Dave You say you have a can motor. If you have a cylindrical motor fitted into a tubular brass housing, this is actually the original Nakamura(sp?) coreless motor. These motors are undersized for this

Dave That was Matthias N. Forney's conclusion, in a mid 1890's editorial review of the construction cost savings directly attributable to the choice of 3' gauge over 4' 8.5", all other factors being e

Nigel I agree that South Africa is a good example of successful narrow gauge operation, but note that the 42" gauge is the regional standard gauge, and that their 24" gauge agricultural development li

Nigle All of your examples are also somewhat special cases. The Great Falls and Canada was primarily the southern half of a coal carrier, connecting the then best best known regional coal district, at

Russ EBT was clearly a special case, being from circa 1905 on ,the transportation arm of a coal company operating in a district where the rolling coal seam topography precluded any large mines. That c

I have recently been combing the technical press for articles on tunnel construction, and ran across a 1905 evaluation of the cost savings to be expected, in constructing and operating light railways

Dusty These are typical laced channel tower posts, also once widely used as bridge truss posts. Most of the weight is in the webs of the channels, which can vary considerably, within any one size. Cha

Mike If you have a Westside K with a brass worm and brass idler, there is a rapid wear problem here, due to sliding contact of like metals. NWSL offered a Delren idler gear to correct the problem but

Don I have no experience with commercial products. But roofing slates are remarkably thin, about 1/8" in residential sizes, ranging up to ~1/4" for the largest monumental sizes, so scale to between .0

Bryan the NWSL insulator is a fairly tough acetyl resin bushing, not easily damaged. If you are moving wheels in, the bushing will move with the wheel. For moving them out, use the auxiliary v-plate t

Bryian & Len You could purchase NWSL 26" code 88 SG wheelsets, and a Puller, and push each wheel in 3 mm. So long as you preserve the axle's needle points, the modified wheelsets will still roll well.

Eric In North America, all-steel passenger car construction was initially sparked by subway construction in New York, with early fleet level common carrier purchases driven by the opening of New York'

Then there is the question of where paint was applied: Underside of any freight cars? Interior of box & stock cars? Platform car decks? Inside of open cars? All are doubtful, although wooden car era f

Keep in mind, when reviewing such prices, that semi-skilled day labor was then getting somewhere around $1 for a 12 hour day. Actual labor prices varied with availability, and could occasionally go as

Kent One way to remove the yaw from a truck is to put a compression spring under the head of the screw holding one truck. Use a very light spring. Kadee is your best source for very light compression

Kent My choice between the Microtrains 1015 and 1016 is based on how far back I need to go to get a screw in. Note that the 1019 offset mount version may be better in some situations. The centering ar

Kent Instead of Microtrains 1025 couplers, take a look at their 1015 and 1016 couplers. These have a revised centering spring that both eliminates coupler bounce when pulled, but also make it easier t

Eric When John Cummings, now deceased, was with NWSL, they offered a range of 0.3mm modulus straight tooth gears intended for use in logging engine models. I have no idea if these are currently availa

Brian In principle, yes. Practically speaking, this is probably something they are not set up to do, certainly not on a production basis. So this will be a custom job, and they will need to add an ext

Jim If these are the original "original Central Valley wheels", one wheel is pressed directly onto the axle and the other pressed over an insulating layer of lacquer. The insulated side's wheel is not