A bad week for electronics

You’d think that if your father had a doctorate in electrical engineering, at least a little wizardry might have rubbed off! Nope, he kept it all to himself, apparently. The story starts with the Hall effect sensor, which the ESU decoder wants to synchronize the exhaust sound. Countless YouTube videos make this gizmo look trivial, […]

622’s tender cable

I struggled a little bit with whether to simply extend the leads from the tender-mounted decoder so that they could connect with the locomotive, or whether to create a cable with connectors on both ends. In the end, I decided on a cable, rather than having to deal with an obscene length of wires hanging […]

Tender coupling

622’s tender coupling is a sandwich of phosphor bronze and styrene. The two layers of bronze carry track power from the two sides of the engine to the two sides of the tender through a mind-bending arrangement of layers and folds. Seriously, it is such a puzzle that I wasn’t certain I would have the […]

Tender coupling tests

I recall a story about a cab ride where the engine backed around a tight corner, and the writer had act quickly to avoid losing their thumb between the cab and the tender. Photos of 622 and her sisters confirm the tender should be startlingly close to the cab. However, it would be a bit […]

The “big” package from Shapeways

The “big” package from Shapeways arrived this week and out rolled an array of details that should save a lot of modelling time for this engine and her sisters. They are all printed with Shapeways’s “Smoothest Fine Detail Plastic” and I have to admit I’m impressed. Except in a couple of places, like the equalizing […]

Pembroke on the tour

I’ve signed Pembroke up to be on the tour for the Railway Modellers’ Meet on May 22. This year. Last time I displayed Pembroke, it was a motionless diorama as #10 had just tied itself in knots. I’m resolved to have a running layout this time, which means the pressure is on to complete not […]

Cab roof for 622

More styrene has found its way into 622 with the addition of the cab roof. I formed this by heating some .015″ styrene in boiling water and fixing it to the outside of a can of Green Giant Niblets with rubber bands and some scraps of card. The Cricut made the carlines (the transverse members […]

Cab insulation

As with every other part of 622, the cab needs to be electrically split down the middle. So, the front and back of the cab are made of two layers – the inner phosphor bronze and the outer styrene. Before I could add the styrene, I had to correct the cab sides, however. The etching […]

Where are all the rivets?

Over three years ago, I started work on the tender shell for 622. I went through a lot of pain and sandpaper trying to preserve the rivets, while making the shortening scar invisible. After all, conventional wisdom says that tenders are full of rivets, and the ones on Bachmann’s casting were too nice to just […]

Tender frame for 622

I seem to be in a bit of a holding pattern as I wait for some electronics parts. They’re going to need a place to sit anyway, and so, I’ve returned to work on the tender. #10’s tender frame is fully represented, but it’s very difficult to see, and forced me to cram weight into […]