Kriegsloks building shops


Today sort of a lazy day. In the morning I went to meet my buddy and take him to get his latest project car: a 1981 Peugeot 505 Turbo Diesel, that's right, he likes European cars and I've met a real Euro Motorhead through him today. Peugeots, Citroens, Renaults and a Simca in his back yard. In the shed he also has a Fiat 131, good luck finding another one in running condition in Northeastern United States. Anyway after coming back home (he did drive the Peugeot to his house), and eating...and hee-hawing around, i went down to the basement and started to put together the Ty2. Side rods need a lot of tuning up, they are nowhere near perfect and the loco is binding up slightly going forward. Here is a side rods down pose:
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Of course full metal where it's needed; steel axles, steel tires and brass rods.
 
Short clip of some of the first running with rebuilt driving wheels.
There is some serious binding when running forward, weird. Most likely the holes for side rod pins need some filing to make them just slightly larger, or some resoldering of the actual side rods might be coming. Runs ok to the rear though. The side rods were very tight fit and of course I probably didn't get the holes drilled perfectly. Still there needs to be some loose fitting do to curvature of the track and to allow for up and down play on uneven track.
 
Update on the 1 gauge Ty2; I've resoldered the side rod between number 1 and 2 drivers on the right side, that was probably the main reason for the binding. I also realized that the main driver (#3) was loose on the axle, the right one, so I took that back on my quartering tool and set and reglued it back into place. To run some rolling tests I took out the drive shaft and the worm gear out of the gearbox. Here it is going through some rolling tests. I figured this is satisfactory and can now finish detailing the side rods;
 
A few detail shots of the valve gear in progress:
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All these parts I already had made few years ago, just starting to put everything together since the new steel rims are done on main driving wheels. Much more to do just on the valve gear: main rods, combination levers, reverse linkage...
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The little 0-6-0 tank is a MƤrklin product which I picked up at Allentown train show for only $80. Starting in 1 gauge doesn't have to be expensive. The MƤrklin BR80 was an AC motor, but an acquaintance of mine who deals with European trains has put in a new MƤrklin chip which allows DC operation.
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Had just a little time today for modeling, so my Lehigh and New England F-1 decapod is back on the work bench. Main gear replacement on the way:
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For anyone fiddling with steam locomotives, this is NWSL quarterer. It's made for 1/8" or 3mm axles and you can find it in better equipped train shops. I've had this thing probably for close to 20 years and i don't know what they go for now.
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Here is the main driving set in it:
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I had to press out the old plastic gear and press in the new brass piece. The steel pins screw in to the side rod pin holes and when properly set at the opposing slopes (90Ā°) the whole assembly was put in a wise to press the wheel back on the axle.
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Newly pressed wheelset with the old plastic gear laying on the side:
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Work needs to be done slowly and carefully as not to disturb the 90Ā° setting of side rods holes.
 
Today something small, but it makes a big difference in whole look. I took that main driver set for the F-1 decapod and made some proper size counterweights for it. First i had to grind off some of that original counterweight off, as this was sticking out already and gluing new weights would interfere with spinning rods:
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I just turned on the grinding wheel and delicately shaved some material off. Unfortunately i did hit the tires with the grinding wheel and had to put the wheelset in a lathe to try to smooth out the tires. Real machines had this "double crescent" weights:
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Not only that, the outside crescent shape is not the same on both ends. This turned out to insanity, but i just couldn't šŸ¤£ ignore that. So out of regular piece of paper i eyeballed the shapes and with a scalpel cut both basic shapes out:
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Here is one side glued to the wheel already. Next was a final grind of the outside tire mainly to get the crazy glue (Lightning Bond) off.
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After that painting:
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I did fill up the space between the spokes with Lightning Fill and flooded the inside with Lightning Bond. I used automotive spray here-engine block enamel "Satin Black". Not wanting to spray in between the spokes anymore, even though i put masking tape over the rolling surfaces of the wheels, i just brush painted flat finish as a final coat:
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Final weathering will even out the visible irregularities.
 
What purpose does the crescent shape serve or is it just for aesthetics?

Magnificent work, as always!
It's most likely calculated best shape weight for the main and side rods on the opposite side of the wheel. Form follows function. If you look at any counter weights on steam locomotives, you'll see that they are not directly on the opposite side of side rod pins, but are a little offset. You can tell by where the edges of the counter weight is (inside edge of the crescent) as opposed to the spokes. Older scale models did not replicate that feature, but lately even some H0 models are accurate with those details. Borrowed from this site: https://www.alamy.com/steam-locomotive-br52-image225363116.html
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You can see how the counterweight "seems" to be moving forward on the spokes.
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These are on a BR52 Kriegslocomotive. The F-1 i'm working on was far heavier and that included the main and side rods, hence the extra "crescent" that seems to be racing forward on main part of the counterweight.
 
Continuing work on the L&NE F-1 and starting to fit in the new gear box:
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I've had to shave some metal off the top of that main frame, as well as from the bottom plate. Fits in snuggly:
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The bottom plate for the gear box on the last picture is unscrewed for a time. I'll have to still figure out how to lay the motor on the firebox plate.
 
Finally got that gearbox to turn ok, put all the valve gear along with the main rods back on the machine and these are the first running gear under power tests:
I'm using a Dremel tool for power for now. Still lots to do; figure out how i will mount that motor and more details.
 
Finally got that gearbox to turn ok, put all the valve gear along with the main rods back on the machine and these are the first running gear under power tests:
I'm using a Dremel tool for power for now. Still lots to do; figure out how i will mount that motor and more details.
Looking and sounding good! I hear the Dremel, but I don't hear any gear noise in your video.
 



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