du-bousquetaire

What Mainline america should look into is making new molds as these have probably worn out quite a bit by now anyways(and some recent PIKO purchasses I did would tend to reveal that they have already started making new ones themselves because of this.) in which case it would permit him to correct some pitfalls in the old MDC molds: Ie: The dimensional discrepancy noted above in Chuck's mail like making the hoppers a scale 10 foot wide. But what would really help would be to make the box car the correct lenght as they need to be 2.5 scale feet longer, and correcting the reefer by lowering the body (reefers are not as high as box cars so they can return with their hatch open to dry out). As well as correct the lenght problem identical to the box cars. It would also be nice if the grabs and ladders were left out so people could make them in brass without having to file off the mold on details. That and Kadee coupler pads at correct height would be a winner. He would not have competition from Piko as these would be new molds.

Hi Bob: I haven't been on this forum since month , wow! What great progress you have made, congratulation also for the beautifull combine behind it in the video. I have kept busy with a set of local coaches made from Märklin Prussian six wheelers and the new bogie non corridor stock which I painted in SNCF green (this is for my French modeling) and did some lettering masters to make transfers for them and a more modern omnibus coach which is also a six wheeler rebuilt by the SNCF from pre WW1 old PLM chassis. Then I finally tackled my NORD De Caso mikado tank a live steam model I am scratch building and my first scratch built steam loco. I got it to the point that it now has a chassis running on compressed air which for me who never had any mechanical training, is an acheivment. Now I will do the cosmetic Cossart valve gear and the bissel trucks. More recently, I finnished twelve NORD bogies made by a few french modelers I know this is my first laser designed and cut kit. It is an amasement in precision with hardly any filing to do. These are brass, sprung, and possess the caracteristic shape of the frame and journal boxes. You can check this out on myLargescale.com at the following link: http://forums.mylargescale.com/18-live-steam/82754-de-caso-mikado-tank-build-log.html By the way there is a front end throttle levers and bars on the right side of theT 1s boiler casing which will be a nice and fairly easy detail to make; let me know if you need a photo of that.

I know of a friend in Germany who recomends to use white spirit on rails to clean both the rail and the wheelsets, I have tried it in summer when it is dry and then also cleaned the track with an abrasive block. Indeed with pick up shoes operation outdoor becomes much more reliable. I use brass track also. It is made more complex with live steam although modern manufactured engines tend to throw out a lot less oil than early Asters did. The solution to that is : rain a good rainfall generally cleans that oil (steam oil mixes with water) away.

Great job Jerry: I have a good friend here in France that is going very seriously into UP steam (and deisels) in 1/32 scale and he is making the baggage with the flag on it. The nice thing about UP steam is that its pre 1950 's but it is also contemporary as they are still running these today! So that you can use these with contemporary equipment. I wonder if those "turbine" tenders were really built specially for the turbines or were converted from older FEF and first generation chalenger tenders?

Hi Carsten: My 1/32 scale SNCF 2-D-2 9100 that I scratch built around 20 years ago, with nose suspended individually driven brass drivers with Maxon motors has been working very reliably for all these years. the problem is arcing, if you use a motor that has a big current draw it will provoque arcing on the rail and the driver rim. If your motor is not too greedy the rims keep clean and you don't have any problems. This by the way predated the Fulgurex model by about four or five years. It is built in brass and nickel silver also. Congratulation on your good job on your modeling the FEF.

Great video Chuck and I loved the comment at the end! Have you seen the film "Danger lights"? It shows a Milwaukee Bi polar in a tug of war with a Mikado.

Ray, what you say about the big boy selling out before the containers reached the US is great news. It may make Mike Wolf think twice about G scale and that is good for the scale and for us. I hope the next catalog will reflect that success , by introducing some real new items, not just redecorations. Cross our fingers...

Good job jerry, a friend of mine is making the flags for the one with the american flag, he missed it when Aster came up with it. They were sold out in a few days. He is French, and going all out in UP.

There have been quite a few made by Aster in 1/32 scale and some for LGB scales. Also now by Accucraft. Aster made a shay very early on in the late seventies then around 1984 they did a very fine model of the WM three truck monster, and more recently they turned out the "Alisian shay" which I understand is a model of one running in Taiwan. They did a Climax around 1980 that was in the LGB scale, all steam. Accucraft has done some too in the various scales they cater to. Some could be electric. And the Bachman ones.

