Author Topic: Eames Train Brakes - Official Work Thread  (Read 116049 times)

Richard Johnson

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Re: Vacuum Brakes on the WW&F
« Reply #165 on: March 18, 2019, 06:49:50 AM »
I am with you on the brakes. safety first. passenger cars a must and freight cars as they are rebuilt.
J J
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Paul Uhland

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Re: Vacuum Brakes on the WW&F
« Reply #166 on: March 18, 2019, 11:27:29 AM »
ALL car-equipped brakes are a MUST, now that longer trains are inevitable.
Should be higher priority.
« Last Edit: March 18, 2019, 11:29:37 AM by Paul Uhland »
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Joe Fox

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Re: Vacuum Brakes on the WW&F
« Reply #167 on: March 18, 2019, 02:34:11 PM »
Brakes are a high priority with some of our shop guys, and a few others regularly working on making parts, etc. By my earlier statement I should specify that given our current parts and resources the current focus is on equiping the passenger fleet first. Then diver attention to the rest as resources permit.

Joe Fox

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Re: Vacuum Brakes on the WW&F
« Reply #168 on: March 18, 2019, 02:42:03 PM »
(Also my earlier post has been modified. My exciting experience was NOT at the WW&F.)

Bill Baskerville

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Re: Vacuum Brakes on the WW&F
« Reply #169 on: March 18, 2019, 03:56:29 PM »
... The grade is 1.8% for 2.1 mile ...
(Also my earlier post has been modified. My exciting experience was NOT at the WW&F.)

Joe,  I am sure most of us figured that out as I can't think of 2.1 miles on the current WW&F 2.5 miles (more or less) that has a consistent grade, let alone 1.8% for that distance.
But it is good to be clear.
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Mike Fox

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Re: Vacuum Brakes on the WW&F
« Reply #170 on: March 18, 2019, 05:33:06 PM »
I'm pretty sure Joe has the brakes figured out. He consistently moves 10,000 ton trains, with much larger power than we have, every day. Starting, stopping, grades and grade crossings are constantly on his mind. There is not a day when he works that he can't think about it.
Mike
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Harold Downey

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Re: Eames Train Brakes - Official Work Thread
« Reply #171 on: June 16, 2019, 10:00:53 AM »
Check out this photo of W&Q #1 Baggage and Mail car: https://cdm16397.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15323coll6/id/1695/rec/2

It's sitting on a standard gauge flat car, and at the left end of the flat car you can see one of its trucks.  Look closely and you can see the Eames vacuum brake pot is mounted on the truck. 

John Kokas

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Re: Eames Train Brakes - Official Work Thread
« Reply #172 on: June 16, 2019, 02:27:25 PM »
When I view it, the left side of the picture is cut-off.  Unable to view the truck.
Moxie Bootlegger

Harold Downey

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Re: Eames Train Brakes - Official Work Thread
« Reply #173 on: June 16, 2019, 04:35:24 PM »
You may be missing it.  Click on the double arrows in the top RH corner of the picture, then zoom way in and drag it to see the bottom left corner, just to the left of the brake wheel on the baggage car.  The truck is cut off, but peeking up above the side boards of the flat car. 

Bill Baskerville

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Re: Eames Train Brakes - Official Work Thread
« Reply #174 on: June 16, 2019, 05:58:27 PM »
What is the vertical lever to the right of the brake wheel?
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Philip Marshall

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Re: Eames Train Brakes - Official Work Thread
« Reply #175 on: June 16, 2019, 06:23:41 PM »
What is the vertical lever to the right of the brake wheel?

That's the cut lever for the coupler.

Bill Baskerville

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Re: Vacuum Brakes on the WW&F
« Reply #176 on: June 26, 2019, 09:12:05 PM »
It seems to me that we received a grant for vacuum brakes from one of Rail Road Groups, perhaps NHRS or some other group. 

Since this has been such a long running project, several years I think, and we continue to make progress along this line.  Perhaps we should send a progress letter with an update to the donating group to let them know that their funds are being utilized for the stated project and progress is being achieved, and perhaps our current goals.

Our museum has a great reputation for accomplishing what we set out to do.  The past couple of years though, there are a lot of un-forecast opportunities that have come our way and though we have done a good job of blending these into our schedules.  These opportunities have, however, caused some dilution of time and talent so that a few projects are not on their original schedules.

