Just a little excited

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Nooooo! I have many completely pointless talents, and one of them is an affinity with old engines, especially aircraft. I never have gotten my hands (Whitworth wrenches actually), on a Tiger Moth or Stamp. I have lots of experience with its child, the Chipmunk. A friend in Louisville has an early model, greenhouse canopy and all, and we went through that airplane like we were rebuilding it. I loved that upside down Gypsy engine, which was common to your Tiger Moth. There were some odd things about this particular airplane, too. The log book shows that Prince Charles solo'ed in it, and the engine wasn't built by de Havilland. It was built by Rolls-Royce, and had a small brass plaque on the crankcase casting making note of it. I never saw another like it and I have no idea why it was farmed out to Rolls, but apparently it was. The thing about those engines was oil consumption. Other inverted engines had the valve gear in a position that prevented it, but the Gypsy valve train was submerged, more or less. I was told that the more modern versions of the engine solved the problem, but I really don't see how.

I have done quite a bit of flying in a P-51 Mustang, again, Rolls-Royce Merlin engine and my Whitworth and English Standard wrenches got me the chance to play. The deal I had with the owner was that when I set the valves, I had to fly with him to the practice area, where he would joyfully drive me nuts doing aerobatics (if he was going to die, I would, too, so I'd better get it right). The enormous radio and a spare fuel tank that were behind the pilot had been removed, and there was a tiny space with a jump seat left there. We opened the canopy as far as it would go, and I could slip into the seat by crawling backwards into it. I drove a Suburban full of tools and parts to Oshkosh while he flew, and we had a ball with the other warbirds and antiques. I learned a lot about the Merlin, there, too- an amazing engine.

[DAVE]

If you are into one hobby, you probably are into others. I do scale O, 1/48th fine scale ( not to be confused
with Proto 48 ), and I do mostly three foot and two foot gauge models. But I have some super-power as well.
And, as I said, I get into other things. Giant scale R/C aircraft was another passion. I haven't done much of
that lately, but my 1/4 size F4U and Tiger Moth were regular entries in local meets. The Proctor Neuport 11
I don't fly much. Too fragile. In 1/5th I have a P-40 and a Pitts S-2. There are a couple helicopters in there
too but I really never mastered them. And lots of R/C cars and boats. I just never grew up, and when I could
afford the stuff I couldn't have as a kid, I just went crazy.

[Dangermouse]

[DAVE]

True. The Bachmann On-30 stuff is very good. I have most of their offerings. I convert mine
to On-3. Most of my motive power is brass, though.

[Reslotted]

For the Bibster=
Cass Railway Shay, from dads collection. No Idea why he decided to Go for Cass stuff, it's a long way from here.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Because the scenery is so beautiful, and because they have had so many operational locos that are so amazing, the Cass is the most popular logging railroad to model by far. It inspired as many fantasy RR's as it did actual models of the real railroad. There are lots of others, but in terms of the sheer size of their consist, Cass is like Mecca for narrow gauge. It has to be said that the reason this jewel still exists is that somebody in W.Va. government had the intelligence and forethought to make it a state park. My favorite, and the one I actually spent a little time working at, is the Cumbres & Toltec in Chama, New Mexico. They operate on a shoestring, but it is a working railroad, carrying freight and passengers. When I was there, plans were being talked about to restore an original Galloping Goose railbus which operated in the area and on those tracks when it was active.

For locos that are incredibly intricate and gargantuan in size, Australia and South Africa are hard to beat. The big articulated locos in the western US are the grandchildren of the monsters operated in the wide open and lonely spaces in those countries. To complicate the problem that had to be overcome, these same railroads also had to operate on lightweight rail and tight curves, so some of the articulated locos had THREE locos under a boiler with a booster under the tenders and water tenders (Garratt).

[Reslotted]

Glad you guys liked it.
Reading the comments it all makes sense now. The Brass built logging trucks my Dad built were obviously made to run behind this loco.
I should have asked the old man more questions, when I had the chance. But something about this railway struck a cord with him.
Thanks guy's I appreciate the info.
Perhaps it's time I put this stuff to use. Seems a shame to keep it all in a box.
Thanks to DM for starting this thread, I'd still be wondering about those unusual little engines, that my Dad left me and probably never got to hear about them.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

The PBY's are my favorites of the water bombers. There are videos out there of PBY's coming in low and fast, scooping up water from lakes- WOW!

I spent some time with the British and Canadian warbirds at Oshkosh, mostly because everyone wants to exchange info about the Merlin engines. Ours was a "ferry" engine, because it was required to make the long leg from Australia to Burma for delivery. Basically a flying gas tank until it arrived, then retrofitted for combat. There were some Typhoons and Spits, and one Mosquito that was owned by a stunter with a flying museum outfit. He had rigged his landing gear independently, and he would come in with one down, roll it, and roar back into the air. Of course, the announcer would be be having a fit, yelling to him to pull up- it was a great show. That outfit also had some of the converted T6's from the movie, Tora! Tora! Tora!` and a screaming fast Corsair, which is a huge engine and prop with a small airplane attached.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Yeah, the Sea Fury is one of the really notably fast prop planes. I've seen them fitted with a five blade prop and stripped for racing. Mustangs are fast, But the Bearcat and the Sea Fury outpower them, so weight and piloting skill make the edge. Both the Bearcat and the Sea Fury can handle a 5 blade prop, usually an old Hamilton Standard from a Skyraider that has been reworked. Shyraiders were brilliant in Vietnam, so there's lots of them around. There was a guy in Memphis who was restoring a Skyraider about twenty years ago, but I never heard how he did. That's a very big plane to do by yourself. He flew them in Vietnam, and was a very tough guy, so he may have pulled it off. I can't imagine him quitting anything.

When we rebuilt the prop on the Mustang at maintenance time, we had to study for days and days, then lock ourselves in the hanger with a Do Not Disturb sign on the door. It took all day and then some, even though we had prepped everything and made jigs ahead of time. There were four of us working with a solid scaffolding and a great power lift as well as a traveller crane. When we swapped our landing gear to a set from a P-60 (a bolt-on swap with much better braking), it was only a Saturday morning and part of the afternoon. We went to the airport bar for lunch afterwards. It was that early in the afternoon, but that prop demands a lot of respect. If it was my plane I wouldn't touch it. I might drive it to Hamilton Standard and follow it through the factory, but I wouldn't get inside another one for anything on my own.

[Reslotted]

[Dangermouse]

[Ember]

You know you want to David. The trains can go back and forth on a shelf above.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

That really isn't a bad idea. A friend of mine years ago had an O Gauge track run that went around his basement den about eye level, and it went through "tunnels" that were the partition walls in the basement, including a pass through the bathroom, in one side and out the other. I was in the bathroom once, and with all the voices talking in the large room behind me, I never heard the approaching train, which came chuffing through as I was uh, busy...

I came out of the bathroom laughing and everybody looked at me with confused looks, except the host standing behind them, who was also laughing and yelled "Woo-Woooo". Bugger.

[DAVE]

The Cass Scenic Railroad is one of the great tourist roads out there. The years I spent travelling around
the midwest restoring old steam locomotives were some of the best times of my life. I can't begin to
convey the sensation of power you get from operating one of those beasts.

[dreinecke]

I like it so far! I'm a closet model railroader too...