The Whiskey River Railway

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Tyler,


I have been going through the scrap drawers I inherited from Tom's C&S, trying to locate parts Tom disassembled, and get them back into assemblies. what I want most it to put back together some Riverossi Heiesler trucks. Were I to be able to find enough of the right pieces to get two operational, crank pins could be scavenged from other Riverossi steamer parts in my boneyard to make two small drivered motors for a small articulated such as the Little river 2-4-4-2s I know you are fond of the 4-4-4-0 concept, which did not exist, but a Riverossi Heisler would yield drivers close to the size on the second, successful little river Mallet. the commercial Ho 2-4-4-2's are all models of the first Little river mallet, which had larger drivers and a larger wheel base, and did not like the track from Townsend to Elkmont, for which it was designed, and it was returned to Baldwin.



Baldwin sold it , and shipped it west, and it survived, (although in pieces) while it's smaller and more interesting and successful replacement was later scrapped. Your model looks a lot like a 2-4-4-2 to me .


Making custom side rods is an absouloute bear. I haven't done it with locomotives, but the mechanism I made for my R/C Roman warship used a similar concept in it's oar mechanism, and it took we four tries to get side rod like parts made with enough precision to work without binding, and they were eight or nine times the size of an HO side rod. I had to buy a really good drill press, and make several fixtures to hold the pieces while I drilled them. it was an ugly process, and I will probably burn in hell for some of the swear words I invented during the process

the result was cool, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTFNzLDrlHs but the mechanism was too heavy, making the model set to low in the water to get the needed effect, but I would rather take a beating than to try to make side rods for an HO model, unless I also made the frame. if you made the frame, and made a fixture to space the centers of the axle holes in the frame, the same fixture would get you the centers of the side rod holes, but not without pain and suffering.


Bill Nelson
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Zathros,

That and Bill and Doc Tom are anti-internal combustion railroaders, which helps.

Tyler


I'm not anti internal combustion! I just think most folks don't understand the concept correctly. In any given working woodburner (I can only think of one current example) the combustion is internal to the firebox (where it belongs). somebody just thought it was a good idea to think about the cylinder instead. Makes no sense to me why go to a power stroke every other or every fourth stroke instead of a power stoke every stroke. Infernal combustion can compete on maintenance costs, but not on power .


That said I am nostalgic for the sound of four Southern Railway E-8s throttling up leaving the speed restricted Doraville yards on the evening run towards Washington DC on the nose of the Crescent, going from 45 Mph to about 80 in an amazingly short time. I also miss the sound that the 2 GP 9s that used to run the vestigial stub of the L&N's old Memphis line in front of my house, as they slowed down for the long trestle, the sound of the dynamic braking was really interesting.


But modeling those memories is not reasonable , the 1979 Southern Crescent would be pretty durn long in Ho , and as soon as I throttled it up, Id have to slow it back down. And the railroad bridge in my front yard and it's approach would take more than eighteen feet to model correctly in HO, so I'll model some more remote stuff, more of my Dad's memories than mine.

I wasn't there , so I won't know the full extent of how badly I mangle them.


Nelson
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
since my mom was a professional photographer, she got the call to document the extraction from the museum and the prep out to Minnesota to be restored. So pretty much that's what made me fall in love with railroading all together. That and Bill and Doc Tom are anti-internal combustion railroaders, which helps.

Tyler

Yee Haw. You betcha I love them steam engines with the funny drive trains.

Any possibility you could post your mom's pictures of that interesting steamer???

Doc Tom
 

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Zathros

I am a sterling engine nut. I want to make one so bad. I have all the machinery. A lot of metal stock too. I just need some really good plans because I want to make something functional. Maybe something to power a 16 foot long and wide displacement launch, or power a generator with a propane source, or whatever else is at hand. I would consider steam too, thought the closed system sterling just has something so elegant to it. They don't scale up or down well at all though!
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
I am a sterling engine nut. I want to make one so bad. I have all the machinery. A lot of metal stock too. I just need some really good plans because I want to make something functional. Maybe something to power a 16 foot long and wide displacement launch, or power a generator with a propane source, or whatever else is at hand. I would consider steam too, thought the closed system sterling just has something so elegant to it. They don't scale up or down well at all though!

That is an interesting engine and it is truly "external combustion." I think the Stirling engine was considered safer than the classic steam engine as it did not have boiler explosions:eek::eek:.

Doc Tom
 

gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Doc Tom,

I don't have any on my computer, but when I go through my storage unit one day I'll try to remember them. I have to go in there anyways, I hooked one of my buddies onto R/C cars who now moved to Korea and I have a load of R/C car mags and books that are just collecting dust. Just a heads up, some of the pics are very embarrassing as a very young me is in them.

