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2-8-8-2 Locomotive

9K views 78 replies 18 participants last post by  KennyP 
#1 ·
Building another O-scale model steam locomotive using parts from the AHM / Rivarossi 0-8-0 plastic locomotive kit that was available back in the 70's.

This will have a wheel arrangement of 2-8-8-2 and be modeled similar to this engine.

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The front and rear section was cut off of two of the AHM chassis.
The chassis at the top is what the stock frame looked like from the AHM model kit.

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I glued a piece of white styrene to the back of one of the frames to form a pad for the attaching screw that will hold the two frames together.
Using part of a tender drawbar, I glued it to the front of the other frame for the attaching bar.

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Then I turned a piece of brass down and taped it to take a 2-56 screw to form a shoulder bolt for the attaching screw.

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This screw fastens the two frames together.

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With the two frames attached, this shows how much the front frame will be able to rotate in relation to the rear frame.
A model railroad layout has to have wide radius turns in order for this type of locomotive to run on it.

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These are flat brass castings to make the leading and trailing truck.

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The top casting is for the lead truck but is not long enough to just bend into shape so it is cut into two pieces.
The axle holes are already drilled into this casting but they are larger then the axle ends on the wheels from the AHM kit.

I turned a piece of brass down in the lathe and drilled a smaller hole in it to form a bushing for the axle holes.

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The bushing is pressed into the casting part on the right.

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The bottom casting is for the trailing truck and needs to have the holes drilled into it for the axle shaft but it is long enough so it just needs to be bent into shape to form the truck.

I used a brass bracket for mounting an electric motor in an engine and bent it so the ends of the casting for the leading truck were held together by the bracket.
Then I soldered the parts together to form the leading truck.

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The steam cylinder on the AHM 0-8-0 kit have a third booster cylinder in-between the two outside cylinders ( far left cylinder ).
This booster cylinder is cut off the two steam cylinders that I'm using for the 2-8-8-2 engine.

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I use a piece of .015 thick styrene to cover the center part of the cylinders on the front and the back.
Then I spread model putty around the edges to blend them in.

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Once the putty has dried, it is sanded down and the two cylinders are painted.

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#5 ·
Joint in middle? So, how does that swivel, but yet the boiler would be one long tube, would think? You sure can make some small stuff on your lathe, that would be the worst part for me to try to make. I've always wanted to make one of those steam engine casting kits, but those are much simpler and bigger than this type work. Was going to buy small lathe for that work, but now figure never happen, can't see that well in my old age!
 
#10 ·
A block of styrene is fastened between the frame rails at the back of the rear chassis.

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The trailing truck is attached to the rear of this chassis.

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This pilot beam will fit nicely on the front chassis but it is damaged and needs to be repaired first.

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Back when I had all my tools available for working on my model trains, I had a resistance solder machine that was really nice for working with brass.
That solder machine is packed away with a lot of other specialty tools and I'm having to do any un-soldering and soldering with my small soldering gun.

The damaged front panel is removed from the "cow catcher".
You can see that the rear panel for the cow catcher is bent back some and has broken loose from the pilot beam.

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The rear panel piece is straightened and re-soldered to the beam.

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The support bracket behind the rear panel is missing from the damaged side.

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I cut out a new support bracket and soldered it in place on the damaged side.

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Then the front panel for the cow catcher was straightened and soldered back in place.
Using a magnifying glass and a very fine ( .015 dia. ) solder makes it easier to complete the job without getting a bunch of solder all over the part.

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Here's how the pilot looks so far.

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It is still missing the foot plates on either side of the cow catcher.
I cut two pieces from a strip of diamond patterned brass and bent one edge at a 90 deg.

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Another strip of smooth brass was cut and bent for the support brackets.
These were then soldered to the back side of the foot plates.

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.047 diameter mounting holes are drilled into the underside of the pilot.

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These mounting holes are then tapped for a 0-80 thread.

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The foot plates are then attached to the underside of the pilot with 0-80 screws.

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This is the finished pilot.

