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(Guest)   JCS Archive   jdcrawler   2-4-4 locomotive build
 
2-4-4 locomotive build
jdcrawler
Joined: Apr 4, 2011
Topics: 46 Replies: 65 Topics: 46
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posted Jan 6, 2018: 
While looking at photos of old steam locomotives on the internet, I came across this photo of a small engine with a 2-4-4 wheel arrangement and I decided build a 2-4-4 engine for my collection.
I searched for some time trying to find a photo of the engineers side but these two photos were all that I could find.










This is going to be a brass model so I scrounged thru my parts to see what I had to work with.
I found a working 0-4-0 chassis, two parts for a cab, a boiler and foot boards from a switch engine kit made by Thomas Industries, and a truck for the rear that looks similar to the photo.






This chassis is from a kit that was made back in the late 40's or early 50's and it used a large open frame electric motor that mounted on the angled plate on the rear.
I want to use a newer ' can motor ' so I removed the angled mounting plate and made up a square plate to mount the can motor with.






The new motor is mounted on the chassis and I'm test running it.






I found a piece of cast brass that will work well for extending the back of the chassis frame.
The two sides of this piece are different heights and they are tapered from one end to the other.
The piece is clamped in the vice and I'm milling the two sides so they will be even.






This frame piece is fastened onto the back of the chassis and it extends out beyond the drive wheels quite a ways.

Unlike real railroad track that has long sweeping radius curves, model railroad track has short radius curved track.
With the the four drive wheels sitting the track, the rear of this chassis is going to swing out past the track on these tight curves.
Obviously I can't put a coupler on the back of this engine because the frame swings out past the the track on the curves.








So I machined the flanges off the two rear drive wheels and mounted the rear truck in the center of the frame like it is designed to be mounted.
As you can see, all four drive wheels are still on the rails on the straight track.






As this goes around a tight curve, the chassis is supported by the front two drive wheels and the rear truck and you can see that the two rear drive wheels have slipped completely off the rails.






Viewed from above, you can see that the rear of the frame now stays in-between the rails so there shouldn't be any problem with pulling some railroad cars.
I'm going to put some lead in the boiler, right over the two front drive wheels to help with traction.
I'm also going to put electrical pickups on all four wheels on the rear truck.






Looking thru my parts, I see that I only have three front trucks that have only two wheels and they are all for larger locomotives than this so I'm going to have to build the two wheel front truck.

Starting with a piece of 3/8 hex shape brass, it is machined to the correct length on the lathe and then a hole is drilled thru it for the axle shaft.






Then a piece of ' T ' shape brass is soldered to the hex brass.






Here are the finished parts for the front truck.
The small round piece of brass next to the screw will thread onto the screw to form a shoulder bolt for mounting the truck on the chassis.
The small hole in the center of the hex brass piece is so I can oil the axle shaft after it is all put together.
I'm using the large piece of brass so it will have some weight to help the front truck track properly.






This is how the two wheel front truck looks all put together.






The original photos shows that this locomotive has a step pilot on both the front and the back and in my supply of pilots, I found two that match.

The one on the left is upside down so you can see the two ' bumps ' at the top on the back from where the brass was injected into the mold.
There are two couplers and two shoulder screws for mounting the couplers.






I clamped each pilot in the vice and milled off the two bumps on the back.






The mounting bracket if formed from a piece of sheet brass and soldered to the back of the pilot.
one of the shoulder bolts is solder in the coupler pocket so I can mount the coupler and put a washer and nut on it to hold the coupler in place.






he pilot is then fastened to the back of the frame with two flathead screws.
The sheet metal for the tender will fit down onto the top of the pilot and cover these screws.

When I first started building trains, I made up a block of wood that fits on the track and has a coupler mounted on it.
This is the gauge that I use to get all of the couplers at the same height.






The front pilot has a piece of sheet brass soldered to it also and it is then soldered onto the top of the two front frame rails.







If you look closely, you can see the short piece of brass that I hed to add the the front frame rails to extend them out to the back of the front pilot.






Here is the boiler and foot boards that I'm using from the Thomas locomotive kit.
The foot plate was fastened to the underside of the boiler with two screws and small square nuts that gripped the inside of the boiler.






The foot boards are fastened to the underside of the boiler with the two screws and special nuts and I also soldered the cross braces to the underside of the boiler.
Both parts were cleaned up before I did any soldering on them.






The stanchions for the handrail on the sides of the boiler are threaded and are fastened on with small nuts on the inside of the boiler so I put them on before I fastened the foot boards on.






A piece of brass is soldered into the bottom of the boiler and is drilled and tapped for the screw that holds the boiler onto the chassis.






The boiler is now fastened in place.






