7.5 Gauge Electric Porter Locomotive

[rangerjoel]

Now that I have joined the Redwood Empire Live Steamers and have access to a 7.5” gauge track I have decided to start building a new porter locomotive. I do not have the skill or patience to make a live steam loco yet but decided instead to make an electric that resembled a steam loco.

Unlike the first ride on locomotive that I built, this one will not be made of plastic!

The smaller 4 ¾ gauge porter while cute proved to be way too flimsy. Stronger materials will be required for its 7.5 gauge big brother. I still do not possess all of the tools necessary to make the loco out of metal so a good portion of it will be made of ¾” plywood and covered in thin (22 gauge) sheet metal. Below are photos of the progress so far.






Joel

[Harlock]

been a while! Glad you're still mkaing fun quick-turn projects. Looking forward to seeing what this one will be like when finished.

[hitandmissman]

That looks like a fun project. Are you building from a set of plans? Please keep us posted as to your progress.

[rangerjoel]

The drive wheel castings showed up a couple of weeks ago and I have been hard at work making the chips fly on my lathe. The wheels are about 6” in diameter which is about the maximum my lathe can handle. These take a long time to turn and it’s definitely been a learning experience. Now all I have to do is machine thee more to the same tolerances. No easy feat for a guy who usually goes by “the ten foot rule” (if it looks good from ten feet away, than it’s OK).

[rangerjoel]

I have a little more progress to report on.
The first task completed was to get the drive wheels quartered. I did this by building a simple plywood jig to hold the wheels in the proper position while they are being quartered.
The wheels may not be at exactly 90 degrees, but because both sets were done on the same jig the error will be the same on both and because this is an electric locomotive, I do not have to worry about valve timing.

The second project was to make some blocks to hold the axle bearings.

Finlay, I was able to borrow a friend’s Mig welder to weld up the side frames.

I have also fabricated some frame spaces but have not gotten any photos of them yet. I hope to get these installed this week and get some photos.
Joel

[rangerjoel]

More progress!
side rods are in place with no binding.

[rangerjoel]

It’s been a long time since I have posted, but I have been very busy during that time. The photos below will attest to that!


I started by completing the installation of the drive rods and piston rods. I checked for binding and had no trouble.


I then fabricated a frame to mount the pilot beam to and fashioned a pilot beam out of oak. All the bolts got a coat of “brass black” (witch reacts with the zinc plating to turn them black)

The Head lamp is made of sheet metal and incorporates a bulb and reflector form a cheap 6 volt flashlight.


I am working on the trailing truck and hope to have it ready to go by the first of August.