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Blue Comet Build

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bille1906

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
This time, I will be building two engines. I started with just one but was talked into doing another at the NSS.

The Blue Comet was run by the Central New Jersey Railroad (CNJ) for high speed passenger service.
It was a G3 Pacific painted blue with matching blue and cream Heavy Weight cars

There are no color photos, just black & white and a color painting to go by.

Several models were made of the engine but none have every component corrrect (like the spoke pilot wheels, valve gear, etc.)

Aristocraft made a 1/29 scale engine and cars. Although the engine was just a generic Pacific painted blue, the cars are for the most part correct, even the interiors.

So, I will be making my models in 1/29 to pull the Aristo cars.

Here is the painting
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And a photo
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And the drawings

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ONE THING I AM NOT SURE ABOUT IS ABOVE THE FRONT DRIVER IS SOMETHING THAT LOOKS LIKE A WORTHINGTON FEED WATER HEATER BUT IT HAS AN ELESCO WATER HEATER IN FRONT OF THE SMOKE BOX. COULD THAT BE THE PUMP PART OF THE FEED WATER SYSTEM ?

I ordered the wheels a couple of weeks ago and they came in Monday
They are castings from Walsall

The castings come with a step where the flange would be so I mount the wheel in the lathe with the outside jaws on the tread surface and trim off the back till I get to the spokes. I also drill the axle hole at this time.

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I then mount it on my home made arbor and face the front of the rim to .233".

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Then with a different tool, I rough out the tread which will be finished at Dennis' house with a plunge cut tool.

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Finally on the outside jaws again, the hub is trimmed to .250"
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#2 ·
Bill,


Will look forward to the progress on this one. As a native of NJ, it is always exciting to see "The Seashore's Finest Train" getting some recognition.

Incidentally colours are generally reported as; Packard Blue (body), Ultramarine Blue (roof) and Cream (coaches only). This was to represent the sea, sky and sand so reminiscent of the Jersey Shore.


The pump you are questioning above the front driver is indeed the feedwater pump for the Elesco feedwater heater.
 
Discussion starter · #3 ·
Great
Thanks
So the Ultramarine blue was on the roof of the engine?
Somewhere I read that the wheels were a darker blue but it was only in passing. Is Ultramarine darker than Packard?
Do you know anything about that?
 
Discussion starter · #4 ·
The cylinders scale out to 1-1/8" outside. I don't have access to 1-1/8" stock so I take 1-1/4 and trim it to shape on the table saw using the metal cutting blade and the rip fence

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Then I round off one corner on the router table
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I cut the cylinders slightly over length on the table saw
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And trim them to final length on the four jaw chuck. I then bore them out to .750"

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On the mill using the circle drilling function of the DRO, I drill the head bolt holes.
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The underside of the cross port plate is milled out with 1/16" by .080 deep ports ans a 3/32" port for the exhaust
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Then the top side is done with a 1/16" end mill
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The valve body is milled out with a 1/8" two flute end mill taking .050 cuts at a time
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And here are the cylinder parts for the two engines
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#7 ·
#9 ·
Bill, I have that book already on order from last week and will be delivered by this weekend I think. You will need a higher res copy of that drawing posted. It wont scale to what you need to make.
 

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Discussion starter · #10 ·
The cylinders have side covers and head covers.
The head covers are cut from a 1-1/4" aluminum bar and parted off at 1/8" thick (rt side of the photo)
Then a pot chuck (I think that is what it is called) is made by boring out a piece of 1-1/2" stock to fit the cover and then cutting a slot in it.
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Then I mount it in the lathe and cut out the relief for the head bolts.
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Piston valve detail is turned out on the lathe.
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a pattern is made for the side cover out of card stock. a brass sheet is painted with layout fluid and the shape if cut out with the 1/8" band saw blade and finished with the 1" belt sander. Rivets are embossed per the prototype.

