Making and gathering the pieces

Building something like a geared logging locomotive is a whole lot of fun. I will design and fabricate most of the pieces for the train like the wheels, running gear components and a whole lot more. Today the wheel truck sides for the locomotive were machined from Precision Board high density urethane as were the wheels. Tomorrow I cut the rest of the components that will be attached to them to detail them out.

truck sides.png

I couldn't resist mocking up the first components to see how everything fit together.

truck mocked up.png
train mocked up.png

Today was also time to go shopping for the steel I'll need for the locomotive. Along with the steel tubing, sheet stock and angle iron I need some serious sized pipes for the boiler, steam domes and smokestack. I didn't want to buy new forty foot lengths so I visited some local steel fabricators to go through their scrap bins for the pipe. Luck was on my side and I found the short lengths of pipes I needed in short order.

boiler pipes.png

It won't be long until this thing looks a whole lot more like a train engine. This is way more fun than actually working! Stay tuned...

-grampa dan