SpudFiles

Just a look at some of the things we make where I work, other than the occasional spud gun.

Are these products for restorations for museums or actual new production for replicas?

Nice job. On a related note I'm also working on a project for a Steam Locomotive at Sumpter Valley Railway. My project is much smaller. I'm building a battery charger to charge the 12 volt battery for the two way radio using power from the steam turbine.

Due to the stall characteristics of the steam turbine, the charger has to decrease load if the voltage sags instead of increase it as most voltage regulators do. If your clients are interested in charging 12 volt radio batteries, I could provide them with the important limitations of the cab and track emitter dynamo that must be taken into consideration when adding a radio. We will begin field testing in a few weeks.

The charging solution will draw no power at 25 volts and gradually increase load up to the 32 volt nominal balanced speed while charging the battery, then as the voltage regulation takes over the load will shed again and just maintain battery charge. Max draw will be 2.5 amps at 32 volts.

Info on the trains is here.
http://www.svry.com/

Nice to meet other steam buffs.

This is a train for a movie that was recently cancelled actually, but the orders that were already placed were allowed to go through.

@ Dewey

They do restorations here for things like this as well though.

Moonbogg wrote:They do restorations here for things like this as well though.

The only place I know of doing that type of work in Ca. is in Campo (east of S.D.) which is to far for your daily commute. Is it a foundry in the L.A. basin?

I'm surprised that those wheels are not balanced. To reduce vibration on higher speed steam trains the wheel has a counterweight to offset the mass of the crank.

Without it those tend to bounce down the track.


OOPS.. Nevermind. I just found the weight. It's out at the rim.

Sweet. Looks Like it would have been fun as heck to construct.

Esitmated weight?

Maybe I need to clarify, the shop did not pour the castings. They fabricated the huge frame and did some work on the wheels and assembled everything. The wheels are too soft to last on tracks and it probably was never meant to go very far or fast at all being a movie piece.

Very nice! I wouldn't think they'd bother in these days of CGI...

jackssmirkingrevenge wrote:Very nice! I wouldn't think they'd bother in these days of CGI...

Yeah thats exactly what I thought. Weird.