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 […]

Learning about really tiny connectors

The 1mm connectors arrived from Digikey this week, and rather than leap straight in and wire up a decoder, I took the unusual step and practiced first. I’m glad I did! The connectors are delicate. Indeed, they barely hold together. I found that without a bead of CA to keep the pins in the plastic […]

A cab full of tungsten

The challenge with the 4-4-0 wheel arrangement is to move the weight distribution to the rear of the engine, toward the drivers. As I found previously, I need to squeeze a lot of weight into the cab. This weight takes the form of tungsten, 74% denser than lead and conveniently available from Woodland Scenics’ Pinecar […]

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 […]

Sunken boiler

I was just about to start sheathing the boiler. It’s important to get the wagon top over the firebox right if the boiler is to fit the front of the cab at all. So, I had the Cricut cut out a template for the formers. It was then that i discovered the boiler was too […]

Really tiny LED

Somewhere between here and the other Vancouver, a package of gubbins from NGineering has been waiting for almost a month. The package contains some solder strippable magnet wire, the recommended flux and a handy-looking tool for holding the wire together with the tiny surface-mount LEDs that are available today. Tim Anderson of NGineering sent the […]

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 […]

Tender tank details

I’m way out of practice, but even so, the evening and morning spent assembling the tool boxes and other details that adorn the tender tank was the most fun I’ve had in a while. I actually do have what normal people call “a life,” but normal people don’t understand how forgiving and quick it is […]

Lowering the carriage factory

Rob Kirkham suggested getting a boxcar into the scene to compare with the carriage factory. The cars in the prototype photo look like 36 footers, and I don’t have any that large. I did have a 34′ V&PL car at hand, and dropping it into the scene, we can see that the 80′ factory is […]