The 1/2 Scale Baker 23-90 Home Page

Well, the Baker is almost done.  Just have ash door, wheel lugs, steps, shields for the gears and some striping and lettering left.  Below you you find a picture of it in its current state.  There is also a link below to a movie of it pulling on the fan.  Happy to report that it has a nice exhaust "bark" like the real Baker uniflow.

I added a number of pictures of the half scale Baker side by side with the full size 21-75 I used as the prototype.  I call my half scale a 23-90, which is next size up from the 21-75.  The 23-90 and 21-75 are virtually identical except that for a 23-90  the barrel of the boiler is 6"longer, the firebox is 4" longer, the bore is 10" vs. 9-1/4", and the rear wheels are 24" vs. 20" wide.  I used 23-90 dimensions to give a little more working room on the boiler and a bit more heating surface, plus I think the 23-90 looks a bit "leaner and meaner".

I went to the N.A.M.E.S. show in Detroit this spring.  Follow the link below to enter the N.A.M.E.S. gallery.

I am handling as many aspects of the construction of the model as possible including boiler construction, patternmaking, machine work, and fabrication.  Follow the links below for more information on the Baker engine and pictures of the construction process.

The inspiration for the project is a pristine 21-75 Baker Special previously owned by Herb Beckemeyer of Champaign, Illinois, now owned by Bill McChristie.  The engine shows regularly at the Central States Threshermen's Reunion which runs annually over Labor Day weekend in Pontiac, Illinois. A view of Bill's engine side by side with the half scale Baker is shown below.

Dick Smith - 9/17/2004

Questions & Comments: rdsmith@gridcom.net

The movie is about 4 MB so it is best if you have a broadband connection.  It is in Windows movie format (.WMV) so it should play on a Windows system with Windows Media player.

Click here to play a movie of the Baker on the big fan

Click here for a 1600 X 800 image of the above picture

Click Here For More Side By Side Pictures

Click Here To Enter N.A.M.E.S. Photo Gallery

Coming Together  <---Click here to see more

Well, at long last it is starting to resemble a engine.  I gathered up as many parts as I could, propped them up on my trailer and then took it all to the show at Pontiac over Labor Day weekend.  There was tremendous interest in the resulting display - more so than a complete engine! It really brought out the guys who were in the process of building or planning to build an engine.  I spent many enjoyable hours talking about engine building and live steam. 

The Baker Special   <---Click here to see more

Here are some excerpts from a Baker catalog reprint. They show some interesting diagrams and cutaways that explain more about the uniflow cylinder and the the Baker valve gear along with left and right views of the complete engine. Sorry about the engine views. Apparently there were some weird interference effects when they were scanned.

Boiler Construction  <---Click here to see more

This section contains various views of the boiler under construction. The boiler is of welded steel construction. However, great pains were taken in the design of the boiler to hide as many welds as possible and to give the realistic appearance of a riveted boiler. The barrel is 16" O.D. with 1/2" walls. The rest of the plates are 3/8" with exception of the the flue sheets and crown sheet which are 1/2". Eleven 2" flues do the business. Stays are 7/8" diameter on 4" centers and are welded in place. Since I don't have any half scale people to crawl into to firebox to roll flues, it is not practical to build a true water bottom boiler in half scale. Therefore, the boiler is of open bottom firebox construction with a simulated water bottom that can be removed for access to the firebox.

Patterns  <---Click here to see more

As mentioned in the intro, I am making all of the patterns for the project. Virtually everything that was a casting on the prototype will be a casting on the model. The patterns are loose patterns made of mahogany with brass inserts or finger holes for pulling the pattern.

Iron  <---Click here to see more

This is where the metal meets the road. This section shows views of various castings in the raw, machined and assembled stages. There is no greater satisfaction than picking up the finished casting from the foundry after hours of shrink and draft calculations, figuring out parting lines, core arrangements, etc. and days of not knowing for sure if it was going to come out OK or some serious blunder was made in the pattern construction. There is also great satisfaction on digging a tool bit into a nice piece of cast iron.