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Posts from 2012 |
On the engine build, I've done some painting and assembling of parts. Since these are all wood burners, they would have had gilded hardware while the wooden parts (pilot, cab, tank, and stack) would have been painted wine or lake, and the wheels vermillion. Since I'm not etching acetyl for painting, I'm leaving the wheels black. Further, I've looked at several different shades of lake at it looks to me like that "color" is more of a treatment than a distinct hue. So, wine it is and of course, I've not found any color samples. After research, I decided to use Tru-Color's Wisconsin Central Maroon enamel for wine and Model Master's Gold enamel for the gilding.
Some photos showing various examples of the paint scheme:
For wiring, I've decided to continue chasing my goal of having (relatively) easy disassembly and have been working with the good folks at TCS to provide a custom kit of parts to build a special purpose connector for each engine. Here's the wiring plan I'm following, with a set of the source parts and an assembled connector. Assembly requires sanding/filing the inside surfaces of the two pin connectors. There will be more on this as I make progress.
Also, while cleaning up the layout, I found the unfinished sides for the four wheel cabs and finished them up. Here's the progression:
As far as the layout goes, I've gone through the "buttoning up" steps - going back through the underside of the layout to find loose throw rod connectors and thread lock them and soldering all of the wrapped wiring joints. I've also made up, printed, and laminated track diagrams for all of the industry spots and work areas which are mounted to the fascia via hook and loop. Throw rods are labeled to match the track diagrams and double sided tape used to attach those to the fascia. Lastly, I screened the area below the fascia with simple landscape fabric attached with more hook and loop (although these are attached to the back of the fascia). With that all done, I've reshot the B&CC virtual tour.
The Kimber Mill build got moved to the back burner while I concentrated on the layout - I expect to bring that to the foreground in January (if not sooner).
With the engines working (at least in DC mode), I switched over and spent most of the last two weeks testing the layout to make sure everything works. Found some broken solder joints, a couple of dead shorts, a turnout wired wrong and a few turnouts that needed to be regauged - the usual types of things, all now fixed.
While working on layout testing, I decided to finish up the batteries for the Kimber Mill. This involved building the counterwheels from spare NWSL wheel centers (what's that old saying about never throwing anything out?) mounted on 3/32" brass tubing so I could smooth the outside edge on my lathe. After smoothing, the brass tubing is cut flush with the wheel and then mounted on 1/16" brass tubing to allow the wheel to mount on a 1/32" brass wire as a shaft. Cut the 1/16" brass tubing flush with the wheel and the outside rim modeled by a strip of 0.005" brass. After the Scale Structures pillow blocks arrived, I drilled them out, mounted the counterwheel shaft and attached the pillow blocks to each battery.
With the counterwheels installed, the last two steps were to bevel pieces of 10"x12" and attach to the back of the battery as a long support diagonal and then finish adding NBWs.
The LEDs I want to use for headlights arrived today, so I did make some progress on building engines. I realized that the pilots I had built weren't entirely finished, so I added a 12"x18" mounting block to the back of each pilot, then I got out the PSC link pockets that I planned on using, cleaned them up and mounted them into the pilots. Here's a ready to be painted pilot. I then got out the front subassemblies from the previous build and drilled access holes so that I could add the LEDs. Note, the engine build page has been updated to reflect these changes and provide some more detailed information.
Made a lot of progress on the engine (re)build. Because the new frame sides are electrically isolated, the cylinder blocks had to be reconstructed with a plastic sleeve in the middle (stock cylinder blocks didn't work because they didn't provide enough clearance between the crossheads and the crankpins (which are slightly oversized). So, I replaced the 1/4" x 1/8" brass tubing that I had originally used with 13/32" long pieces of similar sized rectangular plastic tubing. Here is an example of an improved block.
Since the internal spacing of the frames turns out to also be 1/4", this tubing also is usable for providing motor supports where needed on both the four wheeler and six wheeler. These supports are held in place by more of the #0-80 x 1/16" set screws.
I took the engines up to the Kate Shelley Division show in Iowa and did a "roving" clinic while I worked on fitting the side rods and doing low voltage testing to remove potential binding points. I've been able to get the engines down to between scale 1/4 and 1/2 mph without binding. I had previously come across the idea of drilling holes in 2x4 and using those as collars to help keep bottles upright. What I realized is that those same collars work well as engine stands ( example 1 and example 2) when doing testing.
Once the side rods were fitted, I added the cylinder blocks and main rods and retested both the four and six wheelers. I really didn't want to bend the main rods, but that's a side effect of having to spread the cylinder blocks apart to clear the crankpins.
The last step was to add the working parts of the valve gear, made from .018" piano wire for the support, 18g hypodermic needle for the cylinder wall and .020" brass wire for the piston rod. At this point, here is what the 0-4-0Ts and the 0-6-0Ts look like. I will fix the non-level cylinder blocks when I add the saddle and smokebox front.
I've put in jumpers from the engines to the frame sides to make everything operate on DC so that I can work through the layout and see where things need to be fixed. I've finished cleaning and testing the Central City zone and I found (and fixed) one bad solder joint leading to a short piece of dead track, a turnout control that wasn't wired correctly and re-gauged two branches of the three way turnout at the entrance to the Central City wye. I'm currently working through the Upper Blackhawk zone and am aiming at being done with all of the layout testing and fixing by the end of the month, at which point I'll pick up the build again.
On the Kimber Mill build, I decided to drop trying to build the camshaft braces as they were turning into too much work for too little gain. So, I added the camshaft wheels to the mills and have started the couterwheel sub build (no pictures yet). My aim is to make progress on that during the second half of the month when I'm not feeling like testing the layout.
Finally, I've gotten around to updating the cars build page to add some explanation of how I built the rolling stock to the bare bones photos that have been there previously.
The engine (re)build continues. I finished fitting the side rods on both the four wheelers and the six wheelers and checking that everything rolls when pushed on glass. Putting in the gearboxes involved taking the frames apart and rebuilding them around the gear boxes. Unfortunately, I discovered that one of my driver gears no longer meshes with the worm gear, so I've head to order a replacement (and I got a set while I was at it). While rebuilding the frames, I added in the phosphor bronze pickups - the four wheelers get two 10mm by 3mm pickups and the six wheelers get four 7mm by 3mm pickups all mounted on the brass machine screws.
With the gear boxes and wipers in, the motors could be added (here's the four wheelers and here are the six wheelers) and low voltage DC run-in and operational testing began (this is where I discovered the gear misalignment mentioned above and is a series of steps I didn't do in the last build, much to my chagrin). Basically, I set up a DC power pack to about 4.5V and hooked an ammeter to measure the current being drawn by each motor. This allowed me to find that at least one of the four wheelers and two of the six wheelers needed the front of the motor supported to prevent the transfer axle from creating a binding point. Two of the four wheelers don't need a brace and that last six wheeler is waiting for the new gear before I can say definitively whether it needs a motor support or not. I'll have photos of the motors with supports and more explanation in the next update.
The next step of operational testing will be setting the DC voltage to just turning the geared driver and then putting on the side rods (with a tiny amount of lubricant on the running surfaces) an addressing any binding points with the side rods. I've taken apart the old frames and am in the process of replacing the brass rectangular tubing that I previously used to spread the cylinders apart with rectangular plastic tubing (so that electrical isolation is maintained). Again, I'll have updated photos by the next post. Once these are all done and the side rod binding points are addressed, the cylinder blocks and main rod/crosshead subassemblies will be added (again with lubricant on the running surfaces) and the binding test repeated. Once an engine passes this, then I can look at mounting the decoder on it.
Besides engine testing, I did do some work on the Kimber Mill camshaft wheels - I finished drilling out the NBW holes and adding NBWs. Next I'll be making camshaft braces from spare .016" flat brass that I have and mounting the camshaft wheels and the braces to the mills. I'm still waiting on pillow blocks before I start the counterwheel build.
Well, the redesigned frames are together (as of today) and I've got photographs of how I did it. Rather than list them all, if you want to the gory details, go to the new engine build page and read down to the animated image of a guy banging his head on his keyboard – if you go beyond that, you’re on your own.
