A Loco Built From Scrap
3/4 inch Scale Switcher
by C. J. Van Gorp
The Miniature Locomotive, September-October 1953
At this length it may seem like a chiseler's method of obtaining material to construct a locomotive. However in this region where steel is one of the main products, it is also one of the most difficult items to buy in small quantities. Priorities, due to the war didn't help matters either.
Fortunately, of all the places where discarded or scrap steel pieces were obtained, the purchase price was refused after learning that a little live steam locomotive was under construction.
Since the completion of the engine there seems to be no end to the offer of scrap pieces from these places. A great deal of learning is in store when you make it from scrap, but there is a greater gain when you make friends.
In the fall of 1949, after having completed a 1/4 inch scale 4-8-4 Southern Pacific engine from castings purchased from Little Engines the fruit of eight years' work was ripe. She could pull a load far beyond her own weight in adhesion, but there was a worm in the fruit. Being spirit fired gave a fire hazard for indoor operation, and curve radius offered a problem. Most of all the right of way from the lock washer on the third finger of the left hand was needed.
That same fall of '49 a set of drawings were acquired from George Taylor of Pompton Lakes, N. J., regarding a 3/4 inch switcher called Little LUlu. Brother Taylor is tops when it comes to live steam. He made the first engine of this type (an 0-4-0 job) that can lick the radius worm, burn coal, smell and grunt like an engine should, and pull six to eight men. Man, that's an engine!
Having only a 6 inch Atlas lathe and a second hand drill press at the time, the scrap pile was raided, and the frames came from two pieces of cold rolled stock 1/4 by 2 by 20 inch. These came from a friend's rejected idea for a power mower. The axles were turned from pieces of drill rod that at one time were shafts of a high speed pump. Bearings were specified as the regular bronze block type. An improvement was made by inserting a set of needle bearings from parts of an old adding machine.
Cylinders and pistons were cut from blocks of mehanite iron having steam chests of 1 by 2 inch bar stock rough drilled and finished, filed to form the box. These at one time were used to form candy on a marble surface.