Hello All
Stuart McPherson (Barney) has invited me to post in this forum after seeing a small article about my EIMCO 401 compressed air trammer in the January newsletter of Lea Bailey Light Railway Society in England.
You can find the whole newsletter here:
http://www.lblr.fod.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Newsletter-January-2019.pdf (http://www.lblr.fod.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Newsletter-January-2019.pdf)
After some thought, I decided finally to share my work with you and benefit from your experiences and your feedback.
I live in Switzerland and build fine scale brass models to 1:35 scale running on 16.5 mm track.
The first project I will present to you is the EIMCO 401 compressed air trammer, named "Whistling Pig". I found this thing by chance on the internet, and was immediately fascinated by the noise of the air motor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXvZ8luP7js (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXvZ8luP7js)
After some research on the internet I came across the website http://www.narrowgaugechaos.com/RPC/RPC.html (http://www.narrowgaugechaos.com/RPC/RPC.html) with many photos and a dimensioned drawing by Tim Stolle, which I used as a basis for the construction. Since the tank diameter was known (40"), I was able to scale the drawing accordingly and measure out the most important dimensions.
To check the proportions I quickly glued together a cardboard model and placed it on my layout. To compare on the right an Orenstein & Koppel MD2.
That fits!
As the next step I designed the chassis with the drive and sketched out all details.
Will be continued, after this first appetizer!
Hello Bernhard, welcome and I'm curious to see how it goes.
I look forward to the rest of the story. -- Russ
Welcome to the forums, Bernhard. OK, somebody has to ask: Are you going to put a sound decoder into the finished model?
Very nice work!
Welcome aboard! Very nice work on the "Whistling Pig", and what an interesting subject!
Thanks for the video link -- I've seen photos of compressed air locos but never saw one in action until now.
You do realize that "whistle pig" is a nickname for a woodchuck in some parts of the US? A great start, I'm looking forward to your progress.
Thank you all for your kind welcome to the forum.
Bill,
Of course the model is equipped with a sound decoder! That cost me a lot of time and effort. But more about that later.
Here we go!
First of all I have to say that I copied some tricks for milling from Frithjof (fspg2), who has very interesting posts in this forum.
The Frame
An MDF board is used to clamp the two brass sheets for the frame. A precisely fitting pocket is milled into the board and the raw brass sheets are fixed into it with double-sided adhesive tape. So you don't have to worry about the alignment of the parts, and they hold immovably during milling.
You can see the milled bending grooves and the pockets for the axle bearings.
On the right the parts have to be shortened to size. In addition, the holes Ø 0.6 mm for the fastening screws of the axle bearings are still missing.
The frame is now soldered together from the two parts
Then the floor for the driver's cab is soldered in.
The axle bearings are made of Styrene, because they are only dummies.
The front axle bearings can be adjusted with screws to tighten the drive chain.
The rear axle bearings are spring-loaded.
Impressive. -- Russ
Bernhard, I did think you would probably install a sound decoder with all the detailed work you were doing to build the model. Partly the question was being silly. I could imagine you with a microphone leaning over a boiling tea kettle trying to record the whistle noise to upload into the decoder, and then taking a further flight of fancy, imagine the model really running on compressed air rather than an electric motor.
Very very impressive and to get so much inside the little critter its beyond me !
Barney
Awesome!
Great work Bernhard
Bill - I presume it makes a "hissing sound"
Barney
Lovely work, Bernhard. I built an Eimco loco in 1:22.5 scale some years ago - sold it on a while back, but still miss it!
(https://i.imgur.com/25pLOLf.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/kKhbja9.jpg)
Bill
I just signed Bill into the forum. -- Russ
Really nice work Bernhard and Bill.
In addition to Tim's plan, I also posted a manual on the locomotive that shows a number of useful details about the drive train.
