[Guest]

Its been awhile since I posted here. Thought I'd give an update about my first live steamer that I am building from scratch. I started it about a year ago, and its been an interesting journey so far. I've made it fairly far in the last year, but I dont always have time to work on it because of other things. Here are a few shots of what I have. The first photo is of the upper and lower boiler end plates. the lower is on the left, the upper on the right. The upper plate is not drilled yet for the boiler fittings. The lower plate is all drilled and ready to have the hedge hog spikes and flue soldered in. The second picture is of one of the cylinders not assembled yet. Since this picture was taken, I have drilled and tapped holes for the 3mm bolts that hold the cover on the stuffing box. The third shot is self explanitory, they are wheels turned from aluminum round stock. The last picture is of the crank discs and spacer. They were turned from the same aluminum stock as the wheels. I still have a ways to go with this project, but hopefully soon I will have a live steamer chuffing around my backyard. Happy training everyone.

 

[Guest]

Sorry about if the pictures are goofy, I'm not too good with computers!

 

[hcampbell]

Interesting, could you give a us few details about the locomotive. Scale, wheel arrangement, prototype, whose plans etc.?

Harvey C.
SA1838

 

[Charles]

Alex
Now that you have our interest, don't keep us in the dark- what locomotive are you making?

 

[Guest]

Its going to be a DeWinton Idris. Much information is available on it if you Google it. 4 wheels, a very simple little engine. A guy named Dave Watkins designed it back in the late 90's. Plans are free on the internet. Its a small vertical boiler engine, 2 cylinder double acting, forward and reverse. Mine will run on alchohol, but you can run it on butane if you want. There are also a couple of clips of it on you tube. I felt it to be a nice starter engine for someone who wants to get a little more involved in the hobby. As far as I know if you want one you have to make it yourself. Pistons are 10mm. I had to stretch the frame on mine a little, its about 130mm long. The print for it is in metric.

 

[Mark Scrivener]

Alex,

The DeWinton is a great first scratch build. I've studied the plans and considered building one myself. Please keep the photos coming.

BTW - I should point out that the vast majority on this board started into live steam with a simple commercially purchased engine (like the Ruby), and from there went into more complex commercial engines, modifying engines, kit bashing, and ultimately scratch building. Except that many of us (myself included) are still hovering around the modify/kit bash area and have yet to jump into the scratch building arena. My hat is off to you for jumping in with gusto!

 

[Guest]

Thanks, I appreciate the compliment. There are a large number of reasons I went this way which I wont explain unless you all want to read a boring novel. The long and the short of it is, 2 people I know convinced me I should try to make one instead of buying one. I also wanted a real good understanding of HOW and WHY steam engines work. I figured the best way to get a very good basic understanding of steam engines is to build one. So instead of buying a pre made one, I bought a Smithy 3 in 1 mill/drill/lathe. And alot of books on steam engine design and machining. I did start a DeWinton users group on Yahoo, as well as I belong to another users groups where everything is scratch built live steam. Livesteam1-29 is great for the Mikado. There is a good group of guys there that are very helpful. So I am getting alot of help here and there from people who are more experienced than me. I highly encourage anyone who wants one to try to build one! Here is a picture of the side frames I made. They are aluminum with brass bearings, I did not like my original frame. So I decided to re make it. The parts in the photo represent about 3 hours of work.

 

[John R]

Byn, I will not interupt your Thread by uploading mine which I just completed,

other then giving you my Homepage Address for you to view it at your liesure.

http://wagr.railfan.net/index.html


Any questions, just ask!.

"[email protected]"


All the best in your Project,





John Richards.

 

[Jack - Freshwater Models]

I couldn't get John Richards web site link to work. You might want to join the Yahoo Idris Group.
Jack