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 […]

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 […]

Stroke to Path could save me hours!

Over a year ago, when I was working on the patterns for 622, I found that drawings imported from OnShape into InkScape consisted of many individual line segments. There had to be a better way, and Craig Townsend has found it. Here for future reference, is a YouTube video that makes it dead easy. Thanks […]

Bearing guides installed

Between the extra-long jig axles and some clamping tabs that I etched into the frame pan, installation of the bearing guides was a walk in the park. I had been a little concerned that the jig axles would be a loose fit on the bearings. As it turned out they were a little snug, and […]

Extra-long jig axles

At least I think they should be called jig axles. These pieces of Aluminum rod are used with the coupling rods to ensure the bearings are exactly the right distance apart. Essentially, I will pass these rods through the bearings, fix the coupling rods to the outsides, and then solder the bearing guides to the […]

Crankpins for 622

This weekend I formed the crankpins. They are turned from brass as I found, when turning the prototype, I couldn’t drill a long 0.6 mm hole in steel. I made them slightly over-length so I can trim them after I see how thick the rods really are. The real trick was the washers. These are […]

622 ready for the show

Well, I didn’t quite make the audacious goal, and now I am almost out of time. The Railway Modellers’ Meet starts on Friday, and there isn’t a nanosecond of free time between now and then. So, I am unlikely to make much more progress. What we see is what we get. Having said that, it’s […]

622’s boiler roughed in

The plan for 622’s boiler is somewhat experimental. Because the engine is a split frame design, and the running boards are connected to the frame, the boiler needs to admit both polarities too. At the same time, these little engines are mostly air, and so, we need to fill the boiler with as much weight […]

622’s Cab Takes Form

I tell you what: this business of starting with etched parts is really a lot faster than forming parts yourself. I spent about an hour this morning laying out and forming the four key-holes that I use to screw the cab to the frame, and which somehow I forgot to include in the pattern. If […]