Ormsby Now in Service

The Virginia & Truckee's Ormsby sits on the Oakdale turntable. On lease from the V&T, the locomotive will add some power to the S&C's fleet. The number "2" on the headlight lens is for night running so the engine can be identified by an approaching engine. The long rod reaching from the cab to the front of the boiler operates the cylinder cocks.

The Ormsby finally rolled out of the shops today and is in service on the railroad. The past couple of weeks have been spent in installing the decoder, tuning it and finishing the small details. I decided to try the relatively new Soundtraxx Econami steam decoder and am very satisfied with it. It has considerably more options in bells and whistles (literally) and a much better single-tone whistle than the Tsunamis. You can also set the cylinders cocks open at the start of a run and time when they will be closed. Synchronization for engine chuffs is much, much better as well. I'm happy with it and the price is right.
 

A torque arm was added and screwed to the 28:1 gearbox. It attaches to the motor with silicon caulking. 

 The motor for the engine is a 12mm diameter Sagami which just barely fits within the boiler. I used a NWSL 28:1 gearbox and connected it directly to the motor. Lettering for the engine was developed using Adobe Illustrator and then printed on decal paper. The distinctive Union Iron Works builder's plate is a decal applied to an etched brass backing plate. Engineer and fireman figures completed the engine while a wire rope and hook completed the tender gear on the rear.
 

To get enough clearance with the small driving wheels, the bottom cover of the gearbox had to be removed. Electrical wipers are installed on the left-side drivers to get more pickup.

  One problem occurred when I tried to run the engine; it bumped along the track. A close examination showed that the gearbox cover on the bottom was hitting the ballast and the rails at turnouts due to the small driver diameter. The bottom of the gearbox was cut away and the problem was solved.
     Ormsby only has 40" drivers and is about 15% smaller than the other engines. That's the way the prototype was and why these engines sadly did not last into the 20th century.

The Ormsby alongside the Calaveras. It is easy to see that difference in size between the locomotives.

Most of the moguls I use on the S&C are V&T prototypes and have 48" drivers. This engine is quite a bit smaller than the larger ones  but I liked the looks of it and the fact that it was built in California unlike the remainder of the engines which were built in the East.
    One of the unexpected pleasures of this little engine is its pulling power. I tried it out with a few cars and kept adding more until I got to 15 and it was still pulling well on level ground. I can't complain. Part of this happy result was undoubtedly due to the tungsten weights I used instead of lead. Woodland Scenics makes a line of these weights designed for Pinewood Derby cars. They were just the right size (3/8" diameter) to fit in the boiler and under the cab roof.

Kit-Built Flat Cars

Three new flat cars ready for service. Stakes are scale 4x4s inserted in the stake pockets. The end stakes would have been used on loads such as firewood which would be stacked across the width of the car. Before the 20th century and the banding of lumber piles, the side stakes would have been used to hold such loads in place. In wheat country, the portable steam engine would be used for powering the threshing machines. Now I have to come up with a way to tie that engine down to the car.

While waiting for paint to dry (it seems I do more waiting than working), I decided to try putting together some of my flat car "kits." Why flat cars? In the 1890s, the railroads had about 50% of their fleets made up of flat cars. That would change toward boxcars going into the 20th century but, for now, I needed more flats. I really wanted to make up some nice loads of boilers, carriages and other neat things and, for that, I needed the flats.
    The pieces used to build these cars were laser cut for me by a friend who, obviously, has a laser cutting machine. I designed the car after an 1870s era Central Pacific flat car and tried to get as much work done in the laser cut as I could. When cutting out the car, I had the holes for Grandt Line stake puts burned in the car sills as well as more holes for nut-bolt-washer castings for truss rods, etc. I did have to buy the stake pockets, NBW castings and some Tichy brake wheels and mounts for flats.
   

The main frame of the car with its attendant pieces. Sides frames are at the bottom while bolsters and needle beams are at the top. Buffer blocks at each end. Note the holes ready to receive the Grandt Line stake pocket castings.

The parts went together quickly and pretty much flawlessly using white glue. The decks were also laser cut and included the little cutouts for the stake pockets and well as the stake pockets at the deck ends (a common feature of that period). The couplers were Kadee 711 and I used some 3D printed trucks I purchased from a Shapeways seller. The trucks are of the Allen or California pattern used almost exclusively in the west and were of the swing motion variety. Reboxx wheelsets completed them.
    One of the things I did was make two flat cars each bearing the same number. The loads I wanted to model would those that were tied and lashed down with chain, rope and chocks and would not be easy to remove. When operating the railroad, the crews would deliver the car with its load but I wanted to be able for them to remove the empty car. The easiest way to do this would be to build two identical cars, one with the load and the other with just the remnants of the dunnage. So far, I haven't put any loads on them except for the portable boiler/engine and that isn't tied down yet.
   Now, back to finishing up my two locomotives.