I had some time available while I waited for the .028 inch allen wrench I needed to finish the frames to arrive, so I spent the time aligning cams for a prototypical drop order (2-1-3-4) and started building the camshaft wheels from wood and brass – see the bottom of the Kimber Mill build page for what those steps look like. It dawns on me that the next time I have some free computer time, I really need to flesh out the background of the Kimber Mill.
On the layout, all of the pull rods have been installed and tested. Photographs of both the fascia and the underneath are located at the bottom of the layout build page. On the other hand, I've been looking at my three way turnouts and I think some of the rails have shifted (or at least there are a few that appear to need adjusting). I've also decided to move the Blackhawk Foundry down from Upper Blackhawk to the space that used to be for the NY Mill (but has been designated TBD for a while now) and re-designate the Foundry's old track as Upper Blackhawk Team Track #3. This makes sense to me as the smaller shops in Blackhawk would be served by various team tracks, while the Foundry would have more extensive service (and, as always, rule #1 applies). Thus, I've updated the layout diagrams and various text designations throughout the site to reflect this.
On the Kimber Mill, I finished the necessary retrofitting (rebuilding the stamp braces and raising the height of the mortar box/table subassembly) as well as making the cam followers from 18 gauge hypodermic needles and mounting them on the stamp shafts.
On the engine build, I've finished the wood pilots. I've also worked on adding the panels to the four wheeler cab sides, but I've not finished that subassembly yet, so no photographs. I also opened up my late 80s vintage PSC class 48 0-6-0T and discovered that putting a decoder in it would be a major feat of engineering. Once it was open, I took a good long look at how the frame was constructed, which led me to going back and looking much harder at the six engines I've been building. The result of this re-inspection is to realize that most of the drivers really need to be rebuilt - so I've been doing that. In addition, I'm pretty much convinced that my frames could be substantially improved by a radical redesign - the frame sides would still be brass, but the sides would be separated by a combination of plastic tubes and channels (to maintain electrical isolation while providing mechanical support) and held together by screws that would double as attachment points for pickups and decoder wires. So, I'm going to spend some time in October chasing this dream to see if I can make it work.
The Kimber Mill build continues with several steps forward and one step sideways. I built the initial version of the stamp braces from three pieces of scale 10x12 - the first notched to fit the T braces, and the other two cut to fit in between the T braces and then mounted to the first piece. The stamps go into #65 holes drilled (hopefully) with equal spacing. This photo shows the dry fit.
The next step was to start NBW mounting for the footer/T brace joints and the vertical support by inserting Grandt line NBWs in predrilled #75 holes as shown here.
After that, the short diagonal braces were added - these are 5.75' long pieces of 10"x12" mitered to 45 degrees on the bottom and doubly mitered at the top to form a support shelf for the lower stamp brace. I used NWSL's True Sander for the mitering (it's the modeler's equivalent of a woodworker's shooting board).
For drilling the 5/64" holes for the camshaft, I made my own finger drills from some left over dowel stock from putting in pull rods and a set of MicroMark drill bits. I picked up some metric scale bits at Harbour Freight over the weekend and need to pick up another set of #41-#60 and #61-#80 drill bits for more sets of finger drills.
With the holes drilled, the camshafts have been dry-fitted as well as the cams. At this point Ive discovered a few issues with the stamp braces and my original table/mortar box layout. It turns out that the hole spacing of 2.4mm that I had planned on using in the stamp braces doesn't quite work 3 mm is better. So, I'm rebuilding the stamp braces. I also forgot to include the 6" length of the cam follower when determining where the top stamp braces will go, leading to a situation where I'm concerned that the stamp shafts might fall out of the top stamp brace (not a good thing). Fortunately, while the mortar box is attached to the foundation and copper tables, this subassembly is not yet attached rest of the stamp mill, so it's been a simple change to bump it up another scale foot. The bottom line is "a few steps forward and one step sideways" and I'll update what photos I can once I'm done retrofitting.
As for the layout work, I currently have 80% of the pull rods installed - I had hoped to be done by now, but I've run out of 1mm piano wire (again) and I've discovered a 3-way slide switch that needs adjustment - I'm not sure how I messed it up the first time through but I did a job on it and now I get to fix it. For documentation's sake, here's the photo of the rods for used to be the NY Mill and some of Upper Blackhawk and the rods for the smelter industry and part of the switchback.
