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D & R G W
F81 2-10-2 Locomotive Progress June 4th, 2019 - Engine Chassis |
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| Building the drive chassis and cosmetics that make up the working system of a steam engine. Many scratch built then cast parts, many moving parts, lots of serious modeling here. |
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Click any photo to enlarge and
scroll between the various pictures.
"The boys in the shop
have been very busy with the chassis of the F81. I know it does not look like
much right now, but most of the critical chassis work is done and I am pleased
to say that it will run on "air". The boys found a quartering jig that was
made by my good friend Dave Queener at Cumberland Model Engineering back in
the 90's, in the archives of the shop. They pulled it out and dusted it off.
The drivers fit perfectly in the jig, so in no time the boys had the wheel
sets assembled and reinstalled back on the block! The next step was to have
the boys in the forging shop cast the rods and then send them to the machine
shop for bearings to be installed in them. The forging shop also made the
cylinders and the erection shop boys hung them with glee! Well, all the
crossheads, guides, valve gear and other foo foo had to be either fabricated,
cast or procured from the archives (midnight train supply?) of the shop. This
is the first engine project that required Baker valve gear. The boys did a
whole bunch of head scratching before building what you see here.
It took some time to get everything adjusted
just right for it to all work, as the chassis has a pivot point between the
second and third drivers, so that the engine will go around the sharp curves
of the CWRR. You can see the bend in the chassis in one photo." - - Barry
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the C&W home page | Page updated 6/25/19 |