Magic Box Discoveries

The Boy and I had to drive down to Kerrisdale today on an errand. As we were in the neighbourhood, and I needed more 1/8″ brass rod, we stopped in at Magic Box Hobbies. Magic Box mostly cater to the plastic and R/C modelling crowds, and so this was only my second time in the […]

622 on her wheels

You might expect that at this point it would be a simple matter of dropping the drivers into the chassis, screwing the engine truck on and sending the whole assembly out for a test roll. Sadly, no. Somehow, the design for 622´s springs got changed, and a whole lot of extra metal got added. So, […]

IPMS Vancouver Fall Show

The local chapter of the International Plastic Modelers Society held their big show on Thanksgiving Saturday, as they apparently have every year. I had never been to one of their events before, and finding myself in the unusual possession of not only a couple of hours of free time but also the knowledge that the […]

Engine truck wheels

The engine truck, which I primed yesterday, went together more or less as planned this morning before I left for work. Unlike #10, which has tiny equalizing beams and floating bearings trapped in rigid sideframes, #622 allows the whole sideframes to rock. The bearings are simple holes in the sideframes, meaning the wheels are permanently […]

7AM Conference Call

Was I still in my pyjamas? No, but I may have been calling in from the modelling disk. Good thing the camera was off in any event. I blasted a little primer onto 622’s engine truck as it’s going to be hard to do once the truck is assembled. It’s not the hours. It’s the […]

Art Nouveau

“What’s with the sudden interest in Art Nouveau?” my wife asked when she saw me balancing on my knee the huge tome I’d liberated from the oversize stacks at the Capilano Library. Art Nouveau was a dominant style in the arts from 1890-1910 and so it is part of the context for my 1905 rendition […]

Removing the long axles

With the drivers quartered, the long axles have now served their purpose. I started cutting the first one with a jeweller’s saw. An hour and two blades later, I decided to switch to a cut-off disk and the Dremel tool. I took it slow to avoid melting the spokes or (worse) the axle-wheel joint, and […]

Drivers quartered

There is a saying in the Maker community: if you can’t make it perfect, make it adjustable. The corollary is surely that if you can’t make it adjustable, make it perfect. These drivers are a one-shot deal. Either I get the quartering perfect, or I’m soaking them in acetone to loosen the epoxy, which will […]

Exhaust cam

I am going to steal #10’s ESU DCC decoder for #622; it’s not doing any good sitting in the tender while #10 awaits shopping. This decoder wants four magnets and a Hall sensor to synchronize the exhaust chuff sound. Now, there is not much space on the axle between the gear box and the wheel […]

Improved engine truck assembly

The first time I assembled the engine truck, it was held together mostly by fervent prayer while the epoxy set. The result was as shaky as my belief in prayer! Perhaps if I were more spiritual, this would be a good strategy for me. The second and third attempts leveraged a new pair of jigs […]