# Building of the OR&W #53



## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

After being in the 7.5" gauge hobby for many years, by dad decided that it was finally time to have a steam locomotive. After a lot of research, and talking with folks, he decided to go with one of the RGS #20 "bolt together" kits. This is a 2.5" scale, 7.5" gauge 2-6-0.


This was a few years ago, and once we started getting parts and attempting to assemble them, we realized that this was definitely not a bolt together kit. Unfortunately, with limited machining experience, and little time to learn, we decided to seek help. We found a friend that has had a lot of experience working with 7.5" scale locomotives and is an extremely good machinist and craftsman.


The locomotive is not finished yet, but we are hoping to do our first steam-up in February at the earliest, possibly May. 


Since I have about 35 photos total, I am going to be adding them with dates and descriptions in later posts. 




This first batch of photos was taken in April of 2008. This was around the time we came to the realization that we were not going to be able to finish this project ourselves. We were able to assemble this much by ourselves and we tracked it around our club track to make sure it was not to stiff. It tracked fine, but we could not get it to run on air.


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

July, 2008:

We are putting the locomotive and tender into the trailer to take it and meet our friend who is finishing it for us. At this stage, we have finished the tender but still were unable to get it to run on air.


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

March, 2010:


Got the Check Valves, these are jewelry for the locomotive, almost to pretty too use.


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

April, 2010:

An example of some fine work by our friend, this is a list of changes he made to the headlight: 


"I put the finishing touched on the headlight for the RGS-20 tonight. There were a few changes to what was supplied. 
1. Had to fix the feet. They were not bent correctly and would not let the headlight sit flat and level. 
2. The wiring lit the number boards and headlight at same time. Rewired to allow independent control of headlight and number boards. 
3. There was a sheet metal screw holding the headlight in place. I removed that screw and made an actual latch. 
4. The pins that number boards hings on was just a piece of 1/8" stock. I made actual pins with heads and the on side were latch is had to be made in 2 pieces."


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

January, 2011:

More amazing work:


"A picture of the smoke box getting finished up in preparation for the boiler. The boiler jacket is progressing well. Another trip to the sheet metal shop and I will have the jacket done. and ready to paint."


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

March, 2011:


"Here are a few pictures of what I have been working on. 

1,2 are of the throat sheet being fitted before the rivets go in. They show the side sheets as well. Plan to finish the throat sheet then flip the boiler end for end to do the back head. Hopefully the back head is not as tedious. 

11 is picture of the boiler bands being fitted showing the clamps. The bolts are #6 and clamp are about 5/16" tall, 5/16" wide and 5/8" long."


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

March, 2011:

We were finally able to go down and visit our friend and take a look at how our engine was progressing. 

I was surprised by the size of the bell, it actually has enough weight to carry through and sound like a real bell.


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

June, 2011:

He got a coat of paint on the boiler, and started work on the pilot. He is actually using round tube the same size as our boiler tubes like they used in real life.


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

And finally, up to date with all the progress so far. This last batch of pictures is up to date.


"Well today I finished up the paint (except one minor touch up, which I will do later) on the RGS20 boiler and before the mosquitos got too bad got the smoke box mounted. The only thing left to do is install 1 last boiler band between the boiler and smoke box and it will get mounted to the frame for the last time."


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## Ray Cadd (Dec 30, 2008)

Really nice. Yeah, most of the large scale "kits' are not exactly 'bolt together', with maybe the exception of O.S.
Are those Barry's check valves?


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

Posted By Ray Cadd on 07 Oct 2011 12:51 PM 
Really nice. Yeah, most of the large scale "kits' are not exactly 'bolt together', with maybe the exception of O.S.
Are those Barry's check valves? 



Yes they are Barry's check valves. Beautiful work he does.


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By ChaoticRambo on 07 Oct 2011 12:58 PM 
Posted By Ray Cadd on 07 Oct 2011 12:51 PM 
Really nice. Yeah, most of the large scale "kits' are not exactly 'bolt together', with maybe the exception of O.S.
Are those Barry's check valves? 



