Australian diesel loco in 5? gauge.

[Four stroke FredParticipant @fourstrokefred]

The promised casting session didn’t take place due to the inability of the brain cells to visualise the correct shape of the core. Due to a seniors moment or total brain fade I had made the core a lateral inversion of what was required. I needed to make a mirror image of what I had previously made. As they say if you haven’t made a mistake you haven’t lived. That mistake has now been rectified and I hope to try to cast it over the weekend. Yes fingers are still crossed.

[Four stroke FredParticipant @fourstrokefred]

Today the working gauges were added to the “ back head” or the drivers end of the loco. A friend of mine (Jeff) designed , programmed and made them and in return I cast a small aluminium V 8 block for him using his patterns. The gauges read the water temperature and engine revs and work very well. They are both driven off the 12V power line and the rev counter uses a magnetic sensor in the flywheel. I still have some work to do on the engine to make sure it runs as it should do and an odd detail or to on the bodywork. There will be no problem with traction as the loco is heavy ( I will try to weigh it some how) and when you consider “Tich” the 3 1/2” steam loco is capable of pulling one person I don’t think this loco will have any problems.

[Four stroke FredParticipant @fourstrokefred]

Yesterday I fitted the two digital gauges to the DH loco. One shows the rpm of the engine in numeric form and also ‘swing’ needle and the second gauge shows the coolant temperature in C. Both gauges will show useful information and also add to the busy back head and make driving more interesting. A friend of mine ,Jeff, who is not only a model engineer but also brilliant with electronics designed and made the units. As he had made these for me I cast a set of aluminium castings for a small V8 that he has designed ( using his pattern). Both parties are very happy with the results if this combined effort. The photo shows the gauges at the top right hand side and on the left is the indicator of voltage in the circuits (12 and 5 volts) making use of a double throw switch.

[Four stroke FredParticipant @fourstrokefred]

On display at our local model engineering day of show and tell.

[Author]

Posts