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707 Posts
Hello everybody!
Well the pirates are getting restless! Now they have stolen, I mean acquired a 1912 C-cab Ford oil tanker. Who knows what they are thinking! They'll probably want to build a small fast hauler to get their "ill gotten booty" to the hideout in the mine.
I decided a while back that I really wanted to build a C-cab railtruck. Goes back to my hot-rod and drag racing roots. Anyway I started collecting parts for this at Diamondhead in January. The truck is a 1/24 scale die cast bank I found on E-Bay. I plan to use the cab and front fenders only. Here is the basic truck.
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And here are the parts I will use.
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The original idea was to use a Midwest Heritage boiler and engine that I picked up as a kit at the flea market at Diamondhead. I put the kit together and talked to several steamers about it. While it runs good and is kind of fun, it just does not have the power I am looking for. I got a lot of advice from Harry Wade about the boiler and decided to leave the kit intact as a stationary engine.
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So I built my first boiler, actually as I write this, I am building my first boiler. I am waiting for a few supplies to arrive before I finish the boiler. It is a vertical boiler about the same size as the one in the Midwest kit, but is much thicker materials. I used 2 inch type L tubing for the body. Using the post from Larry Herget on his coal-fired Ruby construction, (found in the "Informative Threads Index" here in My Large Scale under Live Steam) I formed the flanged ends from 1/16 thick copper sheet. I turned a hardwood former for this and used a c-clamp instead of doing it on my lathe. I decided to add "hedgehog spikes" to help the heating process. I did the boiler work late nights after working all day and did not take pictures while building it. It is all soldered with 70% silver solder. (1275 F melt) I will be building a gas burner for it and will try and take pictures as I go.
So now I was needing to decide on the power for the truck. I had these two 10mm Ruby cylinders left over from the Mason project. (I upgraded it to 1/2 inch cylinders) Problem was, I had no valves for them. I thought about building a valve for one of them and using a single cylinder for power. I looked hard at whether I could machine a piston valve accurately enough to work. On the advice of a friend I called and talked to Dave Hottmann about this. On Dave's advice I called Cliff at Accucraft and checked on getting a valve. I now have a complete valve assembly coming, both sides and the reverser valve. This of course started me thinking about using both cylinders and having a truck that could pull a car or two. Hmmmm. So this is where I am right now.
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What to do? As you might guess by now I am not planning this thing at all. I have no prototype, no pictures and no drawings. Seems to be more fun this way. Don't know yet what wheel arrangement or wheels or anything else yet. More to come !
redbeard AKA Larry Newman SA #1956
Well the pirates are getting restless! Now they have stolen, I mean acquired a 1912 C-cab Ford oil tanker. Who knows what they are thinking! They'll probably want to build a small fast hauler to get their "ill gotten booty" to the hideout in the mine.
I decided a while back that I really wanted to build a C-cab railtruck. Goes back to my hot-rod and drag racing roots. Anyway I started collecting parts for this at Diamondhead in January. The truck is a 1/24 scale die cast bank I found on E-Bay. I plan to use the cab and front fenders only. Here is the basic truck.
And here are the parts I will use.
The original idea was to use a Midwest Heritage boiler and engine that I picked up as a kit at the flea market at Diamondhead. I put the kit together and talked to several steamers about it. While it runs good and is kind of fun, it just does not have the power I am looking for. I got a lot of advice from Harry Wade about the boiler and decided to leave the kit intact as a stationary engine.
So I built my first boiler, actually as I write this, I am building my first boiler. I am waiting for a few supplies to arrive before I finish the boiler. It is a vertical boiler about the same size as the one in the Midwest kit, but is much thicker materials. I used 2 inch type L tubing for the body. Using the post from Larry Herget on his coal-fired Ruby construction, (found in the "Informative Threads Index" here in My Large Scale under Live Steam) I formed the flanged ends from 1/16 thick copper sheet. I turned a hardwood former for this and used a c-clamp instead of doing it on my lathe. I decided to add "hedgehog spikes" to help the heating process. I did the boiler work late nights after working all day and did not take pictures while building it. It is all soldered with 70% silver solder. (1275 F melt) I will be building a gas burner for it and will try and take pictures as I go.
So now I was needing to decide on the power for the truck. I had these two 10mm Ruby cylinders left over from the Mason project. (I upgraded it to 1/2 inch cylinders) Problem was, I had no valves for them. I thought about building a valve for one of them and using a single cylinder for power. I looked hard at whether I could machine a piston valve accurately enough to work. On the advice of a friend I called and talked to Dave Hottmann about this. On Dave's advice I called Cliff at Accucraft and checked on getting a valve. I now have a complete valve assembly coming, both sides and the reverser valve. This of course started me thinking about using both cylinders and having a truck that could pull a car or two. Hmmmm. So this is where I am right now.
What to do? As you might guess by now I am not planning this thing at all. I have no prototype, no pictures and no drawings. Seems to be more fun this way. Don't know yet what wheel arrangement or wheels or anything else yet. More to come !
redbeard AKA Larry Newman SA #1956
