The Whiskey River Railway

[gbwdude]

The moderators may hate me for this, but I also have a profile over at TrainLife. It's set up like Facebook, kinda sorta, so for me it's easy to use. If I post something on here I should have it on there too. To see what's going on over there here's the link to my page: http://www.trainlife.com/profile/WRRy

In addition to selling my railroad goodies on eBay, I have them posted on there too. I just added some paper items such as a Burlington timetable from '69, a Swiss Federal Railways book from '66 with some pretty ladies inside, a near mint copy of the 1956 NMRA list of members' model railroads (including John Allen's Gorre and Daphetid) and a good copy of the April 1960 edition of the Official Guide of Railways. Check it out and put some money back in my pocket!

Tyler

[gbwdude]

I did a little bit of decaling today on a car that was originally designated to be a WRRy car. Instead, while rummaging through my decal pile to find boxcar data, I remarkably found some decals for my club back home; the Paper Valley Railroad. Their paint scheme for steel boxcars is the same is mine (black roof and ends, brown sides) and it turned out alright. I had some issues with the decals though, the data decals were from the USRA rebuild boxcar that Bill gave me seemed to have a mind of their own and have one of two things happen: 1. They'd rip, or 2. They'd bunch up as soon as they'd slide off the paper. I did my best to try to save as many as possible, but this car has no exterior dimension data, no repack data, and only one side has a build date. Do you know how frustrating it is to have one side of the car damn near perfect and then the decal gods say "Wanna really see something that'll piss ya off?" Yeah, I now know. At least that's one more car off the waiting to be done track on my desk and into the someday-you'll-be-on-a-layout box.

Maybe tomorrow I'll tackle either the Hustler situation or finish up my WRRy caboose C4. We'll see.

Tyler

[Bill Nelson]

and that is one of the reasons I hate decals.


I like dry transfers too, but like decals, when they get old they can be unpredictable.


Nelson

[gbwdude]

Last night I got wild with it and busted out my Super American project to see if Bob's old Bachmann FT mechanism would be something I can use to power this beast. Short answer is no. Long answer is that the FT's axles are about 1/4" too far apart from the Rivarossi ones. Now here's my decision point; give NWSL oodles of my money and make a great running steamer or attempt new side rod fabrication?

I wouldn't touch a beautiful Bachmann TF like that, but at your hands, and with your expertise, be sure to post some photos for us mere mortals! I'd love to see the results!

[gbwdude]

Zathros,

I considered leaving the FT alone for about two minutes and then scrapped that idea. Since my railroad is set in the late 30's and early 40's the FT would have been on the scene, but such a small railroad as the Whiskey River wouldn't have bought anything new like this which would require a whole new way of fueling, servicing and operating. Since America just got out of a horrible recession and jumped right into WW2 limiting production of such units it would have never happened. Not only is it a historical thing but partly a personal thing too, I have a steam fascination. When I was a wee lad I was lucky enough to see the Milwaukee Road #261 being pulled out of the National Railroad Museum up in Green Bay, WI, and since my mom was a professional photographer, she got the call to document the extraction from the museum and the prep out to Minnesota to be restored. So pretty much that's what made me fall in love with railroading all together. That and Bill and Doc Tom are anti-internal combustion railroaders, which helps.

Tyler

[Bill Nelson]

Tyler,


I have been going through the scrap drawers I inherited from Tom's C&S, trying to locate parts Tom disassembled, and get them back into assemblies. what I want most it to put back together some Riverossi Heiesler trucks. Were I to be able to find enough of the right pieces to get two operational, crank pins could be scavenged from other Riverossi steamer parts in my boneyard to make two small drivered motors for a small articulated such as the Little river 2-4-4-2s I know you are fond of the 4-4-4-0 concept, which did not exist, but a Riverossi Heisler would yield drivers close to the size on the second, successful little river Mallet. the commercial Ho 2-4-4-2's are all models of the first Little river mallet, which had larger drivers and a larger wheel base, and did not like the track from Townsend to Elkmont, for which it was designed, and it was returned to Baldwin.



Baldwin sold it , and shipped it west, and it survived, (although in pieces) while it's smaller and more interesting and successful replacement was later scrapped. Your model looks a lot like a 2-4-4-2 to me .


Making custom side rods is an absouloute bear. I haven't done it with locomotives, but the mechanism I made for my R/C Roman warship used a similar concept in it's oar mechanism, and it took we four tries to get side rod like parts made with enough precision to work without binding, and they were eight or nine times the size of an HO side rod. I had to buy a really good drill press, and make several fixtures to hold the pieces while I drilled them. it was an ugly process, and I will probably burn in hell for some of the swear words I invented during the process

the result was cool, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTFNzLDrlHs but the mechanism was too heavy, making the model set to low in the water to get the needed effect, but I would rather take a beating than to try to make side rods for an HO model, unless I also made the frame. if you made the frame, and made a fixture to space the centers of the axle holes in the frame, the same fixture would get you the centers of the side rod holes, but not without pain and suffering.


