Eastern Tn logging on the DG CC & W RR 1928

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
It's Allive!

I count the rehabbing of C & S #1, as one of my two or three best locomotive projects. the NWSL drive kit for a Keystone shay that is at the heart of the project is finicky, but it outperformed the original mechanism.


Tyler Made his first visit to Gorre County Tn. today, and Tom was here ( we have long lost count of his visits). I cleared a lot of construction debris from Crooked Creek, and we ran some trains from Murray Tn. to Crooked Creek. and we ran some narrow gauge trains up from Georgia to North Carolina. I expected the narrow gauge to work, as I have been working there; and it was a pleasant surprise that the trains ran pretty well in Crooked Creek, where no wheel has turned in months.


I will have to make a maintenance push to get the who;e outfit operable so we can start working toward operations.


Bill Nelson
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
During Dr. Tom and Tyler's visit yesterday, Dr. Tom brought over some goodies leftover from the old C & S. He brought over some completed Bar Mills cottages, ad their office, and the partway done Bar Mills Idaho Hotel, which Tom was building to represent the wonderland hotel.



I have had a lot of fun auditioning the Hotel in various locations. It won't fit anywhere in Harlow, except directly in front of the terminal, where it would be a distraction. There isn't enough room for it in Terrapin, the Gizzard, Ridgemont or State line, and up in Gegokayoosa it is overwhelming, so it seems like it will live in Crooked Creek or Montgomery Furnace.


In Crooked Creek, the most likely best spot is the location of Sugar's boarding house (it may become Sugar's if it goes there ). Over in Montgomery Furnace, it looks nice up against the backdrop on the north side of town (closest to crooked Creek).


If I can't make up my mind I'll post photos. the crooked Creek location is right next to the enginehouse I'm working on.


Bill Nelson
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Glad you can use the buildings

Hi Bill,

Glad you can use those models.It will be good to see them on your cool RR.

Those Bar Mills kits are really nice and fun to build. They also have some economical modeling tricks. For example they (Bar Mills) love Wal Mart brand spray paints particularly their white because of its very fine pigments. Which is amazing because it only costs about a $1 a can.

Looking forward to some piccies.
Doc Tom:mrgreen:
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML A  I H  CC L #2.jpg SML A  I H CC L  #1.jpg SML A  I H  M F location.jpg ask and ye shall recieve.

Here are some pictures of the two top possible locations for the wonderland hotel (sadly it will probably be renamed to avoid confusion)

I have included pictures from two angles for the Crooked Creek Location, and only one for the Montgomery Furnace location, which being at the dead end of a narrow aisle is only visible from one direction.


It looks really good in Crooked creek, although some site work will be needed. It makes Montgomery Furnace look a lot more substantial. there it would be the second largest structure, second only to the Iron furnace itself.


everyone feel free to express their opinions. whatever happens I think I will have to replace or re work Sugar's boarding house, which is in the Crooked Creek location. it is a kitbash I did more than 35 years ago, and it is no longer up to standards.


Thanks Tom, not only for the cool building, but also for having the forethought to paint it in white and green, so that it fits in with all things having to do with the DG CC & W , and the Berghausen-Shoemaker Lumber Company


Bill Nelson
 
Last edited:

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Difficult decision

Hi Bill,

The Hotel looks good in both locations. It will be a difficult decision where to place it.

I know your creativity will come up with a good choice.

Tom
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
track cleaning trains.



I have been running various locomotives with my centerline track cleaning car with some goo gone on the roller to clean locomotive wheels, which has really helped some of them a lot. soon I will set up the standard track cleaning train 2 Riverossi 3 truck Heislers, the centerline track cleaning car, and two hart gondoloas with masonite rail scrubbers added to them, and start trying to clean the main up the mountain division. Crooked Creek ran pretty well the other weekend, so I am hopping the rest of the railroad will behave too.

This is not a realistic hope.


Bill Nelson
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML A nw CC H #1.jpg SML A NW CC H #2.jpg SML A NW CC H frm Tm's bnd.jpg Hotel decision

My long time RR cohort Mack Montgomery of Rome Georgia, who has seen all of the variations of the Dead Grass Crooked Creek and Western since 1973 or 4; as been lurking here, and he voted for the Montgomery Furnace location for the Hotel donated by DR. Tom.

Mack has spent his life traipsing around Northern Georgia and Alabama, and has made a study of the rich history of Iron production in the south, and he feels the hotel is properly at home in Montgomery Furnace.

So that hotel is going to live in Montgomery Furnace. However, having moved a boarding house kitbash that dates back to the 1970's to make room for the hotel in Crooked Creek, I decided that the boarding house no longer meets the standards needed for Crooked creek. I also liked the idea of a hotel there, so out came the razor saws. I had a barracks style building , built out of two of the model power houses that I use for the Duplex company houses in crooked creek. I sacrificed one of those duplexes to add a third story.