Tyler
 

gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
I've completed two more cars for the WRRy today. The first one is the company's ballast car X56, a slightly reworked Tyco operating hopper car. I say slightly reworked because it originally had Talgo trucks on it which had to be converted for better in train handling, so what I did was drill a hole on each end of the car's frame for the Kadee coupler boxes and install couplers, slap some Roundhouse Fox trucks on it and the signature black paint and decals and here it is ready for service. The second car is a Ertl 40' gondola that just had it's body repainted and Kadee couplers added and then decalled. This car is missing a few grab irons, and honestly I don't know if I'll have a layout anytime soon but I am taking Bill Nelson's advice and leaving off details like such until my daughter gets older and is less curious to why Daddy plays with trains.

I was actually a little disappointed, I hoped to get two more cars done and to do a little more troubleshooting on the club's Southern 2-8-0 today but time is the demon in this game.

Tyler
 

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Zathros

This engine runs off the heat of your hand. If you put an Ice cube on top, it goes even faster, being a difference engine. They could make for interesting displays on a track set up, like a Ferris Wheel, or just something odd.


stirling_small.jpg
 

gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
I made up for yesterday's disappointment early this morning. Since I surprisingly decided to wake up at 7:15 I put that early start to use, first with real world productivity such as laundry, cleaning my boots and giving myself a haircut. After that I got four more cars complete, two more flat cars, a "modern" hopper and my kitbashed company gondola X53. Then after I completed those projects, I fully cleaned up the kitchen and headed over to my buddy's place for Easter lunch/dinner (linner?). Now I wrapped up my day, just finished watching National Geographic's Titanic special they had on and typing this wonderful bit for all the world to see.

No train club, or probably anything, as my wife and daughter are coming back from Wisconsin tomorrow.

Tyler
 

gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Since last time I've reported in, very little has been done. Apart from the usual things that keep me from train time, my truck needed a oil change and coolant flush, I had CQ (charge of quarters in the barracks, for you non-military folk), and we've done some family stuff out in Land Between The Lakes. On another note, I've also ran out of Kadee couplers and usable trucks for rolling stock, as many of the Whiskey River's pieces of rolling stock started off as basket cases and I've done my best to polish the turds. Yesterday I ran out of black paint, which the roofs of boxcars and cabooses and underframes need to be uniform.

I have noticed that Kadee came out with new truck styles, their 580 series of caboose trucks with leaf springs. Come payday I'll be ordering a big ol' box of the fancy whisker couplers, some paint, a package of centering springs for the original style of Kadee's and a pair or three of the leaf sprung style trucks for the cabeese. Right now some of the cabeese are riding on Bettendorf freight car trucks, which is fine and dandy for other modellers, but this is also a test for their possible use as a tender truck. If they look and work rather well, I'll slap a few under a tender with the pickups modified from the Kadee coupler centering springs.
583.jpg


Tyler
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
I have noticed that Kadee came out with new truck styles said:
http://www.kadee.com/html/583.jpg[/IMG]

Tyler

Kadee makes nice looking trucks, but I'm not sure they would be a good bet for tender trucks. for one thing, you have a plastic axle, so you can't run a wiper off the axle for the uninsulated pickup. secondly the wheels are cast in a light metal, possibly aluminum. whatever it is it collects gunk worse than plastic. I have seen gunk build up so deep on the wheel treads that the flanges are reduced to below scale size, and the car would not stay on the track until I chizeled the crud off the face of the wheel.

I have found that in extreme applications, sprung trucks don't work as well as solid ones, unless there is a lot of weight on them. I have replaced all of the KD trucks on my fleet, and almost all of the Central Valley trucks, and have been replacing KD wheelsets in my rolling stock as I find them..


Bill Nelson
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Whiskey RIver Box Car #37 survives the wilds of the Smoky Mountains

Hey Tyler

Its those last 45 miles in the Smoky Mountains that proves the mettle of machine and creator. The #37 WRRR box car loaded with goods for the loggers in East Tennessee was up to the test that the twisting climbing rails in the mountains of Eastern Tennessee put before it.

Important material and liquids were needed for the men at Tremont logging camp. Little River Rail Road management felt the interchange car from Wisconsin was up to the task of traversing its very treacherous rails that had claimed many a lesser man and his machines.

#37 reported in and took up position in the mixed train pulled by #2147. It made it through every gauntlet and arrived to the cheers of the men in the forlorn logging camp.

Doc Tom
 

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gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
AHM Boxcars

I got a little work in on some of my more unique rolling stock today, that being my pair of AHM double door wood sheathed boxcars and my tool car X51. I don't have any pics of the tool car at all yet, but to inform you it's just a plain jane Mantua clearance car minus the thing that goes around the body of the car. So far all that's completed to that is I added some underbody details to it, chopped off the horn hooks that mount to the trucks and glued some shims to the bottom of the car floor to mount the couplers when they come in.

The boxcars I do have pics of, and like the tool car, no couplers were mounted due to my dry spell of Kadee products. I bought these cars when I was in Korea from eBay and had them straight home so I never got to inspect them post purchase. These cars have a tab to secure the body to the floor at the end where the couplers will be mounted and had to be modified. I just took my trusty and rusty Xacto to the part of the tab that stuck out and hacked it off. In theory this should work ok, as most of the cars' life will either live on a layout or in a box and shouldn't be moved too much by the 0-5-0 switcher. Naturally also, these cars will be painted and lettered in normal WRRy garb instead of the beautiful paint scheme AHM decided to give them. Prior to paint though, I may go crazy with it and do something similar to this: http://www.trainlife.com/articles/397/perfecting-plastic-cars

I also noticed one thing on both of these cars, check out the slogan... someone in Yugoslavia needs to brush up on their English grammar.

Tyler
 

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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Cleaning off my workbench I came across the Whiskey River Gon Tyler had painted and lettered up for use on The DG CC & W RR. I got couplers, and it is ready to up to the RR room.


#4, a class a climax has been living on my work bench, as it is tiny, and can let me know if other locomotives I'm working on have thier motors wired in the right direction


Bill Nelson
 

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gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Since the weather has been favorable lately, lots of non model railroading stuff has been taking priority. Slowly I'm getting my truck fixed up after years of neglect (some of it my doing, mostly my parents lack of maintenance when I was gone to Korea and Afghanistan), things around the house are being mended, and the storage unit is getting cleared of excess clutter. Today is an exciting day for our daughter, she no longer sleeps in a crib and has taken our old full size bed and we've upgraded to a queen size. I listed a bunch of stuff on eBay and Campbell Yard Sales to buy new parts for my S10 and my upcoming trek back home to Wisconsin.

I did a little research on a pair of old passenger car trucks I got from señor Nelson and found out that the old Cape Line Models pair I have are Commonwealth four wheel trucks. http://hoseeker.net/capelines/capelinetruckspg1.jpg At first I thought the trucks may be too modern, but I remembered that the road's business car, #300 named the Lee W. Merrick after the prototype's founder, is truckless. In my opinion a 80' LaBelle car should have three axle trucks, but I might shorten the car to 70'.

Tyler
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
WRRY #37 gets a make over.

Tyler's beautiful box car, WRRY #37, is going to work on the Large Scale Little River Rail Road.

I has received body mount Kadee couplers ( about as big as half an HO steam engine when done in G scale) and is weathered a bit for the travels it is making from Wisconsin to Tennessee.

Timmie is excited about what is inside the box car.........the first electronic components for a trailing battery car for all the LRRR steam locomotives.

Pictured is a Printed Circuit Board with on/off switch and plug for the battery charger and all important fuse to prevent the "white smoke phenomena" noted with first time electric projects.

Doc Tom
 

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gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Doc Tom,

That ol' boxcar looks amazing! I love the weathering job you did to it. The huge Kadee's look pretty neat on it too! I might just have to bring a note pad and take notes on how to weather cars. Some of my previous attempts were not so good, and since then I really haven't tried it (that and I joined the Army which took away a lot of my time). Anyways, I hope your new battery car works wonders for you!

Tyler
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Weathering with acrylic washes.

Doc Tom,

That ol' boxcar looks amazing! I love the weathering job you did to it. The huge Kadee's look pretty neat on it too! I might just have to bring a note pad and take notes on how to weather cars. Some of my previous attempts were not so good, and since then I really haven't tried it (that and I joined the Army which took away a lot of my time). Anyways, I hope your new battery car works wonders for you!

Tyler

Hi Tyler,

Glad you liked the weathering. Actually the technique I used on this model is a little different than previous weathering. This is a technique proposed by Kevin Strang on the Garden RR websites. Here it is:

"I use acrylic paints (the cheap 99-cent Folk-Art or similar bottles from Michaels, etc.). I rarely actually mix the paint and the water together, rather I put some paint on a small plate or such, and have a cup of water next to it. I dip the brush in the water, pull a little paint onto the wet brush, and apply it. If I need it thinner on the model, I'll dip the brush back in the water and brush that onto the model to thin it."

This is basically an acrylic wash but his ideas offer a lot of control as far as thick or light. I used a very light technique on the WRRY box car.

Previous weathering jobs have been done by use of a India Ink wash first followed by dry brushing light colors after the India Ink wash.

Here are some pictures of India Ink and dry brush weathered RR stuff.

Glad to help with any weathering you want to get in to.

Tom
 

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gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
It seems like lately that my life is the song from The Guess Who, "No Time". At least stuff is selling decently on eBay to buy future railroad products. Enough venting for now...

I did make a recent purchase on eBay, a old (possibly) Varney or Roundhouse cast metal outside braced boxcar. It has Kadee's installed on it, but it was purchased with the intentions of falling victim to the most unusual form of copyright infringement: dissassembly to be duplicated. I plan to strip the paint and lettering off of it, dissect the car into each of it's core parts, make molds of the pieces, and then cast new parts. From there I can reassemble the car and have one duplicate of a interesting and out-of-production piece of rolling stock. More to follow, as if the first paragraph didn't explain it clearly enough... read it again.

Tyler
 

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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Casting sounds very interesting

Tyler,
Casting parts sounds very interesting and I will be following your efforts .

I have never done that before. I am hoping to scratch-build some models for my Little River Railroad. I will be using sheet, tube, and rod styrene but some parts will require castings.

I hope to learn how to do this and will be real curious to see how you get it done. My shop guys are REAL interested.

Tom
 

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