realworkingsailor

If I may suggest, when building with styrene, consider building in layers. Start with a 0.010” or 0.015” outer layer, and work inwards. The thinner stock will make cutting easier and more accurate, the subsequent heavier layers only require more general window openings. Have a look to see how I built my CPR coach: Andy

When I worked on the ships people would always ask me if the food on board was good. I would always answer that, yes, the food that came on board was good, but what the cooks did to it in the interim was another matter…. Andy

Most of the ore I’ve seen heading up the lakes out of Port Cartier, Pointe Noire and Sept Iles was pellets. Those mines also ship concentrate ore, but mostly for overseas markets. The concentrate ore can be finicky for SULs, depending on moisture content, but I did get out to the CSL Spirit, when it was involved in the transshipment operation out of Pt Noire, and it seemed to run alright through the gear, no hang ups and not much mess in the tunnel. Algoma holds pretty tight to their contract with Dofasco, who still have cranes at Hamilton, so for them SUL equipment isn’t entirely critical. I wonder if the yard they signed with initially in China hadn’t run into financial difficulties if we’d be seeing more Equinox 740’ SULs by now. Andy

Bulkers need bigger hatches (hence fewer) in order to accommodate shore unloading equipment, as opposed to SULs. If you look at the CSL St. Laurent or the CSL Welland, you’ll see a similar number of hatches to the Equinoxes. Sadly I’m not on any ships anymore (except as a passenger), was forced to give it up because of my eyesight (more specifically, lack thereof). Andy

The Algoma boats use a “Macgregor” style quick acting cleat, along with square section rubber seals (similar in cross section to a 2x4) running in a U channel under the lip of the hatch cover. These seals mate with a compression bar set on the hatch coaming. Very similar to the arrangement found on deep sea ships with hydraulic hatches. This allows for fewer clamps per hatch cover (labour saving!), but does require a more rigid structure. All the CSL new builds retained the now 70 year old system of Kestner clamps and small seals on the hatches. The seals are simply a 3/4” wide by 1” deep strip of rubber, keyhole shaped in cross section, held in a narrow groove in the underside of the hatch cover, these seals mate only to the flat top of the hatch coaming. This system is structurally lighter, and allows for more flexing, but requires more clamps per hatch (about 33% more), hence more labour intensive. In the current corporate drive to control costs (read cut crews), I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why CSL didn’t really do any (major) innovation on the deck arrangement on their ships. Technically, they are well designed ships, efficient engines and cargo handling equipment, but they’re trying to run a 70 year old style deck with less than 25% of the crew (as compared to when the Kestner clamp was the latest and greatest….. circa 1947). Andy

I consider the Lanz bulldog and the British made Field-Marshall "honorary steam tractors". They're also great "party trick" tractors, the Lanz because it can run without the single cylinder engine completing a full revolution, and the Field-Marshall because of the unique method used to start the engine. And just for good measure, some steam: Andy

As near as I can determine... Left to right: J.I. Case model LA (1940-1953) or model 500 (1953-1956) IH model 650 (1956-1958) IH-McCormick Super W6 (1952-1954) Allis-Chalmers styled WC (1938-1948) Massey-Harris possibly model 44 (1947-1953) Andy

Absolutely. Not arguing that it wasn’t an improvement over the older method. Although I thinks there’s an old joke about having a good team of horses and the old farmer could just sit at the end of the field yelling “gee” or “haw” every now and again. I’ve done some ploughing myself, with an IH 384 and an ace bottom plough. No matter what, ploughing is a time consuming (but satisfying) process. Andy

I haven’t yet been able to locate a clip from the BBC series, but I did find these YouTube videos of Fowlers ploughing. You can see how labour intensive, and time consuming this style of ploughing is (as evidenced in the second clip that momentarily jumps to a little bit more modern equipment in the form of a little red Nuffield, and a grey Ford 8N). Andy

I seem to recall an episode in the BBC Historic Farm series (can’t remember which season though, Victorian or Edwardian), where they demonstrated ploughing with one of those. Amazing to watch, but plenty of opportunities for the judicious mechanical removal of misplaced limbs! Andy

Nice Model! You just gotta love steam! Some great steam tractor pulling can be found on Youtube: Andy

I can think of many choice colourful words to describe those miserable FB trolls, but I will refrain from using that sort of language here. You have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. I have quite enjoying watching your progress to date, especially knowing that the (high) quality of your build efforts is something that I could possibly achieve, had I the resources (read $$, or €€ or ££) to attempt it myself. Chin up, and know that I’m among the people here on MSW that wish to see to see you succeed (even if it’s only in experience, it’s 100% worth it!) Looking forward to your continued progress when you’re ready to resume. Andy

Just spent a little time perusing what was available on the Micromark website. A few different casting metals with different melt points, definitely want to avoid anything containing lead, though...... maybe something to consider looking into in the fall. Out of sheer stubbornness, though, I will have to try to salvage at least one of the castings I received. Andy

Metal casting is a little outside my skill set, unfortunately. About the only type of casting I feel remotely capable of even attempting would be resin, but I’m not sure how strong the resulting parts would be. Andy

So a small package arrived in the mailbox today. All the parts I'd ordered from LaBelle have arrived safely. (Yay-ish). Looks like the replacement queen post castings have similar issues as the one noted in a previous post. I suspect at this point the law of diminishing returns has struck and in all likelihood the casting molds are not in the best shape, since all the queen post castings are consistent in shape. I really can't hold this against LaBelle, if these are the molds they bought off of BCW, it's about as good as I'm going to get, and they have their own product lines to worry about. The other detail parts (vents and tanks) all look ok, though. It looks more promising that I may be able to clean up the queen post castings a bit and with careful filing, and restore them to a shape closer to the older original casting (which I'm now going to have to forsake using as it will be needed as a master reference). Of course all this comes just as the weather has begun to turn summer like, so I've got some time to consider my options. Andy