Percy’s Programming Problems

Next time I’ll know. Next time I won’t trust that setting the max and min output voltage CVs will properly govern the max and min output voltages. Next time, I’ll take my meter and check. Yes, another motor has been turned into a molten mess, or maybe a tangle. I don’t know, I’m not going […]

Percy Together Again

After a couple more gear box prints, Percy went back together again. Brimming with anticipation, I put the chassis on the rails to see if it would run on the straight DC available from my ancient power pack. It sort of did, but not even as well as remember it running before I started on […]

Percy’s New Wheels

There is a little progress each evening toward re-wheeling and re-motoring Percy. The old wheels proved remarkably robust when it came time to disassemble them. Assembled with one of the red LocTites, the only way to get them apart was to break the plastic centres. It was a savage evening! I printed new centres, and […]

Gear Spacing

One of the things I love about sharing my modelling progress is the opportunity to learn from my friends. At the North Shore Model Railroaders virtual meeting this Wednesday, I shared the pitiful progress I’ve made on Percy in the last two months, culminating in the photo of the half-assembled gearbox. I commented that I […]

Percy Gear Fitting

I finally gathered sufficient courage to put all of Percy’s new gears onto their shafts. I was avoiding it because I only had one of each of the two spur gears and one lay shaft. If it went wrong, I would have to get more gears, and who knows when those would arrive through the […]

New Turnings for Percy

It’s been over a year since the lathe last graced the workbench in the heavy shop. Honestly, I was surprised I remembered how to turn it on! It took only one attempt to make this brass bearing, and two attempts for the new insulated axle. I’ll take the win!

Percy’s New Parts

The parts rolled off the 3D printers over the course of the day today. The gearbox halves took all of 22 minutes on the FDM printer, while the resin printer poked along at all the bits that need to look good for over six hours. I’m happy and a little surprised to report that all […]

Percy’s New Frame Is Ready to Print

Percy’s new gearbox required extensive modifications to the frame. Fortunately, these were all 3D printed parts, and so, the changes were a simple matter of drawing. I decided to replace the rather nondescript motor cover with something a little more representative of the real engine’s frame. The ghost of Percy’s original frame is still present, […]

Percy TEsts the Fit

3D models are all very well and good, but there are practical aspects to fitting a gear train inside an existing model. In particular, Percy received a bunch of weight in the boiler and saddle tanks. Who knows if the theoretical drive will actually fit? In about 20 minutes, the filament printer made rough approximations […]

Percy Considers a New Motor

Time has flown by and it is already three years since Percy emerged from the paint shop as GTR 2543. For those unfamiliar with the tale, the eight-month saga whereby Thomas the Tank Engine’s cheeky friend, Percy, sacrificed himself for science and good-running can be found here. The most significant discovery of the period is […]