The Thomas locomotive kit uses two cast pot metal pieces for the front and rear of the boiler.
I'm using a brass smoke box front and it has four tabs on the back of it to center it in the front of the boiler.






However, this front is made for a cast boiler so the tabs are not out far enough to hold it in this thin sheet metal boiler.
I turned down a piece of scrap brass so it fits inside the boiler and than machined it so the boiler front piece fits into it.










The machined brass ring is soldered onto the back of the boiler front and it now fits snugly into the front of the boiler.






The smoke box front now fits snugly into the front of the boiler.






A piece of flat brass was machined to fit on the back of the boiler and soldered in place.






Then another piece of brass sheet was cut to size for the floor and this was soldered onto the back of the boiler and made so it is fastened to the back of the chassis with a screw.






The cab that I'm using has a nice window visor on the fireman's side that is a brass casting but it is missing this visor on the engineers side.










To make another visor, I start by putting ' rivets ' along the edge of a small strip of brass to match the rivets on the cast visor.






The strip is cut to size and a notch is cut on either side of these rivets.






he rivet area of the visor is bent up so the visor will angle out when it is fastened to the cab.






The two ends are bent down and trimmed off to form the completed visor.






This is then soldered to the side of the cab over the engineers window.
 
jdcrawler
Joined: Apr 4, 2011
Topics: 46 Replies: 65 Topics: 46
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posted Jan 6, 2018: 
The piece for the back of the cab is then soldered in place.






I don't have any pieces for the front of the cab that will fit this small boiler so I'm going to have to make one.
The shape of the cab is cut from a sheet of brass and I scribed lines for where the two windows should be and two holes are drilled into each window area.






The two windows are then milled out using a 3/32 diameter endmill and the center is cut out out to fit around the boiler.
I scribed lines in the front piece for where the door is in the front on each side of the cab.






This front piece is soldered onto the cab and the cab is then soldered onto the boiler and floor plate.










The rear panel for the cab is cut from a sheet of brass and I'm putting the rivets along the edge of one of the sides.
This will also be the front panel for the tender.






Cutting the windows out on the mill.






Then I bend up the two ends to form the sides of the panel.






The rear side of the cab roof is at an angle so I put it on the mill and cut this area out so the opening will be squared off at the top.






The rear panel is then soldered in place.






Next is to cut out a strip of brass to form the sides of the tender.
I also cut out a piece for the top of the tender.






After the rivets are all put in, the front ends that fit up against the back of the cab are bent up and then the two back corners are formed around a round piece of brass rod.






The tender is being soldered to the floor plate and also to the back of the cab.






The top of the tender is fit into place.






This locomotive is fired by oil instead of coal so I'm now machining a block of brass that will be the oil bunker that sits on top of the tender.



Once the block is all squared up, the edges are then rounded off with a radius cutter.






The finished block is fastened to the top panel of the tender with small machine screws.






I have a nice cast brass water access hatch for putting on top of the lower part of the tender but I don't have a oil fill hatch for the top of the oil bunker.
So I turned down a piece of brass rod and the two holes are drilled into the top of it for mounting the lift handle.






Here is the finished oil fill hatch with a hinge on one side and a latch on the other side under the lift handle.






The two hatches are mounted in place and the top of the panel is fastened down to the tender.











 
Balto&NY
Joined: Jul 30, 2011
Topics: 76 Replies: 131 Topics: 76
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posted Jan 6, 2018: 
Great work on an interesting project. The NYC suburban service loco is a late built Forney type, perhaps out-shopped in the early 1910's and perhaps modernized somewhat by the 1920's.

The engineer's side would also have air reservoir, perhaps a bit shorter than the one on the left, or fireman's side. There would be a reverser rod, leading from the cab to the valve gear from under the cab floor. Or, perhaps even a power reverse unit.

That type loco needs a rather large radius curve for good operation, because of the extended rear overhang, as you noted. While a small loco, it's wheelbase rivals that of a 4-8-4! Your ideaof removing the flanges of the rear drivers and making a kingpin pivot for the rear truck will enable a tighter curve to be run.

However, may I recommend it may be best to remove the rear driver's flanged tires and install new blank face tires that are a wide as possible to fit witout touching the frame. That would help the rear drivers stay on the railhead, and not slip off to the side on a curve.

If they do that, even with the rear truck supporting the loco, there could be a derailment if the rear driver tires cannot climb back onto the rail head.

I'm also working on a Foreny type loco, in my blog "Making this from That." My model is set to run on a 62" (5') minimum radius hauling as well as backing at least two 60' (15") passenger cars from the front as well as back end. The rear truck on originally slid back and forth sideways. That model was oriinally built by Gem of Japan in 1972.

I had problems in backing a train with that sliding rear truck, so I changed it mounting to a trailing, pivoted tongue, like the front pilot wheels have.

My model, which has taken a few months to work over, is almost ready for paint, striping and lettering, which will be done in the prototype's 1890's fashion.
Ed B

 
JuneH
Joined: Dec 29, 2017
Topics: 5 Replies: 30 Topics: 5
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posted Jan 6, 2018: 
You guys are so talented. Amazing!
 
jdcrawler
Joined: Apr 4, 2011
Topics: 46 Replies: 65 Topics: 46
My Archive Category |
posted Jan 7, 2018: 
Thank you for the comments guys.

To keep this from derailing when the rear drive wheels slip past the edge of the rail,I have it set up so the rear drivers don't actually touch the rail even when it is on the straight track.
There is about a 1/16 inch clearance between the drivers and the track.

You can't tell that the rear drive wheels are not touching the track unless you get right down at eye level with the track.
I realize that the rail height can very thru out a layout but the surface of the rail isn't likely to change at all within a span of four inches anywhere on the layout.
That is the distance between the front drive wheels and the front wheels on the rear truck.

 
jdcrawler
Joined: Apr 4, 2011
Topics: 46 Replies: 65 Topics: 46
My Archive Category |
posted Jan 8, 2018: 
Moving on to putting in the air system.
These are cast brass end caps for the two air tanks.






Trimming of the end of a piece of brass tube for the air tanks.






The end caps are then soldered onto the two pieces of brass tube to form the air tanks.






Both of the air tanks are mounted up under the foot boards.






The single pump air compressor is mounted on the side of the boiler.
The steam pressure line is run from the cab into the top of the pump and the steam exhaust line comes out the other side and goes down thru the foot board and exits into the bottom of the smoke box.






The air filter is mounted on the left side of the air compressor pump.
The air pressure line comes out the right side of the compressor and circles around behind it and goes into the cooler line on the fireman's side.
From there it then goes into the back end of the first air tank.






The air line comes out the front end of the air tank on the fireman's side and goes into the front end of the air tank on the engineer's side.
Then it comes out the back end of this tank and goes thru another cooler line before it goes into the cab.






Here's how it looks so far with the body setting back on the chassis.













 
jdcrawler
Joined: Apr 4, 2011
Topics: 46 Replies: 65 Topics: 46
My Archive Category |
posted Jan 13, 2018: 

The foot boards that extend out from the floor of the cab are mounted on each side of the boiler.
Then the power reverse unit is mounted on the engineer's side.






Another step needs to be added to the front of the foot boards on each side
I cut two pieces of brass angle that are the same height as the steps that are already formed into the front of each foot board.
Then I soldered another piece of smaller brass angle to the back of each piece to make these steps easier to fasten to the underside of the original steps.

This photo shows one step mounted to the underside of the step on the locomotive.
The other step is shown upside down so you can see the smaller piece of angle soldered to the larger piece of angle.






Here is how the new steps look with both of them mounted in place and the boiler sitting on the chassis.






The cast pot-metal parts for the Thompson locomotive kit were bolted onto the boiler so this boiler has a lot of holes in it and they all need something to cover them.
The sand dome and steam dome are used to cover two of the holes in the boiler.






I've added the pipe going over the top of the front part of the boiler, the bell and a generator to cover three more of the holes.
The piping is bent to shape and fastened in place on both sides and the rain gutters are soldered onto each side of the cab roof.








 
jdcrawler
Joined: Apr 4, 2011
Topics: 46 Replies: 65 Topics: 46
My Archive Category |
posted Jan 17, 2018: 

The locomotive is almost finished.
I have put electrical pickups on the rear truck.
The two wheels on the far side have the insulated electrical pickups ridding on the inside of both wheels and the other two wheels are grounded thru their axles by a strip of brass.






On the front two drive wheels, the wheel on the right has the ground strap riding on the face of the wheel and the other wheel has the insulated electrical pickup riding on the inside of the wheel.






Both of the wires from the insulated wheels are soldered to one of the terminals on the motor.
A wire is soldered to the other terminal on the motor and then run down and attached to the chassis for the ground.






The only thing left to do is to put the small finishing touches on it.
Here I'm gluing the jewels into the marker lights on the boiler front.






With everything put back together, I set it on the test track and it runs forward and backward smoothly.
Here is the finished locomotive.























 
Balto&NY
Joined: Jul 30, 2011
Topics: 76 Replies: 131 Topics: 76
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posted Jan 17, 2018: 
A very fine and well done model!

EdB
 
jdcrawler
Joined: Apr 4, 2011
Topics: 46 Replies: 65 Topics: 46
My Archive Category |
posted Jan 17, 2018: 
Thank you Ed
I really like winter .. it gives me an excuse to stay inside and play with the trains.
 

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