622 under power

Honestly, I don’t know how America ever became great in the first place, having invented the Phillips head screw! The things strip too easily, and even when they’re not stripped, they don’t hold onto your screwdriver and you have to press down to make them work. The reassembly of 622 had to wait until I […]

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 […]

U-G-L-Y quartering tool

It could hardly have been less beautiful or elegant, but the Polymorph seems to have put me back in action. Indeed, it was so quick and effective, I’m hard-pressed to see why anyone would quarter drivers any other way! Having learned that the spokes would stick to the Polymorph, I masked off the front drivers. […]

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 […]