Frisco 1522 Locomotive - 1.6" Scale

Setting up a Workshop

2015-06-16T20:02:00-07:00

I’ve never had a formal machine shop area in my basement like my wood shop. Actually for many years my Bridgeport mill sat in my woodshop milling more wood than metal but I needed to move out and get it away from the saw dust. It then spent several years stuffed in a corner of the basement. When I started to look at this project I started to carve out an area in the basement for the metal shop. I had most of my equipment in one area but it wasn’t all that organized. I decided I would be better off taking the time and build a proper, albeit small, machine shop now before getting waist deep into the project and then decide to do it. So the last 4 months has been spent painting the floor, running electrical, installing lighting, hanging drywall and putting in a drop ceiling. It turned into to be more work than I wanted since given that I was itching to start making chips but I’m really happy I took the time to do it. The lighting alone is wonderful and having plenty of 110 and 220 outlets makes life more pleasant. The floor was painted with Rustoleum’s garage floor paint followed with their clear coat garage floor paint. It makes for a really nice floor that is easy to sweep and makes wiping up oil a snap. We’ll see how it holds up with the metal shavings. I plan to keep the floor pretty clean but metal shavings are a little tougher on things than wood shavings.

Next I moved in the machinery. I had made up a set of ‘machine skates’ from some 1/2” plate and a bunch of roller bears for wheels. They work really well moving around the equipment with easy. I rigged up a small HF bottle jack to jack the equipment up and down to get the skates under them and it has been a snap moving the 2600lb mill around the basement. With all the equipment in place I could officially start making chips. I still have a few pieces of equipment to acquire or move in; a grinder, hydraulic press and a sturdy work bench and vise but this will get me started. Here’s a quick run-down of the equipment.

The Bridgeport series II milling machine I found on E-Bay close to ten years ago. I drove up to Detroit from St. Louis and hauled it back. I think I paid $1800 for it and I have found it to be in pretty good shape. Yeah the X axis has a little backlash in it but hopefully I soon get my DRO running on it and that will help deal a little bit with that. Reading the dials so far has not been an issue. It came with a power feed on the x axis, minus the handle which is currently being fulfilled by a set of vise grips. It actually didn’t work when I bought it but I found a replacement motor on E-Bay and swapped out the field windings and that fixed it. I have since bought power feeds for both the Y axis and knee and I’m already loving not having to crank the knee up and down by hand. It has the original 3 phase motor on it which I have been running using a static phase convertor from Grizzly without issue.

My main lathe is a 13” Southbend that I also bought off E-Bay $1500. I had to pick it up in Southbend Indiana so I too the opportunity to drive by the old abandoned Southbend Lathe Works complex which has since been demolished. The lathe definitely has some hours and wear on it. I completely tore it down, sandblasted everything and sprayed it with an industrial Sherwin Williams paint that was really nasty stuff but tough as nails. I replaced all the felts and both the cross feed and compound screws and nuts with replacements from Miller Machine and Fabrication. Brian is great to deal with and highly recommend him. He is also a live steamer enthusiast himself so he understands. I also replaced all the felts and added a Hitachi variable frequency drive to it to make speed changes a snap. I still need to adjust the bed and get it all trued up as best as possible. I have been running insert tooling it using a Phase II tool post and tooling from LatheInserts.com So far I’m pretty happy with it but I’m still a newbie so my experience is not too broad yet.

Other equipment includes the ubiquitous 4x6 horizontal band saw, a 2 ton arbor press, a small Taig lathe from my RC submarine modeling days and a recently acquired old Chinese vertical bandsaw which is variable speed. I think I’m going to really like the vertical bandsaw. It has a 12 inch throat and a pretty large table surface but it doesn’t take up a lot of space. It does include a blade welder/grinder but I may never take the time to wire it for 220V in order to use it. We’ll see. Additionally I had been on a tooling collecting/shopping spree but I think I have enough to keep me going and am now going to just wait until the need arises before getting more tooling. At least that is what I’m telling myself.

And lastly I now have space to hang my ‘wall paper’. Now let the fun begin!

Gathering Parts

2015-01-03T05:24:19-08:00

A 1.6” scale live steam locomotive is heavy, large and contains a lot of parts. And lets face it, the castings and components supplied by the live steam cottage industries are not inexpensive. So the builder has to decide which path to take acquiring the necessary parts. The first path is that they purchase the parts as they are needed. The advantage being that cost is spread out over time and you reduce the risk of buying items that you won’t use. The inherit risk being that you could get part way through a build and the supplier you are relying on suddenly disappears from the vendor landscape. That was my biggest concern and so I decided to take the alternative path of trying to buy everything up front that I could that was either single sourced, unquestionably required or had limited availability. Unfortunately that includes almost all the the components that I would need except for the largest purchase, the boiler. It would be best for me to wait until I had something close to a rolling chassis that I could use to come up with the correct dimensions for the boiler. I figured a boiler would run $7000 or more so delaying that purchase was also financially beneficial. There are at least choices in boiler vendors.

