CWRR

Barry Bogs
 
Union Pacific  FEF-3
 
in  1/22.5  Scale

Pilot Truck - August 28th, 2022

   The boys were scratching their head trying to come up with some pilot wheels that were the correct size for the FEF3. What they found in the back room of the shop was some old LGB Mogul drivers that were the correct size for the 42 inch pilot wheels. The problem is that they were spoke wheels instead of solid. What to do? Well I dusted them off, had the machine shop take off the crank pins, and fill them with resin, between the spokes. Once the resin was set, it was back to the machine shop to clean off the overflow and smooth out the face of the wheel. I also had the machine shop fabricate new axles and add ball bearing races to them while they were at it.

    While the boys in the machine shop were doing their magic, the boys in the fabrication shop were making the chassis for the wheels to ride in. With the machine work done, the wheel sets were lowered into the chassis and the brass keepers were fabricated and screwed down tight to keep everything together. The electrical pick ups were added and the wiring set in place. Of course a BLW standard is that every wheel on the engine and tender must pick up power to reduce pitting to the wheels and track. One of the things that the boys learned on the maiden voyage of the Big Boy 4018, was that the pilot wheels did not have enough weight on them, causing them to derail for no reason at all on a curve. Weight was added to the pilot truck, and it has been on the rails ever since then.

   With that experience under the boys belt, weight was added to the FEF3 pilot truck. The time had come. I directed the boys to attached a draw bar to the front and rear trucks and attach them to the driver chassis. I had the boys run the chassis on air in front of the master drawing so that you and they can see the progress made so far. The boys all had smiles on their faces as they walked out of the shop for the day, but tomorrow is another day and the boys will need to finish up some details before the boiler construction can begin. - Barry

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