Really tiny connectors!

I was feeling pretty smug about having thought to include a wiring channel along the top of the boiler to make room for marker and headlight wires. Then I started to think about how to get the electricity from the decoder to those wires, and how to make it so that everything can come apart, […]

Yoke for 622

Once all six parts of each cylinder were soldered together, I really wondered if I would be able to add the yoke too. I wanted it soldered for strength, but feared turning the cylinder assemblies back into their constituent smithereens. I needn’t have worried. The hard part turned out to be holding the chassis in […]

Widening the Mary Street Bridge

I don’t know what I was thinking when I first mocked up the Mary Street Bridge at the south end of Pembroke. Perhaps I thought it was so lightly built that it could only have been one lane, and I do recall a reference to a foot bridge. At any rate, thanks to Facebook and […]

Cylinder assembly

Getting the first cylinder right could have been luck. By the time I’d completed the second one, I think I knew what I was doing. So here, for future Rene, are the fixtures I came up with to get the cylinders together straight, with a minimum of fuss!

Cylinder parts and jig

When I tested the dry fit of the first cylinder parts, I still needed to get the guides straight. Little did I realize at the time how difficult that would be. I was even more surprised by how difficult it would be to hold the guides straight for soldering. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Indeed, […]

Once more unto the breach: oil cups

Thanks to comments from Rob and Richard, I re-examined my approach to the crosshead guide oil cups. Rob encouraged me to look again at the prototype while Richard suggested I think like a jeweller. So, despite my earlier capitulation, I launched back into battle with the oil cups. It took a few attempts. One was […]

Capitulating to oil cups

I don’t believe I’ve ever had so much difficulty drilling holes. Five #80 drill bits lined up like casualties of war (where are their flags?), and not one successful hole achieved. #622 had oil cups mounted mid-way down the crosshead guides. They are quite prominent in the photos, and I would love to model them. […]

Cylinder dry fit

Fitting the the crosshead guides into the first cylinder took a morning’s filing. Perhaps it would have been quick work with a milling machine, but I didn’t find that the drawing as designed enabled me to assemble the parts the way I wanted anyway. There is still finishing to complete in the corners so the […]

Brakes Re-revisited (again)

I’ve lost track: this may be the fourth time I’ve designed 622’s brakes. But this time, I have real data to go upon, rather than just conjecture. In 2018, we discovered that the Prairie Dog Central’s #3 has the same pattern of brakes, and despite being out of storage and battery, I did manage to […]

A little mock rhythm

A few weeks ago, as I was contemplating the composition of Pembroke, I noted that I want to pull the viewer through the space between the Pembroke Milling Company and the CA freight shed. The existing mockups had their roof ridges parallel to the backdrop to simplify hiding the join with the backdrop. However, in […]