"Your source for standard gauge modeling in 1:20.3"

CME News (From 2010)
 

Barry Bogs Finishes 1st UP Centipede Tender

As has been detailed on earlier updates below, Barry Bogs was tapped in mid-2010 to build the 5 centipede tenders for the UP Big Boy / Challenger project coordinated by Doug Hemmeter and commissioned by Gary Barlow. Barry has sent in a steady stream of photos as he has gone from styrene master patterns to production uerthane castings and then completed and painted models. Here are the results thus far:

Doug Hemmeter at the Houston Big Train Show

My friend and the driving force behind the UP Challenger / Big Boy project in F scale, Mr. Doug Hemmeter (also known as D&M Railroad Backshop), displayed two of his D&RGW M-68 4-8-4s along with an Fn3 C-25 and the first of the Big Boy / Challenger tenders cast in urethane by our mutual friend Barry Bogs. Additional pics of Barry's tender can be found on the UP Challenger / Big Boy page). At the show many children and their parents were drawn to these massive models--as well as to the stunning sound which emanates from their boilers (that's right--their boilers--since in F Gauge a locomotive boiler is easily 3.5" in OD, providing amply room for a substantially sized 8 ohm speaker--that in addition to any speakers cared by the tender). Doug's M-68s are placed upon roller displays for operation at shows, since as of yet, no one has created F Track--the modular railroad for standard gauge modeling in 1:20.3 (any takers out there?).

30th National Narrow Gauge Convention

The last time I was an exhibitor at a major train show it was 2001 when my friend Don Niday and I displayed our three newly built dual gauge (F & Fn3) modules at the National Train Show in St. Louis--part of the NMRA's national convention that year (see inset pic). Don has since been an exhibitor several times over, but I have pretty much stayed on the sidelines due to time constraints. Now that I am bi-vocational once again and able to get trains out the door, I have the distinct pleasure of attending shows--and to enjoying the delights of meeting and chatting with fellow model railroaders. This September 1-4, I traveled to St. Charles, Missouri, just northwest of St. Louis, and was joined by Mr. Doug Hemmeter and his wife Mary (above), where we displaying both standard and narrow gauge models in F scale, including several of Doug's M-68 4-8-4s. One of the original modules made it to St. Charles after a bit of refurbishment by my wife and kids. Several other modelers in F Gauge stopped by (including Ric Golding with his own kitbashed 40' flat car!). Most impressive to Doug and I was the Fn3 Sundance Central modular layout. Now if we can only get them to add a dual gauge yard and a standard gauge interchange!

Mallet Meets Northern

In January of 2010 Doug Hemmeter delivered the first of four F scale standard gauge D&RGW M-68 Northerns to Mr. Gary Bartlow in southern California. Doug and Gary were joined by Mr. George Konrad and his recently completed F scale Denver & Salt Lake vest pocket mallet. Doug also brought along one of the chassis from the three additional Northerns he is constructing. One can still be yours, if the price is right! That's Doug in the blue shirt, Gary in the orange stripes, George in the background in a denim jacket.

For some time now only two freight car trucks have been available in 1:20.3 standard gauge (a long wheelbase archbar truck and a cast urethane Bettendorf style truck, both marketed by my friend Don Niday--see the Products Page. In the next few months I plan to offer a first in 1:20.3 SG: an investment cast brass Andrews truck. I've have described the prototype briefly on both the Products Page and on Dave's Freight Cars, so I will not repeat that information here. What is worth knowing is the progress that has been made on this truck over the last several months and the way this progress has come about.

Although the Andrews concept of a cast steel frame with bolt-on journal boxes dates from the 1890s, I was unable to find any drawings for the early Andrews T-Section design, and in particular the version used by the D&RGW. Enter fellow large scale modelers Rick Blanchard and Kevin Strong. Each of them provided me with invaluable measurements and photographs of the two pairs of these trucks which remain on D&RGW dual gauge idler cars X-3050 and 010793, located at the Colorado Railroad Museum at Golden and at Antonito, Colorado, respectively. From their measurements I worked up 2D CAD drawings for the 5x9 journal boxes, truck side frame, truck bolster, body bolster, McCord journal box lids, and journals box bolts.

The 3D CAD Model

Initially, a third party turned my 2D side frame and journal boxes into a 3D CAD model using SolidWorks (pictured at right). Sometime in February of 2008 I was contacted by a Swiss modelmaker, Mr. Steve Weber, who had found my site on account of its emphasis upon Gauge 3 (Steve builds high-end commercial models of German and Swiss prototypes in Gauge 3, known as Spur II on the continent). The rapid prototype wax which Steve produced was subsequently turned into a brass pattern by O scale model railroad and back-yard-foundry man Dennis Mashburn of Abilene, Texas. You can see more of Steve's excellent work elsewhere on this site and on his own.

Cumberland Model Engineering Is Back!

In 2010 the biggest news for me and my family is the resumption of my model-making work as a commercial enterprise. With thanksgiving to God and to the people from my former church who made all this possible, we will be picking up where we left off in early 2005 and resuming our development of 1:20.3 standard gauge in a much more proactive way and working to take in job shop work from fellow hobbyists and model makers. Since November of this past year, I have been accumulating more equipment for the workshop and surplusing out some of the clunkers. For now this will be a part-time enterprise while I continue to pastor a new church plant, St. Paul Presbyterian, meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee. Cheers guys!

(At left: Dave with his 1946 model Monarch 10EE tool room lathe. At right, Dave and his mid-'80s Bridgeport clone).

Last update: 26 August 2013