blog.jerm.ca

Y U NO POST BLOG?

The reasons why I’ve been absent as of late range from a preocupation with writing and other pursuits to my camera cable being lost for the past week. As it turns out, the cable was tucked way down in my laptop bag, under a fold caused by the liner. And the other pursuits? Ongoing, but temporarily abated. The truth of the matter is if my time is at a premium and I have to chose between working on this blog or pursuing the hobby which this blog is ultimately about, the blog will lose nine times out of ten. I challenge anyone to say they’d feel differently.

It’s been a busy month (or so) since the last post. Part of that is because I’ve just come off a three week stint where there was a railway show every Saturday. The last two shows – Narrow Gauge Madness and the Great British Train Show, respectively – are my favourites but each is also a two hour drive away. Nevertheless, I’ve been hard at work both in the workshop and out in the garden.

Ruby Update

I find it interesting how much my work ethic has changed in the last few years. I’ve gone from being completely impatient and and intollerant of drawn out procedures to favouring doing something right, even if it takes it’s sweet time. This mindset is arguably an improvement, my work certainly seems to reflect that.

At Narrow Gauge Madness this year I met up with representitives of the Canadian 16mm movement and got invited to their invitational steam up this June. One of the member’s has a very impressive Ruby and given these two factors I’ve felt compelled to do some work on my own Ruby. After a few weeks of study I decided on two simple modifications to make my Ruby look different from the stock model…

Ruby’s Tender

The most drastic change to Ruby’s appearance doesn’t actually have anything to do with the locomotive itself. In the late Peter Jones’ book Building Small Steam Locomotives, he describes the conversion of a Ruby to an open cab industrial locomotive. It’s a fascinating and inspiring read, but what caught my eye the most is at the end of the chapter when his heavily modified Ruby is posed with a scratch built tender, designed to evoke a backshop, cobbled-together feel.

Drawing on this inspiration I offered up a Hartland four wheel open wagon to the razor saw to build a similar tender for my loco. The wagon in question had already been set aside to serve as a tender for an LGB Toytrain I have yet to do anything with, as a result the coupler was already missing from one end and replaced with a roughly rounded piece of wood to serve as a dumb buffer. An eye hook had also been driven into the underside of the old coupler mount with a length of chain secured to it. This was repositioned to the top of the buffer with the intent to secure the other end of the chain to Ruby’s back coupler.
The most obvious modification to the wagon inolved using the aforementioned razor saw to cut away the forward (locomotive facing) wall. The wall was retained and moved half way into the wagon body (or as close as I could manage). The repositioned wall was reinforced (as the cutting had left it shorter) and cemented in place.

Next a piece of styrene was cut to fill the back half of the wagon and cemented in place also with heavy reinforcement. Great care was taken to make sure it was level with the top of the wagon body as this is
intended to be the top of the tender’s water tank. A small wood filling was afixed in the center then the entire wagon – body and chassis – was given four or five coats of Krylon black to finish it off.

Once dried, the parts were reassembled with the wheels swapped out for a 22mm set then it was “mated” to Ruby. Next Sumble I’ll have to offer up a toast to my Grandfather for the massive and ecelctic assortment of screws and nuts he collected over the years. Sure enough, after half an hour routing through the little drawers I found a screw that fit in Ruby’s coupler hole and a matching nut. The tender is now semi-permanently attached to Ruby and can be removed just by unscrewing said nut.

This isn’t an ideal arrangement as after every run I routinely tip Ruby over to empty the boiler and the tender gets in the way while the aforementioned coupler rig can be too fiddly to remove on the fly. My next project, therefore will be a redesign. The back-of-an-envelope idea I have to replace it is to take a cue from the smaller scales and replace the chain with a drawbar made of brass, screwed into Ruby’s coupler as the chain currently is. On the tender I will remove the eye hook and instead put a brass rod in the old coupler mount which will mate up with a hole drilled in the other end of the draw bar. My plans to further refine and finish the tender include adding a load of fuel – either coal or wood, I haven’t decided yet – and add a tool rack where I can safely add a shovel and axe I have already painted for that purpose.

Running Boards (A Work In Progress)

Note: Sadly, I don’t have any decent pictures of this process at this time. Photos to follow.

The second change to Ruby is the removal of the side tanks in favour of running boards. I imagine in the fictional history of the locomotive that the tanks were removed at the same time the tender was added. Both were probably the result of damage to the tanks; from a collision or derailment, perhaps. The running boards are made of 1/16 brass plate and were actually cut to size quite some time ago. They remained in that state for a year or so before I remembered their existence. The next step was to round off the forward, outboard corners purely for aesthetic reasons. The two pieces were taped together with great care made to make sure both were even. Next a quarter was used as a template for the curve, marked out with a permanent marker.

To cut the curve I first mounted the fixture in the vise (protected with wood on each side so as not to mark the brass). The first cuts were made with a cutting desk in a dremel tool – this was a rough cut to form the basic shape but to be safe I kept a few millimeters away from the desired final profile. Once the curve was roughed off, a hand file and a grinding bit in the same Dremel tool were used to gradually reduce the curve to the desired contour. Even though the tool skipped a few times in cutting and grinding, I’m very pleased with the end result.

