Subject: Gone and done it!

From: [email-masked] (Charlie Lear)
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 1994 11:02:21 GMT

Well, I've gone and done it.

I'm now the proud owner of a 7 1/4" gauge 0-6-0 tank locomotive.

She (hmm... the loco is named "Hercules", but to my way of thinking
she is definitely a she) is just on ten years old, but for the last
few years has led a hard life as the club loco - everyone and his
dog has driven her, nobody has cared for her properly and so forth.
The final straw came a few months back when someone helpfully added
two years' worth of boiler feed water treatment to the side tanks in
one go - we now have one rather clagged up boiler that doesn't steam
very well at all.

So the club decided that she needed a full-time owner.  After a lot
of discussion with the more experienced members of the club, I
decided that I've got the skills to get her back to good working
order again, so put in a bid.  The bid was accepted at tonight's
committee meeting.

I intend to keep people informed of my progress during the
diagnostic and rebuild phases over the next few months - if the
consensus is that such reports are of interest in the newsgroups,
I'll post them, else I'll set up a mailing list.  I think that it
will be beneficial to progress if enough people are badgering me to
get on with the job!

It's a big step - wish me (and Hercules!) luck!

Regards
 Charlie

-- 
Charlie "The Bear" Lear  Official: [email-masked], VTLEAR at SYDVM1
Unofficial: [email-masked]                      Fax +64 4 564-5900
Customer Service Representative, IBM New Zealand, Wellington    DoD#221

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From: [email-masked] (Clive Washington)
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 12:59:21 +0000

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Charlie Lear)

> Well, I've gone and done it.

You certainly have.  Hope you have a good divorce lawyer.

> She (hmm... the loco is named "Hercules",

Is this the same 'Hercules' that Reeves do the castings for over here?
That is a 7 1/4 0-6-0tank, I think.  If you're rebuilding or need bits,
they
may be the right source for castings and drawings.  Mail me if
you need their number/address.

Clive W.

-- 
!!!According to my contract, this place owns my opinions!!!

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From: [email-masked] (John Haskey)
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 19:01:36 GMT

>will be beneficial to progress if enough people are badgering me to

Fill us in!  I don't mind seeing your posts here!

								---john.
-- 
[email-masked] ------------------ This post contains 100% personal opinion!
"...there are at least 9 Redwood Drives in Santa Cruz county, plus 5 Roads, 
4 Avenues, 3 Places, 3 Streets, 2 Terraces, 2 Ways, and 1 each of a Lane and
a Circle, all, presumably named for the Redwood Tree." -S.C. County Place Names

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From: [email-masked] (Robert Bishop)
Date: 16 Mar 1994 17:03:44 -0500

In rec.models.railroad, [email-masked] (Charlie Lear) writes:
>I'm now the proud owner of a 7 1/4" gauge 0-6-0 tank locomotive...
>
>I decided that I've got the skills to get her back to good working
>committee meeting....
>I'll post them....

Good luck Charlie:

And yes I would very much like to read about your progress. My only
concern is that, having spent way too much money on H0, I am already
worried that I might get more than a little interested in LGB or,
God forbid, the guage you're working on!

Bob Bishop

----------------------------------------------------------------------
 Robert H Bishop                  Phone 301-227-1218
 David Taylor Model Basin         FAX   301-227-2654
 CDNSWC  Code 5051                    _ _
 Washington DC  20084-5000       "I  (   )  my Z-248"
				      \ /

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From: [email-masked] (Greg Lewis)
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 00:18:45 GMT

>>I'm now the proud owner of a 7 1/4" gauge 0-6-0 tank locomotive...

stuff deleted...

>God forbid, the guage you're working on!

Bob: That's the direction I was headed (well, Sn3 actually). But when
you figure that you can have a live steamer for the cost of a few good
pieces of HO brass, why fool around?  (:-)  Actually, they _are_ two
different hobbies in a sense, but many people think live steam is
terribly expensive, yet is isn't. How much will you spend over ten
years on a hobby? In live steam you'll most likely work on one loco
and a few cars, which will end up, over time, at about the same cost
as a good HO railroad. I know one guy who build a 7 1/2 gauge diesel switcher
and riding car for a total of $600 US. 

Now let's not have a string of flames following this. I like anything
that runs on flanged wheels regardless of size. It's just that there
is a misconception of the cost of live steam. You *can* build an
engine without spending a fortune on either the engine or a machine
shop.

(But hey, it's a good excuse for setting up a shop... and how old will
you be in 10 years of you don't do it...   <:-> )

___________________________________________________________________
[email-masked]
Photojournalism sequence, Department of Mass Communication and Journalism
CSU Fresno, Fresno, CA 93740-0010

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From: [email-masked] (Glen Jensen)
Date: 17 Mar 1994 15:43:31 -0800

The cost to get "into" live steam can vary greatly.  My family has gone
    to the local live steam club's open house every summer for three or four
    years.  One of the guy's remembered me and my willingness to lend a hand
    once or twice, and ask why didn't I join the club?  I told him, new house,
    new kid, no shop and it cost more than I had free right now.  He told me
    that if I was willing to work at it, he had a engine that he only ran once
    a year or so that he would let me have for $xxxx  (read very reasonable).

    No I didn't buy it, but I wished I had.

    Glen Jensen

    PS - yes it was less than some HO Brass I used to have.

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From: [email-masked] (Articulate Mandible)
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 1994 02:02:18 GMT

>and riding car for a total of $600 US. 
[...]

>you be in 10 years of you don't do it...   <:-> )
That's probably the best way to do it. I have some friends in Sacramento 
who have built a small foundry and can cast about 50# of iron at a time.
Several of them have become expert patternmakers. All this talent adds up
to a way to defray the costs of building their own equipment - they sell
castings!

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From: [email-masked] (f.w.kerfoot..iii)
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 20:11:34 GMT

>From article <[email-masked]>, by [email-masked] (Greg Lewis):

I believe that it is Foster's book "So You Want To Build a Live Steam
Locomotive" which has a piece on the costs of building live steam locomotives,
viewed from the low end. There were, if I recollect, examples of engines
built for costs in the few hundred dollar range, or perhaps even less,
by lots of improvising and scrounging. I spent perhaps $500 (US) on materials
to build a 3/4" 2-4-0 (a Raritan), with only modest scrounging, and
following the plans very literally. Of course you can go to the other
end of the scale as well, where complete ready-to-run locomotives run
from a few thousand $ (US) to hundreds of thousands, and you can even
spend amounts approaching $10K on the (pre-machined) parts necessary
to build a locomotive. Building a locomotive "on the cheap" involves a
great deal of time (even building one where you buy castings and sub-
assemblies takes quite a bit of time), so if you go this way you better
be getting considerable enjoyment from the building itself, as opposed
to viewing it as something to get past so you will have a locomotive to
run.

> you be in 10 years of you don't do it...   <:-> )

Of course the same sort of story applies to the shop. You can spend
money or time, but it is hard to escape both.

Frank Kerfoot
[email-masked]