PRR I1sa build thread

[nscaleSPF2]

Ooh yeah ! I remember that now. I didn't know/remember you milled out the shell. Did you happens take any pics of that part?

No, sorry, Josh.  No pictures of the inside of the shell.

[Lemosteam]

So here is a picture of the GHQ L1 next to my K4 and my Minitrix L1. You can see how much larger the GHQ boiler is compared to the other two.  Turning this one and a second into I1sa makes more sense for that boiler shell IMHO.





Upon inspection, I concluded that the slides would not have enough forward travel.  I removed about 1mm of material in the slide groove:



The slide has a snap feature for the original rods to snap into but the Kato main rods are too thin for this snap feature:



To remedy this gap and add a little bit of press fit, I tinned the end of the main rod with a blob of solder. This worked nice to provide a point contact inside the Clovis and keep the hook pin in its hole:



Here is a short video under electric power:

 https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Yd2KsycEr4hzxKTA8b7sgdMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=email

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Also, just throwing this out there, but... I dare you to do one "as built", instead of the later versions.

[Iain]

Wowzers.

[VonRyan]

I'm still not following as to how a Mikado is going to become a Decapod.

[SkipGear]

I'm still not following as to how a Mikado is going to become a Decapod.

Sort of like this....

[Lemosteam]

Also, just throwing this out there, but... I dare you to do one "as built", instead of the later versions.

Ed, got a proto photo link?  it depends.  if the photo is too early for my era then i likely won't.

[victor miranda]

the early stuff is easy.
remove almost all details and use gloss paint.

victor

[Lemosteam]

Sort of like this....

Or this, midway down the page...

http://maxcowonline.com/maxspage/projectFiles.php?picdir=articles&picidx=6&lastpic=19&picstyle=1&

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I know I've seen them in earlier builders photos with oil headlights, but this will do:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRR_I1s#/media/File:PRR_I1s_4300.jpg

[Dave V]

I want to say they had extended piston rods when they were delivered.

[Lemosteam]

Taking a brief respite from the valve gear whilst I work out some more details there.  Meanwhile I began the process of adding another axle.  Broke a darn tap in the process  but drilled a second hole and moved on.

The rear piece is only pressed in at this point and later will become the frame and attachment point for a more conventional drawbar.

[mmagliaro]

Broken tap.. ha!   Part of the gig, man!
Looks nice.  How did you set the spacing and width on that axle channel?   I know on mine,
I measured the slot-to-slot spacing between 2 of them in the frame, then located the styrene
as best I could, and then fine-tuned it with filing and shimming.   But Jason and Loren have showed
photos of a simple little jig made of styrene and that's such a simple way to do it more easily!
(flat strip of styrene, you glue blocks of styrene to it that line up into the 4 channels in the Mikado
frame, and now you just place the frame over 3 of them and use the 4th to locate your new
channel).

[Lemosteam]

I used my calipers as a marking device after measuring the offset. 

Yeah, I just started hacking and whacking, leaving the split pin in place when I cut the forward face.   Then as I fine tuned the groove,  I reset the calipers to a known dimension and then measured constantly.  The big block was cut close and then I filed the face and height till I got the axle bearings to drop in like they do in the original chassis. Once I got it there I rolled it on some track to make sure the rear drivers weren't proud of the others.  It rolled nicely.

I did buy a really nice 00-90 "real" tap ( not the micro trains variety, no disrespect to MT) and I'll tell ya, I was able to cut threads just by rolling in in my fingers and backing it off in between each cut.

Those guys make so many locos from this base chassis that I understand the desire for repeatability.

[mmagliaro]

... 

Yeah, I just started hacking and whacking, ....

...

That's the spirit, John!