The Kotanga Valley and the Kotanga Timber Tramway.

[Emettman]

Short of a new chassis, and given you only want the one rail and double-flanged wheels *or the same effect*, might it be possible to mount, just fore and aft of one set of wheels:
two vertical round pins,  tiny wheels on vertical axles or small rounded skates, projecting downwards just to flange depth, the other side of the rail from the wheel flanges, giving lateral control similar but opposite to them?

The other set of wheels being left to rotate on air... (possibly hidden by some concealing skirts.)

Having ideas is easier than executing them, I know, and this would be a wild experiment.   For "production" Ewing locos, the one line of wheels should be nearer the center-line.

[dmaynard]

Another idea for double flanged wheels, the home improvement stores and hardware stores sell white nylon pulleys. They could be pressed into service as double flanged wheels if the grove was wide enough to fit over a rail.

[Annie]

Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions David and Emmettman.  I had been turning over in my mind ways and means for taking a conventional loco and applying a Ewing system conversion set of parts to it.  Over the next few days I'll laid hold of one of the several cheapie trainset locos I have about the place and experiment with guide pins, or wheels or skates to see if I can get some kind of working solution up and running.
I know I could go out and dust off the lathe and make all manner of finely machined bits and bobs, but I don't want to do that.  Before I knew it I would be making some kind of museum quality model and I've had enough of all that.  Been there, dun that, bought the Tee shirt.
Having a look around the local hardware store could be a good idea as you suggest David.  Plenty of times in the past I've found some sort of 'thingummy' in a hardware store that can be used for a purpose not intended to solve a modelmaking problem.

Jim the foreman did make a suggestion this morning though that I thought was quite good.  He said that if I was looking for 'proof of concept' why not go ahead and build an underframe that doesn't have to fit the Baguley and if it works and I like it they could build a nice tank engine to go on top of it.  The Baguley could be sorted out later on once I have a chance to find some suitable parts that will fit inside its small bodyshell.  Not a bad idea at all I thought 

[Annie]

Nothing is sacred, my old prewar Hornby crane got nabbed, - and they've gone and put a repro Marx hook on it and helped themselves to a length of my beading cord as well without asking!

Never mind though because it gets them out of my hair while I think about a Ewing underframe for the Baguley.  Some years ago I purchased a pair of Barbie sized Chinese made plastic bicycles.  I wanted the wheels as I was building a model of a vintage cyclecar and the wheels were just the job for it.  However these bicycles had a little drive motor arrangement powered by 2 'AA' batteries that lived in a top box sort of arrangement on the bicycle carrier.  I kept those drive units just in case they might be useful and I think they'll work out nicely for the Baguley once all the extraneous plastic is sawed out of the way.

I shall post pictures soon.........

[dmaynard]

Annie, the hardware store and craft stores are my best sources of parts, pieces and thing-a-ma-bobs. I hesitate to spend money on actual model train parts unless I have too, usually I can find something for less money (and no shipping costs) at a local hardware or craft store. 

As for your crew nabbing your equipment to get the job done, I wouldn't complain. At least they are getting the job done instead of sitting around discussing the situation, a problem we have had at the Shannon Car Shops from time to time. I need to make sure my shop foreman, Tom Morrow, doesn't read your thread. If he does see it he will be cracking the whip again to get some projects done. He likes to see progress, and since I am now working a real job again the progress in the shop has slowed to a crawl.

As for making parts on a lathe, I wish we had the space and funds to have such a piece of equipment, but we make do with an El-cheepo Harbour Freight drill press.

Keep us posted, looks like the crew is making great progress, and if they keep it up I may have to get off my caboose and get back into the shop. 

[Annie]

Ah yes David, I own a lovely lathe     The trouble is I went through a very long period of illness and in the aftermath I've found that it's taken me a real effort to get myself back into metalwork again.  I used to be reasonably skilled on the lathe in a purely hobbist sort of way, but I find now that my confidence has dried up and I've hardly touched it for almost three years now.

I'm being silly I know, but I guess what I need to do is get some cheap lengths of bar stock and just have a play about making things like chimneys and wagon wheels and not worry too much if it all ends up as swarf and scrap.

