Ed Hume is a successful builder of a Kozo Pennsy A3 Locomotive in 3/4" scale. Ed has been kind enough to share a few photo's of his work.

Ed started his project in 1999 and is currently at this stage in 2004. Like myself and many hobbyist, Ed couldn't devote full time to this project and maintain family and business objectives. I am amazed when folks like Ed can still bring together a great machining project like this. Ed reports the weight of this loco as shown at 37 pounds!

Just look at the detail in the tender.

This is a photo of the prototype.

You can reach Ed with your comments by putting an @ between his first and last name and adding a dot com at the end. His email volume is as bad as mine. I get between 100 to 150 emails every day; mostly spam. But don't hesitate to tell Ed what you think of his project!

Ed has several more pictures that really put the size of this locomotive into perspective. I've asked if I could show them. Ed had a personal visit with Kozo and has a great shot of Kozo with the original engine. WOW! Some guys just get to do some cool things. Ed says he has enough pictures to do his own Kozo A3 site. I hope some day he has the chance.

Here is that great shot. I love this picture because I can really see the size of this locomotive.

Ed also sent me a great shot of himself with Kozo, looking through a railroading book named Kinsey Photographer / The Locomotive Portraits. Ed presented this book, which contains spectacular photo's of logging trains and locomotives in the Pacific Northwest, as a gift to Kozo.

I assume this is the original. It just looks like it has never been steamed. It would have to be this clean before MY wife would let me show it off in a setting like this! This is the first time I can see the real color of the wheels. The red in the book looks different. Ed has painted his wheels black.

Now this is a picture that has to grab ya'. It's actually in color. (Only the engine and background are B&W.) Ed has painted the A3 and posed the loco similar to the Kozo original on the cover of the book (See my construction lead page. - Dan) It looks so good, that if you click on the picture at left, the full size photo will open in a new window. If your browser is set to re size the photo to fit the window,be sure to

Ed told me he is thinking of publishing his painting method (and secrets). He already has an article on page 78 of the May/June 2004 issue of Live Steam magazine about his boiler work. Go check it out.

This is a side, front and backhead view of the now painted and lettered locomotive.

This is a view of Ed's A3 that matches an illustration published in "The Pennsylvania Railroad 1940s-1950" by Don Ball Jr. (ISBN 0-393-02357-5).

Here is the rear quarter with the light on. The front view in the 2nd photo of this update also has the light turned on.

September, 2006 Update!

Ed Has been published in Live Steam & Outdoor Railroading with his article "A Pennsy A3 Builder's Report." Look for it on page 14 of the September/October (Vol 40, #5) issue. Also...

Ed has been published in The Home Shop Machinist with his article "An Improved Grooving Tool for the Lathe." Look for it on page 24 of the September/October (Vol 25, #5) issue.

This is a new project for Ed. He is building a 20.3:1 Scale Heisler to run on Gauge 1 track.

Here is a close up of the #303 stainless steel nine spoke wheels. Ed reports he scaled Kozo's plans by 0.7874. to build the trucks exactly to 20.3:1.. Everything above the trucks is scaled by 5/6 or about 0.8333 which makes them about 6% bigger.than the 20:1 scale. Standard size materials fit the design better at this hardly noticeable larger scale..

What I find interesting is Ed milled the spoke wheels on this CNC set-up. Looks like he made a brass wheel for practice.

This is the easily identifiable Heisler motor shape. Ed tells me his work is well ahead of his photography. But I figure these pictures will provided great evidence of of what this master builder has been doing since the A3.

"...here is a new Heisler shot. I am starting on the boiler..." -- Ed Hume 7/12/05

With this being my 3rd boiler, I used every tweak I could think of to insure success. I made flat head bronze screws which would hold up better than the brass screws if I got into repeated heatings for repair. The reason I use flat head screws is that a ring of solder is held at the outside of the joint by the screw head taper, and after the screw is filed flush, some of the taper remains to supply some holding force. With a round head screw, you cannot easily hold a ring of solder, and the holding force is gone when the head is filed off. I used these screws with rings of solder on the outside of the joint, and when possible, such as with the firebox walls, on the inside of the joint too. I changed the stay bolts to the screw on style that Kozo's design for the A3 uses. These move the sealing joint above the surface where cleaning and heating can more easily take place, and they provide large joint surfaces that are easier to solder. The nut or bolt head then protects the solder from overheating and supplies a fixed surface to prevent the joint from being broken by thermal expansion. Finally, I only needed 6 stay bolts per side instead of 12 because the large nut or bolt head reinforces a much larger copper area. I will only use this style of stay bolts on future boilers. I also used small amounts of high temperature, high fill solder as stronger "tack welds" to reinforce some of the joints such as the throat and firebox seams. The screw placements also reflected hard won experience - you want screws on the backhead where the curve transitions to flat because if you repair the side stay bolts, the heating and expansion of the side sheet will want to lift the sheet out of the backhead recess. You also want screws very close to the lower backhead corners because with repeated repair heatings, the side sheets will want to move out from the corners.

