Building Blocks

Dave, son of the LS God (and "no", I am not swearing), cut out the front and rear cylinder block plates on the CNC plasma cutter. He did a very nice job. (Thanks Dave!) With a small amount of grinding, the entire assembly slid nicely into the frame. We also finished making the heads for the main cylinders. The front heads will be bolted on and the rear heads will be welded on just like the prototype.

We cant find the correct size liner material in the shop that we were planning to install in the valve chambers. This in turn leaves us with a bore that is too large for some other liner material that we do have. So I guess we will be installing a bushing to reduce the bore diameter. A brass liner which we do have in the shop will then be installed. The final bore will be 1 1/2" to allow the use of readily available cast iron auto transmission rings on the valve.

I kind of dread the thought of drilling and tapping the valve chambers for the front and rear heads. We managed to drill the main cylinders and heads with only a couple of "oops's". I just realized that we have to do it again with the valve chambers and hope that I can slow down and concentrate enough to avoid any screw-ups!

Block..... and Tackle

The cylinder block is coming along. We are using Ed's patented (well, maybe not patented but probably original) built-up method of cylinder block construction. This method was referred to in Bob Reedys article on building an Atlantic in the May-June 2009 issue (I'm pretty sure it was this issue) of Live Steam.

A C-shaped framework was made from 1" plate. The cylinder radius was then cut into the opposing sides of the "C" and holes were drilled through the radius cut and into the cylinders, which were also tapped. (These 3 mounting holes are visible in the above photo). This allowed the main cylinders to be bolted to the cylinder block framework. The intake and exhaust ports were machined into the cylinder and then a bronze liner was pressed into place. This highly classified photo shows the LS God himself pressing in one of the liners! After the liners were installed we then machined the bore to its final 3 3/8" dimension, even allowing for one of my all too frequent "oops" moments.

Spring is in the air!

The spring rigging is almost complete. The saddles were blocked to their theoretical height and a load was placed on the rigging. The small block at the bottom of the spring assembly was then cut down so that the springs and equalizers were relatively level.

In making the springs, we ran the spring steel through a set of slip rolls to achieve the desired radius. Even with the curve, there are still some concerns about the spring heights, especially the rear set where they may interfere with the boiler. Using another of Ed's fixtures and a homemade punch, holes were punched in the center of the springs to allow them to be bolted together.

For me, one of the coolest parts are the bronze keepers at each end of the spring. Rather than machine each of the 16 keepers out of bar stock, we decided to make a mold and have the parts cast. So, 2 molds (the rear 2 keepers are different than the rest) were made out of aluminum. We then shot wax into the mold and made enough copies for my engine, a few for Ed's Z-8 and a couple of extra in case of a "oops". The wax pieces were then shipped down to a foundry in Los Angeles and a few weeks later, "voila" these pieces show up in the mail. I cant stop looking at them!

844 Ever

This past spring, I had the chance to travel from Sparks, NV to Roseville, CA on the train being pulled by 844.

I couldn't believe how many people were out to watch the train go by! At a couple of places in the foothills around Dutch Flat or Alta it looked as if there were entire classroom's of kids standing by the tracks watching 844 go by. Of course, the foamers were out in force and it became a game to us to see where they would show up. (I think we saw 1 specific guy in 4 or 5 different spots all along the route.) It was fun for once to be on the inside looking out rather than being a "train nut" chasing all over the mountain (My lovely wife will never understand!).

It was a wonderful experience and I had a great time, even when we went into emergency in the "Big Hole"! Thank-you PM and Union Pacific!

As a side-note, the thought has occurred that maybe I should have built a model of this engine instead of a Santa Fe 2900 engine. Unfortunately, the thought never really happened until after construction had already begun. I just wanted one of the biggest and baddest 4-8-4's and since 2925 languishes a mere 20 miles away from me rotting in the sun and rain, I thought that it should be the one. But the thought of no tandem rods and much simpler valve gear definitely does have its advantages.....

Smashing good time!

We finally got to start pressing (smashing) the drivers onto the axles. Since the axles were not keyed, we needed to use the nifty fixture that Ed created to make sure that the wheels were correctly quartered.