The direct link to manual is http://www.narrowgaugechaos.com/RPC/Material/Locomotives/Eimco/EimcoIndex.htm
Regards
Marty
Quote from: Bill Corser on September 18, 2019, 02:39:08 AM
I built an Eimco loco in 1:22.5 scale some years ago - sold it on a while back, but still miss it!
(https://i.imgur.com/25pLOLf.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/kKhbja9.jpg)
Awesome!!
Thanks all for your interest.
Lawton:
The compressed air whistle of the critter really sounds like the whistle of a woodchuck. We have these animals too, but they live in the mountains above the forest line.
Bill Gill:
I will remember the idea with the tea kettle perhaps for another project. In fact, I extracted the sound for the "Whistling Pig" from various videos. I will report about it later in more detail.
Barney:
Thanks for bringing me in here! And after seeing some of your posts I can only say: no false modesty.
Bill Corser:
During my internet research at the time I came across your post in the GnATTERbox forum. Great work! The new owner must be a happy man.
Marty:
This manual is really worth its weight in gold. Especially the spare parts catalogue, which shows many parts inside, which you don't see in other photos.
I wish there would be more such documents for my other projects.
And here we go again.
The trolley
The trolley consists of two parts, between which the gear is mounted. The gearwheels have a module of 0.3 mm.
The critter is driven by a Maxon motor (Swiss quality!) with a diameter of 12 mm.
The finished trolley with motor, flywheel and current collectors.
The trolley with the electronic components:
- Sound decoder (ESU Loksound Micro V4.0)
- Buffer capacitor (ESU PowerPack Mini)
- Loudspeaker (Zimo)
All components are equipped with plug connections so that they can be easily disconnected if necessary.
Finally the chassis is built into the frame. The whole troly is later covered by the receiver and can hardly be seen anymore.
Most impressive. -- Russ
Many thanks to Russ for allowing me onto the forum, and to Marty J, Ray and Bernhard for the kind comments. I've introduced myself properly here http://www.finescalerr.com/smf/index.php?topic=3008.0
Bernhard,
welcome to the forum! What an interesting prototype - and your transition into a model is gripping, too. I like your mixture of materials.
Cheers,
Volker
"Glückauf" Bernhard,
welcome to the realm of the mine railway model builder. Thank you very much for the interesting report.
Quote from: Bernhard on September 19, 2019, 07:29:08 AM
Finally the chassis is built into the frame. The whole troly is later covered by the receiver and can hardly be seen anymore.
Very impressive!
Thank you for your interest and your encouragement.
Let's continue with the turned parts.
The receiver
The receiver has a cutout at the bottom, so that it can be placed over the motor.
A radius turning device is needed to turn the curved receiver caps. Since I do not have one on my lathe, my good friend Werner kindly turned it for me.
The first test-fit on my layout. Looks good so far!
Now to the receiver fittings. Unfortunately there are no drawings for it, and they look a bit different on every locomotive. Therefore I have oriented myself on the Lea Bailey critter and estimated the dimensions from the photos.
First the main valve, which controls forward and reverse travel.
Marty, I hope you have no objection to me showing a picture from your manual here.
The two following photos of the prototype were taken by Lea Bailey Light Railway.
The receiver filling unit with quick coupling, stopcock, whistle, safety valve and pressure gauge.
Bernhard
Nicely made.
Very nice.
Bill
A really nice role model and great implementation in the models!
Thank you for showing!
@Bernhard
QuoteFirst of all I have to say that I copied some tricks for milling from Frithjof (fspg2), who has very interesting posts in this forum.
I am glad that you could take over something! It is rare that I hear such a thing - thanks!
Hi Bernhard,
No problem. The 15 or so EIMCO 401's that I have seen they were set-up all slightly different. I think that there were lots of modifications made in the field.
If you can make it believable looking it could very well have existed.
That said, here is a photo of the controls on a 401 in Challis ID that I took a couple of years ago that lots very similar to the manual.
Regards
Marty
THE WHISTLING PIG - As seen today Sunday September 22nd at the Lea Bailey Light Railway in the forest of Dean England
it was a bit wet
The wet pig
other side
the end bit
and a rocker shovel
The end port is one of the interesting differences in the 401 series. Some have it - some don't.