  I was ready for multiple repairs but thankfully I did not need to perform them. I fixed a leak at the mud ring which was created when putting in the stay bolts, and apparent without pressure testing. I have not had to perform any other repairs to get through pressure testing at 180 psi.

  Regards,

  Ed

Boiler hydrostatic pressure test

Portside stay bolts

Mud ring, looking into bottom of boiler base.

Tube sheet

Backhead

Another great update from Ed on his boiler construction. The little pictures hardly give it justice so I have included a "click on the picture" link to a bigger photo ~ Dan'l

Backhead from the side.

Backhead from the rear

Backhead from the top

Dome and whistle

Side view with domes and jacket

What is amazing is the level of detail. Remember this is a Gauge One live steamer. It is a narrow gauge model so it is bigger than most Gage One steamers, but it is still smaller than Ed's 3/4" scale A3.

Ed points out the whistle on the dome is a dummy piped to live steam and is very small. It will not be the source of the sound, but steam will exit here when the "real" hidden whistle is activated. The real whistle is an adjustable resonator cavity type - there has been a series of articles on them by Larry Bangham in Steam in the Garden Magazine.

Well, I am almost done with the Smoke box, so it's time for another picture."

"Dan remarked that he wanted something in the next picture that would show him the actual size of the locomotive. Hmmm, what would Dan be familiar with to show the size?"

I pasted a printed number into the number board. This is just a placeholder, I am going to experiment with etching my own number and builder plates." - Ed Hume

  "Yes! Yes! " -- Dan

 7/1/06 - I finished the cab roof today, so I thought it was time to send you another picture. The rivets on the cab sides were done by embossing 1/4" strips of 0.026 brass which are then soft soldered into milled channels. I used ordinary office spring binder clips to hold the strips during solder. The steam tubes are 1/4" black silicone made non-glossy by lightly sanding, and there are 1/8" diameter stainless steel tubes running inside the silicone to carry the steam.

Hey! Where's my Heineken? -- Dan

UPDATE September 28, 2006

I've pretty much finished the cab and tank so here are some new photos. The tank was a lot of work. You are seeing bent 1/16 brass with embossed rivets to form the tank sides. The fabrication combined filed and bent pieces to from a framework for the brass sheet to be screwed onto and soldered. Kozo's original Heisler has individual rivets!!!

Don't worry, Dan - there's plenty of Heineken left for you when you visit.

This is the top of the water tank without the top.

Thanksgiving Day 2006

The picture is a little dark but you may be able to see puddles and oil spots. I have leaks and issues to work on, but I have been able to run the loco on rollers, and blow the whistle. The throttle control is working well for gradual adjustment, the pumps are all working, and I have a carrier and wooden case all ready for going to steam ups. Have a happy thanksgiving - it's a good one for me!

I still need to work on the number plate on the smoke box, but here is a picture of the locomotive showing the custom decals. The number 9 was my daughter's suggestion - she was born on 9/9. I'll be taking more pictures with better lighting at some point, but I could not resist sending this one around. 12/13/06

December 19, 2006

This is the formal portrait to compare Ed's Heisler to a photo of the original. I am not sure which one is which! The photo's are linked to ed's originals for those of you who want a closer look. Also check out this comparison flyer Ed prepared!

Check out both ends. The details about the number plate are below.

To fabricate the smoke box number, I used PnP Blue Transfer Film from an enameling supplier and ironed my copied artwork pattern onto 1/32" brass. Then I used Ferric Chloride circuit board etch for 3 hours. I got a useable result with my first try. The picture shows the jig that I used to solder the etched pattern while keeping it centered. The picture of the finished number plate looks out-of-focus because the background is very glossy and the tiny lettering edges are not crisp. It makes a better impression to the eye than the camera. -Ed

Here is the burner and fuel tank installed. At this point it hadn't been fired. ~ Dan

11 seconds on the new gas burner. Steam's Up!

Now we can study the details! - Thanks again for sharing! -- Dan