Yes they are Barry's check valves. Beautiful work he does. 



Is that Barry Hauge of Super Scale Locomotive? I have some of his appliances on my ten-wheeler. He has beautiful parts for your steam engines. A good friend for many years here at Los Angeles live Steamers.


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## Ray Cadd (Dec 30, 2008)

Yeah, and be sure to check out his injectors if you haven't already. I run two Economy's on both my large engines, and they definately do the work.


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

Gary,

Yes - those are Super Scale check valves

Ray,

We have 2 economy injectors for her, plus a hand pump and an axle pump - we will always have a way to put water in her.

Here are some photos of the boiler mounted, hopefully for the last time:

To give you a frame of reference, those drivers are 8.5" in diameter.


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

"The first 3 pictures are of the pilot. I have everything fitted and held together with Cleco's. Time to take it apart Glass bead everything then rivet together and get it painted and mounted. This was fun little item to make with all the compound angles."































"The last 2 pictures are the exhaust stand. The union is the connection for the blower. The larger threaded tube will be the steam pump exhaust. Looking at the top the large hole is for the pump exhaust and 4 smaller holes are for the blower. This was also fun to make. The blower passage and pump exhaust where kept totally separate from each other. I wish I would have take some pictures before I silver soldered all together. The blower passage only goes a little over 270 degrees of the diameter. I did this so I did not have to worry about sealing blower steam from around the exhaust tube."


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

It has been a while since I updated this post. I have gotten three more batches of photos.


December 6th:

"Here are a couple of pictures of what has been going on here. I finished the smokebox plumbing. The first pictures shows the inside of smokebox. The line on the left is the main steam supply from the dry pipe to the cylinders. The line coming from upper right is the blower line coming from the hollow stay. Looks like the line has a kink, but it is due to the compound bends and the way the picture was taken. The line from lower left to lower center is the pump exhaust. The Second pictures is the smokebox front installed. It should not have to come off again until I do the initial hydro then to clean the tubes the first time. In this picture you can also see the elbow and union in place for the pump exhaust. 


The second 2 pictures are of the water gauges temporarily in place. The water gauge on the right has a union between the boiler and the gauge, and the on on the left is directly attached to the boiler. I want to see what your preference is. With the union in place it place the water gauge about an inch further away from the boiler. I am afraid with the union in place it will place the water gauge in a position the could get hit and also make it difficult to fire. The bad thing about no union, is that the water gauge has to disassembled for removal or maintenance. Not that big of a deal Your choice."


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

December 12th:

"The air compressor castings arrived from Ulin Locomotive works, and they look great. I was surprised they didn't cut the sp or risers off. So there will be a little more clean up."


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

February 5th:

" Here are a few pictures of what I have been working on. I have the all the parts made for the air pump I just have to get the model bolts to put everything together and finish the fine tuning of actuation rod for timing. I needed to put the cylinders together with center casting to verify the dimensions for the mount to the boiler so I needed to put the gaskets in for the final dimension. Needing to make the gaskets I tried something, I put the gasket material in my printer and since I drew everything in CAD I just copied the bolt pattern and other openings and hit print. Worked out like a champ, I know how I am doing gaskets from now on.
I finished up the Air Pump mount for the boiler. The majority of the pictures are of the mount and the air Compressor on its mount. I am going to do all the plumbing like this then take the air pump back off to paint and assemble.
"


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## Phippsburg Eric (Jan 10, 2008)

Wow that is a REAL locomotive! you are doing a beautiful job on her. In that scale what you do has more in common with full size practice than with g-gauge model practice!


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

Posted By Phippsburg Eric on 09 Feb 2012 06:19 AM 
Wow that is a REAL locomotive! you are doing a beautiful job on her. In that scale what you do has more in common with full size practice than with g-gauge model practice! 
It sure does.