So I started to compile a list of what I needed along with potential sources. I knew of no vendor that supplied a set of castings for a 4-8-2 mountain class similar to the 1522 so I going to have to kit bash as much as I could. My initial thoughts were to start with the Little Engines Pacific castings and stretch it out. Mike Venezia from Little Engines is just awesome to work with and I do regret not using more of his casting because of that. At one point I was about to throw-in the towel on getting the right castings for the 1522 and was very serious about building the Alco Hudson from Mike. The main problem with the Little Engine’s Pacific were mainly its 1.5” scale and large driver size. I really wanted to build in 1.6” scale given that I would be running on 7.5” gauge track and the 10” drivers of the Pacific were almost 1” too large in diameter.

My local club, St. Louis Live Steamers, has two members that have Railroad Supply heavy Mikados. The Mikado pictured is near completion and is being constructed by Denis Neidrauer and Bill Webster. It was instrumental in my decision to look at the Mikado’s castings. This locomotive had a lot going for it in terms of similarities to the Frisco 1522. The prototypes for both were similar sized locomotives built during the same time period and were constructed in a very similar fashion. After looking through the Mikado plans from Railroad Supply I determined I could use roughly 60% of the parts including the more complex items such as the cylinder castings and delta trailing truck. The Mikado is a wonderfully designed engine developed by Railroad Supply back in the 1970’s when Chet Peterson was in charge of it. The kit can be built into a very realistic model. One of its highlights is the set of construction drawings that were hand-drawn by Jim Oetting. They are beautifully executed, easy to read and contain a lot of information. My main concern with choosing the Mikado was vendor related. The original Railroad Supply Corp business was sold over time and it seems that somewhere along the lines the Mikado patterns and inventory were sold separately and ended up in the hands of Railroad Warehouse. If you search around on the Chaski live steam forums you will find several folks that have dealt with both Railroad Supply Corp and Railroad Warehouse and you will find very mixed results with both of them. Additionally, my local club members were equally concerned with working with either vendor. Since I was going to be spending many thousands of dollars on the set of castings I was nervous to say the least. I originally contacted Railroad Supply because it was my understanding that Railroad Warehouse would not sell partial kits but it quickly became evident that Railroad Supply was not in possession of the casting patterns and while they were working on building new ones, I was not in a position to wait for that period of time. So I reached out to Bob Perdersen owner of Railroad Warehouse, told him what I was trying to build and what I wanted to purchase and verify whether I could get what I needed from him. I will say that this has been my only dealing with Bob but it was an absolutely great experience. He responded very quickly with the price list and after a conversation over the phone was very willing to sell me whatever I was looking for. I sent him a list of the castings and he quickly responded with a quote. His quote also included a photo of all the castings laid out on a table with my name and the date written on a piece of paper along side them as proof that he truly had them available. I didn’t ask for this but it sure boosted my confidence that I would be able to get the parts. He had 4 casting that were at the foundry to be poured in the next couple weeks and right in step I received an updated photo with the new castings sitting with the other parts. He even sent me photos of the boxes ready for shipment, a list of every part and which box it was in, the weights of the boxes and the tracking numbers. I sent a cashier’s check FedEx and had the boxes sitting on my table as seen in the photo 5 days later. Now I was sure I could proceed with the Frisco 1522.

I still was missing some important items though. I contacted Mike at Little Engines and bought the pilot truck components I needed. Mike’s transaction was, as always, perfect. I also needed drivers. The drivers for the heavy Mikado are too small with a diameter of 8-5/8”. As mentioned earlier, the Little Engine’s Pacific drivers are too large. The 1522 has 69” drivers when scaled down come out to 9-3/16”. I was happy to find that Real Trains had drivers with the right amount of spokes that were a little over 9” in diameter. The counter weight would need some modification as the 1522’s counter weights are flat across the hub-side edge instead of curved but I could probably deal with that. The spokes sure look spindly on the prototype compared to the casting. If the outside diameter is found to be too under-sized I will just turn them down and add steel tires like the prototype. I may do that in either case. Real Trains also carries the Laird style crossheads that I needed beautifully cast in bronze in 1.6” scale. Score!

The remaining big item was the frames for the locomotive and pilot truck. I was going to have to have these custom made. I had the erecting card of the 1522 which showed the frames in detail so all I needed to do was find someone local that could cut them out for me. Fortunately I found David Klos at All-Cut who has cut similar parts for another club member. He can cut all kinds of materials and steels up to 8” thick. I drew the frames and some other components such as frame spreaders and brake hangers that I needed and he quickly returned a quote and I had them two weeks later.

Now that all the big items were in hand I could worry about the small items. Many of them have been sourced but I still have some on order and obviously there will be more components needed over time but I definitely have everything necessary to start. I’ve included a list of parts and their respective vendors in the references listed to the right. Now I just need to put my machine shop back together which I had emptied out in order to paint the floor and then I can start making chips. I really can’t wait to get started.