Bill Nelson

[Bill Nelson]

Originally Posted by gbwdude

Zathros,

That and Bill and Doc Tom are anti-internal combustion railroaders, which helps.

Tyler

I'm not anti internal combustion! I just think most folks don't understand the concept correctly. In any given working woodburner (I can only think of one current example) the combustion is internal to the firebox (where it belongs). somebody just thought it was a good idea to think about the cylinder instead. Makes no sense to me why go to a power stroke every other or every fourth stroke instead of a power stoke every stroke. Infernal combustion can compete on maintenance costs, but not on power .


That said I am nostalgic for the sound of four Southern Railway E-8s throttling up leaving the speed restricted Doraville yards on the evening run towards Washington DC on the nose of the Crescent, going from 45 Mph to about 80 in an amazingly short time. I also miss the sound that the 2 GP 9s that used to run the vestigial stub of the L&N's old Memphis line in front of my house, as they slowed down for the long trestle, the sound of the dynamic braking was really interesting.


But modeling those memories is not reasonable , the 1979 Southern Crescent would be pretty durn long in Ho , and as soon as I throttled it up, Id have to slow it back down. And the railroad bridge in my front yard and it's approach would take more than eighteen feet to model correctly in HO, so I'll model some more remote stuff, more of my Dad's memories than mine.

I wasn't there , so I won't know the full extent of how badly I mangle them.


Nelson

[Doctor G]

Originally Posted by gbwdude

since my mom was a professional photographer, she got the call to document the extraction from the museum and the prep out to Minnesota to be restored. So pretty much that's what made me fall in love with railroading all together. That and Bill and Doc Tom are anti-internal combustion railroaders, which helps.

Tyler

Yee Haw. You betcha I love them steam engines with the funny drive trains.

Any possibility you could post your mom's pictures of that interesting steamer???

Doc Tom

I am a sterling engine nut. I want to make one so bad. I have all the machinery. A lot of metal stock too. I just need some really good plans because I want to make something functional. Maybe something to power a 16 foot long and wide displacement launch, or power a generator with a propane source, or whatever else is at hand. I would consider steam too, thought the closed system sterling just has something so elegant to it. They don't scale up or down well at all though!

[Doctor G]

Originally Posted by Zathros

I am a sterling engine nut. I want to make one so bad. I have all the machinery. A lot of metal stock too. I just need some really good plans because I want to make something functional. Maybe something to power a 16 foot long and wide displacement launch, or power a generator with a propane source, or whatever else is at hand. I would consider steam too, thought the closed system sterling just has something so elegant to it. They don't scale up or down well at all though!

That is an interesting engine and it is truly "external combustion." I think the Stirling engine was considered safer than the classic steam engine as it did not have boiler explosions.

Doc Tom

[gbwdude]

Doc Tom,

I don't have any on my computer, but when I go through my storage unit one day I'll try to remember them. I have to go in there anyways, I hooked one of my buddies onto R/C cars who now moved to Korea and I have a load of R/C car mags and books that are just collecting dust. Just a heads up, some of the pics are very embarrassing as a very young me is in them.

Tyler

[gbwdude]

I've completed two more cars for the WRRy today. The first one is the company's ballast car X56, a slightly reworked Tyco operating hopper car. I say slightly reworked because it originally had Talgo trucks on it which had to be converted for better in train handling, so what I did was drill a hole on each end of the car's frame for the Kadee coupler boxes and install couplers, slap some Roundhouse Fox trucks on it and the signature black paint and decals and here it is ready for service. The second car is a Ertl 40' gondola that just had it's body repainted and Kadee couplers added and then decalled. This car is missing a few grab irons, and honestly I don't know if I'll have a layout anytime soon but I am taking Bill Nelson's advice and leaving off details like such until my daughter gets older and is less curious to why Daddy plays with trains.

I was actually a little disappointed, I hoped to get two more cars done and to do a little more troubleshooting on the club's Southern 2-8-0 today but time is the demon in this game.

Tyler

This engine runs off the heat of your hand. If you put an Ice cube on top, it goes even faster, being a difference engine. They could make for interesting displays on a track set up, like a Ferris Wheel, or just something odd.

[gbwdude]

I made up for yesterday's disappointment early this morning. Since I surprisingly decided to wake up at 7:15 I put that early start to use, first with real world productivity such as laundry, cleaning my boots and giving myself a haircut. After that I got four more cars complete, two more flat cars, a "modern" hopper and my kitbashed company gondola X53. Then after I completed those projects, I fully cleaned up the kitchen and headed over to my buddy's place for Easter lunch/dinner (linner?). Now I wrapped up my day, just finished watching National Geographic's Titanic special they had on and typing this wonderful bit for all the world to see.

No train club, or probably anything, as my wife and daughter are coming back from Wisconsin tomorrow.

Tyler