Page 4.
Frame is regauged! 

March 27, 2008.
 

I considered attempting to regauge the drivers myself, but decided a smarter move would be to send the drivers out to John Rogers of Rogers Model Locomotive Works.

John built the first reported On2 forney conversion in October, 2007 and wrote about it on the On2 forum.
John is now offering a regauging service, for the drivers alone or the whole frame.

I was confidant I could deal with the frame, so I mailed off the drivers to John and got them back
in a few weeks...they look great, thanks John! 

I have actually had the drivers back for awhile, but put off working on the frame while I worked on the new cab instead...finally it was time to get to work on narrowing down the frame..

As has been mentioned before, the frame needs to be narrowed 3-4 mm so that the regauged drivers will fit.
I ground the frame down with the "brute force" method! 
its not elegant, but it gets the job done.

I bought a dremel attachment, the Dremel 231 Shaper/Router Table, I was thinking I could use a grinding bit in the dremel, use the fence to guide the frame, and neatly grind away bits of the frame..
well..the fence didnt really work, (because of the frame shape) so I ended up just hand-holding the frame
against the bit...I probably could have done this without the shaper/router table, but it was inexpensive 
(30-some dollars at amazon.com) and I will be able to use it for other projects..so even though it wasnt terribly useful for this particular project, it should still be handy to have...one can never have too many tools! 

I started with the table, and just ground away at both sides of the frame:
(dont forget your safety glasses!)

It worked well for the largest removal of metal..
then I did some finer work with a hand file.

(I went out an bought a brand-new file at Home Depot..one specifically designed for metal..
wow! what a difference! apparently all my other ancient files were for wood..never gave files much
serious thought before now!  )

Your can see that I also filed "grooves" deeper into the frame right at the axle cutouts.
this is because the frame needs to be even narrower right at the axels, because of the
plastic insulation where the driver meets the axle..rather than make the whole frame narrower,
I thought it would be better to make the frame the narrowest only right where it's necessary.

March 26, 2008 - Drivers are on!  and the locomotive sits on On2 rails for the first time! 
 

A test-fit with the new cab..

I also narrowed the axels for the tender truck, which was very easy...
just pull the wheels out of the center plastic axle, cut 4mm off of this axle,
slide the wheels down their metal axles, re-insert the wheels in the plastic..and done!

I havent narrowed the pilot truck yet..that will require some more grinding and cutting of metal.

Now I have a decision to make concerning the area where the driver axels meet the frame.
as predicted, narrowing the frame completely removed the original axle bushings..they no longer exist.
the drivers are now sitting in the "deeper" cutouts, which arent intended to be actual axle bearings.
..should I make and install new brass shims or not?
the wheels actually roll pretty well without them! but the driver axels also have a more wobbly fit than 
before, which brass shims would fix.

One benefit of not adding new brass shims is that the model sat slightly too high before,
(too high for SR&RL #9 anyway)
and now its slightly lower...not a major issue really, but it is something on the "plus side"..

on the "minus side" of not adding shims is the question..will the drivers be too loose?
is there too much slop for quality running?
I dont know yet..
I will have to re-assemble everything and actually power-up the loco to see how it runs.

Thats the next step..some re-assembly..(but not total re-assembly yet)
I will have to put all the wiring back together, devise a method for attaching the cab to the loco,
then try to power-up! see how she runs.

after that will be some work to the boiler, filing off the boiler bands, making a new boiler jacket,
and I will probably have to scratchbuild a pilot..

still lots to be done!
 
 

Update!
April 23, 2008

Well its been almost a month since the last update above..
and there has been absolutely ZERO work done on the forney in that time! 

This happens to me once in awhile..I can only work on model railroad projects during the winter months..
(which happens to be 5 months in Rochester,  November - March, so its a good chunk of the year!)
But once spring arrives, all modeling comes to a grinding halt, and nothing gets done until the following November, when winter arrives again..

why?

Because during the winter, its pitch-dark at 5pm, there is no yard work to be done,
there is 3 feet of snow and ice on the ground and its below freezing out,
no evening walks, no bikerides..there is really nothing to do except read books and build models.
(which are very fine winter activities)

But once spring arrives, the yard and garden work begins! 
(my wife and I bought our first house 2 years ago..we are going crazy with the gardening!) 
Even right now in April, its light out until 8pm, soon it will be light out until 9pm.
There is gardening, bike rides, walks along the canal..(after working 40 hours a week Mon-Fri of course)
in short, there simply isnt time for any model railroading during the 7-months of non-winter..

which is all perfectly fine with me..

But it does mean that if a particular "winter project" doesnt get finished by March, it gets put
"on hold" until the following October or November!

Which is what has happened with my Forney project..

so stay tuned!
work will re-commence in the Fall..

thanks,
Scot
 
 
 
 

To Page 5, Work starts up again with the arrival of Autumn.
 
 
 

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