Contrary to what one may think, given the number of nights lately when the temperature has fallen below freezing, spring is now firmly upon us. As proof of this I have now been out and running trains through the garden on no less than four separate occasions. So now that we’re in the new season it’s time to take stock of all that has to be done and all that hasn’t been done over the winter. While I have respectable list of accomplishments (assembling a remaining kit, building the prototype standard chassis, etc.) I ashamed to say there is still much to do and I’ve not been as productive as I had hoped. Without further adieu, herein lies a summary of the priority tasks which will require attention over the next few months and are slated to be completed by mid summer.

Rebuild Cricket

It seems that Cricket won’t be ready for show after all. The big delay has been a lack of painting space. I am pleased to say that at this point the chassis has been repainted and reassembled into a rolling chassis and the motor has been fitted in place. The next step is to install the electronics which is delayed due to a lack of parts. What I need to continue is a pair of small DPDT switches to control the direction and possibly speed – I haven’t decide whether or not to outfit Cricket with a basic throttle, but it is open for consideration. Once the electrics are installed the locomotive will be tested and tuned before fitting the body. The exterior of the body itself has been painted however the cab interior still needs a few coats of faded yellow. The body will also be removable which will require some holes drilled in the chassis and fasteners fabricated. Cricket is planned to return to service in June.

Construct No.4

No.4, the new locomotive is in a similar state to Cricket. At present the body sub-assemblies are assembled but not painted, the chassis sub-assemblies are also assembled but have actually been painted. Work can now being with assembling the chassis, mounting the motor and wheels and the chassis details. All construction is completed, it’s only a matter of putting all the assemblies together, painting and wiring. No.4 is expected to enter  service in June, as well.

Ruby Cylinder Replacement

In the second running session of the year Ruby was the sole power and performed very well, relatively speaking. Live steam locomotives can be like classic British sports cars; they can be beautiful, amazing machines, but be prepared to invest a lot of time in maintenance and tuning. After two years of successive tuning attempts and repeated break-in runs, Ruby is now finally in a state to enter service. The latest obstacle overcome was a poorly set reverser valve. With this issue resolved Ruby can make over a dozen laps of the garden before running out of fuel. The only problem is that only a few laps are possible at a time before boiler pressure falls and the loco has to pause to build up steam again. This is due to inefficient cylinders and the remedy is an after market improved set of cylinders sold by Accucraft for a princely sum. Although Ruby may now run, she doesn’t run well enough for service and new cylinders should fix this. Due to my precarious financial situation, I am reluctant to place a time frame on this issue.

Auxiliary Power/Brake Unit

My attempts to convert the Hartland Mack last year to battery power were successful but only to a degree. A big problem with the Mack and two other locomotives I wish to convert to battery power is where to stow the battery where it can easily be accessed and replaced. The two candidates for conversion are even more difficult than the Mack as they have no immediate apparent location for  a battery without complete disassembly or a significant modification to the body. The solution is to take the batteries out of the locomotive completely and put them in a trailing wagon. To that end, the second of the I.P. Engineering Ezee covered vans has finally been constructed and painted not in the standard freight scheme of light grey, but in the passenger scheme of crimson.

This van will become the battery car under the guise of an Auxiliary Power/Brake Unit, a vehicle which is called out for when a locomotive does not have enough power or sufficient brakes to manage a train. The van will eventually have plugs at each end where a pair of wires will mate it with a matching plug on the locomotive. The power will be supplied from a pair of AAA batteries or a single 9-volt, determined by a switch inside the car. At present the wagon has been assembled, painted and fitted with a heavy removable roof. Installation of the electronics is expected to be complete by July. The Hartland Mack will be converted over to use this wagon as a power supply at the same time.

 

Construct Mill Vans

The prototype of the standard chassis has been a great success and I am now ready to enter production of the next two pieces of rolling stock to use it. To service the various mills once served by the Cavan Township Light Railway, two covered vans will be constructed from the parts available using the same chassis design as the prototype. I’ve been fussing over what to build with the parts on hand for some time now. While I was initially planning open wagons, covered vans made more far more sense to transfer the products of the mills – cheese, textiles, etc. – in the local climate. The two will be constructed more or less at the same time and I expect to have them in service by July.

Coaching Stock

A long term plan is in place to increase the passenger fleet however I have decided against scratch building and will instead by buying kits. The fleet is a respectable size in it’s current state and as such this will not be a priority for this year.

Permanent Way Upgrades

As is the norm for spring, the right-of-way needs some attention. The track condition is not too bad this spring, mostly owing to the warm winter, I imagine. Nonetheless, new ballast is still needed in large amounts and I have identified several sections that need to be resurveyed and levelled. One turnout will be moved from the passing loop and repositioned at Ida-Fairmount to build a short spurt to a future engine house. Finally, there is one break in the rail which is insignificant at this time, but needs to be repaired before it gets worse. Ballasting and levelling should be completed by mid-May, the relocation of the turnout and construction of the engine house spur is allocated to June. The construction of the engine house itself has not been considered beyond the planning stage.

