Welcome

Live steam model on 7¼" gauge of the Württembergische T3 no 924

Welcome to this blog. It will inform you about the progress of designing and building live steam model locomotives. The blog contains the description of a model Würrtembergische T3 on 7¼" gauge (built between 2006 and 2017), the wagons for this loco (built between 2018 and 2022)  and a 5" gauge model of a Great Eastern Railway Y14 class loco (started in 2020)

On the left you'll find the index where you can browse through the different articles and on the right you'll find all the extra's. On the top tabs you'll find a brief description of my other locos.

 

 

Click for the direct link to start of construction series below 
T3 7¼" steam locomotive 
 
Enjoy this site. Erik-Jan Stroetinga. The Netherlands. Europe.

 

 

 

Wednesday 24 June 2020

Bier-Kühlwagen (1)

A second wagon for the T3 is a so called  "Bier-Kühlwagen" (refrigerated wagon for beer transport). 

Again a model of Märklin will be the example that is scaled up to 7¼" gauge. I've got a model in gauge 1 and H0.  Besides the model there is a picture of one of the originals that were build for the Württembergische Hohenzollernsche Brauerei Gesellschaft Englischer Garten Stuttgart. The two wagons, number 60048 and 60049 were build by the Maschine Fabrik Esslingen in 1909.

These  insulated wagons were cooled by inserting large blocks of ice in a tray, that was mounted under the roof. The insulation was achieved with double wooden walls, roof and floor, that was stuffed with wool and hay in between.  Modern materials didn't existed then. 
Besides cooling, it was also possible to heat the wagon, with a small coal burning hearth. This way the beer could be protected for freezing in the winter and prevented for heating up in the summer. A correct and constant temperature is important for the quality of the beer.

This beer company "Englischer Garten" is not existing anymore, but was incorporated in the Stuttgarter Hofbräu brewery.  

 The wagon will serve as "toolbox on wheels", so all the firing and maintenance tools are nicely packed for a day on the track......and maybe there is room for a few beers as well 😀







The 7¼ model is designed in Solidworks and will be a working model.  The under carriage is a copy of the Omk open goods wagon, as described  earlier on this blog, but with a slightly longer wheel base. 
It is also equipped with the same brake gear as the Omk and I plan to make the super structure strong enough to sit on. 


The first concept of the wagon. Details as the door closing mechanisms, steps, lamp irons, have yet to be designed. 

A lot of parts for the under carriage were made when I was working on the Omk. Once the lathe or milling machine was setup for a certain operation, it is often quicker to make all the parts needed for both wagons in one batch.
An exception are parts where a lot of machining time is needed anyway.....

.... therfore axles, hornblocks and bearing houses were not made on forehand.

Cutting a groove in the hornblocks (5.5 mm wide and 6 mm deep)  is done on the shaping machine. This is even quicker than the milling machine, because hefty cuts can be taken. 

A big drill is used for opening out the hornblock plate.

With a boring tool the hole is made to the exact dimension of 37.50 mm. Working to a close tolerance makes it possible to obtain a strong glued joint with the bearing house. 

For a model engineer this is already a 'heavy' machining operation.

Work in progress

The horn cheeks and axle bearing housing completed. 

Assembled with parts that were made earlier, the under carriage is already taking shape. 

Drilling with a standard drill in thin plate may cause triangle shaped holes. To overcome this, a piece of emery cloth is placed between the drill and plate. This will 'fill' the clearance angle and gives support to the drill. The result is a nice round hole. 

The support brackets for the handbrake axle. Cut to shape and the radius filed. 

At first I had no intention to make a handbrake as well on this wagon. My son advised me do it, as a backup driving truck, and extra braking assistance when going down hill with a heavy train. 

The brake handle was CNC milled from 3 mm strip.

A square hole gives a strong connection to the brake shaft.  

Drilling the holes for bolting the handbrake shaft. The frame just fitted on the drilling machine, and so saved some time in disassembling the it otherwise for drilling.

The brake assembly.  Just picking the parts from the box and assemble them; the time spend on them when making the Omk wagon is now speeding up the job. 

The small shafts (only 4 mm in diameter)  for the brake blocks are made of silver steel for rigidity. 

They are glued (Loctite 601) into a hole of 25 mm deep in the triangle.  


A first test on our club track. 








Monday 8 June 2020

T3 in Breda

On june 7th the T3 was united with the wagon for the first time on our track in Breda. My son Martin made a video that can be seen below:








The first time this year that we steamed the engine. The Covid19 circumstances didn't made it possible to drive the loco earlier. All steam events are cancelled this driving season. But on our track with only two locos in steam, each on it own track, made this a special experience.






Toin took his 14xx along on the raised track.

Parallel driving




Toin enjoying the ride

The camera man in action. 



The wagon passed it test with flying colours; the driving position is good and give a good view on the controls of the loco.  The balance on the wagon is great and gives a comfortable and stable sitting position. The brake is working fine and is easy to operate with only a little force applied it is easy to control the actual braking force.










Update:  at the end of June 2020 we had the opportunity to test the wagon at the track in Tilburg. 
The points on this track (3 gauges available  (3½", 5" and 7¼")) were no problem.  



The Beer wagon (tool wagon) is already under construction. It has the same under carriage as the Omk, only slightly longer.  A lot of parts were already done, while making the Omk. This speeds up the building, because I can now pick most of the parts out of the box and assemble them. The superstructure will be totally different and has yet to be designed and build.  



Drawings of the wagon can be downloaded from Grabcad (free of charge 😉)





Click below for direct link to start of construction series of: