Slotted axles

Once the jig was made, slotting the axles took a remarkably small number of swipes with the hack saw. Percy’s 1/8″ axles, being made of 316 stainless, were much tougher than this 3mm 12L14 steel axle material from Northwest Short Line. I made a little go-no-go gauge out of a couple of pieces of wire […]

Axle Jig

Percy helped me determine that a keyed connection between axle and wheel works best for me. I don’t have a milling machine, and so a jig is the only way to make the slots in the axles reasonably precise. My thoughtful wife bought me a four-jaw chuck for the lathe for my birthday, and it […]

Driver tyres for 1120

Between family trips, sunshine and business I’ve struggled to get much going on the railroad for at least a month. However, a pleasant evening with the lathe has produced five quite precise rings. These will be the tyres for 1120, which will be the new name for Next Victim. Progress promises to be slow due […]

Bring in the next victim

Despite my success with Percy, I still don’t feel ready to tackle 622 and 10 again. So, I procured a Bachmann Spectrum “modern” 4-4-0. I’d always wondered what made this a “modern” engine, and it wasn’t until I was checking if it fit on Pembroke’s turntable that I noticed. Almost all eight-wheelers kept their fireboxes […]

Impending operations

Now that I have Percy operational, and most of the turnout controls are in, I am starting to turn my thoughts once again to operations. The layout doesn’t operate well enough to share it with others yet, so Marc Simpson is in no danger of losing the bet. However, it won’t get any better if […]

Percy visits the paint shop

I found only the dried out dregs of a bottle of paint when I went to paint Percy’s new parts. The dregs looked almost viable, and I wanted the project done so I pressed forward with thinning and spraying. It was one of the worst airbrush experiences of my life. That’s saying something as my […]

Installing Turnout Controls

Awaiting a custom set of N-scale Grand Trunk decals from Black Cat, I have had to put Percy aside for a week or so. Meanwhile, I’ve been honing the approach to installing turnout controls. These controls had to satisfy the following design criteria. They need to behave like a real switch stand. I want to […]

Percy and the mega-print

With Percy now coated in primer, it is easier to see and comment about how that single big print went. Truthfully, it was two prints because the first one had the cylinders too high. While I wouldn’t consider it a failure, the single big print was not the best decision. I knew I was in […]

Percy gets ready for the paint shop

I had the day off yesterday so I could take the kids for a VR game on their last day of March Break. The game itself only took a couple of hours including travel time, which left the rest of the day for play time for me! I spent it on good old-fashioned modelling. I […]

3D printed handrail stanchions

Rarely my ideas work out on the first try. If it weren’t for a spare shell, due to cylinders that were too high, this one might not have. The spare shell allowed for practice before committing to the real shell. Handrail stanchions for #622 took a fair amount of lathe work to bore out and […]