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The cover is then fitted to the cylinder using various size round bars mounted in a vise to get the desired bend.
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The engine has a rather unusual frame in that the extension is angled up at a 1:16 ratio. The bolt holes in the main frame are drilled at that angle and the rear of the extension needs to be cut at that angle so the buffer is perpendicular. I measure it out and slide a spacer in till I get the correct angle and then cut the extensions all the same.
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And here is the frame with the extension bolted and soldered on.
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The wheels are painted blue with gold striping on the spokes and then clear coated in gloss
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#11 · (Edited)
Bill what a great build again! There is just a small info I can give you when I was a student at NYU back around 1974 My friend Peter Mc Gilligan who was a CNJ fan (at the time I was a B&M fan) and I drove out to Easton, PA (I think that was it, but I am not sure) real early to catch the 7 AM suburban train into Newark on the old CNJ mainline from the Lehigh Valley erea. Lo and behold when the train pulled in, the lead car behind (I think it was a U boat...) was the old Blue Comet observation still in its original livery. inside it had no seats if I remember we had the car to ourselves right behind the road engine. from which we enjoyed the beautiful west Jersey countryside with huge fills upon which the railroad was built. What I can assure you of is that the floor was diagonal black and white checkerboard tiles. As the car was empty of seats this looked quite impressive as we zipped through the countryside. The open platform was toward the rear of the loco, in position for the outward trip in the evening. Peter's wife Maureen drove the VW bus back to Newark and we met her there. Its a great souvenir for me living so far away from Appalachia. Unfortunatly Peter passed away a few years ago.
 
Discussion starter · #12 ·
This week I finished the engine covers on one chassis and made the crossheads and guides for both engines.
I got a good chance to see the blue on a solid piece and am happy with the color I selected which is just a little darker than the Aristocraft Blue Comet.

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Discussion starter · #13 ·
We will be using Aristocraft cars with body mounted 1/32 KD couplers and working diaphragms
We will also have lighted cars
We ordered some step-up voltage regulators from eBay and got them yesterday
They will step the voltage from 9v to 22v which I understand is the best voltage for lighting and long bulb life for these cars.
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The pickup wires are desoldered from the trucks and soldered to the regulator which is mounted with Velcro. the wires are glued to the undercarriage with Quick Hold.
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I was going to Velcro the battery in but that would require changing the Velcro to any replacement batteries so I made a Velcro strap to hold it in place.

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The car already has a switch which makes things easy.
Here is the diner with the lights on. People to follow.
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#14 ·
Bill
This building gives one flashbacks to childhood and wishing for a Blue Comet set. I appreciate the your efforts even more given the history and location of the icon locomotive and train near our location.
Of course the most current recall is the days of having an Aristocraft Blue Comet set.
Another iconic train goes into the files on Bill Allen legacy trains!
 
#15 ·
One thing that always suprised me about those Aristo heavyweights was the truss rods under the body. That's a throw back to cars built with wooden construction, steel cars didn't have that normally unless they were wooden cars sheathed over in steel. Which was quite rare. As I am no CNJ expert I wonder if these Blue Comet cars had them? But I think that they are quite accurate for that train. That observation seemd shorter than 80' cars, as much as I remember.
 
Discussion starter · #16 ·
I am waiting on the wheels for the second engine before i go ant further on the chassis.
I started on the boilers. 2-1/2" copper pipe is cut to length and then is split on the table saw to the length of the fire box. then again on the table saw cuts up the sides are made.
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The sides are then annealed and straightened out. A form I made in the past for 2-1/2" boilers is used to get the proper shape of the firebox. It is on the left. On the right I hold a cut piece of pipe on the top of the firebox to make sure the contour is correct.

