A3

[stevehuckss396]

Being a huge rail fan I will be following closely.

 

[zeeprogrammer]

Drat. I popped in again.
I think this thread will be the end of me.

 

[1hand]

Drat. I popped in again.
I think this thread will be the end of me.

The end or maybe the beginning of your next Loco Zee :big:
Matt

 

[1hand]

Pat looks to be a good mod for the saw.

Matt

 

[1hand]

Boy am I really getting a feel for this steam thing. When I ordered the A3 book I also got a subscription to Live Steam and Outdoor Railroading.

Well I received the first issue today, and now after paging through it, I can see I'm way in over my head!!...lol


Not much going to get done in the shop this weekend. Got to go and close up the camper for the winter, and swing by the deer camp and cut some fire wood tomorrow. Sunday is the big Talledaga Nascar race, but then again there's a TV in the shop........... :noidea:

Matt

 

[1hand]

Here are the 12L14 round blanks cut for the Tender wheels.

woohoo1 woohoo1 woohoo1 woohoo1 woohoo1 woohoo1

Matt

 

[fltenwheeler]

Hi

If you did not know, you can purchase wheel and cylinder castings here: http://www.friendsmodels.com/

Tim

 

[kvom]

It so happens I have been thinking about possibly building a loco, and the A3 would be high on the list. There's a live steam club/track about 20 miles from me that I plan to visit for the first time tomorrow. It's a 7.5" gauge track, so, I would be building the A3 in 1.5" scale were I to attempt it. I think I'd want to use steel vs. brass as much as possible.

I'll be watching your thread with interest.

 

[1hand]

Tim thanks for the link. I have visited that site while planning my build. At 3/4" scale the raw materials aren't all that expensive, so I'm going to try hacking them up myself. The $200 I save will pay for the copper boiler materials. If I ever make it to building the Shay I will look into their cast gears though.

 

[1hand]

Kvom I will be building with steel except the unpainted parts and the copper boiler. I considered 1 1/2" scale but that would be pushing the limits of my SX3 and 9x19. That and I would like to build all 5 Kozo's locos before I kick the bucket. There is a club 2 hours from me that has 1100 feet of 3 1/2" , 5" and 5500 feet of 7 1/2".

 

[Dan Rowe]

Matt,
Your mention of cast gears made me check the Friends website again he only offers drivers not gears for the Shay but this forum has a good answer for Shay gears see:
http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=10851.0

The CNC method will also be able to cut the Climax gears when you get to that one.

To build all of Kozo's engines sounds like a real fun chalange.

Dan

 

[1hand]

Dan thanks for the heads up. I just noticed the gears on the drivers in the one pic, and figured they offered them. The link you put up on the CNC gear cutting is awesome. Thm: I never knew anything like that was out there, and the price is very fair for what your getting. I never worked with castings before, and want to machine everything I can myself from barstock if possible. The CNC mill I have should make machining the drives alot easier, "once I get the bugs out, still learning" and being able to cut your own gears would be great. I know this all can be done manually also, but learning the CNC is just as much of a hobby to me as building the loco! scratch.gif

Love your guys Ideas, right up my alley!

Matt

 

[kvom]

I ordered the A3 book today, so hopefully I'll get an idea of what's involved in building the 1.5 version. I think that buying castings for the drivers makes sense.

 

[1hand]

Gol darn you Kvom! Your talk of 1.5 has me really reconsidering my decision of scale. The main reason I was considering 3/4" was due to the lack of machine size I have. There is only a few parts that I wouldn't be able to machine safely with my machines. I do have a friend across town that has a 12" lathe and a Bridgeport knee mill that would help me out for a few cigars and a case of beer. The only thing I'm out now would be the $10 piece of shaft I cut for the wheels so far. There's more 7.5 track also.

 

[1hand]

Sorry for my case of ADD. I will be continuing in 3/4" as planned. Kvom I will be a bit jealous of your build though. The real reason is that I don't want to give up any cigars or beer! The thought of lugging 500 lbs of loco around sounded fun though.

 

[arnoldb]

Matt, do carry on - I'm squarely on board the peanut gallery - look for the dark green with envy guy

No matter what scale, I'll be sitting slobbering over any loco build log - the more so as no matter what the larger scale is, I'd have to build my own track... In a yard that has 1:15 gradients North-South and West-East :'(

Regards, Arnold

 

[shred]

I've got that book, and look at it every so often.. maybe someday I'll get the patience for something that extended...

 

[Tin Falcon]

Double the size 8 times the material cost. HMM you do the math TEEE HEEE.
Tin

 

[1hand]

Yup. For what I'd spend on one, I can build all 5 and have some left over for coal and some rolling stock. :
"rolling stock" see I'm even picking up the Rail lingo! :big:


Matt

 

[kvom]

Double the size 8 times the material cost. HMM you do the math TEEE HEEE.
Tin

But if you take 8 times longer to build it, the cost/yr remains the same. ;D :

I went out to the local club yesterday for my "maiden voyage" in the RR world. The job of the day was to run the club's diesel loco around the track layout pushing a work car that has a blower mounted. The blower removes fallen leaves from the tracks. It seems that if the leaves remain, then a train rolling over them will press out fluids that make the track too slippery for the drivers to get a good grip. One of the club members mentioned that a 4-driver loco might not be able to pull a heavy train over their layout.

There were two loco/tenders in the storage shed, one a 1.5 and the other a 1.6 scale. It seems that 1.6 is popular as that's the ratio between real track gauge and 7.5" gauge. You can definitely see the difference. These are big, hefty trains. One of them had a prefab fiberclass tender tank, which when painted looks just as authentic as the hand-made steel one.

WRT the A3, it seems a lot of builders start with the tender. Personally I think building the loco first makes more sense as you could steam it with a makeshift tender while finishing the real tender.