Thread: 1949 Reading Steam Freight Locomotive

Bret,
Glad to see you back in the workshop,
some of us over here were becoming concerned.
It's looking good.
Jim

Thanks Jim. No need for concern just busy with life. I made several more parts this evening. The feed screw, water filler cover, and the 20 rail conduits.

The feed screw
Attachment 218327

Water filler cover
Attachment 218328

Feed screw mounted in front panel. I had to file the opening a little bit but it fits nice and snug.
Attachment 218329Attachment 218330

Attachment 218331

Next I turned some 1/4" dowel on the lathe to make all the conduit. I had to make 20 of them so I setup an assembly line to help make them faster and more accurate.

Turned on the lathe. I bought some calipers off of Ebay for cheap. They are a good ol' made in USA Starret brand. The outside calipers are much faster to check the work then constantly stopping and checking with the digital calipers.
Attachment 218332Attachment 218333Attachment 218334

Assembly line

Marking for 3/32" hole to drill.
Attachment 218335Attachment 218336

Cutting in the miter box with stop block set to 1/2"
Attachment 218337

All the conduits
Attachment 218338

My oldest Nick working on his house and garage. He loves to be out in the shop with me. Can't beat that.
Attachment 218339

Bret

Looking good Bret. The calipers are what I use to turn to a diameter as you say makes it faster.

The last picture Priceless

You're flying through it again Bret.
I'd better fire up on mine.

It looks like it makes dowel easy to drill when the ends are square like yours'. Wish mine was, but it's store-bought.

Looking good Brett,
Getting scale model withdrawls,
Might have to start another one (not good enough for a train) but maybe another car or a dalek.
Peter

Thank you Derek

Steve you are correct the square on the end made it much easier to mark and drill. The only downside is when you get near the end of the dowel the square part keeps it from being square in the miter box because it is a 1/16th bigger.

Pete you could make a train. There is no magic you just have to follow steps in order and make accurate cuts. I would love to see you build a Dalek. I don't know much about Dr. Who, but after you posted about it last time I did some research and didn't realize how big of a cult Dr. Who has. I also researched the daleks. Apparently they can't go upstairs but alot of people build scale models of them!

Today is Nick's 6th bday party so won't see any shop time. Have to get the house clean and ready before all the guest arrive. Nick is very excited! We got him a Mickey Mouse Ice cream cake and for his gifts a rocket space station and the kit you grow butterflies with.

Bret

Couple of parts made tonight

All the rail conduit cut from 3/32" brass tubing.
Attachment 218858Attachment 218859
Made the rear ladder. It was alot of fun to make.

Layout
Attachment 218860

Holes Drilled
Attachment 218861

Two sides cutout and glued 9/16" apart with 3/32" toothpicks.
Attachment 218862Attachment 218864Attachment 218865

Ladder hanging on the back. The side handrails have to have their holes drilled deeper after everything is glued together thats why they are sticking out so far.
Attachment 218866Attachment 218867

On a side note I posted about a problem with my drill press in general machinery and figured out it might have a bad starter capacitor. Upon pulling the cover off I discovered it only had one of the wires come loose from its contact. I have been using my drill press for a year buy hand starting it. It took me 5 minutes to take the cover off and resolder the wire to the capacitor. Oh well at least it was easy and a free fix!


Bret

G'Day Bret,
The effort you put into the attention to detail just makes your train something extra special; WELL DONE!....

Also well done on the "electrical engineering" fault finding course; saved yourself a lot of money plus time & effort.

Keep that train rolling down the tracks.
Cheers, Peter

Coming along nicely. The brass railing adds a nice, authentic touch.
I like your ladder too.

Great to see the progress Bret the ladder looks fantastic.

Glad the drill is sorted I bet you could have kicked yourself to find out it was a simple fix after a year of starting it by hand

Thanks Crowie, Steve, and Derek. And yes I kicked myself for not fixing my drill early but it wasn't very hard.

I made some more parts today. 2 hours in the shop seems to be my magic number but I am not complaining just glad to get some shop time in.

I made the coal slope ladder and the 4 ladders that go on the side. Also layed out the 4 truck sides but ran out of time.

To make the ladder's you first make a jig to glue the sides on to. Then you cutoff the excess and sand finish. Here are the 5 jigs layed out and then cut out.
Attachment 218962Attachment 218963

Ladders glued up.
Attachment 218964Attachment 218965

Ladders all sanded to final size. You can see one in the back the sander grabbed and rounded over a bit.
Attachment 218966

Coal slope ladder has a 45* cut on the top to match the slope sheet.
Attachment 218967

4 trucks layed out. This took me about 20 minutes.
Attachment 218968

Thats it for today.

Bret

Might be a days work for Brett, Its a weeks worth for me.
Its looking better and better.
Best I can do with trains is buy a train cake mould at the Op-Shop.
Maybe I can cast a resin one???
Can't eat the cake...
Peter

Originally Posted by _fly_

Might be a days work for Brett, Its a weeks worth for me.
Its looking better and better.
Best I can do with trains is buy a train cake mould at the Op-Shop.
Maybe I can cast a resin one???
Can't eat the cake...
Peter

What a great find Peter..... I'm sure their will be a line up of little people to get a train from you; cake or resin....Cheers, crowie

Got a few more parts made over the last couple of days.

Truck Sides drilled and cutout.
Attachment 219593

Laying out the 12 bearing blocks.
Attachment 219594

Bearing blocks all cutout. Very tedious.
Attachment 219595

Center pivot and truck sides mocked up.
Attachment 219596Attachment 219597

Attachment 219598Attachment 219599

Fly my oldest son Nick would love to have a train cake.

Bret