Lastly, after a couple of months and one lost shipment, my bulk order of 1x and 2x strip lumber arrived last week, so I am back to working on my motive power. I've decided to finish the pull rods before going back to cab building, but in the meantime, I've started building the six wooden pilots, using one of the brass PSC detail parts as a master. Why wood? Three reasons: weight, electrical isolation, and honestly, I like building in wood. The base is made from beveled 3x8, the backing pieces are 3x6 and 3x10 and the "ribs" are beveled 2x6 (photos show one, two, and three pairs added).
I've got half the pull rods, cutoff switches, and reversing switches run to the fascia (photographs are down at the bottom of my layout building page).
On the Kimber Mill, I've installed the mortar boxes and remaining footers. Im working on the stamp support pieces at hope to have a few photographs for the next update.
A bit of a plug. I've had enough folks ask about the models that I've designed and had fabricated at Shapeways to open the "Blackhawk and Central City Company Store" at http://www.shapeways.com/shops/BnCC_Store - stop by to check out what's available. As I verify that pieces work, Ill add them in for folks to take advantage of.
I've updated the operations page to try and be a bit clearer. Dont know if Im completely happy yet (its a work in progress).
On the Kimber Mill, the mortar boxes arrived from Shapeways. For screens, I should be using the equivalent of 60 wire mesh and frankly, I dont know where to find 5000 wire mesh! The best I could do was 500 wire mesh which I cut into scale 8x4 screens and mounted to the mortar boxes. I finished fitting the stamps into the mortar boxes (but I dont have a picture of that part yet. The mortar box foundations have been fitted to the tables and the batteries are starting to come into shape with the initial footers and mortar box braces.
Under the layout, Ive finished the reversing links and started running the pull rods through the fascia. In a couple of places, I had to transfer the motion through an angle (via a scrap piece of hardboard) and Im probably over-engineering the links from the reversers to the pull rods, but Im cutting ¼x1 pieces of aluminum and mounting them with 2-56 bolts and nuts as shown here
Engines? Still waiting for lumber (sigh)
I'm making the linkages from 1/2" aluminum U channel, 1/4" dowels and #2 bolts and nuts mounted to some 2"x2" via a #4 screw (the 2"x2" is mounted to the layout via a construction screw). Here's a picture of what the pieces look like and one of the "long" links for controlling an upper turnout . I've also got a picture of an installed link to a Central City wye turnout as well as one for the link for the Kimber mill spur. So far Ive got half of the links in and just puttering at it as I go.
I had forgotten the photograph of the four wheeler cab side panels waiting for subassembly panels. Unfortunately, I think the scale lumber I'm waiting for may be lost in translation...
Cams for the Kimber mill arrived from Shapeways. Im still waiting on the mortar boxes to do more mill construction. On the website, I've updated the Kimber Mill page with more details on how the parts are fabricated. I've also created a curios page for other things involved with modeling and the B&CC - right now its got image of the railroad passes that I hand out to visitors and the stock certificate I put together for fun back in 2011 as well as photographs of the storage boxes I built from leftover hardboard from the fascia build. Finally, I've started an operations section to talk about various items related to operating sessions (read let me indulge in number crunching).
With the holiday and company visiting, I've spent the first half of the month cleaning the layout and doing a bunch of re-organization in the basement (including re-doing my wood shop for the first time in about 10 years). The U channel for the reversing linkages arrived and so I've started cutting it up and working out the details of how they will mount - more on that next time (I plan on putting the first couple in later this week). OTOH, none of the other supplies I'm waiting for have shown up - I'm going to be spending some time Monday tracking down where they are in the process.
Since the layout was cleaned up I decided to shoot a new "virtual tour", but I've decided that updating the various B&CC albums is taking too much of my time. Instead, I'm announcing a new B&CC website - this currently has most all of the pictures I've shot, including the ones for the car builds, the engine builds, various structure builds and of course the new virtual tour. It is currently located at http://www.canonicalblue.org/BlackhawkCentralCity, so come on over and take a look. I'll be filling in text as I catch up and of course adding new photos as I go.