When it included in the the tank the orientation is slightly rotated off the vertical. I assume that facilitates access.
Here is an end just like the one posted by Barney.
And here's one without the port.
If you continue to scratchbuild models to that degree of perfection you'll have no time to finish your layout! -- Russ
Thank you for your interest in the project and your participation.
Marty:
I have already seen two different set-ups of the "Whistling Pig" pressure gauge!
The end port: I did not reproduce it, because the shape is difficult to produce in brass without a CNC mill.
Barney:
Thanks for sharing the photos. They are a useful addition to my project documentation.
Hopefully the trip was interesting despite the bad weather.
Russ:
That's exactly my problem. I always work on several projects at the same time. Some of them inevitably remain unfinished.
Here in between a short preview of two works in progress:
Bucket chain excavator Ertmer KB1
The 3D model
And the current status
TACL Fordson powered critter
(Fotos from https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/54360bb62162f10ae0b49c35 (https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/54360bb62162f10ae0b49c35))
The restored vehicle
Design in progress
Satisfactory. -- Russ
Marvelous work! The other projects look interesting too, especially the bucket excavator.
Thanks to all for not losing interest yet.
Ray:
As next I will report about this bucket chain excavator. Coming soon!
But back to the actual topic now.
Motor and gearbox are still missing. For that first two more pictures from Marty's manual.
The critter is powered by a five cylinder Type 200 rotary air motor. The motor is connected to a two-speed transmission.
Marty's manual also tells us how to drive the critter:
"The shift lever on the gear box has three positions. The left position (facing forward on the locomotive) is the low gear position. Central position is neutral in which the machine is in free wheeling and the locomotive will coast. The right position is high gear. The air valve regulates the direction of motion and the speed of the locomotive. The valve is spring-centered so that when the handle is released it returns to neutral. Neutral position blocks the air from the receiver and also acts as a brake on the air motor.
For proper operation of the air locomotive, the two-speed transmission should be first engaged in low gear. The hand brake should be released and air applied to the air motor for the proper direction of travel. As soon as the locomotive gets up speed it may be shifted to high gear.
To stop the locomotive the air should be shut off by allowing the air valve to return to neutral. If it is necessary to make a fast stop, the air valve may be thrown in the reverse direction...
... The brake is a parking brake only and should not be used for slowing down or stopping the locomotive. The break shoe is intended only to hold the locomotive and train of cars when the train has come a full stop."
I love it when I understand how things work!
So let's get to work!
The parts for the engine and the gearbox are made of Styrene.
The model compared to the prototype.
The drive is so large that there is hardly any foot space for the driver.
Bernhard
Cool. Sounds like the prototype was pretty easy to operate.
The next point on the to-do list is the unique sound for the critter.
I programmed the sound decoder with the LokProgrammer from ESU. This was a very annoying job, because the manual doesn't correspond to the latest software version. Many attempts were necessary until the result was reasonably convincing.
First a little theory:
In simple terms, each sound consists of 3 parts: the beginning, a loop (endless loop that can be played for as long as you like) and the end. It is important to use sound parts with as little ambient noise as possible. Then the transitions between the different parts must fit. And last but not least you have to find a loop that doesn't vibrate acoustically.
(I hope all the technical terms are translated correctly!)
In the picture below you can see, for example, the beginning of the driving noise at the top and the loop for the driving noise in the low gear at the bottom.
Now I extracted the sound tracks from different videos of Lea Bailey Light Railway. From these I then collected the sound parts that make up the complete driving sound.
Altogether I created the following sound files for the locomotive with WavePad Audio-Editor:
• Running noise of a compressor for filling the receiver.
• Filling noise generated by the air flowing into the receiver.
• Whistle of the compressed air whistle.
• Driving noise in low gear, with the noise switching to high gear at a certain speed. The frequency of the driving noise naturally changes with speed.