I actually just recently purchased a scale turbo generator for it. So when under steam, the locomotive will be completely self sufficient. It will make its own electricity, and compress its own air (although we will always have a battery backup and backup air compressor just in case).


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

"Here is a small update on what been going on with OR&W 53 (RGS 20). I have been working on plumbing which encompasses many different items other than pipe. I had to make some 3/8" unions. No one makes a union in 3/8 so I had to make a few. I also took time a couple of weeks ago and machined the sand dome and steam dome. They fit really nice. There is a shadow on the sand dome in the picture, but they fit really nice (beats grinding to fit as someone said to do). I have to finish the mounting lugs on the inside then I can paint them. 

For the plumbing I started on the fireman's side, that side has the most lines. I have everything in place forward of the air pump. I made pipe hangers to support everything under the running boards. You can see the pipe hangers in the picture. The 3 lines in the picture are axle pump supply (3/8), Air Pump Exhaust (5/16) and hand pump delivery (5/16). They are not final installed yet, once everything is in place I will take it all back off to paint. 

Also attached are a couple of pictures of the johnson bar and the pilot. The pilot is just sitting up there. The coupler pocket is being painted then that can go on for the final time."


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## livesteam53 (Jan 4, 2008)

This is coming together nicely. 

Thanks for the update.


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

Posted By livesteam53 on 14 Apr 2012 01:56 PM 
This is coming together nicely. 

Thanks for the update. 
Thanks Mark, we are still planning to have it running this summer, so hopefully in a few months I will be posting videos in stead of pictures


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

Been a while since we got any pictures:

I had to make some special fittings for the injector starting valves in order to be able to keep the piping close and neat. The fit just like the solder fittings, but are threaded 5/16 MTP. I have most of the piping under the running boards done. I had to fit the running boards so that I could everything lined up and get holes in proper places. In order to get the running boards lined up I had to install the cab. So the running boards are installed and now take everything back off for paint and final assembly. I got the new steam dome done and now the safety valves actually fit in the confines of the casting. I should be getting the turbo generator in the next week or two, then I can finalize the wiring, conduit and electrical boxes.












































I got the gauges mounted so that I can start working on plumbing the cab. 3 Gauges, Boiler Pressure is in the center. The Air reservoir is to the left and brake line pressure is to the right. I plan to have a shuttle valve so that Brake line pressure will either read train line or locomotive.
I have the injector starting valves installed on the turret and the blower valve is center on the turret. All regular of the regular used valves are very easy to reach and think they will coordinate nicely with piping to keep everything neat.


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

beautiful!


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Looks like you used some of Barry Hauge's beautiful stuff on the plunbing and the safties.









Beautiful locomotive!!


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

Thanks guys, my dad and I are very excited to get our locomotive. Jeff is doing a wonderful job of finishing it for us (so far above our skill level). 

Yes, we do have a good number of Superscale parts as well as some custom made by Jeff and some from other companies as well. That cab is going to get a lot more filled because there are 8 available outlets on the turret and 7 of them will be used. And the throttle will be coming through the hole just beneath the center gauge.


Also a note - the wheels under the cab of our locomotive in the one photo is NOT for ours, I believe Jeff just had them sitting there.

Still hoping to be able to post VIDEOS before the summer is out


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

"I did some final assembly and testing of the air Compressor tonight. There is a slight leak on the back side of the shuttle valve that I will fix when I paint it. I dont have the air cylinder on. I wanted to make sure the steam end was good to go. I had to redesign one of the valves in the head. The way it was originally designed didnt allow enough porting (in my opinion) so I changed it and seems to work good. The steam end is a little tight but this is on about 20 lbs of air. Enjoy."

Video clip of the air pump off the locomotive:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqex...ature=plcp


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

Well, a few weeks back we had gotten another update. I must admit, I forgot to post it since I was working on my own website.