Gathering Information

2015-01-01T07:50:00-08:00

Finding reference materials and drawings on the Frisco 1522 has been a been been met with mixed results. Initially I couldn’t find much and then after posting a couple requests on the Frisco.org website, a great website for all things Frisco related, I was pointed to an article on the Frisco 1500 series locomotives in a back issue of Mainline Modeler magazine which contained a wonderful set of drawings. The article was published in two parts in issues May and June 2003. The drawings were contained in the May issue which I was able to locate on Ebay. I haven’t located the June issue yet but was told it contained no drawings, only photos. With the Frisco 1522 in the local museum I had all the detail photos I could use. It is sort of a bummer that the locomotive is parked between 2 other locomotives which preclude one from being able to step back and take a nice photo of the entire locomotive. However, with it being under roof and sheltered on the sides I would much rather have that then left out in the weather. As nice as the Mainline Modeler drawings were, they provided very little information on the true frame shape and the rigging that was hiding behind the wheels.

My second and most significant find was when I was given a copy of the erecting card for Frisco’s final order of 1500 series which included engines 1520-1529. Fellow club members put me in contact with Don Wirth whose knowledge on the 1522 and the Frisco railroad in general is quite expansive. He operated in both engineer and fireman capacity on the 1522 in its excursion years and is quite a modeling wizard to boot. The copy quality of the erecting card he had was a little rough in places but it had all the information I needed. I could use it to generate the drawings I would need for the components that were not available and have the water-jet cut from steel. This included the frames, equalizers, frame spreaders, pilot frames and other items. The first order of business was to get the erecting card scanned and clean up the drawing. This took quite awhile sitting at the computer but I believe the result was worth it.

You can find large size scans of both the drawings and erecting card to the right under ‘References’. The files are quite large. The erecting card is presented in two versions; the original version with the prototype’s dimensions and then a copy with all the dimensions in 1.6” scale.

My final source of information is from trips to the Museum of Transportation here in St. Louis and taking hundreds of photos and measurements. I now have all the information I needed to start designing out the frames and other items that I could not find from vendors.

Introduction

2014-12-26T17:59:47-08:00

Welcome to my Frisco 1522 project diary. Like many I have long been fascinated with trains and spent many hours in my youth constructing and running model train layouts. First Lionel and then HO in my later teens and college years. I then settled into family life and the trains were put on the back burner for 2 decades and replaced with my daughters' soccer games, dance lessons and a myriad of other memorable activities. As my girls are moving on to college, I have found the return of some space time in my life that I had so much of when younger and the thought of trains has re-entered my mind. Over the past few years I have been more and more attracted to metal working and the idea of building a live steam locomotive seemed like a natural fit for both interests. I also wanted to find a hobby that was easy to move in the event that we moved. The idea of ripping up a large indoor or garden railroad after many years of construction was not an enjoyable thought. I am also attracted to the idea of traveling with the locomotive to visit other tracks. My wife has always been very supportive of my 'crazy' hobbies and I thought this would be a way for us to see travel to different parts of the country and enjoy some of the fruits of an 'empty-nest'. But that will be several years away.

I live in the St. Louis, Missouri area which is partly to explain my choice of prototype. The Frisco 1522 is a local 'celebrity' in the train circles and with it being on display at the Museum of Transportation it is very convenient to drop in to take a picture, or make a measurement or to just gather inspiration. The 1522 ran the excursion circuit for many years and I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to take a trip on her and see her in action. My father, father-in-law and I rode her for a day trip up past Hannibal, Missouri and back and it was quite a treat. It was the first and the only main-line steam locomotive that I have ridden although I do hope to change that in the not too distant future. There are other reasons for selecting the 1522. I like the size of the engine. It is big enough that it has that large steam engine feel without being terribly large to haul or so overly complex like an articulated that I risk never completing it. I also have access to several individuals who have extension working knowledge of the prototype from its excursion days. Probably the most important or practical reason was that I could purchase almost all the necessary castings to build a fairly faithful reproduction of it. Prototypical appearance is important to me. With so many in my live steam club familiar with the locomotive, I feel a little extra pressure to make it look believable. I'm not a rivet-counter but I want it to look right from 50 feet away. And to top off those reasons, it turns out that I am my parent's 1st child, born on the 5th month on the 22nd day so I can always claim it was destiny.

Now this project is going to take some years and I thought it would be nice to log my progress so others can follow. I will update this blog when I have something interesting or useful to share and will include be sure to include both the triumphs and failures. I'm a newbie in this hobby and while I have an engineering background, a decent mechanical aptitude and have joined the local live-steam club to make sure I had experienced builders available to answer questions I know there is just too much to know in this hobby for everything to be perfect on my first engine. I will also be starting a thread on the The Home Machine (Chaski) - Live Steam - Builders log to facilitate a more conversational log for my fellow live-steamers to help steer me past perils and provide invaluable information.

So please return from time to time and check in to see what is new. It should be a pretty interesting journey. Here's to smooth rails ahead!

Jerome Simon
St. Louis Live Steamers