Buffalo Pitts Traction engine 1:16 scale

[Seattle Dave]

Gordon and all -

Do not mean to "hijack" the thread, but your work has inspired me to get out a project I started almost ten years ago from the same set of plans, but in 1/24 scale.  I came across it again while cleaning up and sorting out my new work area within the last few weeks, so snapped off a quick photo to share.  It's not quite as far along as Gordon's, and I (back when I owned R & D Unique) tended to make parts and gears and such in brass and then cast them in white metal.

I no longer own the casting equipment, but still have the lathe and mill and so forth, so perhaps should get busy on again on the "little brother" to Gordon's....

[Chuck Doan]

I hope you do get back to it!

[Mobilgas]

Dave,   What ever happened to R&D unique.?  You had some cool stuff....i have a bunch of your Gas pumps & mise detail parts.

[Seattle Dave]

I sold R & D Unique to my shop manager Tony in August of 2004, when I thought I was getting ready to retire!  As it happened, I worked another few years and retired in May 2008.

Tony operated it successfully for another few years, and then he had some pretty complex reversals in his own life that meant he could no longer devote the amount of time a small business demands, so he closed it down maybe four(?) years ago.  He still has all the tools and equipment and stuff, but my personal opinion is that it will never come back to life again. The hobby has changed a lot in the last few years, and not necessarily for the better, as our host has pointed out.

I founded the company in 1979 and had a good long run with it, so no regrets on my part, except that I had a bunch more things I wanted to do that never came to pass.  I actually had completed a number of master parts for kits that never saw the light of day.

Thanks for asking.  Nice to know we are still remembered.

[Frederic Testard]

Gordon, I had missed the last progress. Waouw. I share Dallas' point of view. It's a place to visit and visit again.

[Ken Hamilton]

Nice to know we are still remembered.

That's an understatement.  R&D was possibly the first honest-to-goodness model car
aftermarket company and the quality was light-years ahead of anybody else at the time.
The quality of those early parts holds up 30-some years later.  Thanks for your contributions, Dave.

(No wonder you're a Hall-of-Famer...... ...)

[michael mott]

Gordon your work never fails to inspire me, I have in fact taken a page out of your book to build my wheels for the quadruped, I have used brass but I also turned up some plastic rims so that if the brass failed I would be following your lead by the book. and In fact I intend to do that on some future project.

it really is enjoyable following your builds.

Thanks Michael

[Scratchman]

Thanks guys for your comments. Dave nice start on the little brother. It well be interesting to see how you do the wire type wheels . John give me a minute or two to think about that.

The wheels on the prototypes have 36 round iron spokes. Two layers of 18 spokes, and are a lot more complicated than the 18 flat iron spokes two layers of  9 that I used on the model. After I saw that some Buffalo Pitts traction engine wheels had the flat iron spoke. This would be the direction I would follow. It is importance to have 6 spokes on the ring gear so the three connection points will line up evenly.

I only had Plastruct tubing up to 3" in diameter and for the rear wheels I needed a piece  4" in diameter. So instead of ordering and waiting for a piece of  4" Plastruct tubing I used a piece of 4" sewer pipe which is 4-3/16" O.D. In order to use the larger pipe I would need to add 1-1/2 scale inches to the front wheels king post. And move the ladder 1-1/2 scale inches forward. This pipe is not the 4"ABS type  that would have a wall thickness of 1/4" and 4-1/2" O.D., but a  4"  ---AM BRAND SEWER DRAIN PIPE  AST--- With 3/32" wall thickness and 4-3/16" O.D. I only had a Short piece that I must of found on a job site.  The 4" Plastruct tubing has a wall thickness of  5/64 this is closer to  scale than the pipe I used.  The bad thing about the pipe I used is that none of the plastic glues I have  had any affect so all the styrene pieces are melted on with a number of applications of glue to get the parts to stick.  

Plastruct Traditional ABS Round tubing  (TB code) sizes start at 1-1/2 inches  O.D. On quarter inch increments to 6 inches.

The models wheels are a little toy like or a little out of scale with the tire thickness and the thickness of the spokes a little over scale. On the spokes I used two layer of 030" styrene and a layer of channel making them around 2 scale" thick the prototype is probably less than 1/2" thick. Next time I may go with thinner styrene maybe two layers of 020" an a top layer of 020" or 010" this would be a little closer to what is on the prototype.

I will try to do a SBS on the wheels later.

Gordon Birrell

http://www.flickr.com/photos/77318580@N00/

[Scratchman]

Here's Four photos of my progress.









Gordon Birrell

http://www.flickr.com/photos/77318580@N00/

[finescalerr]

Gordon, only you would notice such minor imperfection. To my eye the model is most satisfactory. -- Russ

[Chuck Doan]

I've heard that black is a slimming color...    Looking great, those spokes seem fine to me.

[Seattle Dave]

Great progress Gordon!  I do have a plan for the spoked wheels.

Might be worth noting that Buffalo Pitts was a pretty prolific manufacturer of traction engines and threshers at the turn of the 1800s and pretty well into the 1900s.  The one in the drawings was a 1900 vintage single cylinder 13 hp engine, and did have "wire" wheels with 3/4" diameter spokes.  Within a couple of years, BP went to flat spokes on their entire range of engines from 8 to 20 hp, so your model is pretty close to a later version of the 13 hp engine, or you could always claim the owner installed later wheels!

Data on color is a little hard to come by, but there is a following of BP in the steam restoration world, and consensus has it that BP engines were basically black boilers with kelly green steam cylinder and piping and bright red wheels and pulleys.

Now you (or maybe we?) should build the water trailer and threshing machine that often followed behind these rigs!  Would be quite a "train"!

[Scratchman]

Thanks guys for your comments. Dave I'm looking for info on a little water wagon.

Here's four more photos of my progress.









Gordon Birrell

http://www.flickr.com/photos/77318580@N00/

[Malachi Constant]

Oh my!  That is so very lovely ... all the clean, neat and detailed assembly shining thru.  Really sharp.  -- Dallas

[JohnP]

The only thing "toy like" is that you can't light a fire in the firebox. I find this model to have so many surface features, shapes and angles it is wonderful to look at. Very nice, very inspiring.

John