Stickers & Thanks (Patreon)

Hey Patrons!

It's a new month, and thus new credits and stickers! Sticker packs are in the mail for all new Rockstars who joined in November, and credits are updated as well. The credits in tomorrow's video will not yet include the new names. I have some production lead time and it was too tight to get that updated in time. You'll see your name next week though, and right now over on the blog!

I haven't done a featured book in a while, mostly because it's been a while since I got new machine shop books. Well, I have a fun one today! A viewer sent me one of (or the?) first Kozo Hiraoka locomotive book. This is his original Shay, from 1982. It's very well loved, but it's neat to see such an early build of his.

Flipping through it, I think it's safe to say his writing style has gotten a lot more approachable. This project is extremely intimidating. He builds the entire boiler in about five pages, and it's a very complex design. It includes a tapered barrel, a dozen firetubes, and about two dozen stay bolts. Much much more difficult than his Pennsy boiler design, that's for sure!

Also, check out this amazing crankshaft setup (the Shay has a very complex crankshaft):

I have his New Shay book as well, and it's interesting to see how he's refined and simplified the construction. In this early version, he's doing everything "the hard way", but I don't mean that in a negative sense. It's very sophisticated, but perhaps less approachable to the reader.