All right - time for some trip pictures! Got some good ones picked out, and some videos uploaded.
I got there Tuesday morning and spent the day taking pictures and measurements of every little detail that I could see, then more every time I turned around and spotted something else, like the original cylinders sitting off under a bench (they were cracked, new ones were cast and machined).
On the inside, here is the steam passage slot - which we usually do on the models as a shallow depression and a drilled hole:
Here is the original boiler, made from steel plate and with a rivetted single-lapped seam. That won't meet code anymore (the later boilers were a butted-seam with a plate on either side), so a new welded boiler was made, but they added the rivet lines to match the look of this one.
It was great to have the boiler separate for measurements.
Other little details like the oil-can rack inside the cab, next to the boiler backhead:
And I did not know that the EPA stickers for fuel economy went this far back! The museum does have a sense of humor!
Here is the other Lombard they have on display, this one is owned by the Crooker family, it is on loan to the museum, they only run it on air occasionally to keep it freed up, it has the original boiler in it, and the little shack over the steering position that most owners added to keep the steersman from turning into a popsicle on really cold winter days.
Another relic, me, by the machine as it was steaming up. It took a few hours to get up to temperature and pressure, they fired it on wood - they can use either wood or coal.
I got some good portatrait shots of the hauler during the day...
As well as chances to ride along in the cab and also take a lap steering!
Its quite a workout to steer one of these, you can see the gear reduction from the wheel down to the axle, its about a 15:1 reduction, so even small corrections take a full turn or two!
Now, if you want your own full grown Lombard Hauler, they are not hard to track through the woods!
Also, off at the side of the barn is this nice big old lathe, but it would not fit in my car...
Under it are a whole bunch of gears, could these be threading gear sets for the lathe??
They also have a full belt-driven machine shop (just for display, they didn't make any of the replacement parts here) over on the side of the barn, it reminded me of John's wonderful dioramas.
Had to get a close up of the front name plate:
On Thursday I took a tour of the Owls Head and Seals Cove Transportation museums, both have lots of early cars, including Stanley Steamers. The Owls Head museum has a big Corliss compound engine that they run on compressed air, plus some other engines that would be great projects for some of you IC engine masters, like this 28 cylinder engine (this one is a cutaway model, full size).
And also this beautiful American LaFrance fire engine - this one was converted to be a gas-powered engine during its life.
Back in the restoration hanger they were recovering the wings of this bizarre glider, which some lunatic inventor built with a gaff rigged SAIL on top! As you might guess, first puff of breeze and it flipped over and crashed. Then he rebuilt it with changes, same thing happened. Did he learn? Nope. Did it all a third time! They are restoring it for display now. One of the few planes and cars there that are not aken out and run periodically... Another early failed plane was one that had 4 big panels like flapping wings. They are covered in layers of feathers! Nope, that didnt fly either...!
All in all a wonderful trip, still need to sort through the rest of the photos that I took for the model/plans, and get the boiler and cab 3-D modelled up. REALLY glad for digital cameras, it would have cost a fortune in film and processing!!
Now for some videos:
Started the day with a blast on the whistle:
and a chance to steer:
Close view of how the tracks work, you can see how the inner roller chains act like bearing races. One thing that some remarked on was the speed of the tracks on my early test runs of the models, which was high until I got the sticky spots evened out. In these videos, the hauler is only going about 2mph, its normal speed when hauling a several hundred ton train of logs is 5mph on level ground, faster on a downhill. Even at this slow speed, the tracks are whizzing by at times. For these runs, with no load behind it, they had the throttle just cracked open a couple notches, there was LOTS more travel on it, but we could not get them to pull any wheelies...!
And some more videos of it coming and going:
