J&C Studios O Gauge Archive

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What is the J&C Studios O Gauge Archive?

J&C Studios O Gauge Archive

O Gauge / O Scale Forums and Individual Blogs for Model Railroading

What is the J&C Studios O Gauge Archive?

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jdcrawler

O-scale 0-4-0 switcher

O-scale 0-4-0 switcher

jdcrawler
Joined: Apr 4, 2011
Topics: 46 Replies: 65 Topics: 46

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posted Nov 27, 2015:

Okay .... we have moved to southern Indiana and are currently renting a house while we are building our new house.

So I still have days when it's raining or it's just too cold out to work on the property and I never have been one to sit and watch TV much.

The rental house has two bedrooms and we have set the computers up against one wall. Against the opposite wall, I set up a folding table and made a couple of storage shelves out of some old closet doors so I can still play with my trains.

I actually started this little project about two months ago and hadn't taken any photos back then. Now that the weather is turning colder, I'm spending a little more time on it. This is another different type of engine made from cutting the parts from the plastic AHM 0-8-0 locomotive kit that was available back in the 70's.

I like locomotives at the opposite ends of the size range. The big long articulated steam locomotives appeal to me and the little 0-4-0 switch engines appeal to me. I'm not so much interested in the locomotives that are in-between those two sizes.

For this one, I took the AHM 0-8-0 chassis ( on the left ) and cut it down to a 0-4-0 chassis.

Now the boiler from the 0-8-0 locomotive (on the left) is too large for the switch engine so I only used the cab and part of the fire box under the cab. The floor of the cab is made out of diamond plate patterned styrene sheet and front of the cab is made out of smooth styrene sheet.

The boiler is a section of 1-1/2" diameter PVC sink drain pipe and the larger diameter in front of the cab is PVC pipe coupler.

These two pieces were glued together and the taper into the larger diameter was turned on the lathe.
The banding straps are .100 wide styrene strips wrapped around the boiler.

The front section of running boards were cut off the AHM kit (on the left) and glued to the boiler on the switch engine.

The steam cylinders on the 0-8-0 locomotive have three cylinders ( on the left ). The switch engine uses only two steam cylinder so I trimmed the center cylinder off and smoothed the steam cylinders down.

Put these parts together and it looks like this so far.

JohnBoy
Joined: May 14, 2008
Topics: 110 Replies: 517 Topics: 110

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posted Nov 28, 2015:

Beautiful work. Will you be able to squeeze in a motor in there?

Thanks for sharing, always admire your amazing skills!

John

jdcrawler
Joined: Apr 4, 2011
Topics: 46 Replies: 65 Topics: 46

My Archive Category |

posted Nov 28, 2015:

Thanks John

The small motor that was made for the AHM 0-8-0 kits will fit right in.

jdcrawler
Joined: Apr 4, 2011
Topics: 46 Replies: 65 Topics: 46

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posted Nov 29, 2015:

The steam dome, sand dome and smoke stack are mounted on the boiler.

The smoke box front is also in place.
This smoke box front is what got me to build this engine.

I had bought some brass parts off ebay and this smoke box front was in that batch of parts.
Looking at the photos of the parts on ebay, I thought this was a brass smoke box front that had been painted.
When I got the parts I realized this front piece is plastic.
It is the same diameter as 1-1/2" PVC pipe so I decided to build this little locomotive with it.

JohnBoy
Joined: May 14, 2008
Topics: 110 Replies: 517 Topics: 110

My Archive Category | My Website

posted Nov 30, 2015:

It's amazing the little things that inspire us to embark on a project.

When I saw these wedding cake columns at Michael's, I knew right away I was going to use them for my eventual Washington Union Station model.

jdcrawler
Joined: Apr 4, 2011
Topics: 46 Replies: 65 Topics: 46

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posted Dec 28, 2015:

We have had some cold and rainy days lately when they haven't been working on the new house so I have gotten some time on the engine.

Finished assembling the drive linkage on the chassis.

The plastic air pump that is in the AHM 0-8-0 kit is a two cylinder pump and this little engine uses a single cylinder pump.
I'm using a brass air pump from my parts box and I bent a piece of flat brass to fit the curve of the boiler and soldered it to the back of the pump for a mounting plate.

The air pump is fastened to the side of the boiler with two screws on the bottom of the mounting plate.
I shot some paint on the boiler so it would be painted behind the pump.

