Large Scale Central

The "Original" Kittom Lumber Company. Part #2

Other Scales O / On30
#141

Ric Golding said:

Hey Doc,

You said - “They proved very durable and lasted well past their original builders projections.”

From the beginning - early equipment was made, used, stored, canalbalised, re-used and finally melted down for use in new equipment, again. The story of the original “Tom Thumb” reveals that on the 50th anniversary, they had to guesstimate from drawings and reports, because the original Tom Thumb engine was now a water pump or other form of propulsion for something. The “throw away society” didn’t exist at that time.

Really enjoying your progress.

Plug and play and throw away…

#142

I managed to complete the vertical boiler class A Climax. I researched the likely color of this locomotive in 1910. From what I could read it was primarily painted black.

(https://i.imgur.com/4ZPyDGx.jpg)

I elected to paint mine as a flat black beast.

(https://i.imgur.com/wN2oz2F.jpg)

The Tsunami 2 steam decoder I got for Christmas worked after all that infinitesimal wiring soldering and insulating!!(http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/images/jump2refection_125.gif) :glad::rah:.

So, to celebrate and since it was a Christmas gift, who better to christen the “Bull of the Woods” than Santee Claus hisself?

(https://i.imgur.com/T3qCONN.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/mUhKwkm.jpg)

The man in red was really moved by the deep gorge at the Kit Creek watershed.

(https://i.imgur.com/fpDdB5W.jpg)

He was glad to get back to the relative safety of rail camp and was looking for his reindeer and sleigh to get him gone.

(https://i.imgur.com/HZvkLL5.jpg)

Next to come are windows for the cab, a decal for “Bull O’ Woods” and light weathering.

Looking forward to choosing one of the 60 whistles and all the other electronic goodies that come with a Tsunami 2 decoder.

Thanks for looking.Doc Tom

#143

It is cold and snowy outside. A great time to get in the engine house, fire up the stove,light the kerosene lamps and warm up. Time to shoot the bull and plan for a little work when a thaw sets in.
(https://i.imgur.com/sX3Vzlb.jpg?1)

Doc Tom

#144

Well done Doc. As always I’m loving the adventure(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

#145

David Marconi, FOGCH said:

Well done Doc. As always I’m loving the adventure(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

Thanks Dave. I enjoyed sticking the lens of the camera into the EH to see what the guys were doing…turns out, not much.

Doc Tom

#146

Tom

(https://i.imgur.com/4ZPyDGx.jpg)

I’m thinking you went the easy route …I think the roof is tin or sheet metal ,another opportunity to try weathering…

(https://i.imgur.com/wN2oz2F.jpg)

It needs to be lighter in color…I do love how it came out… (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

#147

Sean McGillicuddy said:

Tom

(https://i.imgur.com/4ZPyDGx.jpg)

I’m thinking you went the easy route …I think the roof is tin or sheet metal ,another opportunity to try weathering…

(https://i.imgur.com/wN2oz2F.jpg)

It needs to be lighter in color…I do love how it came out… (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

Good point Sean. I can probably lighten it up some when I get to weathering the locomotive. Thanks for the input. Doc Tom

#148

Here is a better shot of the roof of Bull O’ Woods in better lighting. It is a little lighter and rusty to imply a metal roof. Hopefully it will lighten up more with weathering to come in the near future.

Doc Tom

#149

Hey Doc Tom,

Here’s a prototype question for you.

How did you come up with the idea of the engineer/operator riding in the front? Did you see a picture like this? I really don’t know or have any idea where they would be.

I have seen the prototype for the "Crab at the B&O Railroad Museum and the engineer stood in front on a covered platform with his arm stretched back to a Johnson Bar or Throttle. Anyway, are you guesstimating or have you seen a prototypical picture?

#150

Ric Golding said:

Hey Doc Tom,

Here’s a prototype question for you.

How did you come up with the idea of the engineer/operator riding in the front? Did you see a picture like this? I really don’t know or have any idea where they would be.

I have seen the prototype for the "Crab at the B&O Railroad Museum and the engineer stood in front on a covered platform with his arm stretched back to a Johnson Bar or Throttle. Anyway, are you guesstimating or have you seen a prototypical picture?

Hi Ric,

Thanks for the interest. Here are a couple of prototype pictures I used to try and get an understanding of this early form of steam logging:

The second shot has all the walls stripped away and appears to show a seated engineer running the locomotive.

Here is my favorite picture of the early Climax Beast:

Looks like an engineer hanging out the front window…then again there are so many good ole guys mugging for the camera that you cannot really tell who is the engineer???

Would be neat if someone has early construction drawings of these interesting steamers to share.

Doc Tom

#151

Doc Tom,

Great pics and I know you’ve shown some of them before, or I’ve seen them. somewhere. :wink:

I understand your impressions of why you have the operator where you do.

