Best Of Spokane, Portland and Seattle (SP&S) 0-6-0 Project

[djconway]

Max,  this is amazing and inspiring work. 

Maybe there's hope that some of my projects will get wheels turning.

[mmagliaro]

Thanks guys.  I do confess I am thrilled with how those rods came out.  I think this is the first time I've ever seen those grease fittings actually modeled on an N Scale engine.  Usually, they are just little curves or protrusions above the rod holes. 

In all the ways I've fiddled around with making rods, I've never round a better one than just holding the strip of metal in pliers and then gently grazing along it with the Dremel disk.  It's not as hairy as it looks.  Yes, I supposed if I slipped, it could cut the rod clean in half.  Just brace your hands well on the workbench and use light touches of the wheel.  After that, it was just hours of sitting there with very fine, sharp jewelers files to finish shaping the rods down to the lines on that paper pattern.   I did buy some nice new Grobet #4 jewelers files a while back and they are worth every penny.  They can be had for about $7 to $10 a piece.  And I have one #8 (extremely fine) escapement file that I use for the finish work.

[narrowminded]

Thanks guys.  I do confess I am thrilled with how those rods came out.   

As you should be! That looks excellent!

[badlandnp]

Max, It has been a while since I checked in on this and all I can say is you are completely and utterly insane!! And that is said in the most respectful manner possible.  This kind of article does inspire us! Thanks for sharing all these tips, tools and tricks!

[mmagliaro]

Max, It has been a while since I checked in on this and all I can say is you are completely and utterly insane!! And that is said in the most respectful manner possible.  This kind of article does inspire us! Thanks for sharing all these tips, tools and tricks!

Utterly insane... believe me, I take it the way you meant it and I'm honored.
It is an insane effort - one that I will probably never repeat, as I have at least another year's work before
this thing starts to look like a completed engine.

FYI: Since it's been a while: The tender truck frames are under way.  I figured out a way to make a jig, and I have two of them soldered up - two more to go.  It will be a few more weeks before I am ready to show the next bit of progress, but rest assured, this project is still under way.

[draskouasshat]

Looking good max. Im just glad its not done for the convention in kansas city so we dont have to battle it out in the model contest!!!!!

[mmagliaro]

Looking good max. Im just glad its not done for the convention in kansas city so we dont have to battle it out in the model contest!!!!!

LOL!  As you have probably guessed, I never build these with the intent of winning contests, even though I do enter them if a contest comes around at the right time when I have something finished to show.  So probably, 2017/Orlando, FL, there's a chance it could make an appearance.
That will depend on whether I have the time and financial resources to make a trip across the country from Oregon.

[draskouasshat]

I'm with you max. This convention is a while 20 minutes from the house so I might as well enter one just to see what happens. Otherwise, I wouldn't make a special trip just to go enter a contest anyways.

Hopefully some fellow trw members might give me a vote or two or three SPFs might vote against me since I've definitely gotten under their skin in the past over SPF stuff lol.

Adam

[mmagliaro]

Hello everyone.  It has been 7 weeks since the last installment.  In that time I have completed a major undertaking: replacing the stock Kato tender trucks with my own all-scratch-built, prototype-appropriate, archbars.

I have put some discussion on the forum under other topics about weight and pickup quality in getting these trucks to work properly.  Those problems are all solved, so as far as performance, all I can say is that these trucks are very silky and free-rolling, and their pickup quality is excellent.  I can creep the engine reliably through my layout with no stalling.

Let's get to the photos. 



















... Got interrupted!  I will post the rest in a few hours... thank you for your patience!

[mmagliaro]

... and now, on with the construction of the tender trucks...



































We will see these journal covers used in a little bit.  Now, on to making my own wheel sets to
get the Kato wheels out of there.























































And that concludes this segment.  I now have a completely functional, running engine with all the parts scratch-built as I had planned.  Where I go to next, I honestly don't know.  But I think the next step will be to make the cylinders and the cylinder saddle, followed by the valve gear.

As always, thank you to whomever has the patience to follow along with this!

[nkalanaga]

When you said you built an archbar truck, that's what you meant!  Just like the prototype, except solder instead of bolts.  I'd love to send this topic back 50 years, so that the loco builders then could see what could be done in that new "N Gauge".  Some of the HO and O scratchbuilders of the 1960s would probably be tearing their hair out by now...

[Chris333]

Holy Maxcow!  If there were some sort of academy award for N scale you would have it.

[nuno81291]

this blows my mind...very impressive

[narrowminded]

Outstanding!

[craigolio1]

I just read the page on the trucks.

I have nothing I can say, except that I need to find an hour very soon to sit back and read the thread from post one.

Unbelievable.

Craig.