Firebox weight patterns

Little eight wheelers like 622 are mostly air. So, I need to fill every nook and cranny with weight. The firebox looks like a good place for weight, but it is unfortunately rather full of gearbox and other mechanical or electrical gubbins. The forward end has a little space, and so, I carved these two […]

Disaster on the rolling road

I was about to declare victory. 622’s chassis was finally rolling reasonably smoothly, or at least more smoothly than #10, and I was giving it a fast run on the rolling road. Suddenly, the left rear crankpin screw unwound and the connecting rod flew off. The chassis dropped off the rollers, and when I went […]

Edging closer to smooth

Now that 622 has a motor, I hooked up some alligator clips to see how it behaves. There is a hesitancy at the quarters, which makes me believe there is a slight quartering issue, despite my efforts to limit it. It’s unsurprising because I could feel some stiffness when rolling the chassis by hand. Really […]

Motor installed in 622

November is one of those months when life gets in the way of model railroading around here. Even though the weather is perfect for modelling, little gets done on the trains in this month. I had hoped to get 622 running in October, but when I first installed the motor, I found that the idler […]

Modelling at Vancouver Train Expo

With fall well and truly under way, it must be time for BC’s biggest model train show. I spent most of Sunday at the “Craftsman’s Corner,” demonstrating that some of us still make models, despite the chequebook appearance of the hobby. This year, I had the opportunity to share the table with Mike Barone and […]

Torque arm for 622

I puzzled until my puzzler was sore about how to affix a torque arm to the NWSL 28:1 gearbox. #10 taught me that we want the arm to be as beefy as possible. But these little 4-4-0s don’t allow us to be profligate with space. In particular, there is no extra space on top of […]

Flywheel and worm for 622

A plumbing emergency this weekend derailed my plans to get much done on 622. However, I did manage to marry the motor with the flywheel and worm. I don’t know about other people, but I find pushing on the end of a motor axle very stressful. A little too much pressure and you’ll be buying […]

622 gets connecting rods

I am not so naive as to believe that the connecting rods would drop effortlessly onto the crankpins. When I built #10, I bet I spent a month fussing over the wobbly bits, before finally declaring a truce and moving on. They were never perfect, but I felt they were probably good enough. After a […]

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, […]