I'm taking a little break from things V&T, and working up a design model for a steam donkey. It's based on plans in the book "The Steam Donkey Engine" by the late William Harris, depicting a typical American Hoist & Derrick 2-drum "yarder" (I think).     I haven't connected this yet with an actual prototype, since I haven't found an AHD catalog having enough detail to tell which model it was. If you know of a link to a full catalog, I'd appreciate having it.   ...

It arrived in what in 4 minutes will become yesterday, so now the thing is to figure out how to put metal wheels in 2ndhand CoG "football" car purchased from Reindeer Pass. Have some Bachmann metal wheels on hand and they look like they should fit the journal bearings. But ... This is the 1st car I've ever had by whoever manufactured this and I have zero prior experience with how their sprung trucks come apart. Back of box says car was produced by REA in partnership with Polk's. I know who ...

I have an AristoCraft FA that I had converted to run on track power or NiCads with the onboard train Engineer so many moons ago.  I had 15 "sub-C" cells in that thing but they no longer take a charge.   I want to replace them with 14.8V of Li-ion so that I can run the track cleaner around.  I don't need a great deal of speed for that operation and 14.8 volts should be more than enough.   It is easy enough to calculate the battery life from the amp-hours, but what are peop...

Hi folks The purpose of this forum is to act as a repository of drawings, images, files, etc, of anything railroad related. You can either upload the file, or post a link to it as a message.

On another topic I had asked questions regarding an auxiliary steam pump for use on logging engines and a fire car I am starting to work on.  Based on the information from that thread and information gathered from others offline, I have been able to put together a 3D model that I think is a reasonable representation of the real thing.  I was also able to discern that these style pumps would indeed pull a vacuum so it needed no positive suction head, therefore it is capable of pulling w...

A good friend and fellow 7/8 scale fan has opened an Etsy shop were he markets 3D resin printed figures. They come unpainted. Here are five of them I recently painted for my RR.  

   So, here goes. I'm building a caboose and boxcar repair shop with some yard storage attached. I have two strategies this year: (1) I'll start from the center and finish each section of the building, work my out from there, and as far as I get, that's how far I get; and (2) I've never tried to cut tin, but I know for certain this is the year I finally make good on my annual New Year resolution to wear safety glasses when cutting.          I can't wait...

So my wife has wanted to display her Christmas village stuff in a neat little scene for many many years instead of just sticking them randomly on a shelf. I finally got on board and we made this display this year.     This gave birth to an entirely new theme for my On30 layout which I can say is just about to start breaking ground. I scrapped any idea of a realistic looking operations layout. I am going full on Christmas year round whimsical layout. First I have an endless supply ...

Small Engine shed and machine shop. My 7/8 Climax fits just perfectly.    

It's been a long while since I've serviced any locomotives of mine. Went to my lube and couldn't find it. And I can't remember what the heck I had. What do you all use for motor gear grease and journal oil?