Bridge Replacement

Five Ontario winters has proven to be just too much for the wooden bridge as it is now showing signs of wear and tear. The bridge decking has become broken away from several supports and wood has cracked around a few of the nails and other fasteners. One end of the bridge has already begun to collapse to a small degree, leaving the track suspended on the abutments. Luckily, the track itself will support even Ruby, fully loaded with water and fuel. If this were a real world scenario the entire line would be condemned, as it is though, this task could probably wait a year if I wanted. This will be as big a job as the ballasting and probably undertaken at the same time. Expect a post in the near future all about bridge construction.

Stations

Three stations are expected to be placed on the railway this year. The first is Mount Pleasant station, which is already constructed and was gifted to the railway by an old friend and benefactor. Ida-Fairmount is currently under construction and painting, and a small shelter station for the Cavan Loop is in the planning stages. Ida-Fairmount is planned to be ready for May while the Cavan Loop shelter should follow by a few weeks.

 

First Running Session of 2012

The temperature has been above zero for days now and is forecasted to follow suit for the rest of the week. I think it’s safe to say that winter may in fact be over. Thank. The. Gods. It may have been a pretty tame winter here in south/central Ontario by normal standards, but for someone who is growing more and more intolerant of the season as the years go by, it was still too long for me.

March 11th is, I believe, the earliest to date I’ve been able to get out and run trains. I was very pleasantly surprised to find the track in immaculate condition. The only labour required to open the line was some trimming – yes, more – of the Thyme and Bugleweed. I’ve surveyed the entire route and found no washouts of the rail bed; true, there is a desperate need for more surface ballast, but there is no damage to prevent operation. Even the split rail found at the end of last year is a clean, tight break and poses no problems.

The first vehicle on the rails this year was the snow plough. The plough doesn’t really work that well against snow (ironically), but it did a more than adequate job of clearing debris off the track. The first actual train of the year was a short permanent way train. The consist pulled by Idris consisted of a single small three plank wagon and the new flat wagon (the prototype for a standardized chassis). In the intervening months since the last running session Idris has lost her side skirting. I’ve changed my mind on that and now I think it looks better without – a change the rebuilt Cricket will eventually reflect. While preparing Idris for the debut I noticed that even though the loco is less than a year old, it’s already showing some age. The illustrated passage of time – even on a small scale – is a detail I prefer to foster rather than conceal. Idris will continue to age and in a few years time it will be rebuilt just as Cricket is now. I prefer my railway to be a living thing and age and decay is a very important part of that concept.

I’m being oddly poignant for a blog mostly about small trains, aren’t I?

The second train of the day was soon-to-be-named No.2 and two thirds of the newly refinished passenger stock. The passenger equipment, to recap, have received new wooden rooves, window glazing and some paint touch-ups. This was also the first run of No.2 since it’s recent detailing upgrades with new running boards (of which the accompanying photos do not do justice), interior engine room wall, refinished roof and exhaust system. When this locomotive was finished last year it only managed a few meters before jumping the track and damaging one wheel which was hastily (but effectively) repaired before this run. A lack of foresight, however, meant No.2 and Idris had to share batteries, so only one train operated at once.

The interior wall – visible in the photo at the top of this post – was put into place to hide the motor and electrical system from view, add a realistic divide to the interior and also to hopefully deaden the noise of the motor. The first two goals have been accomplished. No.2 still sounds like a lawnmower however. The must frustrating thing, though, is that it runs better and less loud in reverse. As is usually the case… The only way to fix the noise problem is really to unmount the motor and reposition it so the worm gear meshes better with the axle gear. Why haven’t I don that yet? Because not only did I glue the motor in place as instructed… I REALLY glued the motor in place.

Workshop update coming later in the week.

Oops.

While I do have some progress to report on the various projects still on the work bench, I’ve discovered that I have… somehow… not taken any pictures in the last few weeks. And since I believe in the whole “worth-a-thousand” theory, I’d rather not post something until I have photos to go along with it. So, as a hold over until then (Saturday, Sunday?) I present a piece of flash fiction written for our local writer’s forum.

Preachin’ to the Crows

“And so, as you go forth today, Caw-brothers, Caw-Sisters, may you take today’s sermon to heart and may those hearts deep in your breasts be filled with Caw’s merciful love,” The black clothed preacher bowed his head, arms spread wide in benediction. In the field across the road his congregation – his flock, his murder – regarded him with keen, black eyes and ruffled wings. Their beaks angled not at ground nor sky but toward the man in his solemn devotion. “Go in peace, my friends, in Caw’s name!” He raised the leather bound book above his head, bowed and turned to leave. The preacher’s car sat parked in the shadow of a long crashed airliner’s cruciform tail. The big, black Regal with the clock work girl waiting patiently in the driver’s seat sputtered to life as he closed the door. Gas was precious and rare and idling a waste. And waste was a sin in the eyes of Caw.

Due to work delays and a much needed vacation, blog service will resume this Friday.

ERIF QGPGQ