Locomotive coupling level?

I just got the tender up onto its temporary wheels and checked the coupler height at each end. The rear looks okay, but the front is perhaps .010” too high. I’m wondering if a slight joggle in this coupling is okay, or will that have a tendency to lift the tender?

I’m modelling for Matthieu

In these days of social and physical isolation, of lock-down, of panic buying and worrying at the news, there’s a theme going around modelling communities. To the outside world, modelling already looks a lot like self-isolation. “I’ve been training for this my whole life” reads one photo of a crowded modelling space. These memes seem […]

Motor and light connections

One thing I’ve learned in my short career as a locomotive builder is that I take my engines apart a lot. It won’t do to have soldered connections holding the boiler where the lights are to the chassis where the wheel rotation sensor is and to the motor. Fortunately, it seems like the 1mm headers […]

Fascia improvements

Isn’t it amazing how we can become accustomed to life’s minor imperfections? That door that you have to slam a little, the mole just out of view on the bridge of your nose, winter no matter where you live, traffic also no matter where you live. Some of them you can’t change, but some of […]

The “big” package from Shapeways

The “big” package from Shapeways arrived this week and out rolled an array of details that should save a lot of modelling time for this engine and her sisters. They are all printed with Shapeways’s “Smoothest Fine Detail Plastic” and I have to admit I’m impressed. Except in a couple of places, like the equalizing […]

Inspiration from Tommy Douglas

Last Thursday seems a lifetime ago in this world gone mad. That was the day that we said goodbye to my friend Sharlene Hertz. Sharlene was the spark that kept the Delbrook Community Association – one of my distractions – going. She was a lifelong New Democrat and political advocate. At her service, her family […]

Learning about really tiny connectors

The 1mm connectors arrived from Digikey this week, and rather than leap straight in and wire up a decoder, I took the unusual step and practiced first. I’m glad I did! The connectors are delicate. Indeed, they barely hold together. I found that without a bead of CA to keep the pins in the plastic […]

A cab full of tungsten

The challenge with the 4-4-0 wheel arrangement is to move the weight distribution to the rear of the engine, toward the drivers. As I found previously, I need to squeeze a lot of weight into the cab. This weight takes the form of tungsten, 74% denser than lead and conveniently available from Woodland Scenics’ Pinecar […]

Pembroke on the tour

I’ve signed Pembroke up to be on the tour for the Railway Modellers’ Meet on May 22. This year. Last time I displayed Pembroke, it was a motionless diorama as #10 had just tied itself in knots. I’m resolved to have a running layout this time, which means the pressure is on to complete not […]

The Century of Canada…

As I wrote before, Pembroke could tell two very different stories. On the one hand, it could represent the sleepy end of a branch line, a second entrant into a market barely big enough for one. On the other, it could demonstrate the unbridled optimism of the age of progress and of small towns like […]