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Bronze bushings are used for the boiler fittings. I first mark the position out with a pencil measuring off my drawing and getting a line as close to the center of the barrel as I can. I then center pop them and then start a hole with a centering bit.
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I then drill the holes out with a step drill. I like to use the step drill as it cuts well and the hole is about .020" smaller than the stated size. This about perfect if you are going to finish by reaming but in this case, I leave the holes undersized so I can have a step on standard size rod.
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Here I am turning out a bushing from 3/8" stock. You can see the threaded hole and the step which will keep the bushing in place while it is silver soldered.
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Here are the fittings for both engines. I hadn't blown the chips off when I took the photo.
At the top are the well nuts (called that because like a well the hole has a bottom) These are to mount the smoke box and the throttle.
Then comes a larger well nut used for the front boiler mount. Then the 6mm banjo fitting bushings and then the 5mm ones for the safeties. and then the large 3/8-24 ones for the steam dome and the filler plug.
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Here the tubes are laid out each boiler has 5 - 1/2" and one 5/8" tube
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Here are most of the parts ready to go in
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Here is my setup for the 6 mm sight glass. I am using 5/32" tubing which is 1/8" inside so all of the drilled holes are 1/8" or larger. the banjo fitting which I used to use 5mm bolts are now increased so I can get the 1/8" flow through throughout. The dogleg passages are 5/32"
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I repainted the wheels as I wasn't happy with the pin striping. They now have a finer width. I think they look a little bit better.
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#17 ·
Simon

A little background on the Blue Comet cars.

First off, none of the cars that when into Blue Comet service were new. They were pulled from the CRR of NJ roster and converted to Blue Comet service. All the cars were “70 ft” steel heavyweights except the diner. The 2 observation cars were converted coaches. Only the diner had truss rods.

The dining car, Giacobini, was the oldest car on the CRR of NJ roster when the Blue Comet was created. It was a wooden car with arched windows and truss rods. For Blue Comet service it was sheet metaled over to give the appearance of a more modern car. The window arch was not removed but was visible within the car after the upgrade and had been frosted and etched with comet designs and back-lit.

The clerestory windows on all the cars, except the diner, were covered with sheet metal.

One of the things that was most impressive with the Blue Comet was the level of detail added to the interior of the cars. Special carpets, lots of nickel plating, custom seating etc.

Alan - THE GAL LINE.
 
Discussion starter · #19 ·
The boiler shell and crown sheet are measured out for the 3/16" stays. They are center poped, center drilled and finally drilled out
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The front tube sheet is in place and three copper pegs are insertrd to keep it in place during the solder process
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The stays are flattened out on the ends to keep them from slipping through and snippets of solder are set in place before the soldering job.
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And the finished boilers
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The safety bushings have a chamfer to hold the o-ring
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The larger banjo bushings remain flat for a different setup.
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The axle blocks and pump eccentrics receive ball bearings
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The pony truck frame has ribbing along the top and surronding some holes. The top ribbing is 1/16" square bar annealed and bent to shape and the rings around the holes are turned from 1/4" bar stock. They are soldered on with Staybrite.
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And the chassis to date
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#20 · (Edited)
Wow Bill: Your tutorial on boiler making makes it look like a cinch! Which I am sure it isn't, but at least it gives us the desire to try our hand at it, one of these days.
I really apreciated your info about the Blue Commet rake (not being a knowlegeable CNJ fan, myself, just enthusiastic); And I was glad that I could understand what the reason for those truss rods were, and that they were real at least on the diner.
When I studied at NYU in the seventies I used to model the old B&M which I had known living in Lincoln Massachusset for six years. They had some old wooden cars sheathed over too, I think there was one even at Edaville (or was it Maine Central?). This was done here too, as a mater of fact most wooden cars on the continent were sheathed over, probably due to the oceanic climate, to protect the wood.

I am finnishing my three steel fourgons for the NORD railway of France, one for my friend Chris Ludlow one for my friend John Butler and one for me. After which I plan to concentrate on my NORD mikado tank and its cosmetic Cossart gear, and finnishing work on the chassis. Your posts are a constant encouragement.
In order not to polute this thread I posted photos in the model making part of this forum where they belong.
Best to all.
 
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bille1906
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