[G-man]

Re the double flanged wheel, perhaps if you got some cheap plastic HO wheels that  could be removed from the axel, sanded or filed down and then put on a new axel face to face you would have a double flanged wheel.  Just a thought.

[Annie]

Re the double flanged wheel, perhaps if you got some cheap plastic HO wheels that  could be removed from the axel, sanded or filed down and then put on a new axel face to face you would have a double flanged wheel.  Just a thought.

Now that's a really good idea I'm going to give that a try 

[Annie]

Because the lads were heavily involved in building the new Ewing loco and also because Sidney was having far too much fun operating the crane I thought it might be a good idea not to disturb them with an urgent Works order for an experimental Ewing wagon.  Fortunately Roberta the new carpenter wasn't too busy and she very quickly set about making a simple Ewing wagon with double flanged wheels constructed by the G-Man patent method.



Roberta says I should really wait until she's finished the wagon properly, but even at this stage of things I can see that the wagon is going to be a great success.

[G-man]

Glad to see my patent method worked out. I'll have to try it myself since I am a big fan of any sort of monorail system.

[Tommy Two Strikes]

Roberta's tool look nicer than my own... I might to have to see if she'll do some subcontract work for me! Of course there would be that issue of travel expenses :-(

[Annie]

Yes Roberta is very proud of her tools and she keeps them nice and clean.  She doesn't like the lads borrowing them because they come back greasy and mucky....... but now I think about it Roberta doesn't seem to mind when Sidney uses her tools..... Hum, I wonder.....

After a couple of days of being told to, 'Go away we're not ready yet,' whenever I've taken my camera over to where the Ewing loco is being built the lads finally said I could take a photo this morning.

It's certainly changed shape several times over the past day or so and all manner of combinations of gearing and sprockets have been tried.  This morning I very much had the feeling that the lads were onto a winner and things should progress fairly smoothly from now on.

[Rowan]

Looks like things are going like clockwork !

 

[crackingjob]

Glad to see the smuggled in plans I sent are in use by the lads

Try a small meccano type pully wheel, or fit a disc of plastic to the unflanged side of a wheel to create the right profile.....or even two weels face to face and run on heavier gauge track

Crackingjob

[Annie]

The lads raided my Meccano and found a couple of pulley wheels which seem to be able to run on G scale rail as well as old fashioned Triang Series III.  The 'V' shape of the pulley's flanges actually makes for steadier running than a 'proper' double flange wheel.  The pulley wheels can be seen in the photo beneath the motor and gearbox unit, - which is made by Como Drills in case anybody was wondering.
Boiler making was the big project tonight with plenty of, 'Go away and stop looking,' whenever I came anywhere near.  The lads are very excited about building a Ewing loco and I often hear them discussing how 'revolutionary' it is while they're working.  'It's going to transform the whole concept of rail travel,' I heard Jim the foreman say which made me smile because he wasn't all that keen about it to start with.

I've been giving thought to how I might create the forests in the Kotanga Valley, - or at least a weeny small part of the forest, - on the layout when I come to build it.  I dug about in my Playmobil collection and recklessly opened sealed 'mint' boxes without any regard to any possible future value.  Toys are for enjoying that's wot I say. 
A while ago I purchased a huge job lot of McDonalds plastic trees that they did as a promotion for the Tarzan movie.  If you get all the right bits the trees are supposed to be a part of a scene taken from the movie, - only I've got mostly trees which are going to be great for wot I want.  The trunks have a gentle curve which makes them perfect for the legendary 'coathanger' trees and they also break down into three pieces, - stump, trunk and canopy, - and the trunks make great loads for the logging tramway.  The big advantage is that the forest can be put back together again afterwards 


Did you know there are fairies and other wee folk in the forests of the Kotanga Valley?   My only regret is that I didn't buy more of them (sigh).

Not in the photo, but ages ago Fisher Price made the Imaginext series of fantasy castles & etc and one of the sets was the 'Goblin's Dungeon' or something of the sort.  In the set there was a large evil tree that could grab up unwary fantasy folk in its arm-like branches.  Because I used to play at Miniature Fantasy Wargaming I happen to have an indecent number of these trees and I'm sure they would be fun to have in the forest too.  Should help to keep the mill workers on their toes while on the job