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#13 ·
The front frame for the pilot is cut from a block of styrene.
I drew the shape of the frame on the yellow pad then copied that pattern onto the styrene block.
Here the cuts are all made but the block is still together.

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Separating the pieces after the cuts are made leaves the frame section in the center.

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The pilot is then attached to the frame with small screws.

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This is then attached to the front chassis.

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I make up little "shoulder bolts" like this for any pivot points.

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For the pivot on the leading and trailing truck, the brass part is put thru the hole in the arm of the truck from the top.
Then a washer is put on the screw and it is threaded up thru the brass piece.
This makes it so the pivot bolt is permanently attached to the truck.

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The leading truck is attached to the front chassis.

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The rear chassis hes styrene "I-beams" glued to it to extend the frame and the rear portion of the AHM lower cab is glued to the ends of the I-beams.

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With the front and rear extensions added to the chassis units, it makes the total chassis about 19-1/2 inch long.

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#14 ·
This locomotive requires a much larger firebox than what is on the AHM 0-8-0 model.
The AHM model has two side panels that make up the firebox so I used four of these parts to build the new firebox.
I cut the front section off two of the parts and cut the rear section off the other two parts.
These modified parts were then glued together to form a longer firebox panel for each side of the locomotive.

The two original parts are at the top of the photo.
The two new firebox sides are in the center.
The sections that were cut off are at the bottom of the photo.

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These new firebox panels were then glued in place under the cab.

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This unit is than fit onto the rear chassis.

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The smoke box was cut off the front of one of the AHM models.
I wanted to turn this on the lathe to make sure the cut end is square and smooth so I had to get a little creative with mounting it on the chuck.

A rubber band is wrapped around the nose of the smoke box to support the outside while it was gripped from the inside on chuck.
Then I used more rubber bands that wrap around the back of the chuck and pull the piece forward onto the chuck.

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I move the cutting tool very slowly and cut no more than .005 deep at a time.

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The end is now square and smooth.
It is time now to get a piece of PVC drain pipe and start making the rest of the boiler.

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#17 · (Edited by Moderator)
The boiler is made out of a piece of 1-1/2" PVC drain pipe.
I wrap masking tape around where I want to cut the pipe.
By carefully cutting along the front edge of the masking tape, I can make the cut close to being square to the pipe.

With the pipe cut to the overall length, I wrap another piece of masking tape alongside the first piece of tape.
At the back edge of this tape, I cut a small groove lengthwise in the pipe ( marked by the arrows ).
Then I cut the pipe again at the back edge of the second tape.
This is so I can put the shorter piece of pipe in the lathe.

To left of the pipe in the photo is a small piece of 1-1/4" PVC pipe that has been turned down to fit inside the 1-1/2" pipe.

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The short piece of 1-1/2" pipe is turned on the lathe to finish squaring the face.
The end is machined with a collar on it.

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The smoke box fits onto this collar.

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The piece of smaller pipe is put into the end of the larger pipe and glued in place.

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The two pieces of pipe are glued back together with the small grooves lined up so it goes back together like it was.
The cut mark on the pipe will be covered with one of the boiler bands later.

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The electric motor and gear housing are mounted on the rear chassis.
The underside of the back of the boiler is cut out to clear the motor and gear housing.

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This is how it fits on the chassis.

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The cab unit is mounted on the rear chassis and the new "boiler" is glued to the cab.

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Once that is dry, the smoke box is glued to the front of the boiler.
The overall basic shape of the engine is now set.

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#20 ·
Wow , that's long!
Yeah, it is! Wow!
The actual 2-8-8-2 Norfolk & Western locomotive engine that I'm using as a pattern was over 60 foot long.

Most of the big articulated engines in the 40's and 50's were longer than the average mobile home.

The largest articulated locomotive is the Union Pacific " Big Boy ". It is a 4-8-8-4 wheel arrangement.

The engine itself is a little over 85 foot long. The overall length of the engine and tender is 132 FT 9-1/4 in.
 