Fascia is finished. Now to start with pull rods (fun, fun, fun!). Because all of my turnouts are stubs, I've decided to follow the "pull the knob in the direction you want the bridle to move" convention. With my switch mechanism design, this means I'll need to add reversing linkages between the pull knob and the turnouts. I had an idea for this, but it will bind too much, so back to the drawing board.
All engines have their flywheels. The four wheeled wooden cab mockup is far enough along that I mounted it on #3 for some photos to check things. I've started the redesign and am working from the bottom up so that things like the link pocket and flooring end up in the right places. Right now the side frames don't look like much, but they are a heck of a lot stronger than the mockup was.
On the Kimber Mill build:
Back from both regional conventions (the water towers were well received) and am feeling recharged for working on various things around the layout:
Ive pretty much fitted flywheels to the six wheelers next step is to get the brass rod that Ill machine down and a 1.2mm drill bit to match the engine rod for mounting (luckily, fathers day is coming up!). Still have to fit the four wheelers, but that requires taking the front off them to get access to the engine rod, so I plan on doing that tomorrow. The flywheels wont be that long (only 1cm for the six wheelers and 1/2cm for the four wheelers) but Im going to pack as big a diameter as I can fit without either shorting or binding.
Im still planning on 3-d printing the cabs in plastic and Im currently thinking of making the floors out of angle or U-channel brass to provide better weight distribution and a mounting point for both the back pocket and a micro screw to hold the cab to the frame. Not 100% committed to this idea yet, but I havent thought of anything better.
Still havent decided to make the pilot out of wood or plastic yet Ive realized that Im out of the correct dimensional lumber for that sub project so it will wait for a bit
In addition, I've fitted mockups of the cabs and saddle tanks on the four wheelers. It looks like I'll need to widen the cabs by about 0.1" or so, but the tanks fit well enough that I've done the 3d design and ordered them from shapeways. Assuming that I like them, I'll upload unlettered model versions and make them available to other folks. Still waiting on the flywheel sizing pieces, but I've got plenty to keep me busy...
The six wheeler mockups are coming along as well and I hope to be able to upload photos in the next update - they didn't quite make the cut as I'm still working out the wire routing and associated cab design.
I have the cut up hardboard for fascia, but it looks like that party will be scheduled for June - I am just too busy this month.
It's month one of show season - two weekend division shows (one as a guest and one as part of the host team) so I was going to say that things have been a little slower. However, when I list everything that's being going on, I realize that I've done a lot and I've got a lot of moving parts that are starting to come together, even though I don't have any new photos to share...
I did show the water towers at one of the division shows and they did well. Got some good feedback and have gone ahead and moved them forward a year or three via weathering (and worked on my dry brush techniques). I plan on taking them to two regional meets in May and early June (more on that later), so we'll see how they do.
After I finished spring cleaning the basement, I got a friend over to talk fascia. As a result, I've changed my tentative plans from using 1x pine to a more flexible hardboard. Hope to have a nice *free* weekend day sometime in May to pick up a 4x8 sheet and cut it into 6" strips on the table saw - then it's time to schedule the fascia party!
On engine construction I've been doing a lot of different things:
Finally, for operations, I've tracked down some small (1/16" diameter by 1/16" long) rare earth magnets that I plan on using for pulling pins. For setting pins I believe that a transverse motion of the magnet will leave the pin behind (we will see). I also picked up a painted PSC 0-6-0T at one of the shows to be my third fallback engine - this is one of the late 80s Samhongsa engines and I was rather impressed with it.
I finished detailing the four B&CC water tanks last night and now have them placed in their spots around the layout.
And now I really have no excuses not to get back to working on cleaning up the basement/layout and getting back to working on the motive power.
I've spent the first half of March continuing the water tower build. At this point, I'm waiting on more 2"x2" to continue the wainscoting battens (it's amazing how fast that gets used up) to finish the last of the subassembly builds, so in the meantime I'm working on some detail weathering. I'm hoping to be finished with the builds by the end of March (as I'm on the hook to have the models done for a show in mid April).
