SP, T&NO, 4-8-4 GS-1 build

[carlso]

I have gone back to work on this project. I have primed the boiler shell in white to help me apply the rivet decals. I have also added some more piping to both side of boiler. Need to do some cleanup work on the shell casting, particularly around the windows. I need to figure out how to add the pilot.







I have had this shell for several years now and I think I detect a slight warping. I wonder if I could turn it upside down with a little weight and heat to force it flat again. probably best to leave well enough alone!

Be well,
Carl

[mmagliaro]

Wow... and "old friend" resurfaces for completion.
Carl, what do you think about the overall boiler height?  It looks high to me, both over the drivers and compared to the prototype photo, (and the back of the cab looks high compared to the tender front).  I realize that it might be utterly impractical to lower it at this point.

[carlso]

Hi Max,

I appreciate your comments very much. How do I see the boiler height ? Well I sort of agree with you about the height over the drivers but the cab/tender relationship looks about right to my old eyes.
I may be able to mill out a tad bit more material from the top of the inside of the boiler but not much. I don't want to push it and in order to make the height look better I may just glue another air tank and reverser below the existing to make it look lower.
 
I have a great deal to do but I think it will turn out OK for an 81 year old's work. Here are images I just made to show how it looks on the rail with tender :





Actually after looking at these recent images I think the firebox should hang a little lower.

Thanks again for taking your time to look and comment. Very much appreciated !

Be well,
Carl

[mmagliaro]

You know what?  On the rails, I agree, I think the tender and cab relative heights look correct.
And the Bachmann J driver diameter is very close to a GS-1, so you're good there.

The only way I know that you can really check the boiler height is to have a drawing (where it is usually shown off the
rail head), and then measure the top of your boiler off the railhead with steel square or something similar that you can rest
on the rail with an arm of it touching the top of the boiler.

My gut just tells me the boiler is too high over the drivers, and the tender is riding high on its trucks, so while they are correct in relation to each other, they are kind of high.

[carlso]

I got the boiler lower but the project is dead on the vine. In handling the chassis too many times I guess I squeezed the crossheads and popped them off their slides. My fingers won't let me fix them. Oh well, it's been fun and kept me out of the bars.



Ya'll be well,
Carl

[thomasjmdavis]

You know what?  On the rails, I agree, I think the tender and cab relative heights look correct.
And the Bachmann J driver diameter is very close to a GS-1, so you're good there.

The only way I know that you can really check the boiler height is to have a drawing (where it is usually shown off the
rail head), and then measure the top of your boiler off the railhead with steel square or something similar that you can rest
on the rail with an arm of it touching the top of the boiler.

My gut just tells me the boiler is too high over the drivers, and the tender is riding high on its trucks, so while they are correct in relation to each other, they are kind of high.

Max.
You have a lot more expertise in this than I do, but when I looked it up, I find the the real J has 70" drivers while the GS-1 had 73.5" (that is just online, I don't have N&W or SP diagrams).  Now, granted, that 3.5" difference is only .021 when reduced to N scale dimensions, but I wonder if that is not a good part of what we are seeing.  I don't have a J available to check the tread diameter, but would not be too surprised if it is actually a bit small in order to make up for flanges.  The couple Bachmann steamers I do have (2-8-0 and 4-8-2) have drivers that are several scale inches smaller than the prototypes they are based on.

[carlso]

Tom,

I measured, with a very inexpensive plastic caliper and found the dia. from tread to tread to be 10 mm and from flange to flange to be 11 mm. I am not sure about my calculations but that would be 64" t/t and 74" flange/flange.

[mmagliaro]

Spookshow's review page has actual measurements of the Bachmann J's drivers:
 driver diameter (tread) 0.413", driver diameter (with flange) 0.453"   That works out to
66" and  72.5", respectively, and this is typical of N Scale reduced tread diameters to accomodate flanges and driver spacing.

Those are .020" flanges, which is very good.  But by necessity, yes, it means the drivers are .040" undersized.
I would argue that's not as much as the excess gap between the drivers and boiler.  This may be a preference, but I would tend to lower the boiler enough to make it look good over the drivers, even if that meant the boiler itself ended up a little low overall compared to the prototype, because I think getting the *proportional* look is more important.

I think it looks better in the final photo.  You can really see it over the trailing truck.

Carl, I'm so sorry the valve gear came apart.  Is it broken, or is the crosshead just popped out of the upper and lower guides?

[carlso]

Max,

the crossheads (both sides) are popped out of the guides. I can see a small disk on the back of the crosshead that I guess forms a slot for the heads to travel on the guides. rather poor set up IMHO.

carl

[carlso]

Today, I got the crossheads popped back onto both upper and lower guides. On the fireman's side the link that attaches to outside of crosshead came off. I have it and will try to re-attach. I need to figure out a way to add something to keep the crossheads from popping off again. Any suggestion ? ? ?

Be well,
Carl

[carlso]

This project is delayed 'till B'mann gets in some parts. How long ? ? ?

To replace this I am starting a new EM-1/AC-9 bash project.

Be well,
Carl

Maybe I might find a parts donor somewhere like fee bay.

[Mike C]

This project is delayed 'till B'mann gets in some parts. How long ? ? ?

To replace this I am starting a new EM-1/AC-9 bash project.

Be well,
Carl

Maybe I might find a parts donor somewhere like fee bay.

Ebay is your frenemy 

[carlso]

Mike,


You are right. I just found a "parts only" J class that I made an offer on. I shall see!