Pennsylvania 4-6-2 Steam Locomotive.

[alanr]

[quote="JoeMalinchak"] TGauge.com axles, but the steam wheels do not fit into the holes. [quote]

Fantastic pioneering work Joe. Have to say though, there's nothing like reading the above to make us stop in our tracks and double check parts (thanks for this ) . The wheels are designed to be a press-fit into the axles and as long as they are held squarely to the axis of the axle should come together without any need to drill. I'll send some more axles out to you with hopefully some 0.2mm dia washers - Keep up the great work!!!

WP_20170217_12_45_16_Pro.jpg (192.45 KiB) Viewed 11053 times

[Ozrail]

I am so sad and envious of your achievements.
Well done to you.

[JoeMalinchak]

Hi Alan,

I was trying to push the axles in by holding them in my hand without success. I installed the axle in one of my frames to hold in place, and I was able to push the axle in without drilling!

These are some photos of the tender and locomotive body!

Joe.

[dkightley]

Absolutely amazing Joe.

I was talking to Alan (TGauge.com) earlier today and your work came up in our discussions. This has got to be one of the defining moments in the history of T gauge.....the first steam loco with connecting rods!!

You never know! The distant dream of an A4 hauling a rake of mark 1s over the Forth Bridge....all in T...is getting very slightly nearer actually coming true!! The next step is a micro smoke generator!

[rail450]

Hi,
there is a real chance to add a smoke generator

Smoke.jpg (2.95 KiB) Viewed 10943 times

like this from www.http://seuthe-dampf.de/spur-n/

BR,

Siegfried

[JoeMalinchak]

Hi Doug,

I really appreciate the support from everyone on my steam locomotive project.

I am hoping we will see many more steam locomotive projects from people in the near future, and some commercially available locomotives soon. I know that Siegfried's steam locomotive will be a beautiful model when complete.

Siegfried,

A smoke generator would really be great if it can be made to fit in a TGauge body!

[JoeMalinchak]

After many hours of hard work I completed my Pennsylvania 4-6-2 Pacific locomotive! I just have a few minor details that I want to add like some coal in the tender, and a ladder from the TGauge.com valve gear sheet.

[rail450]

Hi Joe,
you are doing a very very great job -fine and fantastic loco.

My work is not so fast, because I´m doing the construction with Inventor and printing the loco body at Shapeways.

Therefore each development loop takes at least 2 weeks.

My target is to be able to reproduce the BR01and I´m buliding up five BR01 locos

The new body release has been shipped by Shapeways Yesterday - I´ll be back soon....



Siegfried

[ivanf]

Hi Joe,

thanks again for posting what you're doing.

I've started attempting to follow along, so far it amounts to some shopping... and quite a lot of "this is tiny"...

I've got the etched fret of connecting bits and have a rough idea of what goes where but the finer details escape me.

Any chance you could elaborate a bit on how you assembled it? With particularly reference to not glueing everything together. I've watched your video a few times and still can't quite believe what you've managed to do.

Ivan

[JoeMalinchak]

Hi Ivan,

First I would like to say that I did all of my design work on the model in Adobe illustrator. I scanned in photos of my ZScale 4-6-2 and reduced them down to 1:450 scale. I drew the chassis so it would fit into the body. I spaced the 17 teeth 2.85mm gears at 5.25mm spacing, so the connecting rods would fit. I also had to draw up the front and rear bogies, and make them fit at the proper height and spacing.

The heart and soul of the project is the design of the body. I used the same technique that I use to design my model airplanes. I was not sure how it would work on a TGauge locomotive, but it worked well. This brings up the question to everyone, what do you think it is made of?

The basic assembly starts with the chassis frame that I laser cut out of Garolite. The frame is glued together at the rear with CA. Then I slipped the gears into place, and glued the rest of the frame together. I want to mention that I had to ream the gears out that I purchased to fit onto my axles. I ordered them with a 1mm hole. I will try them with a 1.5mm hole on my next build to see how they fit on the plain axles. I then installed the motor, and ran it to make sure that the gears were spinning freely! The wheels were then glued into the axles with a small amount of gorilla glue. Then I installed the connecting rods. I had to ream out the connecting rods as you want them to have a little space and move freely on the rivets. I installed the caps on the rivets and cut them close to the cap. I also added some CA to the cap to help secure it.

The tender was built out of Garolite like the chassis frame, and uses springs attached to the bogies to pick up power.

Hope this helps!

Joe.

[NeilM]

This brings up the question to everyone, what do you think it is made of?

Joe,

I was wondering on this myself. The only coloured prints I have has done at Shapeways are in Full Colour Sandstone. This material has quite a large minimum wall thickness and detail size, but more significantly the colour resolution always seemed right on the edge for T - I ended up with some cars where the windows just failed to colour as they were to small.

Have you used a different material? Or are you just better at getting fine detail into the colour information on your models?

[ivanf]

Hope this helps!

