5" Gauge A3

[vulcanmike]

Hi,

I've just purchased Kozo's book on building the A3 Switcher. I'm completely new to this kind of scale and the last time I was around a lathe or milling machine was at school, a good 30 years ago, but the thought of building a loco from scratch is very very tempting.

We're right at the start of building our garden railway and this is the ideal time to get things right where locomotives are concerned. We already know that we can only go as far as 0-4-0 locomotives or Bo-Bo arrangements due to our tight radii, and 5" Gauge is what we are going to work to (7.25" is a possibility, so we might dual gauge).

We've sourced a company who will supply our battery diesel as a kit (a Bo-Bo with twin 24v batteries) and the rolling stock in 5" gauge, and that will be with us next year (they are snowed under with work - which is a good sign for the hobby), but longer term we want a steam locomotive as this is not only going to be a garden railway but a business as well. This being the case, as with the battery diesel, we need a locomotive with pulling power as it's likely to pull up to 8 adults on two 5ft coaches.

So to my initial questions I'd like to ask.

More than likely this will be an A3 built to work on 7.25" gauge. I've seen a few people have built the A3 to 5" gauge, and I know it'll take a bit more work to calculate all the conversions, nevertheless its tempting.

Assuming for the moment, I did plan to build the A3 to work on 5" gauge:

What size lathe and milling machines should I be looking at? Are there any makes/models I should like at?

Would I still be using mild steel for the wheels at this gauge?

What do people use to cut the various bits of metal to the correct length (eg the wheel blanks)?

Many Thanks

Mike

[wfdtrain]

Hi Mike

My first engine was a 1" scale 040. I would suggest a 9" lathe to build it because of the drivers. For make, any thing would be good enough to get the job done, but Enco or Grizzley are good machines for the money. The Enco milldrills are good sizes for building a 5" gauge engine. I have a used one I purchased and have built a small 1 1/2" scale engine with it. To cut the wheel blanks I use a 5" horizontal vertical band saw.

Wayne

Enco
www.use-enco.com

Grizzly
www.grizzly.com/

[russ]

5 inch gauge is a great size to construct, it makes for a easily managed loco 'weight wise' and can be made on modest workshop equipment. Don't discount the 5" gauge A3 as being inadequate to haul large loads, we have small 0-4-0 locos in our club that can pull loads far in excess of their expectations, easily what you have expect to haul. It all depends on the design of valve events and the steaming capacity of the boiler. We found Kozo's boiler designs to be a little on the conservative side and could do with a increase in tubes, their arrangement and grate area.
My father has built both the Shay and Heisler, the Shay being built first and was found to be underwhelming as to it's steaming capacity, so a second boiler was made with more tubes and a larger grate area. The Heisler was constructed with increased boiler specs and steamed well.
My Climax was also constructed using upgraded boiler dimensions and it has steamed in an excellent manner.