Here are the picks from a couple angles, I will add a wrap around porch on the ground floor, and the second floor, possibly the third floor. I am undecided as to weather this is enough, or if I should add another wing going up hill, to get it to the realm of insanity.

Bill Nelson
 
Last edited:

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML A  CC EH RTR W SK LT OPN #1.jpg SML A  CC EH RTR W SK LT OPN #2.jpg SML A  CC EH RTR W SK LT OPN #3.jpg progress on engine house roof.

Recently the City Classics factory windows I had on back order finally came in. I had used these, cut down for the windows on the engine house, the car shops and the Sawmill in Crooked Creek. I was wanting to use them for the skylights in the engine house as well, but I was out.

With the parts in hand, I started building some rafter assemblies with skylight openings, figuring I'd be much more likely to do a neat job with the openings on a work bench than on the roof. Like every thing but the floor on this model, the roof will be removable, so I need to be careful during construction.


here are the pictures so far.


Bill Nelson
 
Last edited:

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Recently the City Classics factory windows I had on back order finally came in. I had used these, cut down for the windows on the engine house, the car shops and the Sawmill in Crooked Creek. I was wanting to use them for the skylights in the engine house as well, but I was out.

With the parts in hand, I started building some rafter assemblies with skylight openings, figuring I'd be much more likely to do a neat job with the openings on a work bench than on the roof. Like every thing but the floor on this model, the roof will be removable, so I need to be careful during construction.


here are the pictures so far.




Bill Nelson

Very nice!! The rafters and window assemblies fit well. Any thoughts on where all that locomotive smoke will go???
Doc Tom:thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb:
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Very nice!! The rafters and window assemblies fit well. Any thoughts on where all that locomotive smoke will go???
Doc Tom:thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb:

I have to re do what I have done so far on the roof; the ridge beam sticks up some and is not flush with the top of the walls. I studied it, and anything I do to fix it would be more mork than re doing what I have done so far.


I have some typically excellent Grant line smoke jacks, I'll have to look and see how many I have; ideally this building would have six one on each end of all three stalls. If I'm short I'll order (probably back order) some more. If Grant Line, or Rio Grande models makes an acceptable part, I'm not going to **** in the wind scratchbuilding that part, I'm not likely to match their level of detail.


I am trying to steel up my nerves for the big job remaining for this project, scratch building working hinges for all six double doors. I have a technique figured out, bur at a minimum I'd need 12 pairs of hinges, so I'm waiting, hoping I can come up with a solution that would be simpler and faster to throw together.
 

Trainiac77

Member
I am trying to steel up my nerves for the big job remaining for this project, scratch building working hinges for all six double doors. I have a technique figured out, bur at a minimum I'd need 12 pairs of hinges, so I'm waiting, hoping I can come up with a solution that would be simpler and faster to throw together.

Have you looked into doll house hardware? ( I built both daughters doll houses many years ago!) I know the local craft store sells a variety of tiny hidges that can be painted black, just a thought...
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
hinges

The doll house hinges of the length needed are too ornate. I'm wanting a long plain strap hinge; and I am ready and willing to cheat.

I will use the same kind of hinge I used on the folding roof extension panels on the Surry Parker log loaders I detailed the construction of in the pictures of you unique logging equipment thread. To modify this design for a strap hinge I will just have to solder a small brass tube to a small strap of brass. A brass pin, pushed through the tube, and bent to 90 degrees, will be fixed into a hole drilled into the door opening. That part will be simple.

The difficult part will be securely attaching the strap to the engine house door. Ideally I'd have three tiny holes drilled through the strap and into the wooden door. tiny brass pins could be soldered into the brass strap, and the pins could be epoxyed into the holes in the door. drilling holes in the thin brass strip accurately will be the hard part.


Bill Nelson
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML A   #1 & # 3  @  CC Shops.jpg SML A Hlw eh cbwbs.jpg small progress

I have some more rafters in place. In the photo are #1 and #3. #1 is the original #1. #3 is a replacement #3, the original was severely damaged, and replaced well before 1970. #1 and #3 are in consideration for motor replacements. Digging through many layers of projects, I came up with a Sagami Can motor just the right size for these locomotives (#1, a Mantua General, was fitted with an AHM tender and motor, years and years ago). I figure the very fine sagami will be the best motor ( the other option is a very small NWSL can motor), and I am not sure what should go where. #1 has seniority, but #3 with the freight pilot, may be more useful. I may have to do some research, and find a modern motor close to the size and quality of the Sagami, as I could use two, as I have a AHM Genoa that also would greatly benefit from a better motor as well.


I also have a picture of the larger of the engine houses in Harlow. I haven't run the Valley division much, and the power that should live there has migrated to Crooked Creek. Here is proof, that after I clean up this enginehouse, it shuld be treated liberally with spider poison.


Bill
 
Last edited:

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML A #1nw mtr .jpg #1 gets a new motor

#1, a Mantua General, My first Ho locomotive, which I got in a train set back at the dawn of time . Back in the late 1970's I put a AHM tender behind it that looked and ran better than the Mantua tender.