Certainly does, Thanks Joe.

I'm still waiting for parts to arrive, then I'll be able to start measuring and send a print of a chassis off to shapeways... then get back to the waiting...

Then I'll be back with more questions... or probably bleating about glueing it all into a solid lump... I've done a fair amount with tiny etched pieces but never on a model where bits needed to move...

When you say "what's it made of" are you talking about the loco body? It sort of looks printed to me? erm... Is it a paper model?

Ivan

[mattinair]

In the AMA magazine articles I've read Joe uses special types of foam(or plastic?) sheets to make the micro planes he's famous for .....That's my guess...Oh and by the way..Wow oh Wow oh Wow(!!!)...

[JoeMalinchak]

Ivan, and mattinair are correct in the fact that the body is printed. I spent many hours working on the graphics, and the design of the body. However, it is not paper as many of you know that paper is hard to work with, and looks a little like paper. Mattinair is correct the body is made out of very thin foam! I used the techniques that I have developed over the years for my model airplane designs. I was not sure if it would work on a TGauge locomotive, but I think it worked well.

The .5mm foam is coated with many coats of a product called inkAid. InkAid is a product that allows any material that is coated with it to be printed on using a standard inkjet printer. I thin the inkAid 70% inkAid to 30% water and airbrush each coat onto the foam. Since this is not an airplane project weight was not a factor, and I gave the foam around 10 coats of inkAid. The more coats the better the print.

The thin foam is flexible and can be rolled into shape. I use UHU Por foam glue on the model as it works great on foam.

[JoeMalinchak]

These are some photos of my planes that are made out of the same material. My corsair has a 6.8 inch wingspan, and my triplane has a 1.5 and wingspan. They both are R/C and fly!

My locomotive looks really small in comparison.

[ivanf]

Hi Joe,

Oh, I see... I like 3d printed stuff as it misses out the assembly stages and the chances to put things together wrong but then painting is the next problem. Might have to have a rethink...

So what's next?

Ivan

[JoeMalinchak]

Ivan,

I think that the model would also look great if was 3D printed. I just like drawing the graphics with all the detail I can achieve with it.

Next, I am going to build another 4-6-2 with a different motor I want to try, and a road name with some vibrant graphics. I am thinking of making one in the Crescent Southern scheme.

Then I would like to experiment with a larger locomotive. Maybe a Daylight, but a would really love to do a Big Boy! sjrashid was working on a body for a 4-8-8-4 Big Boy. I hope he can complete it as I think that a 3D printed version would be much easier than drawing the graphics for a foam version. If someone can design a nicely detailed 3D body, I would design a working chassis for it.

[ivanf]

Hi Joe,

I'm sure there are several people on the forum who would like to design steam train bodies to fit your chassis. I kmow I would. I've done a few in Z scale that I can probably scale down farily quickly.

I'd like to pursue a chassis design of my own but given I know nothing about designing chassis I might be better following someone who clearly does.

So, would you be willing to sell me a set of parts for your chassis? ( Just the bits you cut, rather than a build your own steam train kit. )

The only bit I'm missing now is the gear on the motor shaft? I've found these... http://kkpmo.istore.pl/en_US/c/Micro-Worm-Gear/2242028

But they're all 3mm and yours looks smaller. Where did you get yours from?

Thanks,

Ivan.

[PetrOs]

Hi,

Slightly smaller worm gears available here http://shop.kkpmo.com/index.php?cat=c63 ... ecken.html


Best
Petr

[JoeMalinchak]

Hi Ivan,

I purchased my gears from the site that Siegfried posted. http://shop.kkpmo.com/index.php?cat=c28 ... 4188041672 I used the M0.15 gears. They have a worm gear to match. Wormgear M0.15 1.6mm diameter. Your link looks like the same site, but I cannot find the M0.15 gears!

My current chassis design has 1mm holes for the gears. As I mentioned I used the TGauge.com geared axles, cut off the gears, and slipped the 2.85mm M0.15 gears onto the axle. This was a real pain! I am ordering some new gears with a 1.5mm hole. Hopefully, they will slip over the TGauge.com plain axles. Actually, I am hoping that TGauge.com releases the gears that they will be using to make things easier for a steam chassis design.

I am going to make a few small changes to my design, and resize it for the 1.5mm holes. I may not get to it this month as I make my living as an airline pilot, and I have my recurrent check ride in a few weeks. I normally spend some time preparing as you have to pass or loss your job! This means that I will not be doing much modeling for a few weeks.

Did you purchase your 2.85mm gears with a 1mm hole or a 1.5mm hole?

Send me an e-mail about sending you a set of my chassis parts. I will sell you a copy of my chassis parts, but I will not send out any printed foam parts. I may sell some of my locomotive designs at some point like I do with my planes. I currently, sell some of my model airplanes as RTF's, but I am so busy with work that I am not taking any orders at this time. joemal@echoes.net

Joe.