New Turnings for Percy

It’s been over a year since the lathe last graced the workbench in the heavy shop. Honestly, I was surprised I remembered how to turn it on! It took only one attempt to make this brass bearing, and two attempts for the new insulated axle. I’ll take the win!

Percy’s New Parts

The parts rolled off the 3D printers over the course of the day today. The gearbox halves took all of 22 minutes on the FDM printer, while the resin printer poked along at all the bits that need to look good for over six hours. I’m happy and a little surprised to report that all […]

Percy’s New Frame Is Ready to Print

Percy’s new gearbox required extensive modifications to the frame. Fortunately, these were all 3D printed parts, and so, the changes were a simple matter of drawing. I decided to replace the rather nondescript motor cover with something a little more representative of the real engine’s frame. The ghost of Percy’s original frame is still present, […]

Oktobahnfest 2025

How many years does it take to make a tradition? It’s probably more than two, but you have to go through two to get to 25 or whatever it does take to make a tradition. So, this was the second annual Oktobahnfest, in which I invited the North Shore Model Railroaders (a subdivision of the […]

Turnout Control Rod Realignment

The short run-around has been working quite well, and so I decided to torture myself by using the siding to get around the passenger car. Half-way down, I found that the switch for Lee’s manufacturing was reversed, and looked down to rediscover that there is no control for it. That is why I hadn’t noticed […]

Percy TEsts the Fit

3D models are all very well and good, but there are practical aspects to fitting a gear train inside an existing model. In particular, Percy received a bunch of weight in the boiler and saddle tanks. Who knows if the theoretical drive will actually fit? In about 20 minutes, the filament printer made rough approximations […]

Percy Considers a New Motor

Time has flown by and it is already three years since Percy emerged from the paint shop as GTR 2543. For those unfamiliar with the tale, the eight-month saga whereby Thomas the Tank Engine’s cheeky friend, Percy, sacrificed himself for science and good-running can be found here. The most significant discovery of the period is […]