C W Hunt in 1/8th scale

[Marty J]

Hi All,
C W Hunt manufactured an outside flanged 21 inch gauge industrial railway system that I have been researching for sometime.  The project has finally reached the construction stage.
Although the scale is large, the prototype is very small.  The system standardized on 12' radius curves which means even in 1/8th scale I can run on a 18" radius - a good size for a small house.
Since many of the components were used on other cars, the standard shop car serves as a good is the starting point.

[Marty J]

The wheels have been the main stumbling block but I think that I have come up with a solution.
To make the wheels I printed a wheel, made a mold, and ground a profile tool for turning steel rims.  The rims are put in the mold and filled with resin. There is a grove inside the rim to keep the resin centers from falling out of the rim.  Once the resin is set, the wheels are flipped over and the back side is profiled on the lathe and the center is bored for an axle. 

[Marty J]

More of making the wheel

[Marty J]

wheels coming out of the mold.

[Bill Gill]

Marty, Welcome to the forums. Your project, research and craftsmanship fit very well here (I say this with great trpedation as someone who is still surprised I am part of this group).
Do you have plans, photos of the layout/diorama that you are beginning to build?

[5thwheel]

@ 1/8th scale are you going live steam?

[EZnKY]

Those look great!

[Marty J]

Not ready to post diorama details yet.  Will do as the design evolves a bit more.
Eventually I am looking to build both battery powered and live steam locomotives. 
C W Hunt made some interesting locomotives (see photo below) but a number of others did as well including Baldwin and Porter.  I have a number of Hunt catalogs that show a few steam locomotives but their big seller was a battery locomotive.  Details are few.
One promising candidate for a model built by Baldwin is shown below.  It's small size keeps it from overpowering everything - 30" wheelbase with 20" drivers.  The "Hunt" gauge Porters were a bit larger.  I am working on plans - will take some time.  To keep up momentum I am focusing on cars first.
Marty

[Marty J]

Hunt photo

[Marty J]

Baldwin photo

[Hauk]

Hunt photo

Hope you go for the Hunt engine first! Quite a character, that one.

By the way, what type of lathe do you use? It is quite impressive that you manage to machine the tyres without chatter with a overhang  shown in the pictures. I struggle with chatter even  when machining with no overhang at all...

[Marty J]

Hi Hauk,
I have access to a Sharp 1440V.  My much lighter Jet lathe at home would not be able to handle the overhang.  I find that keeping the speed low helps to reduce chatter.  In  addition, the position of the cutting tool is critical.
The  Hunt locomotive is my long term goal - it's an interesting beast.  In one catalog they claimed that it could handle a 12' radius but in the next version they mention 20' - either way that's a tight curve.  There is one other version of the steam locomotive that has a smaller cab (see below).  I have found a number of companies that used Hunt's battery locomotives but no records of their steam locomotives in use other than the catalog photos.  Besides Baldwin and Porter, other manufactures included Atlas, Milwaukee, Rodgers and Whitcomb.  

[Ray Dunakin]

Very interesting project!

[Marty J]

A bit of progress to report.  Initial prints of the platform car horn arms look promising.  Need to resolve a few issues before having them done in metal. 
The plastic is not as strong as I had hoped for.
Regards
Marty

[Marty J]

Drawings for v-tipper are progressing in parallel.
Hope to have working models beforelong to test out axle motion.
Marty