Out of the Paint Shop

The upper locomotive is of the Virginia & Truckee Storey while the bottom is that of the Ormsby.

My slow-moving locomotive project is finally out of the paint shop. Following the color of the prototype (or what we think we know about the prototype), I painted the engine with a dark green chassis with the tender a two-tone brown/green. This seems to be what the few pictures of the original engine suggests. The domes and cylinders were masked and painted to give the two-tone paint job as well as the polished brass of the steam domes.

Comparing the Storey's tender (bottom) to that of the Ormsby, you can see the difference between the size of the engines. Note that the Ormsby tender has the tapered collar.

   The tender of the Ormsby had a tapered collar while the model I was using (Porter Mogul) did not. It turned out to be relatively easy to unsolder the wire bead around the top of the collar, cut the taper and then resolder the bead.

The relative size of the engines can easily be seen by the frames. The cylinders for the top frame (Storey) are from a MEW Tahoe while the bottom set are from the original Porter. 

    The frames were the easiest (all one color). I used the Porter mogul frame for the Storey and built up the frame of the Ormsby from brass strips. You can see on the Storey where the rear driver position was filled in by a piece of 3mm material and a new driver slot cut to match the prototype. I used a cylinder set from a Model Engineering Works Tahoe (no, I did not cannibalize one of these scarce models but used an extra set) for the larger engine and the original Porter Mogul cylinders for the smaller one.

The curved molding over the windows is a separate piece which was soldered on to the window etching. The "wood" molding under the roof was built up with  strips of styrene.

    The cab of the Ormsby appeared to be a bit more ornate than the Storey. I made parts for a new cab by etching them in thin brass and then soldered the parts together. It was a tedious process with a high scrap ratio.

The screening on the stack top was made of fine brass screen
with small brass strips forming the cover.

   The Storey's  smokestack was just a Cal-Scale ballooon stack but the stack of the Ormsby was a bit more trouble since no one makes a model of the old bonnet stacks. I took some measurements from the photos I had and then turned the stack on a lathe. Archer rivets were added for detail.
    The next step is the assembly and the installation of the decoder.

   

A Large-Scale Locomotive Model

The Lyon's boiler now sits atop the chassis outside its shed in Iowa.

This week, I was in Mason City, Iowa and decided to visit the nearby town of Clear Lake where Stan Gentry is building a full-sized working replica of Virginia & Truckee RR No.1, the Lyon. Stan started this project about 20 years ago and is about 80% complete. He is using the same drawings that I have for my HO scale Ormsby, the Lyon's sister engine.

The complete tender tank waiting to be mated to the underframe.

Stan located the remnants of a Union Iron Works tender which had been built for the Bodie & Benton railroad in California. He has used that to recreate the building style for the  Lyon's  tender. Remaining to be done is the cab, domes, valves, water pumps and the myriad of small details you don't realize you need until you start doing this kind of project.  

   

Tender trucks and chassis awaiting the tank.

     The locomotives in the nineteenth century are relatively small but you don't realize how tiny they until you stand beside them. I've visited the California State Railroad Museum where they have one of the V&T's larger 2-6-0s and it's monstsrous along of the Lyon.
     Stan is a real nice guy and I wish him all the luck in completing this project. It will sure be neat to watch it running some day. You can read more about his project on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/V-T-Lyon-269396092936/) or at vtlyon.com.

Newly-made smokebox front duplicating the original.

The new stack. You can judge the size by the
figure behind it.

More on Locomotives

A rendering of the Ormsby's sister engine, the Lyon. Both were built in 1869 by the Union Iron Works in San Francisco.

 February was a busy month. Every two years, the model railroaders in Kansas City who have operating layouts invite others to share in their operations. This year, over 30 operating railroads hosted about 135 attendees from the east coast to the west coast and a lot in between. Over a Friday to Sunday weekend, each guest got to operate on four layouts in the area. The S&C hosted two of these sessions and 20 visitors. It was a lot of fun and the railroad performed well but there was a lot of work getting ready for the event. This left little time for new projects. I did, however, make a start on another new engine.

The temporarily assembled engine.

Both the chassis and the boiler/cab are scratchbuilt from brass and nickel silver. The drivers are 40" in diameter. Drivers and cylinders are left over from the Porter mogul engine.

