Bring in the next victim

Despite my success with Percy, I still don’t feel ready to tackle 622 and 10 again. So, I procured a Bachmann Spectrum “modern” 4-4-0. I’d always wondered what made this a “modern” engine, and it wasn’t until I was checking if it fit on Pembroke’s turntable that I noticed. Almost all eight-wheelers kept their fireboxes […]

3D printed handrail stanchions

Rarely my ideas work out on the first try. If it weren’t for a spare shell, due to cylinders that were too high, this one might not have. The spare shell allowed for practice before committing to the real shell. Handrail stanchions for #622 took a fair amount of lathe work to bore out and […]

Percy and the Split Axles

We’re coming to the home stretch of Percy’s story. After months of experiments, I have finally landed on a plan for Percy’s wheels that should work more permanently than the plans I had for #622 or #10. It was time to put it to the test, and so, I turned up some tyres, assembled some […]

12L14 Tyres

Up until now, I’ve only made tyres out of 316 Stainless Steel, which is supposed to be machinable. While small wheels were not too bad, my little Sherline lathe struggled with the 17.5 mm drivers of #622. So, I asked the local Metal Supermarket to bring in some 1″ 12L14 free-machining steel. They probably sell […]

Pretend engineering

Before we proceed to make a decision about the best path forward for attaching wheels to axles here in North Vancouver, I have one more round of experiments to share. I still believe that a keyed wheel will be superior in holding onto the axle compared to any sort of a glue bond, but the […]

Three ways to wreck split axles

Both #10 and #622 have split-frame current collection whereby the wheels on each side are connected electrically to the frame on that side. This means that the two ends of the axles are in turn isolated electrically. In the case of #10, I used split axles available from the EM Gauge Society, while for #622, […]

Percy’s wide chassis

For Daylight Savings Hour —- that magical extra hour of modelling time you get once a year when all the clocks go back — I designed and printed frame spacers for Percy that give the chassis dimensions similar to #622. For the first time I also tried pushing the chassis on glass, which turns out […]

Percy’s new rods

Percy received a new set of connecting rods to match his new split frame. For those keeping score, this is Percy’s third set of connecting rods. I decided to try out the new style of crank pin to see how it behaved and how easy or difficult it is to manufacture. Over all, this pattern […]

Another Crank pin proof of concept

The next round of experiments with Percy will require yet another new set of connecting rods. I’ve been wanting to experiment with a new style of connecting rod and crank pin for years and this seems like a good time to do it. North American eight-wheelers seemed to have had two styles of crank pins. […]

Percy’s New Frame

The one place where Percy admits surprisingly tight tolerance is in the relationship between axles and frame. Dropping the original axles into the slots, I find they have a nice running fit with very little discernable fore-and-aft movement. Both #622 and #10 have bearings running in guides, soldered à-la English etched kit to the insides […]