iron and a stirrup step to assist. The gaps are about the width of a tongue depressor, which I can wire onto the mesh for a wall. We have a plan!
Then I went to the beach (Not too long; the water was 74 F. Brrrrr… 
). I realized I have to move forward, so tomorrow I will mask a bit of the deck’s underside to ensure a good plastic to plastic bond, then paint it black. I can paint the cab interior black and fit the roof once I have the backhead done. After final finagling, I’ll mask the points where the boiler fits, again to assure a good bond, the paint the deck black before securing the boiler and cab in place. That should clear the way for the safety rails, spare ties, chains, ropes, whatever. Of course, there are still those rods…
Still, just to kick myself in gear, the cab exterior got a coat of Rustoleum Farm Equipment Green.
That’ll do!
Eric
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