1/4" C.H.B. Wilamette Loader

[james_coldicott]

last one but I have more if you want them. 

J

[Belg]

James, PM sent. Thanks Pat

[lab-dad]

James,

I think that modelling a machine in the early stages of use is much harder to realistically depict than something that has seen a decade or so of abuse in the woods. There is no where to hide errors. Brave!

Ain't that the truth!

The pictures are WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!
Please post more, let everyone see them.
Thanks a bunch!
-Marty

[Chuck Doan]

Thanks for the offer Marc. I still have a bunch of items I stashed away for my project. I got delayed waiting for the Vintage Reproductions cable and it killed my momentum. The sled just has one coat of Silverwood and I got stalled trying to figure out the color like Marty.

I recently started getting interested in building a junkyard Shay and I have been looking at older boiler coloring. Lots of blue some of which you can see in the streaks in James' pics.  I'm not sure exactly what colors to start with. Maybe some black and white to make a faded grey/black mottle. I have been mixing it on a palette to make colors. If I were to start I would look at real ones (locos too) to get a feel for what colors are there. The stack and cone might have some light rusting similar to a shay smokebox. They would probably not climb up there regularly for cleaning during a work period. The one in my Fotki album is a working machine although it isn't used regularly.

[lab-dad]

Marc,
If your cleaning out your O scale logging stuff I'll give it a good home!

Chuck were you answering my question or just speaking in general?
After looking at James' pictures I was thinking of the dullcoat/alcohol trick for the white.
Then some oil black for the shiny, now that you mention the blue I agree may be adding some prussian blue to the lamp black oil streaks?

-Marty

[Chuck Doan]

I thought I was answering the question.

[lab-dad]

Just so Marc doesn't think I am sandbagging here is a shot of the skids...



This is actually the 3rd one I have made for this project!
The plans I have been using (From Willamette) call for a sled of approximately 65 feet in length. Thats over 15" in scale! It just didnt look "right" on my RR. My sled is 48' long.
I was worried but then Jacq said his was 55'.......
Other than that is is made exactly like the Willamette plans call for.

The square mortises for the NBW's were made using square brass tube sharpened. I then use a fixture to center the tube on a hole drilled on my mill. The tube makes the square outline and I use a #11 to finish the hole. The mortises for the sled plates were cut by hand using a #11.

Thanks for clarifying Chuck.

-Marty

[marc_reusser]

Chuck: If you decide to continue on the Shay, and you need them, I have a full set of Kemtron brass castings and parts for a three cylinder drive set-up. I once bought these with a sim intent of building an abandoned loco...or for parts around a repair shed.....but that project is unlikely to ever materialize.

Marty; I have pretty much purged all my logging stuff. All I have left are a box of CHB and McKenzie detail parts (which I plan on keeping unless I see someone can really use, or needs, them on a build...and I have an AHD 3-drum hoisting engine kit that nobody wanted.   I also have a torn apart Bman Shay and a Backwoods detail kit for it......that's it. I am pretty much done with ever building anything O-scale logging related.

[james_coldicott]

Marty,

glad you liked the photo's.

A few more as requested...

James

[james_coldicott]

Next few are of the shaded side so the colours show up very differently...

[james_coldicott]

2 more...

and that is basically it I think.

Looking forward to seeing more of your progress 

James

[Frederic Testard]

How long did it take to assemble such a machine in the factory?

[NORCALLOGGER]

The plans I have been using (From Willamette) call for a sled of approximately 65 feet in length. Thats over 15" in scale! It just didnt look "right" on my RR. My sled is 48' long.

There were actually formulas for determining the sled size to be used for a given engine.  But, I think, like everything else these were open to individual interpretation.  During the era of rail transport of Donkeys the sleds were generally held to the 40-42 foot length for easy transport on a 40 foot flat car.  Of course, this only applied to the small to medium engines, for the larger engines the correct sled lengths were generally used and they were transported on 2 flat cars. 

One of the formulas I remember reading about called for the Fairlead to be 1.5 feet from the mainline drum for every inch of drum width. Example; If the mainline drum was 30 inches wide the fairlead should be 45 feet from the drum.  Easy to see how this formula could stretch out the length of a sled.

When I built my 3 drum AH&D in 1:20 scale I cut the sled back to 26 actual inchs it should have been 37 inches using the formula above.  That would really have taken two flatcars but I don't think it would have tracked well even with my 10 foot minimum radius track.
Later
Rick

[Ray Dunakin]

James, those are great pics! What a wonderfully complex machine. Nice to see it in such good condition too. Where is it located?

BTW, I liked your cover art on the recent "Annual" and the "Gazette".

[james_coldicott]

Ray,

thanks, and thanks!

The Loader is in Scotia, California alongside a Standard Gauge Heisler and a really cute little single cylinder, single spool Donkey engine...

Joanne and I came across them by pure chance when looking for somewhere to eat whilst travelling down through California after the Narrow Gauge convention in Portland a few years ago... serendipity!

James