Chris's Mann Wagon Build

[crueby]

Now this is just ludicrously funny. In a sad sort of way....

Back on July 3rd, a package of plans I ordered was shipped from Beverly Massachusetts to me here near Rochester NY. Should have been here in about 3 days. Four days with a headwind.....

After a week, it made it to Conway, New Hampshire, which is almost straight north of where it started. Um, I am more or less straight to the west..... It then spent another week lost. Or maybe it went out shopping. Maybe it got drunk and was in rehab.... 


Then, tonight, it must have stumbled back into a mail truck and hitched a ride to Nashua New Hampshire. Here is the route it has taken so far, in only 13 days:

Looks like quite a ways. But, it is a grand total of 45 miles from where it started! In only 13 days....  By first class mail....
And here is the same route, but with the rest of its journey added in - assuming it takes the normal route rather then taking a left at Albequerque (for those old Bugs Bunny fans).

I should have it by Christmas...  Well, one of the next Christmases anyway.... 

[Steamer5]

Hi Chris,
 Send the elves hit squad! They sort it!

Down this end of the world that’s know as a tiki tour........can be a great day out if you are in no hurry& just want to enjoy the scenery........but if you are waiting for something...🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

Good luck!

Cheers Kerrin

[Firebird]

Hi

I like the fact that it went to Conway, the name of my loco 

Cheers

Rich

[cnr6400]

Maybe it actually went under ground, like Bugs Bunny did in the old cartoons re "I should made that left toin at Albuquerque!". That would explain the delay.   

Starting out from New Bedford Mass, it may have been sent forth in a whaleboat, rather than a USPS truck. Whaleboats are noticeably slower over land than trucks, especially during a Covid pandemic........

Could be too that the USPS sent the plans by Pony Express, but used the 1981 Hyundai Pony (now running on 3 cylinders with a noticeable coolant leak) rather than the usual 4 legged ones.   

All joking aside I hope your plans arrive soon!   

[crueby]

This morning it left Nashua - they didn't say for where....   


I'm going to go check for the shop-elves truck, maybe they got the contract to deliver it, and have not made it past the next bar...

[crueby]

This morning got the horns bent over to match the frames, got lucky and nailed the angle first try on each.      Then bolted them in place, and drilled through the frames and the plates for the bolts:

Here they are bolted up on the frames,

and with the boiler/front subframe back on:

All quite rigid now, I can pick up the whole model by either end with no flex, so that is a relief!

Now need to sort out the next step - there are more holes needed in the front subframe to attach the cab, more in the rear frame to attach the cargo bed,  and more work on the horn plates for all the axle bushings plus the angle plates to hold the crossbars and trim plates.  Time to sit back, admire, ponder, and get some lunch (in no particular order). 

 

[crueby]

Decided to do the cab mount holes in the front subframe next, then will start on the rest of the horn plate parts...

[Art K]

I have to say the routing on that package is baffling to say the least. At one point in my life I lived in Austria. I had a friend who lived there as well who was from Australia. He had friends in the US who sent him a package it was routed to Australia back to the US then to Austria.
Art

[Don1966]

 



 
Don

[crueby]

Thanks guys!

That package is a clever one. I got notice that it left the Nashua distribution center at 12:27am this morning. Just got notice again that it left the same center at 10:17pm tonight.      Round and round it goes!!   

Couple years ago I had a book coming in from England, came through NY City, spent some time in customs, then no word. I asked at the post office up the road, they were able to look it up and told me 'Ah, here it is, it just made it to Jamaica.'  Um, err.... then from the look on my face, the clerk told me 'No, thats the neighborhood post office, in the Jamaica section of New York City!'  For a moment I thought it was going to have an empty glass of rum with it...

[crueby]

Lots o boring work done on the horn plates today - clamped them down to the mill table on a bit of plywood, and drilled some 3/8" starter holes then bored them out to 1/2". These three holes are for the crankshaft and transmission shafts. A gear on the crankshaft meshes with a larger gear on the intermediat shaft. The intermediate shaft has three different size gears, all attached to a sliding keyed tube, arranged so one gear will mesh with one of the three gears on the final shaft at a time, giving the three speed ranges. A chain sprocket at one end of the final shaft takes the power back to the rear axle by way of a 1/4" pitch chain.

After boring the shaft holes, a set of smaller holes were drilled at the perimeter around the top to take the flanges which will hold the cover plates as well as the bars for the controls.


Finished horn plates:

[Johnmcc69]

Will the shafts be running in their own bearings or just in the horn plates?

 John

[crueby]

Will the shafts be running in their own bearings or just in the horn plates?

 John

There will be bearing holders bolted to the holes, with bronze bearings inside them. When I said the horn plates were done, thats not really true, need to drill more holes for the bearing holders. The shafts will be something like .25" or.3125" diameter at the ends, I forget the exact dimensions, stepped to hold them in place. The bearings are simple tubes, don't need to be split so easy to make.

[crueby]

This will give a better idea of where it is going:

This view from the CAD model shows the bearing holders oin the horn plates, as well as the guts of the transmission. The CAD model does not have the gears shaped, but the discs show the OD of the gears. I used a different application to work out the OD and number of teeth for each gear, so that the center to center distance of the shafts would be right for the entire set of gears. Compared to a modern vehicle, the transmission is fairly primitive, no clutch or syncros, anything like that. There is a position where no gears are engaged, and no more than one set can engage at a time. I have it set up for a single control lever, but that varied a lot on the trucks of the time, some had one lever per gear, and the operator either had to be careful not to engage more than one (which would lock it up completely), or some had lockouts to prevent that from happening.

[Johnmcc69]

 
 Very nice!

 John