2-8-0 mechanism 1

I am one update behind on my trestle progress. I have 120' scale feet of trestle deck completed...and I'm sick of it. I was originally planning for another 15', but probably will stop there. I've also built a bent jig and cut much of the wood for the bents.

In the mean time, the gearbox I'd ordered for my 2-8-0 arrived this past Friday. On Friday evening, worked on it a little. I discovered one problem...it won't fit on the axles BLI drivers. Because they are a split axle design (each half of the axle is of the opposite polarity with an insulator in between), I couldn't just replace it with a brass rod. Instead, I made a trip to my LHS on Saturday and purchased some 1/8" styrene rod. When I got home, I discovered that it wouldn't just slip into the gear and driver centers...they need 3mm axles which are just slightly smaller. So, I chucked up some styrene rod in my drill and turned it down to size with a file (actually an emery board)...


Once my caliper verified the diameter to be correct, I pushed on the gear, the bearings, and the driver centers.

I quartered it in my NWSL Quartering tool.

Another change I made was to get out my jeweler's saw and hack off the...the...at a loss for the correct word here...part of the crankpin which sticks out, but it is oversized on these drivers and therefore prohibited the use of scale side rods (it was wider than the rod that is supposed to fit around it). Here is the main driver in the process of getting hacked up:


After I made those changes, I decided that it was time to prepare new side rod blanks...this time from styrene...for the rods. The ends will be 6"x3"x15"...the location of the #3 driver will be 7"x3"x"15", at the main crankpin it will be 7.5"x3"x15", in between #1 & #2...and #3 & #4 it will be 2"x3.5", and between #2 & #3 it will be 2"x4". They will look great (and they perform well from testing).

Here are the new blanks on the drivers with the gearbox installed.


The gearbox will be completely hidden in the firebox. The motor will be in the boiler above the #2 & #3 drivers. I ordered it today...a Maxon 2232 Coreless motor for $20. The new drive train has cost me $36...$20 less than the previous motor alone. I've also ordered a 2232 for my beloved Nickel Plate hudson. Mine will be #175...the real NKP #170 is sitting in St. Louis...here