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Reply to "Continuing Saga …"

My grandkids are going to inherit one helluva shop if they want it.

Yesterday I got the engine house powered up with the new LED power supply spending a lot of time on my creeper under the platform and I feel it today. It's been 20 years since I actually started building this monster and things change physically over that length of time. I have a power strip (actually three of them) feeding all the various stuff the layout requires. I plugged the LED power into the one nearest that end of the layout and then stretched its power cord even further to reduce the amount of hookup wire I would need to reach my target. I use big brass ground bars that are normally used in electrical service cabinets to connect all the +s and -s up. The lighting was strong and looked good.

EH All LitEH Lights on Far awayEH Lights on

I then spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get the trains running into and out of the new facility. The tracks were really dirty and the engines were being very uncooperative. In fact, they were a complete pain in the butt. I'm still working on that problem. Even though my gigantic, out-of-scale, Ross track is more forgiving than say HO or N regarding track cleanliness, it does have its limits and I believe I passed them. I need to install something more substantial on the EH roof so I can lift it without damaging any of the appurtenances that reside on it. Right now I'm lifting it by the smoke jacks, but that's really risky.

Today, I'm getting the shop early and will make some significant headway on the gantry which I started on saturday when working downstairs with grandson.

I also, with the help of Jean Vincent, my Lyonaisse compatriot, finished (finally) drawing the two massive Roots blowers that grace the back end of the 567 prime mover. I will now add the flywheel and finish up the rest of the front end. Then it's onto designing the main generator and exciter and working out the print schedule.

567 Blower End

When finished, they were a bit too large so I scale them back to 90% overall and a bit more on length and now they're pretty close. I wish I had a scaled drawing of this engine. It would have made it much easier to draw. As it is, I've been guesstimating all of the dimensions. We finally worked out that crazy geometry of the plenums below the blowers. I still have the mufflers and exhaust piping, but I'm not anticipating any trouble with that. The blowers were the singularly most complex SketchUp drawing I've ever tackled. I have to decide how many separate pieces I want to grow. By separating into smaller sub-assemblies, I can perfect the printing scheme more closely. Won't take any more print time since they're all going to fit on the Machine at the same time (except for the block)

567 Status Shot Aug 20

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Images (5)
  • EH All Lit
  • EH Lights on Far away
  • EH Lights on
  • 567 Blower End
  • 567 Status Shot Aug 20

OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

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