Frames

These are a few photos of the frames. They are not yet completed, and I did not take any early photos of sawing them out, drilling, or machining the openings for the horn blocks.
The frames are one of the most important parts of a locomotive. They must be manufactured as straight and square as possible. Each spreader must be a square as is possible and the same distance in width. The frames must lay as flat as possible. If the material for the frames is not flat, it must be adjusted until it is. To a certain degree, the spreaders will pull the frames flat and square, but, they should be as flat as possible to start with.
For re-gauging this locomotive to 4-3/4", it was a matter of making the spreaders 1/4" narrower than called for on the drawing. All of the clearances for standard U.S. 4-3/4" track is maintained with this adjustment.
I left the buffer and drag beams exactly as per the drawing. So, it was a matter of mounting the frames to the beams 1/8" closer to the center. Also, all the plate work from the running boards up, is as per the drawing.
The springs were some suspension springs that I chose not to use on the locomotive. I used a nylock nut on the end of shaft to connect to the buffer head. The large radius on the buffer was machined in the same way as the large radius on the smoke box door.
The photo of the buffers are way out of order in the build as they are strictly a cosmetic item. I finally finished them, so, here they are. The stocks of the buffers were made from solid square stock and the buffers were made from 1-1/2" round stock, all mild steel, easy to machine.
Here the completed buffers are in place. The stocks for the buffers were completed early in the build because they are needed as a way for the construction stand to attach to the frame.