    This new locomotive will be a model of the Virginia & Truckee's No. 2, the Ormsby. It was built in 1869 in the same order as the Storey (http://sandcrr.blogspot.com/2016/01/new-locomotive.html) but it was a little smaller. While I am modifying a Porter mogul for the Storey, the Ormsby is scratchbuilt. To date, I have completed the frame and siderods and formed the cab and boiler. All of the construction is based on the builder's erection drawing found at the California State Railroad Museum.
   

These plates mount between the fenders of the engine.

 To make the cab, headlight bracket and builder's plate, I tried etching brass with varying results. The headlight bracket and builder's plate turned out all right but the thicker material I wanted for the cab would not produce the results I wanted without a lot of fiddling. I need to try some better techniques for thicker etchings.
     Some of the parts on the engine such as the drivers, cylinders and tender are left over from the Storey project while the pilot is from a PFM Reno.

   

Headlight brackets still need to be bent to shape.

Obviously, more work is needed to finish the engine and it goes slowly but both engines should be ready for paint before too awfully long (I hope).

Carleton Watkins Visits the S&C

Watkins's photo car with wagon attached to a long caboose as was found in several photos of the Watkins "train."

Carleton Watkins made a trip over the Stockton & Copperopolis the other day. Who is Carleton Watkins you might ask? He was the Ansel Adams of the nineteenth century taking photographs all over the west from Oregon to the Comstock to Arizona and Southern California. How does this concern we modelers of ancient railroads? He had a special car, such as it was, to carry his photographic wagon about and it shows up in numerous photos of his. It's almost always in the background but it's unmistakable and always accompanied by an old coach or long caboose. I've always enjoyed viewing his photos so I finally decided to build his car and photo wagon.
   

The Watkins prototype car with wagon and long caboose which was used for living quarters. Photo taken at Dos Palmas, California in the 1880s.

The car was a standard 29-foot flatcar built by the California Pacific RR with a room added at one end. I built the car out of strip styrene with scribed styrene walls for the room portion. The windows in the room area only have bars on them so this may have been where Watkins stabled his horse when traveling on a train or it might have just been a storage area.
   

The Watkins photographic wagon on the pier at San Francisco. 

The photo wagon was just a Jordan Products standard wagon kit with decals based on the photo of the prototype wagon. I don't know if Watkins ever traveled on the prototype S&C but he could very well have done so en route to Yosemite when he took photos there. I'd like to think that he did.

A New Locomotive

The stripped down Porter Mogul with new cylinders, motor/gearbox and drivers. 

Now that the Christmas season is behind us, I can finally get back to some serious modeling. Santa was good to me this year giving me some needed tools for the shop and some interesting reading material.

    Before Christmas, I had decided to start building the town of Milton but had to wait until some of the windows and styrene were ordered. While I was waiting, I started some research on early Virginia & Truckee RR locomotives. Without going into great detail (you can get detail at www.virginiaandtruckee.com), the first three engines came from Union Iron Works, a small foundry and machine shop in San Francisco. I also discovered that engine 3 had been featured in a centerfold in an 1871 issue of Engineering magazine published in London. A trip to the nearby Linda Hall library led to finding that issue and getting a copy of the article which included a full-scale drawing with dimension. With that in hand and three photos of the engine, I decided to try to convert an engine to Number 3, the Storey.

Ken Kidder's Porter Mogul was roughly the same dimensions
 as the Storey but several features had to be redone or replaced.

   A few dimension checks showed me that the Ken Kidder Porter Mogul was very close to the right size for the Storey. I had one the moguls on my shelf so I checked what would have to be done to convert it. The boiler was the right size but the domes were not. A couple of Precision Scale domes solved that problem. A Cal-Scale 1860s smokestack and bell solved those problems. The cab looked pretty good but had a curved roof rather than one with a ridge. I decided to live with feature rather than rebuild the entire cab.
    The frame was a bit more work. The drivers were the wrong size (40") and had the wrong spacing. I had the correct size drivers (48") and could easily move the driver slot so it would be closer to the prototype spacing. Replacing the old open-frame motor with a Northwest Short Line gearbox and Sagami motor was next. The Ken Kidder cylinder set was also replaced with a spare MEW set I had along with the crossheads and main rod. Some careful machine work produced a pair of new siderods. While I was at it, I fabricated new fenders for the rear drivers and added a crosshead water pump. I have a spare PFM Reno tender that I will use.

The prototype Storey as seen on the V&T. 

     There's still a lot of work to be done to finish the locomotive but it seems to be going along well. When done, it won't be able to pull a great deal but neither could the prototype. There will be more to come later as construction continues.