Mill Creek HOn30

[Chris333]

This is just a place holder, but it shows the type of railroading I'm doing. And I plan to make those hoppers someday.



This was a small short line that ran from a coal mine to a loader at the standard gauge. The cool thing is that building was the mine office and it is still standing:
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7437934,-81.2271167,3a,75y,343.44h,88.58t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sVdMWCl-z7aSrJe5jDLMX2Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

[DKS]

And I plan to make those hoppers someday.

Please tell me you plan to make them distressed to varying degrees, with bowed sides and some missing braces, as in the proto-photo. Oh, and a rider on the first car...

[Chris333]

Please tell me you plan to make them distressed to varying degrees, with bowed sides and some missing braces, as in the proto-photo. Oh, and a rider on the first car...

Yessir!

[Chris333]

This will be the general layout of the Climax I'm building:


About 15 tons, wagon top boiler, enclosed rear wall and side windows to help hide the motor.

[Chris333]

Did the 3D deck. This will end up being printed in brass for weight, but I can see that it fits and I got the coupler height right on the first shot 

[Chris333]

My plan was to print the frame in brass at Shapeways and resin print the rest at home. But the frame came out to $96     So I added the side walls and it came to $128. Added the rear wall and $140. So I hollowed out some under the frame and got the whole thing down to $117.

For fun I uploaded the boiler and it came to $49 in brass. Guess I'll do the boiler and water tank in resin.

[davefoxx]

Why not print the boiler and water tank in brass for $49.00 and print the frame and walls at home in resin?  It would save you a chunk of cash and that brass boiler and water tank should give you plenty of weight.

DFF

[Chris333]

I'm my other video you can see the resin bare frame is enough weight to pull a train up the hill. But the brass frame would help to keep it from becoming a banana.

And I added the water and sand tanks to the back platform, back up to $140 again...

[Chris333]

Started a new thread on another small layout I'm building:
https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=50322.msg677635#msg677635

Will still post here when I work on this layout.

[Chris333]

Some random digging around and I found a photo of the back of the mill I built a model of:


This is how I guessed it looked:


Always surprised at the amount of stuff you can find online.

[Chris333]

A while back I did a C19 test that was based on the EBT 2-8-0. I have since did a much better print of the loco body and just yesterday did an all new tender. The loco body was shortened about 2 feet between the cab and steam dome. This was to better fit the Bachmann 2-8-0 chassis. The tender is also shorter, but it is the same size as EBT #11's tender. This was a while back:


And here it is now.



Right now the top of the boiler is at scale height, but my driver are a little smaller so I think I need to lower the boiler more to make it "fit" better. This is the EBT loco: https://www.mylargescale.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/eastbroadtop/EBT7/EBT708.jpg

[wazzou]

That is so cool Chris.
I possess neither the skill nor the time to do what you're doing.
Is that a gauge in the side of the dome?
Will you use strip Styrene or brass for the boiler banding?
I really don't believe anyone in the World outside of you will have an issue with the overall height or the space between the running gear and the bottom of the boiler.

[Chris333]

The little white piece would just be a pipe fitting into the dome for the sand line. Instead of just drilling a hole and pushing wire into it I stepped it to look better.

Boiler bands were usually iron and would be planished like the boiler.  The bands are there and part of the 3D print. I'm not doing brass bands.

The tender is lower than prototype to make up for the tender wheels that are too small. They are Kato SDmac whatever diesel wheels (38"?) inside Kato trucks with new sideframes. Since the tender is lower I think a lower boiler will look better all around. Guess it is the HOn30 curse. In HOn3 I could just throw $700 at a Blackstone C19 and go straight to running trains, but then I would need broader curves. trust me it is all about the right "look" to me. I've redone the tender 3 times just because it didn't look right to me. It was too scale, but just didn't look right. 

[Mike C]

Chris  you have the look down. The drivers are a bit small, but I think that you could get away with it . and I hear you on the Blackstone prices .

[Dave V]

Chris, that engine looks amazing.  I really don't think the driver size detracts at all.  After all, the low-slung small-driver look is exactly what we associate with narrow gauge consolidations.  Even if you were modeling EBT 11 exactly, I'd call it more than good 'nuff.