When I see all the modern rolling stock that USA trains is putting out: Modern High cube box cars, 83' auto carriers, container cars, spline cars and beer cans to name but a few, classic reefers, and reruns on the lightweight coaches. I feel that MTH is really slipping behind in not offering anything really new (redecorations or improved electronics on older models, for me, doesn't count as new) This is sad state of affairs There are so many things we need in 1/32 scale classic era freight stock: tank cars, gondolas, stock cars. Plus what Jerry and some other fans are waiting for: modern image freight cars, like the ones mentioned above, heavyweight coaches and scale length coaches are much bemoaned also. I am sad because I started to model US prototype in 1/32 scale about 8 years ago thanks to MTH, but it has been now several years that I haven't bought anything new in their 2 last catalogs. I think it would be cool if that situation changed to the better. I hope this encourages them to do something about it.

Hi Joe: I use the Proxon table for most of my precision cutting. Its a bit expensive but good quality if you want a small size one (my workshop is very small.) I used to know professional ones as I was in the scene building business but they take a lot of room. On another forum I saw one very tallented modeler make Journal box from brass bars for his live steam locos on a regular wood cutting table saw§ and he routed steam loco cylinders from bronze rectangular bar on a router!

Its like you all, we build and build what we like and can't find in the market and all of a sudden we have too much rolling stock... But I am amazed at all of what you are doing also Bob, Jerry, Jens and Larry and many other members of this great forum. making those molds designing for extrusions and developping things in 3D printing are all new techniques that to me are amazing.

Hi Bob my name is Simon Duhamel. Du.bousquetaire is because I would like to start writing a book on Gaston Du Bousquet who was a fabulous chief engeneer of the NORD railway in France who developped with Alfred De Glehn one of the most efficient compound system on 4-4-0, 4-6-0, Atlantics and yet another 4-6-0 which is probably just as powerful as a PRR G 5 with half the weight and the grate erea! His atlantics were copied by the Belgians, the Germans, the British with Churchward adopting his four cylinder drive practically as is but using it in simple expansion form as well as hjis leading bogie design (this ran up to the LMS Duchesse class), One was purchase by Cassat and was the "French aristocrat" on the Pennsy. He designed a huge freight articulated of the Meyer design, a double mogule type. Late in his life he designed two avant guard Hudsons which he called Baltics as they were made for the heavy Nord express which were the first in the world in 1911. These were way ahead of their time and actually too powerfull for the contemporary traffic.His research and developments were a huge inspiration for André Chapelon. Aluminum is great, you can find it easely cutting it out is very easy with either a router on the Dremmel (very dirty however) or a Bockfile saw (if you can find the blades...) it is very well suited for making one offs, and much sturdier than plastics or even wood or plastic which I used for three coaches using special neoprene glues without solven used in the stage scenery to glue styrene to plywood flats. Yet it is light a feature important to us live steamers. The detailed logs of the US cars I built were printed in Steam in the Garden magasine a couple of years ago. So I cannot reprint them here... Here are photos of the wood and plastic cars:

I hadn't been following this as I had an operation, this is a really fascinating evolution although I am interested more in the standard single level Budd design. Congratulations on the design process. A word of caution about wheel standards though, I wanted to go finescale in gauge one, but stayed within the Gauge 1Model Railway Association standards, so that I could hold get togethers on my track. Otherwise I would have had a "captive layout" and no friends could come and run. This is most important for live steamers. Some French friends who are developing a French (NORD design) truck from laser cut brass parts and castings had the very same problem with wheels thicker than scale wheels. I will be holding a steam up on the 28th of may of this year for those in Europe.