Still waiting on the Evergreen plastic to prototype the boiler and tank covers, so not much is happening elsewhere.
Tis time to update the photos and talk about the balance of February here on the north branch of Clear Creek...
Haven't worked much in the basement - winter came to visit and it's just been too cold to handle brass for extended periods of time. I did get front ends on #s 1, 3, and 6, but I still need to chase down what's wrong with #2 and replace the decoder on #5.
I designed the first draft of the tank and boiler covers and sent them off to Shapeways. While they are exactly what I specified, I've realized that my design was off in a couple of places. Between that and the "compression" that the four wheeler cover shows (i.e. the sides are not parallel) I'm going to need to do some more work before I send them another trial.
Construction of the water towers continues. I'm building these in subassemblies so that I can paint/weather them properly before final assembly. I've got the support, tank, and decking subassemblies done. I'm currently working on the roof subassemblies and still need to finish the wainscoting, ladders, indicator pole and filler pipe subassemblies, but I don't foresee any difficulties in any of them.
Greetings all Its been about a month and I havent been very regular about my modeling. Was down with the flu for a week (ok, Ill admit it, getting a vaccine shot is the right percentage play) and took a second week to get back in the habit of working on my layout .
As to what Ive accomplished? Well, Ive laid out the location for all knobs on my fascia Im planning on putting the track diagram on it to help folks know which turnout they are throwing when they pull a knob. No pictures of this as its all drawings and I still need to layout the locations for wired throttle jacks.
As to engines, two steps forward and one step back The PSC lantern parts arrived and Ive assembled them and pinned them to the smokebox fronts Ive even gone as far as to put the front on #4 and test it. Unfortunately, when I was working on testing the cylinder location for #5, I got to experience the joy of watching the power transistor literally go up in smoke. This is the fifth sound decoder Ive smoked and Ive decided that Im going to just get these engines built without sound for now for those interested the score on smoked decoders at this point is sound 5, Digitrax Z-scale 0.
And if fascia and engines werent enough to keep me busy, I decided to start working on the four water towers that will be located around the layout (this is what got me back in the swing of working on the layout). They will be based on the ~9000 gallon tank that the CCRR had at Beaver Brook (as thats the only one I can find multiple photographs of to work with). Ive started out by turning down a 2 poplar dowel to form the internal scaffold to build the tank around. The tank works out to be 12 9 at the base, 12 3 at the top, and 9 tall.
Lastly, this last weekend, I was *gifted* with a FED Spartan narrow gauge 4-4-0, so Im now looking for two things:
During the last two weeks, I finished fitting all of the other engines with their cylinder blocks and main rods.In addition, I've done more work on step soldering the smoke box fronts: the doors are now assembled onto the blank fronts and I've added the stacks that I plan to use. I've also verified that my speakers will fit in the smoke box front space. I'm now wondering whether I should make the cab, exposed boiler and saddle cover out of plastic or brass - it comes down to which is easier to paint - comments?
As to layout construction, I've settled on using a bell crank as a reversing motion linkage between the fascia pull knob and the paddle switch. It look like I can manufacture these from spare flat brass and I've added a photo of how I'm mounting it on my test stub switch rig. For those interested, the bell crank (the brass with two pieces of piano wire going to it) is only 1" by 1/2".
I'm still waiting on my PSC saddles and lanterns and pilot to finish the engine fronts - in the meantime I'll be drilling mounting holes in the cylinder blocks and frame.
First of all, thanks to those that responded to my solder question, Ive tracked down a place to get both solder and the #0 screws and nuts Ill need in reasonable quantities.
I finished expanding the cylinder blocks while visiting family over the holidays and have fitted #1 and #2 (I need to remember to take pictures of them). I plan on fitting the 6 wheelers as this week progresses, but in the meantime, I started assembling the smoke box fronts and doors - nothing fancy at this point (it's just flat brass and PSC parts), but hey, it's a start. Unfortunately, I realized that I forgot to order the lanterns and stands in quantity when I placed my last order, so that was this morning. I figured I'd get a pilot and drawbar as well for a test fit.