I just removed the AHM motor from the frame and ground the hole larger to fit the Sagami motor. I have glued the motor in with some silicone. once it is dry, I can hot wire it, to check the direction it runs in so I don't wire it to run backwards to my other locomotives.\\


Bill Nelson
 
Last edited:

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
The new motor in #1 has it running much better. It does have a small hitch in the mechanism, and it bumps around, since the traction tire disintegrated. I'll have to try to locate a replacement, as it's pulling power without the traction tire is pathertic.

But , after 44 years in service for the DG CC & W RR, it is running better than it ever has before.


Bill Nelson
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
The new motor in #1 has it running much better. It does have a small hitch in the mechanism, and it bumps around, since the traction tire disintegrated. I'll have to try to locate a replacement, as it's pulling power without the traction tire is pathertic.

But , after 44 years in service for the DG CC & W RR, it is running better than it ever has before.


Bill Nelson

Another great restoration. Very good!!!
Doc Tom:thumb:
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Tom,

This hasn't got to restoration yet. for restoration, I need to find a traction tire, upgrade the electrical pick up, add a wood rack on the tender, and perhaps some other minor detail adjustment, although with the brass stack, headlight,cow catcher, and the frame under the boiler milled out to open it up down there, it has big improvements over a stock unit already. I have brass check valves and piping for it, but those are attached to the boiler at one end and down near the end of the cross head travel at the other; so that one half is on the boiler assembly and the other on the frame, and so far I have not figured out how to attach it securely, and yet allow dis-assembly for maintenance and repair.

critical to this locomotive's use is getting something set up to double head with it, as even in the valley division, it is useless by it self, a traction tire will help some, but not much.

Largely a exercise in nostalgia, but it will look good in that cobwebby enginehouse in Harlow.


Bill Nelson
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Tom,

This hasn't got to restoration yet. for restoration, I need to find a traction tire, upgrade the electrical pick up, add a wood rack on the tender, and perhaps some other minor detail adjustment, although with the brass stack, headlight,cow catcher, and the frame under the boiler milled out to open it up down there, it has big improvements over a stock unit already. I have brass check valves and piping for it, but those are attached to the boiler at one end and down near the end of the cross head travel at the other; so that one half is on the boiler assembly and the other on the frame, and so far I have not figured out how to attach it securely, and yet allow dis-assembly for maintenance and repair.

critical to this locomotive's use is getting something set up to double head with it, as even in the valley division, it is useless by it self, a traction tire will help some, but not much.

Largely a exercise in nostalgia, but it will look good in that cobwebby enginehouse in Harlow.


Bill Nelson

How's about great pre-restoration????
Tom:cry:
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
How's about great pre-restoration????
Tom:cry:


This is more like maintenance, routine replacement of parts, with upgraded parts

44 years in service, and a second motor replacement.


If it gets restored it will be a big project, including repainting, striping, back to an 1880's style, lovingly maintained into the late 1920's, rather than the 1880's locomotive gone to decrepitude in the 1940's, as it's current paint represents.



I have been working on outfitting my historic #3 (an AHM J.W. Bowker) with a motor from a GM power mirror. I'd be done but the driveshaft between the tender and the locomotive is partly stripped out. I was surprised that I had no driveshafts in my junk box, as This part used to be shared by the Bowker and the Genoa, and I have worn out or destroyed about 3 Bowkers and two Genoa's in the last 40 years. Lots of pieces in the junk box, but alas no driveshafts.


I cracked open a new in the Box Genoa, I got at a garage sale, with the idea of replacing it's motor too, and it has a motor with the exact dimensions and shape as the GM power mirror motors. Testing it's motor with a jumper wire, the GM power mirror motor runs better, so it will get replaced, but I won't have to modify the tender frame any to do so, it looks like it will just pop right in place.

I was hoping to use some encoder- motors, from late model Gm vehicles that use motors to move the doors inside a HVAC system instead of vacuum, as god intended. I hated working on those systems, as it was very difficult to diagnose them, and hard to replace those encoders. The motors from the encoders ave very good, low speed, high torque, but they are too big for the 1880 4-4-0, and 2-4-0 tenders. I'm going to have to see if they will fit in my Riverossi heislers.

My daughter is in town from Houston TX. with her new boyfriend, and my son is down from Ohio with his girlfriend. They have all gone hiking on one of our rails to trails trails. I was trying to get ready for a nap, to try to get back on schedule for working nights next week, but I lost my book, and I can't find my beer , Life is Hard!
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML A  2-4-0 & 4-4-0.jpg SML A  2-4-0 & 4-4-0.jpg Here is a photo of an old AHM jw Bowker, and a newer Genoa, both getting new motors, possibly to go into service on the Valley division. These two go to the paint shops next.


I got a note from Mantua, and I can get traction tires for the Generals!


Bill Nelson
 
Last edited:
Top