Sand dome for 622

It turns out that one of the benefits of having your own 3D printer is that you can afford to experiment a little bit. If a part doesn’t work out the way you thought it would, you can modify the drawing, export it, and try again. There is no 10-day wait, no shipping charges and […]

Boiler stays for 622

The front boiler stays on a steam locomotive are tricky. They need to connect the boiler to the frame, but at least one end can’t be permanent or else you’ll never be able to disassemble the engine. What’s more, they are right there on the front of the engine, front and centre for most photographs; […]

A bell for 622

As a guy who at one time would have talked to a girl rather than solder two wires together, I’m pretty proud of these seven shards of brass and nickel silver that I soldered together to make a bell. Even if it isn’t quite perfectly symmetrical.

Steam dome details for 622

I continue to peck away at the details for 622. Once I figured out how to drill tiny holes again, my lathe made quick work of the whistle and safety valves. The latter sit on a removable brass plate, which fits into a hole in the top of the steam dome casing. This removable subassembly […]

Pilot details for #622

Like most Canada Atlantic locomotives, #622’s pilot was decorated with three hoses. Sure one is for brakes, but I have no idea what the others were for. Even some (but not all) of the switchers had at least one extra hose. More modern locomotives might have a signal and a steam line; usually the signal […]

Honouring the research

In a thought-provoking essay about his prototypical waybills, Tony Thompson asks, “is it merely visual?” He likens the typical approach to model railroad paperwork to operating our railroads with freight cars made of blocks of wood decorated with post-it note reporting marks. If we are happy with representational paperwork, we should also be happy with […]

Rear end details for 622

It may look like #622 is all but finished, but I just put together a to-do list with 28 items on it before the engine is ready for paint. Many of those items need to be fabricated, which means each will take at least an evening. Here are the first three from the list.

Mud drum for 622

Somehow my fixation on mud drums feels a little deviant. Like “foot fetish” or “nasophilia,” “mud drum” is the sort of thing you Google for only after double-checking that your Safe Search filter is on. That the one group I wrote to when researching mud drums during the design phase never wrote back only cements […]

622’s air pump and the end of detail castings

It strikes me that 622’s air pump will likely be one of the last detail castings I ever buy. Certainly, it will be the last brass air pump I buy. The next one will be printed, likely here at home. It’s worth pausing here to enjoy the skill that went into the pattern for this […]

Display shots for 622

I finally decided to shoot the photos for the Railway Modellers’ Meet virtual display room this week. I’ll be presenting it during the Meet the Modeller evening this Thursday. If you haven’t already, you should register and submit a model to join in. We’ve never taken this approach before, but I’m hoping it will be […]