The taper reamer I mentioned before...

[zephyr9900]

Just Gary, that indeed was a mixed message, wasn't it? The Pioneer Zephyr is my favorite train of all time, and in 1997 I was a partner in creating an N-scale kit of the train. Being able to do the machining for the streamlined art-deco streamlined trains is really what got me into CNC (a machinist friend where I worked at the time did the compound-curved parts of the original body masters for me--I did the straight parts ) I'm still on the learning curve before I can sell new kits on my own.

The caveman logo just came to me one night while watching the insurance commercial. Sometimes I feel like a caveman--I started with graphite pencils and drafting board and slide rule, but was the first to use CAD at my company (still have the 5.25" floppies and registration sheet with my signature after the company discarded the original software for ACAD)

But you have prompted me to integrate the avatar with my screen name.

And that might be A Hudson (it is a beautiful Henry Dreyfuss design--he was a great industrial designer), but this is The Hudson for me (actually Burlington streamlined two of them, with detail differences, to serve as backup power when the early diesels broke down).

It's good to hear from another Zephyr fan, and thanks for noticing the significance of my screen name.

Randy

[justgary]

I don't know, Randy. The caveman avatar still just cracks me up, so you need to bring it back after a short interlude as the Zephyr.

I always liked the pure art-deco look of the other Hudson, with its round lightening holes in the drivers.

Alas, I am truly a fan of the steam era. Having ridden behind a few of them back in the '70s, I am in awe that the country was, at one time, almost covered in them. I'm still impressed with the ability of the U.S. to produce huge, high-quality equipment over a hundred years ago.

Of course, one look at a pocket watch tells you that we could also do very small and detailed work at the same time. I own watches that I would barely be able make with modern equipment, and yet they stamped them out with precise regularity. Oh, and they were beautiful, too.

Regards,

- Just Gary

[Don Clement]

Randy,

The accordian foldout frontispiece of my copy of “Modern Machine-Shop Practice” by Joshua Rose is of the Modern American Freight Locomotive copyright 1887. I learned drafting in high school using a graphite workstation. (T square, triangles, HB, 6H pencils, etc.) Never did learn to use that 6” K&E slide rule that I still have because in 1972 I bought an HP 35, one of the original models with the ln error (never did send it back to HP to get it fixed). At the time it took 10 weeks to get from the HP Neely sales in Fullerton and cost $400. I learned programming (Blat IV Fortran) on 80 column punch cards run on an IBM 360. My first PC was an Apple that used an audio cassette for data storage and a Sony color TV for the monitor. I later moved up to an IBM 8080 PC with a mono green screen monitor. IIR It came with DOS 1.1 (still have that PC) Learned u-Programming register by register using twos complement addition (even before assembly language) from Osborne books on an 8008 u-processor. Things have changed a lot since then. I am now working on completely simulating my product on a laptop using Solidworks nonlinear simulation (COSMOS) from the Solidworks 3D model. I am now making changes to the virtual prototype and testing the results without ever doing any real machining. This year is Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday. I think the next step is to build a program that mimics the evolutionary processes of nature and allow the design process to follow small random changes in design (also combine two different design elements that mimics sex in nature) and the testing could be done using COSMOS to find the fittest surviving design. I hope to let the computer optimize my design in this way. I would then realize the fittest surviving design with my Tormach.

-Don

[zephyr9900]

Just Gary, I hear you about the pocketwatches. When I was laid off from my last job (15+ years, second time working for the company) I almost bought a beautiful 1940 Hamilton 992E. 21 jewels, Elinvar non-magnetic mainspring, adjusted to 5 positions, incredible machine work. I've only been able to ride behind steam on a few museum/tourist railroads, but have been fortunate to chase some steamers like UP's 3985, 844 and ex-SP 2472 and 2467 (I also photoetched a few replacement gauge hands for the latter when it was being restored in Oakland). The latest thing I've done with my Tormach and Proxxon spindle is below. Wheels for a CB&Q 10-wheeler in N scale that may or may not see the light of day. I'm making two sets plus spares for the ones I know I'll bungle up along the way. Tormach is capable of very nice and fine machining (someone with much much more experience and skill than I could probably make a pocket watch using a Tormach...)

Don, we seem to have followed similar paths, though I never got into low-level programming. Learned Fortran in the first semester of my senior HS year (punch cards and IBM 360), Basic in the second semester (Teletype terminal to IBM 370) and mechanical drafting in freshman college. My first PC was a Commodore VIC-20, and I wire-wrapped a mighty 3K memory expansion board to bring it to 8K RAM! My first gcode experience was writing a Basic program on a Mac Plus to do 4-axis wire EDM for an injection mold core. My second PC was a Northgate 286 (if I remember right, I paid an extra $1k for the 287 coprocessor) and I'm typing on its keyboard right now. If I can help it, I'll never type on anything but an Omnikey/102. Spare one in the closet if this one ever gives out, and a third that I raid for replacement Alps switches. And I do have the DOS 3.3 disks from it. I have a Pickett 803/600 matched pair (10"/6") on which I barely remember how to multiply, but for a geek pun I want to make a daisho (Samurai sword pair) style display stand for them. For high school graduation, my parents paid 3/4 of the cost of an HP-45 which I only got to use through college--it was stolen from my car in San Jose within a month of coming out to California after I graduated.