• Shifting back to slow gear with decreasing speed, until the end of the driving noise when the critter stops.
• Applying the parking brake.
The following video https://youtu.be/74DrkZnZtu8 (https://youtu.be/74DrkZnZtu8) is a first taste.
Overall, I am reasonably satisfied with the result.
The only minor flaw: The running noise doesn't end as soon as the critter stops, like the prototype. This could perhaps be changed with an axle-synchronous sound, which is typical for steam locomotives. For this I would have to install a magnet and a Hall sensor somewhere in the drive, but there is not enough space.
Bernhard
I like your approach to creating the custom sounds that you need for this project. I have read other modelers also are being frustrated with the lack of information for editing sounds on the latest version of the ESU decoder that had been explained for earlier decoders.
When you have finished, is there anyway you can post a short video so we can see and hear the "whistling pig" run?
"Glückauf" Bernhard, I have already created sounds for my mining locomotive myself. Only I had it easier, I could record the noises directly at the locomotive. Only the post-processing is already very expensive and sounds promising with your locomotive.
Hi bernard how are you doing.?
I like your sound chip there should be more around commercially what is available is terrible.No little engines in convincing environments.
But.
I looked at your U Tube clip some nice bits and pieces but what really took my eye was the motorcycle on the rail lines. I have seen some close-up pictures of this before is it your work? -very classy post some pictures if you have time
cheers Kim
Great job on the sounds! It really brings it to life.
I too am curious about the motorcycle-powered critter. Does it run or is it a static model?
Bill Gill:
It's really disappointing when you don't get a matching manual for a programming device that costs a proud 150 Euros.
Of course I will show the finished locomotive in a video at the end of this topic! Until then some patience.
Kim and Ray:
I assembled the motorcycle-powered critter from two kits in between. I would like to share it here http://www.finescalerr.com/smf/index.php?topic=3010.0 (http://www.finescalerr.com/smf/index.php?topic=3010.0) in a separate topic.
Now the critter has to be painted.
For the primer I use Mr. SURFACER 1200. This product sticks sufficiently well on brass and resin surfaces. However, cleaning the airbrush gun is always quite a mess, because the paint contains solvents.
For the topcoat I made good experiences with ModelAir colours from Vallejo. However, for the "Whistling Pig" I use pro color canary.
Now the critter (still) shines in brand-new splendour.
After painting, the assembly can be started.
The typical traces of rust, which decorate the prototype, are created by dabbing various brown tones with a fine sponge. I have noticed that it is much more subtle to work with than e.g. the chiping-technique.
Finally, the model is further aged with various Vallejo washes.
Finally, the compressed air hoses between the main valve and the engine are fitted.
The builder's plate was printed on a laser printer on grey foil.
The inscriptions were also printed on the laser printer on special decal paper. The quality, however, is not convincing because the film is not properly transparent. Maybe I'll replace it someday.
Looking back, I should have etched the logos on the frame. That would have corresponded better to the prototype.
Bernhard
Leave it alone; we could have done something better on every model and the Whistling Pig is extremely adequate. Make the next one perfect. -- Russ
Russ, you're absolutely right. And there are so many projects waiting to be realized.
Bernhard
Great model, but maybe for the next model.
(https://www.finescalerr.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.buntbahn.de%2Ffotos%2Fdata%2F7179%2F13P1240135.JPG&hash=07b35178fafee36aafcb5b617a827b02cbbc544c)
I prefer to use transfer labeling for labels. I draw the graphic with CorelDRAW let a Schwarzweis film produce per color with pass notes and then get the self-adhesive graphics back as for the labeling of these two locomotives.
Helmut, hat looks good! Sometimes professional solutions are really the better choice.
Bernhard
Now only the driver for the beautiful critter is missing. Fortunately, there are many very well modelled military model products in 1:35 scale that can be demilitarized with reasonable effort.
The candidate for the driver job is an Italian tank soldier.
