Order Board

[South Park]

  Gents,

  I do a lot of restoration of old light fixtures, cars, furniture, you name it.  Fabrication
of unobtainium parts is often a normal part of the process.  I'd like to build a "proper"
C&Sng order board and am wondering if members might have good photos, drawings,
etc. of them.

  Besides, I just love looking at the depot scenes !  

[Jeff Young]

I can't help with the order board... but that's a lovely truck.  Is it a Ford TT?

Cheers,
Jeff.

[South Park]

  Yes, Ford TT, late 25 / early 26.  Spent its life on a Minnesota potato farm.  Always
kept in decent condition.  It is a wonderful "magnet" for finding others with similar
interests in rusty junk.

  Currently building a "go fast" engine for it to bring a high operating speed up from
19mph to 45 with a high compression head, etimer, a serious balancing of all moving
parts, Scat crank, C-race cam, OF Stromberg carb, 5:1 rear gears, and a Lincoln 3-speed
aux. transmission  ....  all period performance gear or beefed up versions of factory
originals.

  The goal is longer range road trips to hunt old lines, meet other crazies, and find
more "parts" to restore the junk in the pile I already have !  

[Chris Walker]

Grandtline still make them

http://www.grandtline.com/products/mrr/mrr%20details/trackside_details..html


http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15330coll22/id/43685/rv/singleitem/rec/5


http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15330coll22/id/7103/rv/singleitem/rec/11

This one can still be seen and measured at the CRRM.

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15330coll22/id/81273/rv/singleitem/rec/19

[ComoDepot]

The threading is 7/8th and cast iron.

The original Como one is the ownership of the Roundhouse, long story.

[South Park]

  Threading of what ?  Looks like a cast iron "horseshoe" fork carrier for a pinion
gear set to rotate the board and lantern on the vertical shaft.  The Idaho Springs unit
appears to have a tin box cover for the pinion gears (?).  Is Uncle Bob's unit in Alamosa
missing this, or were some made/used without ?

  What did the interior control look like ?  I've seen the levers associated with the
semaphore/blade type board, but I would think this style would use a crank with
90º stops (?).

[Chris Walker]

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15330coll22/id/77677/rv/singleitem/rec/46

Interesting to see here at Forks the metal cover is missing this early on.

[Jeff Young]

This is the interior control for the D&RGW Sargent order board:



I remember the Como one looking similar, but I can't remember exactly how similar....

Cheers,
Jeff.

[Todd Hackett]

South Park wrote

Threading of what ?....

He may be referring to the connection between the top of the blade assembly (the portion presently belonging to the owner of the roundhouse) and the vertical shaft of the gear assembly (presently part of the depot). I stored the blade assembly in my basement for Bill Kazel for several years when Bill owned the roundhouse. The fitting on top was a female threaded fitting. IIRC, it was a tapered pipe thread, and I was able to bolt a pipe flange to my ceiling, and use a pipe nipple to hang the order board blades from the flange. The top of the vertical shaft appears to be a square taper for a lantern.

Here are some photos from Como:

[ComoDepot]

[Keith Hayes]

Does the spring keep the works from moving when the wind blows?

[ComoDepot]

The lever has a metal tab that goes in the slot, I always assume the spring was to reset to the default.

[South Park]

  This things is a lot more "involved" than I thought it would be !

  Making those cast parts LOOK cast will be tough to do.  Anyone know
of a crazy sitting on parts for one ?  With all the zillions of depots that once
wore these, there must be parts laying around.

[ComoDepot]

Not to my knowledge, we found a spare 'handle' looked liked it had been dumped, in very bad condition.

I agree it would be a challenge to cast the parts needed.

[Fred H.]

Okay, South Park! Let’s do this. I’m going to build a 1:24 layout in my garage (Black Hawk, 1899-1906, 5.5 x 20 feet). The whole thing will rest under a 1:1 overhanging roof. One wall of the garage will be done either flat or with a bay window. In either case I want to do an order board on that wall. Looking at some items on the Bay currently... One is a semi-correct order board, which would have to have holes punched in the red sides and the white arrows replaced with rectangles. The other cast bits might be able to be 3D printed. Thoughts? Is this combo close?