So here it is:

"I have been making some progress lately. Attached are a couple of pictures of the air compressor completed except for the cylinder drain valves. They just arrived from COLES today (After being on order since January). I decided to wait to install them, they are 1/8" copper tubing which with my luck would get damaged multiple times before I finish the engine.
I tested the air pump today. I used a cylinder I had which was ~316 cubic inches for a test reservoir, the locomotive reservoir is ~260 cubic inches. The air compressor pumped the test reservoir up to greater than 80 psi in about 10 minutes. The pump ran great with no issues. I could not get the pump to stall out due to back pressure because of a couple of air leaks in the fittings and hose to the test reservoir. I did not want to over tighten the fitting because it was just temporary and needed to get it apart easily.
In one picture I placed the compressor on the boiler mounts just see what it looked like. As soon as I get the mounts painted the compressor is ready to mount for last time and finish the plumbing."




















Also of note is the fact that the turbo generator finally shipped and was received a few weeks ago!


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

"I remember many years ago I wanted to make bullets on my Dad's lathe. So at age of about 8, I wasted lots of his brass making bullets. Well I have went back in time and made some bullets the other day. Picture 1 is of my new bullets. Picture 2 and 3 are them installed. Picture 4 is of the sight glass for the displacement lubricator for the Air Compressor. I have been doing lots of little things for the engine. These little things have been adding up."


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## placitassteam (Jan 2, 2008)

That is really cool!! Did you ever get it to run on air? Looking forward to seeing more pics.


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

Posted By placitassteam on 31 Aug 2012 04:34 PM 
That is really cool!! Did you ever get it to run on air? Looking forward to seeing more pics. 
Yes, the fellow finishing our locomotive has built some other steamers and is a master machinist. He had to do a lot of reworking, but the locomotive does run on air.

The last word we got is that it should run in October.


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

"I got all the gauges mounted on the gauge board and lights on. Just note the lights will be brighter. I only have a 4.5 volts power supply and they are 6 volt lamps. The last picture is of the platform for the Generator. I have to glass bead it and paint it then it will go on for the final time."


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## Andre Anderson (Jan 3, 2008)

You might consider running them at 4.5 volts, you will get a much longer life out of the bulbs and at 4.5v they seem bright enough to be able to see the gauges. The rest of the locomotive is looking good.


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

Well, its been a long time since the last update, and I must admit - I have not been reporting everything going on.


However, I am excited to say that she is coming home this week.

We will be testing and breaking her in this week, and will be going down to a nearby track to run her hard this weekend. I will be sure to take video.


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## Phippsburg Eric (Jan 10, 2008)

OH MAN!!! Now THAT is somethin' else! 

Great Job!


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## HampshireCountyNarrowGage (Apr 4, 2012)

HOT DAMM!!!! That is one beautiful locomotive.


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

As promised, here is a video of her running:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4f25mw-XQo


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By ChaoticRambo on 04 Jun 2013 09:09 AM 
As promised, here is a video of her running:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4f25mw-XQo 
Wow! Very nice!









As I am a west coaster, I had never heard of the Mill Creek Central Railroad. But I DO NOW! Nice private railroad. He loves bridges.







The scenery in that area is beautiful!

Beautiful locomotive. Sweet "stack talk"







Thanks for posting.


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

Thanks Gary.

Mill Creek Central is a great railroad that is a ton of fun to run on, we are lucky we only live an hour and a half away.


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By ChaoticRambo on 05 Jun 2013 07:38 AM 
Thanks Gary.

Mill Creek Central is a great railroad that is a ton of fun to run on, we are lucky we only live an hour and a half away.

That's about the same travel time as we had when we ran at Seymour Johnson's Goleta Valley Railroad, in the foothills of Montecito (south of Santa Barbara). 

What are the grades there?


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## ChaoticRambo (Nov 20, 2010)

The mainline has a couple grades between 2-3%, perhaps slightly more. But the logging line has some 5% grades I believe.

He has a really well done track diagram with elevations viable on his website:

http://millcreekcentral.com/Track/Track.htm


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