< Status of the Castings >
As a reference, the foundry engineer sent
me castings with runners. The right hand
photo shows face down view. You can see a
round column 'downsprue' in which molten
metal is poured.
They have many burrs because the engineer
left a slight gap between parting line so
as to release air from the cavity.
The photo shows iron castings of expansion
link bracket, the most complicated one. I
introduced patterns and coreboxes for them
in August 2006 report.
The sand mold for the expansion link brackets.
You can see different color 'cores' to form
slits in the castings.
To complete chassis of the loco, some gunmetal
castings are necessary, too. I asked another
foundry to prepare them. They include axleboxes,
brake cylinder, side control cylinder, etc.
[Pattern Plates]
The engineer asked me to prepare pattern
plates (410x360mm) to secure casting patterns,
because my patterns are so small and thin
that it is difficult to remove them from
sand mold.
The left hand photo shows lower plate with dowels and detachable liner.
The right hand photo shows upper plate with dowel holes and downsprue.
Typical single pattern will be glued onto the lower plate. The plates are
made from MDF (Medium-Density Fiberboard).
I prepared handmade cutter to cut dowel hole
of truncated cone shape. Only the cone side
face has the edge. So it is necessary to
open straight hole before using the cutter.
The dowels were turned from round wood bar
and parted off. Insert them into the dowel
holes of the upper plate, spread adhesive
onto the parted face, lay the lower plate
onto them and secure whole job with clamps.
[Oigawa railway]
I visited Oigawa railway in this month. Oigawa
is a full size railway company in Shizuoka,
Japan. The railway keeps four kinds of Japanese
steam locomotives, C10 C11 C12 and C56. They
work every day with old style passenger cars.
Famous Japanese tank locomotive C11 was coming
into Senzu station.
Passenger cars lined up along both sides
of a platform. Such old style cars cannot
be seen in any other railway in Japan.
Cab inside of C10. Note the pressure gauges
are replaced with Pascal unit type.
'Coal feeding training' This is Japanese
one-handed style with (imaginary) small shovel.
Steam shed by Shinkanaya station.