Please don't hear this a criticism of anything, and perhaps this has already been done.  I think we all do a great job.  I just know that donating activities would like to have feedback and that will make them consider us again after we finish this project.
~ B2 ~ Wascally Wabbit & Gofer ~

Alan Downey

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Re: Eames Train Brakes - Official Work Thread
« Reply #177 on: June 27, 2019, 09:46:07 PM »
The biggest impedance to progress on this project has been the available time of those working directly on it, and to be honest- I was the roadblock for about a year. But the seeds of labor over the last year have borne fruit!

Last fall my father built a pattern for the control valve body. The pattern itself is traditional in its wooden construction and the presence of core-prints, but the molding strategy is anything but. The valve body has a number of cavities and internal features of fairly complex geometry. Producing core boxes for these would have been an onerous and time consuming task, so we decided to skip them! Instead, I designed sand cores which were to be 3D printed using a foundry-specific printing machine and process. We also decided to utilize this process for the valve body cover casting as well, and Ron Ginger very kindly produced the pattern using his CNC router. The tradeoff for using 3D printed sand cores, is that they get very expensive compared to traditional cores and the cost increases by a cubic factor with the overall size. But when the expected casting quantity and core complexity align, it can be quite the tool.

While I worked at Enterprise Foundry, I had been looking for opportunities to bring 3D printed sand cores into the workflow, but we couldn't find the right job to pair with the technology. The vacuum brake controller proved to be just the project we were looking for. So when a critical machine went down around Christmas, I negotiated trade- I would come in during the holiday in my capacity as a WW&F volunteer and make the repair using the WW&F's mag drill. In exchange, Enterprise would pour 10 total molds containing 3D printed sand cores purchased by the WW&F. On Monday, the first two molds were made and poured, and we are thrilled with the results. I want to publicly thank Enterprise for their involvement and donation for this project. Between the value of the iron itself and the time spent in the plant, this constitutes a significant contribution and greatly aided in getting this project closer to the finish line. There were also some great lessons learned from this use of printed cores which will directly apply to a major casting project on the horizon.

Over the last few months, Gordon Cook and Ron Ginger have been producing the many machined components for the internals of the control valve assembly. I don't have any pictures to share of their work, but I look forward to seeing all of their work myself! Finally, three smaller patterns for parts which will be made using traditional foundry methods were completed and handed off to Wayne Laepple to be made at Cattail Foundry.

Finally, as some have noticed- my time spent on-site in Alna has decreased rather significantly from what it had been for the last last couple of years. I recently started a company focused on patternmaking and casting purchasing for the preservation industry- piggybacking off the skills which I first learned through my involvement with the WW&F and my time as the quality engineer at Enterprise Foundry. These patterns and castings are somewhat of a "launch" for Preservation Pattern, showcasing just some of technologies that a 21st century pattern maker has at their disposal now.

Moving forward, Jason and I are planning a day or two to complete the machining on the valve body and the rest of the castings which will allow everything to go together afterwards as we work towards our goal of testing and implementing the complete system.

It was pretty fun going back to Enterprise to supervise the production of these parts. I went in on Monday morning to check the molding, and then went back at 9PM on Tuesday during the night shift to shake out the molds and knock off the risers.
Ron's Pattern


The mold


Core installed


The raw casting after being cleaned


My dad's valve body pattern


Mold made and cores installed


The valve body and the cap after being cleaned with the risers still attached


Note the first use of a chaplet for a WW&F casting. This is exactly what we wanted to see. The chaplet is centered on the location where a pipe fitting will be installed, so it will end up being drilled out- negating any concerns of complete fusion.


Both castings in a very raw state. They both still need to be ground before any machining happens.


Showing just some of results of the printed cores.


And the patterns which were just handed off to Wayne.

« Last Edit: June 27, 2019, 10:41:28 PM by Alan Downey »
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Steve Smith

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Re: Eames Train Brakes - Official Work Thread
« Reply #178 on: June 27, 2019, 10:08:51 PM »
Alan, with my iMac20 desktop, photos 2,3,4 and 5 didn't appear, nor did photos 7and 8. Am wondering whether anyone else had same problem. Anyway, thanks for a fascinating post!

Dave Crow

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Re: Eames Train Brakes - Official Work Thread
« Reply #179 on: June 27, 2019, 10:13:04 PM »
Ditto, Steve. Same problem on my iPhone.

Dave Crow