Wahya construction series

Hi Everyone,

I’m new to the forum and a beginner in many ways when it comes to model engineering. I’ve uploaded some pictures of my Wahya 5g American type loco currently being serialised in ME. Unfortunately I am unable to share my dynamic simulations and videos of the completed build in paper format but there is no such limit here! Hopefully those of you interested will click onto the following links:

https://youtu.be/8I9-eJiKn1E is a video of the loco running around the RSME track. Thanks to Jadan for the editing.

**LINK**

this was a short video I put together for an engineering conference and shows a little 3D printing of the patterns and some backyard foundry work. There is also a FEA of the shrink fit tire with lateral forces; and dynamic simulation of the valve gear.

I hope this is of interest,

Luker

Edited By JasonB on 20/02/2021 18:39:50

Well I for one have greatly enjoyed your articles in ME! It's good to see fresh eyes looking at problems and coming up with some very innovative solutions, using modern analytical methods.

Keep up the good work!

welcome aboard ship mate ! Noel

I've enjoyed the Wahya series too. And the locomotive looks great and runs well. But I note that you don't seem to notch the valve gear up (??).

Regards,

Phil

Welcome Luker. A very nice looking & running engine.

regards

Thanks for the welcome everyone. Being on the other side of the pen; it's nice to hear the articles are being enjoyed as much as I enjoy writing them. Well spotted Phil, you correct I should be notching back on the track. I didn't because I was concentrating on holding the camera and watching the track (train robberies aren't unheard of in SA, no jokes!).

For interest: with the designed lead and admission I gave her, I have four notch points to mid gear (there is a gap between the forth point and mid gear). The largest cutoff only works well at high speeds with the designed lead, and at low speeds she tends to stutter a little which is expected. When not pulling any passengers she's quite happy to pull away from the second notch.

Thank you for the response Luker. Hopefully you will be able to relax without the concerns of filming etc., and you will be able to enjoy your beautiful locomotive still more.

It is a real tribute to your skills and approach and looks and sounds really good.

I found your 'pressure-gauge' article very interesting too. Following your example I am looking to source a couple of suitable pressure-gauges (10bar) from ebay (or similar) to experiment with.

Thanks

Phil.

Thanks for the kind words Phil, much appreciated.

I'm glad someone is going to give gauge hacking a go, please could you let me know how it turns out. I hope you make the pointer as well; it makes the gauge unique and explaining to youngsters on the side of the track that you can make train parts using cellphone chargers is entertaining in itself. I've uploaded a few additional pictures that didn't make it to the article, to an album. I hope they give a little more insight into how I tackled the job.

Wonderful work there. She is really flying around that track! Pretty good for a guy who calls himself a beginner. Its a beautiful looking engine.

Hi Everyone,

A few more pictures of the Wahya cab... The steam valve handles are some of the smallest castings I've done (4 gram). The pointer in the gauge was made using a cellphone charger (electro-stripping technique).

Some pictures and schematics of the tender, described in the last article... The breaks were interesting for me.

The final installment of the Wahya series is in the current ME; finishing off the tender fittings. I hope the readers enjoyed the write-up as much as I enjoyed sharing the design and build. To close off the build I thought I would post some pictures of the ride-on seat (sporting fittings for the shovel etc. and hand break) and the full loco at our track. Thanks to everyone who sent comments both through ME and this forum, much appreciated!

A thoroughly enjoyable and interesting series!

Interesting both for your techniques including the foundry-work and fine detailing methods, but also illustrating the prototypes' practice.

I wonder if that capacious wooden cab was a response to the very wide weather conditions the locomotive crews had to work in. The Russian railways developed sheet-steel cabs but lined with wood, for insulation - at a time when British loco cabs were still very Spartan.

I'm intrigued by among other little details, those injector water-valve handles. When I looked at the drawing and photos in the article I was trying to work out why they are so elaborate.

So, thank you for bringing it all to us!

Thanks Nigel. Everybody at our club likes the wooden cab, it's a little sad that the roof and back panels are removed for driving. But she looks good on the display stand.

The water valve handles look like that because the builders used a valve that lifted instead of the normal turn-taper valve. I kept the valve simple in the model but tried to capture some of this detail.

One highlight of the American type loco is the stability on the track with the compensated suspension over the trucks(bogies) and driving wheels. She really does glide; even on our rough track.