Hi Bob I wasn't following this because the era I model stops at 1957 roughly when steam died out on the Pennsy. But I should have after crossing the USA from New York to Flagstaf and back behind these very succesful locos and riding the Amfleet on the last legs (Pennsylvanian) last spring. Great ideas for the diaphragms and those coupler springs. I am following this with great interest now as I have often considered doing the same thing to those USA trains Senator cars (the ribbed Pennsy cars ) to reduce them to 1/32 scale. That would entail cutting aluminum but that would not be impossible and glued together with epoxy would make a very strong bond. I don't know if I will takle this though, I have a lot of more urgent projects to work on. I have made quite a few coaches in aluminum six to date + 5 kits. The first was a French 2 axle express Baggage car photop before painting and lettering, the second was a Nord express third class coach from the all welded De Caso design photo before lettering, the third was my PRR N5 cabin car, the fourth was my PRR,B60 baggage, the fifth was my PRR D78 diner, and the sixth was an SNCF post WW2 modernisation of an old pre WW1 PLM six wheeler for local traffic photo before lettering. These were all made between 2007 and 2015 with a few other projects in between built in Styreen and brass. Aluminum is nice, light and sturdy, works well and I can get it at my local hardware store, the brass I have to go to Paris in a specialty shop to get it. I have also built three bridges in aluminum. Two are shown with French steamers on them.

So far it looks like a really neat job Jens, I am currently testing out running my F3 in analog, as I am no electronic wizzard and really don't have much electronic know how, I think that I will stick to analog running, more my generation... Added bonus now I can MU my A-B-A lash up of F3 with my Lionel GP 7 which I redetailed thanks to the help of XL special all the way from Vancouver Island through this forum and equiped with NWSL wheelsets. As the weather today is raining I can't post a photo of this lash up in front of a 42 car freight but will endeavour to do so as soon as the weather permits. Way back four years ago I reduced the flanges on my lathe and I find the pick up shoes aren't too visible on the F units, and they do insure good pick up on my brass track. I have kicked out the sound... But have been able to wire back the lights, but they are not constant. MTH DCS is wonderful when it works, but it is a constant source of trouble for me, I have often run through 3 fusdes in one afternoon operating session. Plus all the protocol to light up engines on a dead track... I have to insulate my indoor yard because you can't see it from outdoors and I burned out two motors once which Raymond fixed for me because the engine which was idliing, went off into the yard throat after a short circuit on the outdoor and it sent the lead A unit into a switch which shorted it out while the trailing A unit kept pumping away forward until the motors burned out! I operated the layout for twenty years without DCS so it is back to analog for me, but regretfully as the possibilities of DCS are wonderful.

When you look at the work involved for building a live steam loco, about up to 10.000 hours of metal work for say an Alleghenie plus the materials that you have to buy to make one (wheel castings, cylinders axle pump etc. including having some special castings made in lost wax; the actual value of an engine comes to more that 6-7000 bucks. + You get a lot of satisfaction and pleasure from having one and operating it (its less work operating a live steamer than electric if you have brass track like I do...) And cherry on the top: It usually retains it's original value as time goes by (better than stocks, I would say over a 40 year experience that I have with live steam). And you dont get any hastle from the fancy electronics, what more could you want Raymond? (I know, you can handle that kind of hastle but most of us can't) If you like that engine, just save up your pennies and three or four years hence you can own one. Operating one of these beasties is a lot of fun.

When I made my trackback in 1978 to 1982 in very humid clayish soil, I adopted a concrete base to save futur maintenance and maintain the track geometry. We don't have much permafrost here rather mild wet winters with temperatures rarely getting to -10° centigrade below freezing. I used precast sidewalk curb borders to make a double track subbase a meter long and about a foot wide and three inches thick. This needed to be widened about a couple of inches of cement around the sidewalk borders in order to make a neat dross strip over the ballast line. I used a steel flat bar to make the mold for that just curving it parrallel to the track held by wood pegs hammered into the ground. This has served as a rail joiner for the concrete. An expansion joint was planned every three meters. I actually mow the grass right up to the track. The track which is in one meter or one yard sections is screwed using brass screws into plugs drilled into the concrete evry foot or so. I then put a coarse (not to scale) ballast between the ties for realism, this actually helps when making small adjustments to the track level. This has shifted in very few places over the years, in one instance due to a root actually growing under the track base and moving it a bit. I have nearly no maintenance every spring in the last 39 years! Except mowing and creosoting the wooden ties on the inner handlaid track. This is long at installing but saves a heck of a lot of time since. On this photo the edge of the concrete is quite apparent.

