How to Make a Cow Catcher

Well almost everyone knows by now, that the 315 is in the process of being back dated to when the D&RG bought her from the F&CC, and was re-numbered to 425, before she was assigned 315.
The 315 crew is in the process of changing out all the stuff to get her aged, and one of the main looks to get her back to 1918 is the wooden pilot.

Sounds simple enough, right... wellllllll maybe not. As Chief of Maintenance for 315, I took it on to get the wooden "Cow Catcher" on the front end. Where to start.

This BLOG will be more of a "Build Log" then a technical class.

First off I started looking for photos of the early years of the C-18's 425 is not pictured but I did come up with a pic of 424 her sister.
Here's the front of 424. Notice how far it sticks out, and that it is two colors, a light color in the middle and darker on the sides.


And the copy of the original blue print from the D&RG archives of the planes for wooden cow catchers. Give a good idea of construction, but wrong size and wouldn't fit. And it has a lot of steel built into it and used to attache it to the pilot beam.



The decision was made, since this cow catcher was a temporary prop, that we would make it as simple as possible to add and remove, but be as true to the prototype as we can. And as a fundraiser project, keep the cost down to a very small amount.

We spent several hours on the front of 315 taking measurements and designing a mounting system. And some times just making a "Swag" for how to get it to fit. Un-beknownst to most people, is that there is a lot of steel in the original . we are trying to get it done in wood, Saves costs, and construction complexity.

I finalized a plan, and drew up a full size Drawing. 1:1

The hole in the center is for the front knuckle to pass thru. The other realization is how would we be able to get the right angles on the vertical boards, and how to keep everything aligned while we did construct the unit. I decided that I needed to construct a Jig to align everything, and to actually build upon. The Jig needed to be square and straight and have a 90 deg. angle to it, and be as wide as the front of the engine.
This is what I came up with after several hours in the Hot NM sun.

And the reinforcing on the back side.


I got the important centerline drawn and layed out the alignment and placement for the front bottom beam, and the top beams. Finally I get to start building the real thing

Stay tuned..