I'm using the plastic running boards that were on the 0-8-0 locomotive.
A piece of wood is mounted in the small vice and the running board is clamped onto the wood.
This holds the running board in position for gluing it to the side of the boiler.

A piece of flat styrene is glued in place to fill the space between the running board and side of the boiler.
I found out the styrene glue won't work on the painted area so I had to scrape the paint off the boiler behind the running board.

The air line from the pump to the air tank is formed out of a piece of brass rod.

Two thin strips of brass are soldered to it to form the mounting brackets.

The air tank is mounted under the running board and the brass air line is fit between it and the air pump.
The rest of the lines for the air system are formed out of round styrene and glued in place.

jdcrawler
Joined: Apr 4, 2011
Topics: 46 Replies: 65 Topics: 46

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posted Jan 11, 2016:

Winter has come to southern Indiana with snow for a couple of days so this gives me a break from working on the house.
Today I spent working on the model locomotive.

On the left side, I added the piping under the cab and drilled the holes along the side of the boiler for the hand rail stanchions.

The headlight is mounted in front of the smoke stack and the lift bar linkage for the coupler is mounted down on the frame.
I also added another pair of steps under the front of the running boards.

The piping is put in place on the lower right side and the steam generator is mounted up on the side of the boiler in front of the cab.
The holes for the hand rail are drilled in side of the boiler on this side also.

The draw-bar for the tender is mounted under the back of the cab.

The bell is mounted on top of the boiler behind the smoke stack.
This finishes up the engine and it is ready for painting.

Next to work on is the tender.
I'm going to use the slope-back tender from a 3-rail Lionel train set and convert it to a 2-rail tender.
I'm also going to make some modifications so it will have a little more detail.

jdcrawler
Joined: Apr 4, 2011
Topics: 46 Replies: 65 Topics: 46

My Archive Category |

posted Jan 13, 2016:

I have made modifications to the tender in the AHM Rivarossi 0-8-0 locomotive kit for other engines that I've built.
Those tender modifications have been simple things like making the coal bunker larger or just using the front or back half of the tender.
The modifications I'm making on this Lionel slope back tender are going to be a little more complicated.

I removed the bottom of the Lionel tender with the trucks that have the large wheel flanges for 3-rail track ( far left ).
Then I took one of the AHM tender bottom sections ( left center ) and shortened it up to fit the Lionel tender ( right center ).
This will use the AHM tender trucks with the smaller wheel flanges for 2-rail track ( far right ).

The AHM tender has the outside frame rails and steps molded into the side panels of the tender ( top left ).
I cut this frame rail section off the sides of the tender ( bottom left ).
The frame rails were then shortened and glued to the sides of the bottom section.

Cutting the frame rails off the AHM tender sides left a rough edge on the outside.
This rough edge was filed down as smooth as I could get it and then I glued a thin strip of white styrene on the edge to give a nice smooth finish to the frame rail ( right )

The area of the coal bunker is cut out of the Lionel tender.

The top sides of the coal bunker for the AHM tender are shortened and glued onto the top of the Lionel tender.

I took a front section for the AHM tender ( left ) and trimmed the side panels on it ( right ).

This was then glued to the front of the Lionel tender.

The coal for the AHM tender ( left ) is cut into two pieces ( right ).

The two pieces of coal are glued together and fit into the coal bunker.
I used the point of an Exacto knife and carved little chips out along the seam where the two pieces are glued together.
Then I brushed the "coal" with a small brass wire brush to blend it so the seam doesn't show.

Fitting the AHM tender parts onto the Lionel tender left some gaps that I filled with pieces of white styrene.

jdcrawler
Joined: Apr 4, 2011
Topics: 46 Replies: 65 Topics: 46

My Archive Category |

posted Jan 16, 2016:

The trucks ,coupler and rear foot boards are added to the bottom frame for the tender.

Making up the hand rail for the back of the tender out of brass rod.
I bent a piece to form the overall shape of the railing.
Then I clamped this in-between two pieces of wood and added two brass rods for the center supports.
This holds all the rods together and makes it easier to solder the center supports in place.

Here is the finished hand rail.

Finished mounting the hand rail and I think the tender is ready for painting.
The temp here is in the low 30's and I have to paint this outside so I'm waiting for weather to warm up a little.