Uhh.... Has it really been that long?

Last night it was brought to my attention that the year 2000 family Christmas letter had a reference to my brother and I starting to build a steam engine. What?! It couldnt have been that long ago. No Way! But, I guess when I start thinking about it, maybe it has been that long.

The whole process started when I was able to move my business to a new location that would include a mill and lathe in our shop. Sounds great! Better take the opportunity to put these machines to good use and so the adventure began. My brother and I originally thought that since we didnt really have much of a clue on how to build a steam engine we should maybe start kind of small. That idea was quickly shelved when we realized that neither of us wanted a "small" locomotive. We then checked out a Mikado kit fron Railroad Warehouse and almost settled on building one, but again decided that bigger was better.

That left us in the position of using Little Engines as it was the only other place we knew of that had plans and parts for a 4-8-4. Since bigger is better, why not go for the biggest of them all and build one of Santa Fe's 2900 class behemoths? Heck, why let something as mundane as common sense or as trivial as a lack of experience get in the way of a childhood dream! Plans and castings were purchased in the Spring of 2001 from LE and we were off.

Now fast-forward a few years. We have been moving along at a snails pace machining parts and castings whenever time and circumstances allowed. After my youngest daughter was born almost a year elapsed without any progress being made. As we tried to figure out how to make a LE New Northern look like a 2900, our limited abilities and resources seemed to make it a next to impossible task. Enter the Live Steam God.........

I was remotely acquainted with Ed (of cab forward building fame) and through a series of events, was able to renew the acquaintance. One thing led to another and Ed said he would help us build a 2900. However, he was not pleased with our current status, primarily because we were building a 1.5" scale locomotive and it really didnt look like a 2900. Any real lcocmotive builder, he said, would build in 1.6" scale. Again, fast-forwarding through events, in 2005 we ended up selling most of our Little Engines 4-8-4 and started over. (As of today I still have the drivers, rear cradle and springs if anyone is interested in buying them.)

Ed already had copies of some of the original Baldwin locomotive construction drawings and secured those we still needed. Ed takes the original drawings and redraws the parts we need using BobCAD. We then go scrounge through the shop and find whatever material that will allow us to build what is drawn. So far, only the drivers, journal boxes and spring keepers (is that what they are called?) have been castings and everything else has been fabricated. We started over from the beginning and we're going to now build a true 1.6" scale 2900-class Santa Fe locomotive. So I guess it really has been that long. But at least its an adventure!

More building blocks

I am still basking in the afterglow of the unveiling and all of a sudden can't wait to get more parts completed. Through all of the starts, stops, re-starts and hiccups on this project I have kind of tried to maintain a even level of enthusiasm. But now that I have finally reached a major milestone in having a rolling chassis, I am just dying to get more done! Patience grasshopper, patience.....

So, its back to the block. The bronze liners were mashed into the valve chambers and the cast iron rings that will be used on the valve fit perfect. (I'll skip the gory details of the "oops" moment of boring the bushing in the valve chamber oversize and needing to pound it out of the chamber and making a new correct size bushing.) I drilled and tapped all of the holes for the front and rear heads on the valve chambers without a "oops". Maybe that should be more of milestone that I should be celebrating! Now we just need to construct the front (easy) and rear (a pain) heads for them.

Ed continued welding on the block. The valve chamber is now permanently attached (welded) to the piston cylinders and we are working on building up the steam passages between the two.