He's taking his place for the first time.
What doesn't fit is done by an experienced team of doctors, i.e. carving away all military insignia, changing the cap, replacing the boots with long trousers, partially cutting off arms and legs at the joints and positioning them in a new position, adding new hands, filling and sanding everything cleanly and finally varnishing. Done!
After the poor guy has recovered from the serious surgery, he sits relaxed on his critter, left hand on the main valve, ready for departure.
And here finally the critter once again in operation:
https://youtu.be/H-LxY_tqtsk (https://youtu.be/H-LxY_tqtsk)
https://youtu.be/ujcfFxbZq6Q (https://youtu.be/ujcfFxbZq6Q)
Thank you all for your interest and your feedback in this topic!
Bernhard
Thanks for the Youtube video, but i am confused, which is normal, why does it sound like a combustion engine? it's Air driven, shouldn't it be noiseless or make hissing sounds? I've never seen a tank locomotive in use, only stationary,
Please advise
thanks
Mr. Potato Head
now in exile in Florida U.S.A
Very impressive. Only improvement I could see is to make it so that his head turns with the direction of travel. I like the sound.
Most satisfactory. -- Russ
Excellent work all around!
Hi Bernhard
What did you use for the Fordson engine in the TACL loco? Enquiring minds need to know....
Thanks for your interest!
Mr. Potato Head:
The locomotive is not driven by pistons/cylinders, as is the case in a steam locomotive. Rather, it is equipped with a five cylinder rotary air motor, which generates this characteristic exhaust noise.
5thweel:
The one with the head is a nice idea. Unfortunately the space is not enough for a corresponding drive.
Krusty:
The tractor is a resin kit from Plusmodel (No. 448). I will report about the construction in a separate topic.
Bernhard
Whistling PIGS in action at the lea Bailey mine on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukdBQDvTzr8
Barney
IF it does not work the You Tube reference - just enter Lea Bailey Narrow gauge Whistling pigs on Youtube there are quite a few different versions with very good sound
Barney
Bernhard a lovely bit of modelling and excellent step by step information with loads of prototype stuff
looking forward to more of your modelling
Barney
QuoteThe tractor is a resin kit from Plusmodel (No. 448). I will report about the construction in a separate topic.
Thanks Bernhard.
Barney, thanks for sharing the link, and thanks to all for your appreciation.
I always find it interesting when I can learn something about the history of the prototypes for my models. So I would like to share the history of the Whistling Pig with you. The information comes from Lea Bailey Light Railway.
Manufacturer | EIMCO Eastern Iron & Metal Corp., Salt Lake City, Utah, USA |
Type | Eimco 401 |
Serial No. | 401-216 |
Year of construction | 1968 |
Drive | Compressed air, five cylinder Eimco Type 200 rotary air motor, 20 PS, with 2-speed transmission
Receiver filling pressure 7.5 bar (110 psi)
Working pressure 7.5 bar (110 psi)
Running distance with full charge approx. 500 m, or running time approx. 10 min.
|
Today's location | Lea Bailey Light Railway, Mitcheldean, England |
The critter was manufactured in 1968 at the Salt Lake City plant in the USA. He began his working life in Colorado and ended it at a mining company in British Columbia, which used it until 2012. It was then sold to the UK in 2015 and stored for possible use on a planned narrow-gauge railway in Isfield, Sussex. When this project seemed unlikely to progress, the critter was moved to the Lea Bailey Light Railway in May 2016 to make it operational again. After extensive overhaul work and a gauge change to 610 mm, the critter ran there again for the first time on 11 September 2016.
Of the more than 200 critters built, only 5 remain today. Whistling Pig is the only one outside the USA, and probably the only one that is still functional.
Bernhard
Quote from: Barney on October 19, 2019, 10:08:34 AM
Whistling PIGS in action at the lea Bailey mine on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukdBQDvTzr8
Barney
Funny thing, there was an advertisement at the beginning feature two Muppet pigs screaming!