A 'baby' Heisler

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Re: A 'baby' Heisler

Post by gregh » Sun Jan 23, 2022 12:32 am

part 4
Now there was the frames and everything else under the baseplate…………….
From experience I know that everything down low needs to be STRONG or the first derailment will rip something off. So I avoid glue and anything flimsy. It’s screws and metal where possible.

I drew what shape I wanted for the ‘curvy’ frames to scale, then cut it out and stuck to 2mm styrene.
(BTW, I buy all my styrene (plasticard) in 5’x3’ sheets). Then it was down to the bench grinder for a few minutes and a few more minutes with a file and the shapes were cut out. Then all the ‘fancy’ edging etc to finish up with using 0.5mm styrene.

Unfortunately I had placed the wooden ‘underframes’ too far inwards so that I had to contact glue and nail these curvy outside frames on the outside of the timber and that meant the air tanks and truss rods and king pins and other paraphernalia were too far ‘out.
So I added another 10x5 mm wood and covered with 2mm styrene, to bring them out far enough to allow the truss rods to line up with them, outside of the ‘curvy’ frames.
I made the truss rods and king pins from 2mm brass rod.
frames capt.jpg
frames capt.jpg (193.69 KiB) Viewed 5036 times
I decided I wanted a more ‘back woods’ cab so I covered the sides with 0.5mm styrene which I scratched with a hacksaw blade to simulate wood grain. Spray painted brown and then washed grey acrylic over it.
wood cab side.JPG
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Greg from downunder.
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Re: A 'baby' Heisler

Post by philipy » Sun Jan 23, 2022 5:39 am

That looks good Greg. I do like the 'faded weathered wood' look, especially.
Philip

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Re: A 'baby' Heisler

Post by GAP » Sun Jan 23, 2022 10:04 am

ge_rik wrote: Sun Jan 09, 2022 8:23 am
philipy wrote: Sun Jan 09, 2022 6:14 am A brilliant example of keeping things which "may come in handy one day". :D
SWMBO can never understand why I say that!
I'm glad I'm not the only one who does that. I see there are now TV programmes which get people to declutter their homes. No chance they would be welcome here. I'd spend the whole programme arguing why I should hold on to that box of wood offcuts or container full of secondhand screws.

Rik
PS BTW the loco is coming along really well, Greg :thumbup:
SWMBO looked around my mancave (after she snuck in) and said "you will have to clean this out one day" my reply "no I won't that is the kids problem when I am gone".


Loco build is looking great there Greg as usual another fine bit of modelling.
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Re: A 'baby' Heisler

Post by gregh » Thu Feb 17, 2022 9:45 pm

Progress continues and there is actually something to see.
So it was back to the boiler. I wanted to add as much detail as possible before I glued it to the baseplate.

The headlight came from the original Bachmann loco that provided the boiler. I had to lower the mounting and move it forward to overhang the boiler to clear the balloon stack. I tried a yellow led but it needed 20mA to be seen, so I used a warm white led with a couple of pieces of yellow cellophane around it to give a more ‘keroseney’ look. It runs at just 3mA – those white leds are super efficient. (The circuit that I use requires a very low current less than 5mA)

I haven’t decide on a rear light yet. I think there should be one but I don’t have one similarly shaped to the headlight. And then where would it mount? On the bunker or the top of the cab?

Back on the chimney, for the top ‘ember catcher’, I tracked down a small conical mesh ‘strainer’ from an old kitchen water tap for the top. I had some really fine brass mesh ‘stashed away’ and used it to form the cylindrical part. I turned a groove in the plastic to fit the brass ring I used around the mesh and then epoxied in place. (Whatever the plastic is, it sure smells when turning it, but at least it didn’t melt.)
HEISLER complete (2).JPG
HEISLER complete (2).JPG (308.62 KiB) Viewed 4820 times

The cylinders are part of a pen barrel. I used balsa used for steam chests covered in 0.5mm styrene. End caps are styrene glued over steel washers to get true circles. The bottom, angled ends were filled with cork (it was easier to cut circular) and are screwed from below and epoxied to the base.

The air pump is from the same pen barrel which had ‘grooves’ already there! Not quite prototype but good enough for me.
Some 240V electrical wire became the steam pipes to the cylinders and some leftover handrails from various loco builds we re added.

Because of my hatred of bells on locos – bells belong in church towers – I left the bell support in place but removed the bell !

And I decided it would be worth the effort to make the front of the cab from (styrene scribed) wood to match the cab sides and get rid of the porthole windows. That meant filing the rivets and other details off and covering with the scribed and scratched 0.5mm styrene as described previously.
Then I decided that a corrugated iron roof was more in keeping with a bush loco appearance, so I used my usual method of using take-away aluminium baking dish and a paper corrugator, glued on with silicone sealant.
To simulate rust, I sprayed the aluminium brown then sprinkled swarf from around my drill press and lightly sprayed again to hold it in place. The swarf had bits of wood, metal and plastics. I had seen others use sea-salt but I had none. Then when dry, I sprayed grey and then later brushed off most of the swarf.
HEISLER complete (4).JPG
HEISLER complete (4).JPG (168.02 KiB) Viewed 4820 times


So now it’s onto the electronics.
Greg from downunder.
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Re: A 'baby' Heisler

Post by ge_rik » Fri Feb 18, 2022 8:29 am

That's really come together well, Greg. It certainly captures the essence of the original. Your description of the techniques employed makes me hanker for the days before 3D printing entered my life. There's something really satisfying about re-purposing everyday objects to solve modelling problems.

