UNION CITY PASSENGER DEPOT

All aboard! Passengers are now enjoying the brand-new passenger station in Union City, Tennessee.

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Wheels of time?

Last week saw the mounting of wheels on the locomotive frames. Got ‘er done. Put ‘er in storage. All good. Began planning the next steps of putting frames on center beams. Did not actually get to that part. However, a funny thing happened at the local model railroad club. While visiting on Saturday, one of the members asked me about my latest project. I explained to him that I had put wheels on the American and Consolidation frames. As I was speaking, I recalled that the wheels even though closely mounted on the real locomotive seemed too close on my project. I had noticed this but had continued putting them on. I began staring across the room while talking to the fellow. It began to dawn on me. The wheels were too large! I quickly made a mental note about this and finished the remarks to the man. Later that evening, I got out the frames in question and measured. They were in fact too large. Omscaler tried to take the wheels off the existing frames to reuse the frames. This resulted in cut and damaged frames. I got out the needed tools and made sixteen wheels in the correct size as well as four new frames. Four new pilot wheels were also made. The installation of all wheels was completed mid-Sunday morning. Omscaler is not sure why the mistake was made. Mislabeling of wheel size guide? Personal mistake? Rechecking is needed. A little behind, but moving along, omscaler