#23 ·
Ray is there anything here that you would be interested in?

http://www.k-bid.com/auction/11823
Thank you for the auction link. It was interesting to look thru.

Those Lionel, Marx and American flyer trains have been around for a long time and some of them are worth quite a lot of money.

They are however "toy trains" in that they were not built to look like realistic trains.

They have oversize flanges on the wheels and oversize couplers and they ran on a 3-rail track.

Lionel ( and other company's ) are making trains now that look much more realistic but they still have oversize wheel flanges and couplers and still run on 3-rail track.

I model what is called "2-rail O-scale" trains".

These are built so everything on them is to scale size and they run on 2-rail track just like the real trains.

Most modelers in this scale are very particular about everything on the model being exactly as it was on the real locomotive and their models are completely detailed inside and out.

Those guys do fantastic work and their models look exactly like the real thing.

A lot of them go as far as weathering them so they look like a locomotive ( or rail cars ) that is dirty and rusty and has been running down the track for years.

They also can spend years and a lot of money building one locomotive that can be worth several thousand dollars when it is finished.

I however am not that dedicated or that fussy.

I build what is called "freelance models" and there are others like me that enjoy building freelance.

We build more for just the enjoyment of building things and whereas we want the model to look realistic and everything is built to the right scale size, it isn't necessarily an exact replica of a real piece of railroad equipment.

My models don't cost me a lot of money to build and they aren't worth a lot when the are finished, but I sure get a lot of enjoyment out of building them.
 
#24 ·
Wow my mobile home is 70 feet long. Hard to imagine a locomotive 10 feet shorter than my house chugging down the track.

Incredible job. When do you have time for this when you are building a house too?
That "Big Boy" locomotive is 15 foot longer than your home.

Can you imagine how much that would shake the ground going past at 60 or 70 MPH and pulling a two mile long line of rail cars behind it ?

The Union Pacific Railroad is in the process of restoring one of the Big Boy locomotives and putting it back into running condition.

When it is finished, it will be back out on the rail for excursion runs.

I would certainly like to be able to have the opportunity to stand by a track and take a video of it running by me.

The house is still in the first stage of getting closed in and the metal roofing is being put on now ( weather permitting ).

So when it is too cold or raining, I play with my trains.

It is still getting dark early so that also gives me time in the evenings to play with my trains.

Working on model trains has always been a inside winter project for most of my life.

It gets more attention now because I don't have a garage set up to work on garden tractors.

Once I get a garage set up again, I'll go back to playing in the garage in the summer and playing with the trains in the winter.
 
#25 ·
I used thin strips of styrene to make the bands on the boiler.

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The foot boards are made from strips that are cut from a sheet diamond patterned styrene.
These strips are only .020 thick and very flexible.
So a strip of balsa wood is first glued onto the side of the boiler for the foot board.
Then the styrene strip is glued on top of the balsa wood.

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The outside edge of the balsa wood strip is covered with a strip of styrene to give the foot board edge a smooth finish that the paint won't soak into.

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The steam supply lines for the rear cylinders are made up from styrene tubing and elbows.
The caps for the ends of the pipes at the cylinders and the "T" pipe connection to the cylinders are machined from a piece of clear styrene rod.
The "S" curve in the lines is made from a 90 deg. elbow that is cut in half and then glued back together so one end faces forward and the other end faces back.

The parts used are in the top of the photo and the finished parts are at the bottom.

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The steam supply lines are attached to the boiler and the end of the "T" fitting sets into the top of the steam cylinder.

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The two steam supply lines are attached so they stay with the boiler when the rear chassis is removed.

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These are some parts of boilers from the AHM 0-8-0 kit that still have some usable items on them.

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I cut them apart and that leaves me a smoke box that can be used for another locomotive model and some parts to go on this locomotive.

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The smoke box is put away in a drawer and the other parts are trimmed down to fit on top of the boiler.
Here's how it looks so far.

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#26 ·
That is awesome, Ray! Gonna be a fine looking loco when you are done!
 
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