Hats off to you! :salute:

Rik
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Re: A 'baby' Heisler

Post by Lonsdaler » Fri Feb 18, 2022 9:18 am

That is a fantastic model in the true spirit of repurposing/recycling. I'll look forward to the obligatory video to see it in action. And of course, the chimney is 'the biz'👍
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Re: A 'baby' Heisler

Post by philipy » Fri Feb 18, 2022 9:21 am

Amazing use of bits and pieces, well done Sir!
ge_rik wrote: Fri Feb 18, 2022 8:29 am Your description of the techniques employed makes me hanker for the days before 3D printing entered my life. There's something really satisfying about re-purposing everyday objects to solve modelling problems.
I must admit that I do sometimes wonder if I make life harder for myself by using the printer instead of just grabbing a sheet of styrene. Then again, I enjoy the challenge of forcing the CAD and printers to do what I want, not what they seem determined to impose on me!! :oops: :lol: :lol:
Philip

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Re: A 'baby' Heisler

Post by gregh » Sun Feb 20, 2022 9:26 pm

Lonsdaler wrote: Fri Feb 18, 2022 9:18 am That is a fantastic model in the true spirit of repurposing/recycling. I'll look forward to the obligatory video to see it in action. And of course, the chimney is 'the biz'👍
Thanks. Once I get the soldering iron hot and stuff all the wiring in, I hope there will be a running loco video 'real soon now'.
Greg from downunder.
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Re: A 'baby' Heisler

Post by gregh » Tue Feb 22, 2022 9:45 pm

I then considered the weight distribution between front and back. The chimney and boiler with the balloon stack, and the batteries in the boiler weighed 230g. The cab is more or less over the wheels, so the only weight at the rear is the bunker and electronics therein. They only weigh 100g. So I had to add around100g of lead at the back. I checked the weight distribution by ensuring the loco balanced at roughly the centre like this..
balancing.JPG
balancing.JPG (65.18 KiB) Viewed 4693 times

Now came the electronics.
For those of you not familiar with my method of RC, I’ll go into a bit of detail
I use Hobbyking 2.4 GHz controllers as made for model aircraft.
Tx.JPG
Tx.JPG (180.34 KiB) Viewed 4693 times
You can see I have 3 different locos controllable from this one transmitter – and I have 10 transmitters!

I had a couple of 18650 LiIon cells reclaimed from an old laptop. I checked that 2 cells, with around 8V, gave a suitable speed. (see post 1)
The Hobbyking receiver and batteries are pushed into the boiler once the cab is lifted off.
batt and Rx composite.jpg
batt and Rx composite.jpg (378.91 KiB) Viewed 4693 times
There is a 3.7A solid state fuse (Polyswitch) mounted on the batteyr, to protect against short circuits. Charging is by connecting alligator clips to two ‘studs’ under the rear buffer beam.

The electronics is then pretty much all my own design.
I use a Hobbyking ESC for speed control and it just plugs into the ‘throttle’ output of the receiver. It has an in-built undervoltage detector to protect the LiIon batteries from over-discharge.

The rest of the electronics is based on a Picaxe programmable microcontroller – I know they are old technology, but I understand them and see no reason (yet) to learn about Arduino et al. The small picaxe 08M2 type has just 8 pins, runs off 3-5V and importantly has a white noise generator and PWM speed controller built in (but not used in this case).
Direction control is via a 5V coil, relay. I use the picaxe to decode the receiver pulse stream for the right Tx stick which I use for changing direction. It then picks up or drops out the reversing relay. The headlight control is also done here. (there is no rear light yet)

The same picaxe produces the steam chuff sounds. It takes the motor voltage as input to change the chuff rate. The chuff is just a white noise (generated by the picaxe) filtered and amplified by an LM386, 2W amplifier.
The chuff rate for a Heisler is still an unknown to me – I think the gearing is about 2:1 so it should chuff at 8 chuffs per wheel revolution I think. I’ll try and track down some videos.

And there is a sound to tell me if the Rx has lost the transmitter input too!
Unfortunately the are not enough pins on the Picaxe to let me have a whistle sound.

All this electronics is stuffed into the bunker – the wood load lifts off for access.
electronics composite.jpg
electronics composite.jpg (1.11 MiB) Viewed 4693 times

The speaker is mounted in the bunker facing into the cab and is a tiny speaker made for laptops.
speaker mounted.JPG
speaker mounted.JPG (126.1 KiB) Viewed 4693 times
And the amazing thing is IT WORKED FIRST GO.