On the last picture, there is a headlight on the other end, along with a lower light. There also looks to be a lower light on either end and the end with the headlight on the roof, also looks to have a string of cars hooked to the engine with a “rooster”.

On the last picture, the end closest to the camera has a guy sitting on or next to something. Wonder what that is?

Oh? Note the large hose on his right, our left, and the small hose going to the ground on his left, our right. Wonder if they are taking water and that is some type of pump box sitting on the foot board.

Looks like the “safety valve” has lifted, also.

#152

Doc & Ric, I can’t bring anything to the table, but I am enjoying this conversation. I would like to build one of the creatures one day, so, if you guys don’t mind, I am going to sit over here in the bushes and continue to eavesdrop and maybe I’ll learn something.

#153

I have always liked the Class A’s and started building a bashed version of the NENG kit many years ago. Somewhere packed away I have the Climax book. It is an excellent reference for anyone wanting to model any of classes of Climax locos.

Ric, you are correct about the last picture. The picture shows the rear of the loco and from what I recall from the book visibility was an issue with the Class A’s. The engineer and fireman would be standing somewhere in between the side door and the window the guy is posing in.

Steve

#154

Steve Borges said:

I have always liked the Class A’s and started building a bashed version of the NENG kit many years ago. Somewhere packed away I have the Climax book. It is an excellent reference for anyone wanting to model any of classes of Climax locos.

Ric, you are correct about the last picture. The picture shows the rear of the loco and from what I recall from the book visibility was an issue with the Class A’s. The engineer and fireman would be standing somewhere in between the side door and the window the guy is posing in.

Steve

Hi Steve,Dan, and Ric,

Enjoying this discussion. The On30 kit builder “Railway Recollections” reported in their instructions that these early Class A Climaxes had the “water tank in the front”. They oriented the whole construction process with the round water tank up front. In the “back” on the model is the opening of the fire box and where the fuel used to run the beast was stored. I am in the process of cutting up “O” scale firewood for future placement.

One wag pointed out that these things “look like a powered box car.”

It is very hard to distinguish front from back and in true logger fashion they probably ran them without regard to orientation.

Thanks for the ongoing discussion about these very interesting ancient dinosaurs.

Doc Tom

#155

My current endeavors includes running a inch and a half Little Engine “Crab” at the Ridge Live Steamers. I acquired this engine and numbered it 101, as I try to improve my steam knowledge. Like the Class A’s, it has the water tank up front and one of my early problems was knowing how much water was left in the 2 gallon front water tank. A screen filter inhibited the ability to just look down through the fill hole, as the guys could do on that big round tank on the “Bull of the Woods”. A hand pump and an extra water glass on the tank have resolve this for the “Crab”.

Can you imagine being in the woods, with a hot wood fire under a boiler, that is running out of water, with no water source available?. I was simulating the same thing and my biggest fear was not an explosion, but melting soldier joints. Replacing the coal fuel with propane made turning the fire off much easier than dumping a hot fire to save the boiler.

Dumping a fire in a woods full of flamable kindling to save the boiler empty of water was really not a great option.

#156

Note in the first picture that the engine and cars are running on the double flanged wheels over very temporary rail.

Very cool! Wealth of knowledge in these pictures.

#157

Ric Golding said:

My current endeavors includes running a inch and a half Little Engine “Crab” at the Ridge Live Steamers. I acquired this engine and numbered it 101, as I try to improve my steam knowledge. Like the Class A’s, it has the water tank up front and one of my early problems was knowing how much water was left in the 2 gallon front water tank. A screen filter inhibited the ability to just look down through the fill hole, as the guys could do on that big round tank on the “Bull of the Woods”. A hand pump and an extra water glass on the tank have resolve this for the “Crab”.

Can you imagine being in the woods, with a hot wood fire under a boiler, that is running out of water, with no water source available?. I was simulating the same thing and my biggest fear was not an explosion, but melting soldier joints. Replacing the coal fuel with propane made turning the fire off much easier than dumping a hot fire to save the boiler.

Dumping a fire in a woods full of flamable kindling to save the boiler empty of water was really not a great option.

Ric do you have any pictures of the “Crab” ? It sounds very interesting.

I too am trying to figure out some sort of pump to add to my On30 Climax model to get water out of creeks. Also I will be looking at turn of the 19th century pumps to get water up into my “backwoods” water tank as a future project. Tom

#158

Ric Golding said:

Note in the first picture that the engine and cars are running on the double flanged wheels over very temporary rail.

Very cool! Wealth of knowledge in these pictures.

I may be wrong but I think those tracks are wooden beams or logs. Amazing, that these engines could traverse such stand ins for iron rail. Tom

#159

For a little more fun here is a video of a full sized vertical boiler Climax built by a machinist in West Virginia:

Doc Tom

#160

And it looks like it runs in his backyard.