A Little Present for the Train Guys

[Ace-Garageguy]

I know some of you are into model railroading as well as cars, and it's been my observation that a lot of RR modelers are interested in the real ones.

While looking around for some HO-layout videos this AM (to compensate for having nowhere to run trains this year), I found this mid-1930s film about building  4-6-2 "Princess Royal" class British Rail steam locomotive 6207 (but it's correct information for most steam locos built after the technology matured).

Note the 2-part mold for the driving wheel. Though it's for sand-cast steel, the idea is basically the same as a mold for a plastic model car part, complete with casting lines and sprue-attachments that have to be removed and cleaned up (by machining in this case).

I hope somebody will enjoy it as much as I did. Merry Christmas.

Edited December 25, 2015 by Ace-Garageguy

[Ace-Garageguy]

Here's another one I couldn't resist, from 1938, about the NYC 4-6-4 Hudsons. 

 

[unclescott58]

Thanks "Santa" Bill!

[charlie8575]

Fantastic! 

Almost makes me wish I was still teaching, I could use these for some real time fillers and a lesson in a lot of different things.

How it all intersects.

Charlie Larkin

[Matt Bacon]

That's brilliant... though probably it's a good thing I didn't see it before I built the Kitmaster Princess. The detail freak in me might have started scratch building internal cylinders! That blacksmith guy must have had a HEROIC appetite for beer, since you'd think that an 8-hour shift of hard physical labour in a heated foundry environment would sweat off any normal spare pounds...

It's worth reminding people every now and then that back in the day, people made really complex machines from sheet and molten metal without the help of any computers at all...

Like these two:

bestest,

M.

[Ace-Garageguy]

It's worth reminding people every now and then that back in the day, people made really complex machines from sheet and molten metal without the help of any computers at all...

Two exquisite examples, certainly. 

Edited December 27, 2015 by Ace-Garageguy

[Matt Bacon]

And one more:

from before there were even slide rules, and "computers" were people who did lots of sums. You should never underestimate the value of smart people with lots of experience. They might not be able to explain WHY it works, but they could surely build one that did...

bestest,

M.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Yes...and though the Concorde and the SR-71 pictured above most probably benefited from house-sized mainframe computers for serious number-crunching, neither sailing ships nor steam locomotives did, obviously.

Your observation that "You should never underestimate the value of smart people with lots of experience. They might not be able to explain WHY it works, but they could surely build one that did..." rings a somewhat-related bell. 

There is an old story that the 1921-built Canadian racing and fishing schooner Bluenose, one of the fastest of her type, actually had a mistake in the shape of the hull. Introduced by the workers when she was on the building ways, it didn't follow the design exactly, and some claim that was the real reason for her exceptional speed.

There is some reason to think this just may be true, because the full-scale replica Bluenose II (the original struck a reef and was abandoned in 1946), built to the same plans and design, was never as fast.