I just need to add a driver and fireman, and maybe a rear light, and the lettering/numbering and it will be done.
Greg from downunder.
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Re: A 'baby' Heisler

Post by philipy » Wed Feb 23, 2022 5:23 am

All looking good now and congrats on getting it all to work first go. That is always satisfying! :D
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Re: A 'baby' Heisler

Post by ge_rik » Wed Feb 23, 2022 9:46 am

I should imagine that your years of experience in making electronic controls with Picaxe contributed slightly to your success :D
It looks great now you've done all the detailing. Even more satisfying knowing it works as well. Have you had a chance to run it with a train?

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Re: A 'baby' Heisler

Post by gregh » Thu Feb 24, 2022 10:19 pm

philipy wrote: Wed Feb 23, 2022 5:23 am All looking good now and congrats on getting it all to work first go. That is always satisfying! :D
Thanks Philip.
I haven't had a chance to run it outside yet - 8" of rain here in the last 3 days.

I have been searching for videos of Heislers to try and determine how many chuffs per wheel revolution. But I cannot find a video where I can see the wheels and hear some good chuffs at the same time. Still, as you can't see the wheels on my loco, I guess it's a bit academic.
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Re: A 'baby' Heisler

Post by gregh » Fri Feb 25, 2022 5:09 am

I did manage to get a run between rain showers at a mate's place where his track is above 'flood level'.

So here's the link.


I measured the chuff rate and found it is only chuffing two and a half times for each wheel revolution. Which in theory is way too slow - should be maybe 8 times. But it sounds OK to me. What do you think? Maybe increase the rate a bit?
BTW it is traveling at 15kph in the video.
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Re: A 'baby' Heisler

Post by philipy » Fri Feb 25, 2022 5:43 am

I do like that and it looks OK for sound and steam sync to me, but I have no idea what a Heisler sounds like, so I'm no real judge! I don't think it would hurt to increase the chuff rate a little, but 8 sounds like it would be a bit much.
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Re: A 'baby' Heisler

Post by Lonsdaler » Fri Feb 25, 2022 3:39 pm

Well having watched a video of a Heisler, I would agree that the beats should be faster, but can you do that whilst keeping the same pitch? Anyway, it's a lovely looking working engine :thumbup:
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Re: A 'baby' Heisler

Post by Scrat » Fri Feb 25, 2022 6:27 pm

Way too slow.

See here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSaAjtFu-Ow

At 4:55 on the gradient you can count the beats per revolution.

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Re: A 'baby' Heisler

Post by ge_rik » Fri Feb 25, 2022 7:13 pm

Scrat wrote: Fri Feb 25, 2022 6:27 pm Way too slow.

See here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSaAjtFu-Ow

At 4:55 on the gradient you can count the beats per revolution.
Looks to me like 8 beats per rev

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Re: A 'baby' Heisler

Post by GTB » Fri Feb 25, 2022 11:46 pm

gregh wrote: Fri Feb 25, 2022 5:09 am I measured the chuff rate and found it is only chuffing two and a half times for each wheel revolution. Which in theory is way too slow - should be maybe 8 times. But it sounds OK to me. What do you think? Maybe increase the rate a bit?
BTW it is traveling at 15kph in the video.
Heislers had the reputation of being the fastest of the US geared loco designs, so presumably they have a lower gear ratio than the other designs. Apparently why the Kiwis used them in preference to Shays.........

Did a search, but couldn't find a definite answer to the gear ratio on a Heisler. It was at least 2:1 I think. So 8 chuffs per rev of the wheels would be reasonable.

The exhaust of geared locos at anything but a crawl is more of a continuous roar than definite beats. Especially a 3 cylinder Shay with 3:1 gearing, which has 18 beats per rev of the wheels.

Regards,
Graeme

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Re: A 'baby' Heisler

Post by gregh » Sat Feb 26, 2022 12:11 am

Scrat wrote: Fri Feb 25, 2022 6:27 pm Way too slow.
See here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSaAjtFu-Ow
At 4:55 on the gradient you can count the beats per revolution.
Thanks for finding that link. It sure looks like 8 chuffs per rev.
But as GTB says you'll never hear any chuffs at that rate except at very low speed. I will have a play around with the program and report back.
Greg from downunder.
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Re: A 'baby' Heisler

Post by gregh » Mon Feb 28, 2022 10:21 pm

After much experimentation on the floor (too wet outside) I found that using 8 chuffs/ wheel revolution at anything above about 15 kph scale speed, just sounds horrible with my sound circuit.

And I guess it’s the same with a ‘normal loco – you can’t hear individual chuffs above maybe 40kph. So with that and the fact that a mate said that it’s an old loco so goes slower :lol: , I decided to do the following in the sound program.
At ‘just starting speed’ which I measured at 4kph, it chuffs at the correct 8/rev. As the speed increases the chuff rate reduces, so that at 15kph (about half throttle, and the fastest I’ll ever run) it’s chuffing at 5/rev and at the unrealistic top speed of 30kph, it chuffs at 3.5/rev.

I know – not prototypical, but it’s my loco and it sounds good to me. And you can’t see the wheels anyhow.

When (if) it stops raining I’ll get a video to demonstrate.
Greg from downunder.
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