My grandson's train

iamapiper

iamapiper

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This is the cab for a train that I am building for my grandson. I have acquired a ranssome 728d 4wd mower that will act as the power unit. Because train wheels for something like this are mostly unavailable, I have bought a Leblond regal 13 lathe to true up the wheels I intend to cast for the train. Though on a whole it seems a daunting task I have learned that all big tasks can usually be broken up into relatively simple little tasks or at least I hope so. The front party in the image is going to now be used to make a tender to ride behind the power unit. The mower I am using will allow me to attach the cab directly to it saving having to move all the moving parts, do I hear a hallelujah., The unit will be about 8 ft and be powered by the 28 hp diesel in the mower.
AGKZ3934.JPG
 
What a great project! Looking forward to seeing how it develops. :encourage:

-frank
 
Winegrower said:
I would really like to do something like this for my grandkids but by the time I finished, it would be for their retirement parties.
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Actually my original plans which would have entailed installation of motor, drive train, etc was greatly shorten by the mower which I purchased. I can now mount the cab directly to the mower frame adding a hood between the engine and cab to fill in where the hydraulics are housed. Bingo; probably a couple months saved. I will post a picture of the mower and more details when I get the chance. Never say die.
 
TorontoBuilder said:
Got rails?
Lucky grandchild


I should have added that one of my goals is to have a garden railway when I get a rural property.... that circumnavigates a fish pond of about 5 acres
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Finding material suitable for rails without having to sell my wife will be a challenge. you will be looking at 1600-1800 ft of track, nice.
I am going for 2500 initially since I have 25 acres.
 
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iamapiper said:
Finding material suitable for rails without having to sell my wife will be a challenge. you will be looking at 1600-1800 ft of track, nice.
I am going for 2500 initially since I have 25 acres.
Click to expand...
I know, if I won the lotto I'd do 7 1/4" track and use trains to shunt goods between shop, greenhouse, house and storage areas.
 
When I read the title I thought I was going to open it and see a model train set in a basement,

Certainly not what this is.

Kinda cool.
 
I was sorta involved in 7-1/2 gauge (1-1/2 scale) for a while. Then life kept getting in the way and I am no longer physically able to pursue the idea. I had intended to use real rail at some locations and 3/4 angle for most of the rest. Instead of casting wheels, I intended to use disk brake rotors from small automobiles and cut off the disk, leaving just enough for a flange. The hubs I actually started with were of many sizes, I was going to pair them up to make wheelsets. Cast aluminium cores with steel bands would be a fairly solid substitute.

What you are conceiving will be a larger gauge, 12-15 inches. And only remotely scaled. I would say that with iron wheels, you could easily use 1-1/4 or 1-1/2 angle iron for track. Switches, turnouts, can be easily fabricated from angle iron, especially for 4 wheel cars. 2 X 4 crossties on 10-12 inch centers, ~30 inches long. Pressure treated of course.

There are many web sites on the subject, mostly for semi-scale 1/8 scale, 1-1/2 "/ft, 7-1/4 " gauge. I don't have the links handy, but you could spend days prowling around to find something in your area of interest. I am partial to electric propulsion, steam is dangerous and a hobby in itself. Gasoline driven electrics are not as common but definately a viable system.

.
 
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