I've read about the Darwinian-style programs used to optimize antenna arrays and such, and that sounds neat for optimizing your focuser (which is already way cool!)

Randy

[justgary]

Randy -

You mean like this 992E? Don't forget the gold center wheel, too. It looks like I came a little closer to buying one than you did. I have a few other railroad watches also, but the one I'd *really* like is a 950E. It's essentially the same watch, but the split bridges allow you to see much more of the wheels and escapement. Of course, it commands its own price. I would like to attempt to make a 16 size watch from scratch one day (using CNC, of course). Maybe when I get just a little older...

I lived in Los Angeles for a few years (back in another life), and took time out one Saturday to go down and see the SP Daylight Northern at the station downtown. My wife went with me, and she was impressed with the size (insert joke here) of the thing. It was much larger than the Southern Mikado (#4501) that I had ridden behind about ten years earlier. It turns out that a friend had taken the whole day off that Friday and got photos of it at Tehachapi. Thanks for the heads-up. He printed a great photo for me, and I still have it on my wall.

He also volunteered on the engine they restored in San Bernardino. He brought in photos of the day they moved it out of the park. SP basically laid snap track sections down on the road, moving the track ahead of the engine until they got it to a siding. Simple.

I have not done any railroad modelling since I was in high school. I always wanted to get back into it, but never have taken the time. It never dawned on me until you posted about the Zephyr kit that I could use my Tormach to make N scale models (but it did dawn on me that I could do a heck of a job on a 3/4" scale live steamer). I have not used the Proxxon yet, but keep threatening to. I may replace my 35 year old Dremel with it and step up to a router for a high speed spindle, like many of the other guys have done.

That's really great work on the drivers. Are you kitbashing another model, or also milling the whole body? Post more when you get a chance, please.

By the way, I didn't get to use an IBM 360 until I was in college. My first job out of school was real-time Z8000 assembly for inertial nav systems, and I've been hooked ever since.

Regards,

- Just Gary

P.S. I am ROTFLMAO about the thought of your two sliderules on a daisho-type display. Do it, then post pictures.

[zephyr9900]

Just Gary, you may have the caveman avatar if you like (I can email you the files--100-pixel wide for this forum and 80-pixel wide for PM), though your Scoutmaster avatar is a good and honorable one. I think I'm going to stick with the Zephyr avatar to match my screen name.

Randy

[zephyr9900]

Just Gary, you must have posted while I was posting! Yes, that is the bar-over-crown case style I was considering. What a beaut! Good on 'ya, as the Aussies say.

Ah, 4449. I forgot entirely about her. A guy I used to work with designed the American Freedom Train paint scheme for her back in '76, and had some neat home movies to show. I have some really neat video (that I need to transcribe from VHS to MPEG) of the 2472-4449 double-header south out of San Jose in 1991. I was driving my Jetta and Keith was standing up through the sunroof videoing. Fun times!

I've helped move a caboose with "snap track" but not a whole engine! Wore out a pair of heavy leather gloves that day, and blisters on blisters on my palms. Fun times!

My CB&Q K-4 will be entirely from scratch. It's the engine on display in my hometown of Lincoln NE, and conveniently was a popular branchline engine in the time and place I want to model.

OK, you and Don both have me on the programming. I've never done anything beyond high-level. (Darn, this forum doesn't have the "bowing" emoticon...)

Randy

[justgary]

Oh, no. The caveman shall always be yours, and I shall always think of you with the square in your hand. When you changed to the Zephyr, you convinced me that I needed one too. I couldn't really think of anything good, and then it just popped into my head. Of all the "knots" I have, that one probably is the dearest. I see lots of names and faces in that one.

I put a different one on my info page. Maybe you could put the caveman there, and someone will discover it in the future.

- Just Gary

[justgary]

So how much of the ten-wheeler do you have done? Have you been holding back photos? I'm extremely interested.

- Just Gary

[zephyr9900]

Well, I've got some drivers, Just Gary. But you've seen those. And a started 2D layout from a couple of old equipment diagram books (whose dimensions don't all match), and some photos of the real thing. It's early days still (as with too many of my projects--I get caught up in the equipment and techniques and not enough in the results...)

Randy

[Don Clement]

Gary Randy,

Not being quite prepared, it’s been quite a few decades since the scouts. IIR I was only a Life rank but did have the order of the arrow. I believe the roundhouse with the tall smoke stack is still there down in San Bernardino at second and Mt.Vernon. I hope someday to see high-speed maglev trains crisscrossing our country. At least with maglev we won’t need a sandman for traction.

-Don