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Live steam

Started by Rollin Mayham, July 07, 2014, 09:23:47 PM

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Rollin Mayham

Looking at the parts list I saw a couple of chassis would it be possible to convert these to live steam? ???

tac

Nossir.

Heat is the killer, as is lack of actual material strength.  A friend of mine here in UK had an Aster NYC Hudson converted to coal-fired live steam - you can see it on Youtube under tac's trains coal-fired Hudson.

The model was all metal to begin with, but still cost another $4000 or so to convert.

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

Tony Walsham

When the Bachmann K-27 came out a good engineer friend of mine inspected it minutely.
His opinion was the K-27 chassis was exceptionally well thought out and built and quite robust enough for an electric model.  Unfortunately it was not suitable for live steam as it was.
If the engineering quality of the drive train was improved so as to be suitable live steam use, then, perhaps yes it would be.
Tony Walsham
Founding member of the battery Mafia.


(Remote Control Systems).

Kevin Strong

Presuming you're talking about the 4-6-0 chassis on sale for $50...

The drivers? Maybe. The rest of the stuff? Not so much. 

The chassis itself doesn't lend itself to the kind of cutting you'd need to do to fit it under a live steam boiler. It's going to lose a lot of strength in the process, so you'd be fabricating a new frame out of metal just from the lost strength. You could possibly use the side rods and main rod if you kept the axle spacing identical on the new frame. The rest of the valve gear, though, would have to be replaced as it's not likely going to be accurate enough to work the valves to control the steam. At that point, you're cutting a new frame and new valve gear, and you already have to build the cylinders.

If you are to use the drivers, know that the center (blind) driver is a slightly smaller diameter than the flanged ones (necessary because the 4-6-0 frame is rigid). If you were to build an equalized frame where all the drivers contact the rails, you'd want to get an extra set of flanged drivers and turn down the flange.

Honestly, $50 for a set of drivers (or $60 for two sets off of the $30 chassis) is a very good price for the drivers as a starting point for a live steam project. For comparison, I've been looking into having custom drivers 3D printed for a project, and I'm looking at in excess of $100 per wheel! So it's definitely a good way to get wheels for your steamer. You may or may not want to look at how the axles are done to see if you want to beef them up with brass inserts instead of the plastic. Aristo-Craft has shown that plastic on a live steamer is plausible, so at that price, I don't know what you lose by trying with the drivers.

Later,

K

tac

Quote from: Kevin Strong on July 08, 2014, 01:06:25 PM

Honestly, $50 for a set of drivers (or $60 for two sets off of the $30 chassis) is a very good price for the drivers as a starting point for a live steam project. For comparison, I've been looking into having custom drivers 3D printed for a project, and I'm looking at in excess of $100 per wheel! Later,

K

Kevin - REAL cast iron drivers are easy to find here in UK - hundreds, if not thousands, of specific formats in spoke count, spoke shape, diameter - everything you can think of, for the asking, and MADE for live steamers.

Of course, there are, I'm sure, suppliers in the USA, but right now they do not appear off the top of my hat.

tac
G1MRA #3651