The "Original" Kittom Lumber Company. Part #2

zathros

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X2 on everything BillNelson said. Excellent thread, those black and white pics make the scenes timeless. ;)
 

Doctor G

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Thanks Z and Bill. Encouragement goes a long way to keep on with the build. Now, working on an On30 vertical boiler late 19th century CLIMAX locomotive. Big and ugly. Gonna name it "Bull o' the Woods." More to come. Tom
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
I have always enjoyed the early steam logging equipment. The primitive prototypes of things to come in moving the logs. Since my layout is set in 1910 I thought I could bring to life one of these beasts:

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The early Class A Climax with a vertical boiler.

Railway Recollections makes this nifty urethane kit.

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So I got the kit and the "donor mechanism" from this Proto 2000 switcher.

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So for the last several weeks in between Holiday Hoop De Doo I have been slowly building the beast.

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The thing is big and hence I am going to name it "Bull O' the Woods." I had to widen the clearances along the right of way to get the thing to fit on the tracks. Fortunately it fits snuggly in the new Engine House.

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Christmas Gift this year is a Tsunami 2 sound decoder loaded with geared locomotive sounds and over the next few weeks I will be installing this in the locomotive.

Thanks for following along. Doc Tom
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
To establish which motor pole is the positive one, figure out which end of this is the front.

With locomotives like this that can be almost arbitrary. I have not yet decided on my CN 60 Shay, but decide, and then hook up a 9v battery to get it to go the direction you want to be forward when it goes forward, note which motor terminal is hooked to the + terminal of the battery. And that is your + terminal.

Looks like a fun project.
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
To establish which motor pole is the positive one, figure out which end of this is the front.

With locomotives like this that can be almost arbitrary. I have not yet decided on my CN 60 Shay, but decide, and then hook up a 9v battery to get it to go the direction you want to be forward when it goes forward, note which motor terminal is hooked to the + terminal of the battery. And that is your + terminal.

Looks like a fun project.
Hey Bill. I got the decoder in this afternoon and hooked it up correctly. Sound is incredible and the whistle nearly blew me out of the train shed. It is running well, very slowly and smoothly. When the model is complete I will work on the CV's to customize the sound and turn down that whistle! Tom
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
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.

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I elected to paint mine as a flat black beast.

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The Tsunami 2 steam decoder I got for Christmas worked after all that infinitesimal wiring soldering and insulating!!
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.

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

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

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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.

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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
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
It is cold and snowy outside. A great time to get in the engine house, fire up the stove and light the kerosene lamps and warm up. Time to shoot the bull and plan for a little work when a thaw sets in.

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Doc Tom
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
The factory paint on a Class A Climax wouldn’t last long.

I chose my freight colors for the body of my HO Class A Climax.

On my On3 D9FABA62-48CD-45AD-89C4-584C495B07A3.jpeg CN #60 Shay, a similarly constructed locomotive, which was factory painted black , I painted the upper body like weatherd wood, as the black hid too much detail
 

Doctor G

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Nifty early Shay there Bill. Love all the exposed plumbing. The top hat on the engineer is also way cool.:Drinks:
Tom
 

Bill Nelson

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Got the crew from grizzly mountain engineering.

Going to do a tar paper roof with coffee filter paper.

A 18 inch radius is too tight for this locomotive if the line shaft is on the inside

I have some 0n3 flex track , the best flex track I have ever seen, made by San Juan Car Company. If I need to get my Americans but together enough to run, and test them , and the Shay on a 19 inch radius, and larger radiuses if they don’t like the 19 inch radius,

I have remotored my Max Gray 4-4-0 with a motor salvaged from a GM truck HVAC door control head.. incredible slow speed control. I was thinking that DCC and sound might be fun, but this motor would likely be too slow on DCC. I’ll test it to see, but it runs so nicely sound would not be an improvement if the performance was reduced
 

zathros

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That's awesome, it kind of has a post apocalyptic look to it. :)
 

Doctor G

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Bull O'Woods, the vertical boiler Class A Climax, is completed and awaiting decals and weathering. So it was back to making winter trees.

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Years go I had read about making trees by securing the branch structures to the armatures using ACC glue and spraying on an "accelerator" which instantly sets the glue.I tried this technique and it worked pretty good. I used armatures and branch foliage from Super Trees. Spray paints ere used to color the branches and the trees then planted.

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Small left over bits were added as low lying bushes devoid of leaves as the scene is wintertime.

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Thanks for looking and following along.

Doc Tom
 

Doctor G

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I added some custom decals and the beginnings of a firewood load to give the Class A Climax a little more character.

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Next to come will be some" warm weathering" to help pop out the details on this basic black engine.

Thank you for looking.Doc Tom
 

Doctor G

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I have been slowly planting trees on the mini layout.

To have a little fun I have been running trains too.

Thought I would do these B&W's depicting the arrival in 1910 of a "modern" Stearns Heisler facing off with the "old bull" the 1890's vertical boiler Class A Climax.

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Times are a changing out in the timber. The inventiveness of the loggers is advancing the technology for harvesting the lumber

Doc Tom
 

zathros

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No year discernible on the black and white pics. They could be from any age!! ;)
 

Doctor G

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This week I wanted to break up the grays and browns of the winter trees. To do that, I planted cedar trees as second growth forest in logged over areas.

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I got these trees from China off of eBay. They were priced at $5.67 for 10. I got them delivered in one week and was amazed at the good quality for the cheap price.
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I noted in nature that cedar trees around here
appear to grow in clusters. So, I planted them on a little rise in front of the divider opening separating the two halves of the mini layout.

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I think the trees camouflaged the opening fairly well and brought a little color to the Winter scene.
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Thanks for looking.Doc Tom
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Gandolf50

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Trees ( really everything!) look GREAT! Lichen worked really well..
found my old box of rail supplies awhile back and when opened, the aroma of lichen came wafting up and took me back to my childhood!
 

Doctor G

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Thanks Bill and Gandolf. Lichen is still a pretty neat material to work with .

During spare moments I have been able to construct this "backwoods" water tank to slake the thirst of the hard working logging lokies on the mini layout. It is Banta kit that was a lot of fun to build.

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Thanks for looking. Doc Tom
 

Doctor G

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LOOKING for some "railroad historical advice."

Here is the backside of the new water tank.

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Note the black pipe that will pump water up into the tank. I was wondering how they did it in 1910 when electricity was pretty young and not likely to be found out in "the backwoods." So not likely to have an electric water pump.

This logging outfit is so temporary that I do not think they would have drilled a well.

I was thinking the resourceful loggers would drop a hose or some pipe over the 30' cliffs overlooking the red river and pump up H2O.

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What kind of temporary pumps did they use? Steam powered? Do you have any photos or drawings?

Thanks in advance. Doc Tom
 
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