Hi Jerry: Many years ago I bought the Wilesco twin cylinder machine with the idea of using it to power a French 0-6-0 of the PLM which was quite simple. The boiler was too large so was useless for me, the cylinders were to long to fit in that locos size cylinders and the diameter was too small. but I hoped to mount a cosmetic cylinder around it so this last detail would not have been a big problem. But that did put my project off for quite some time. Then I met and became very good friend of John Van Riemsdijk who designed most Asters from the beggining to the BR62 and a very experienced steam loco designer and model engeneer. He explained to me that this cylinder bore would make the engine too weak to haul anything, Plus the type of piston valves used in Wilesco's (a copy of the old Bing for Basset Lowke system) only delivers very little steam to the cylinders, Which is also detrimental to a good steam loco design, as well as the reverser which throtles considerably the steam pressure. So I just wanted to put forward a word of warning as you may be disapointed with the result, if you plan to use the Wilesco system in your engine. I think for a boat it would work out fine though, much less torque demanded to start a train.

For parts try to contact Midge Wilburn there she is very good at getting spare parts but it oiften takes months to get an answer, especially around Christmas time. Raymond might have a better idea though. But I am sure that driving with the rods wont be a problem really, unless there is too much play but that shouldn't be the case as thye hudson drive system is bassed on that.

It should make for a very good drive, MTH mechanism are really very good; although my experience is based on the GG1 and diesels. But they have bronze gears, and bushes for the journals. Good motors too. I have had many engines with transmition to other drivers through side rods with little or no problems (mainly in HO but most of my live steam also in gauge one) and I wouldn't worry about that too much especially since the cranks certaily seem sturdy enough. Are the driver centers plastic or metal? You should turn down the flanges a bit while everything is accessible. I did that on the GG1 and on my F3 and it transformed the engines. I leave about 0,9mm depth and it works fine.

I did four different articles in Steam in the Garden magazine about the construction technique I use with plenty of photos explaining how it is done. It was around 2012-13, Basically I used the method that David Leech described in the G1MRA newsletter and then added details and rivets because I wanted to model some heavyweight cars. The articles describe the N5 cabin car, a PRR B 60 baggage car and a D78 diner. and there was a short peice on how I make diaphragms for coaches.

Bob from what I have studied about the prototyper there were two very different noses on the T1, and by that I dont mean the diference to the pilot and compressor sheilds between the "Buick" version and the later modified front end of the 50 series locomotives with the stairs going down from the running boards. The wedge shaped smoke box front on the two original prototypes is much more narrow and longer than on the later series models which had a blunter nose. As many of the drawings show the original (prototype) version this can be misleading. I just thought that you might want to know that, to be carefull about from which drawing to work out the from. Of course that prototype version was much more esthetically satisfying than the later more functional version. It is a fascinating project, keep up the good work. Glad these photos could be of help.

The way you have with molds and resins I am sure you will make a great job of it, Bob. Widening the shell is a good idea, As you have a nice skirt under the running boards which hides all the underside of the boiler pretty well. Its too bad you live so far away otherwise I would have invited you to mold mine as a patern. Once you get the boiler the skyline casing and the pilot paterns made the rest is pretty much sheet work. And some pipe work under the running boards. You will have some work on the tender depending if you want to do an early version with all the top flaring or a later version (as per Accucraft , alas) were most of it was cut away by the shops. One nice thing though is the valve gear is very simple just a link to the crosshead to bring the movement to the Franklin miniature valve gear box, inside the frames. You could aproach the Accucraft people to try to, get some of the tender trucks. I had a similar project which was to make an RF&P 4-8-4 named after southern governors from a daylight, but the skyline casing is cast on making it very difficult without having two boilers. They were nice engines with hitchins tenders and the PRR leased them for a while. Here are some nose photos.

Hey Sean thats pretty sharp weathering. I enjoyed it especially since I used to live in Lincoln Mass and modeled the B&M way back in the early '70 in HO scale was after modeling the Fitchburg division at the time. I was even one of the earliest members of the B&M historical society. The funny thing was back then there weren't any models of the PRR N5 cabin cars, except brass which I couldn't afford, and the B&M had inherited some as cabooses. So I had the project of building one. I finally built one about forty years later but in 1/32 scale. It was made in aluminum with a Brass and wood chassis.