Turnout controls ready to print

Eight years! I am amazed to learn that I started pecking away at the fascia-mounted turnout control problem eight years ago. Well, this week marks the conclusion of the design phase, as I finally have a version I believe will be robust and easy to install. This is a minor improvement over the Mark II […]

Percy’s new main rods

Percy’s new main rods follow the same pattern as the connecting rods, with keys holding the rods in place, rather than nuts. I re-used the original crossheads. These have a plain plate to hold the rod in place on its pin and also to keep the crosshead on its guides. Filing off the end of […]

Percy crosses the chasm

That gap. It doesn’t look so dangerous, but once I installed phosphor-bronze wipers to pick up current, the fine wire would find the tiny gap between rail heads and launch poor under-weight Percy into the sky. Sometimes with disastrous effect. Finally, with Percy’s split chassis assembled, and a few sharp corners filed away so they […]

Percy and the Split Axles

We’re coming to the home stretch of Percy’s story. After months of experiments, I have finally landed on a plan for Percy’s wheels that should work more permanently than the plans I had for #622 or #10. It was time to put it to the test, and so, I turned up some tyres, assembled some […]

Learning from Percy

Every month, the North Shore model railroaders get together, lately via Zoom, and share some recent projects. I’ve offered to do a quick presentation on what I’ve learned from Percy. I’ve put it up here should anyone be interested.

Percy and the Driver Test

I’m nearly ready to go ahead with the “final” set of wheels for Percy. These will feature a combination of keys and Loctite to ensure everything goes together in alignment and, more importantly, stays that way. The 3D printer makes test fits unusually easy, and so, I’ve broken from my damn-the-torpedoes tradition, and made a […]

12L14 Tyres

Up until now, I’ve only made tyres out of 316 Stainless Steel, which is supposed to be machinable. While small wheels were not too bad, my little Sherline lathe struggled with the 17.5 mm drivers of #622. So, I asked the local Metal Supermarket to bring in some 1″ 12L14 free-machining steel. They probably sell […]

Pretend engineering

Before we proceed to make a decision about the best path forward for attaching wheels to axles here in North Vancouver, I have one more round of experiments to share. I still believe that a keyed wheel will be superior in holding onto the axle compared to any sort of a glue bond, but the […]

Three ways to wreck split axles

Both #10 and #622 have split-frame current collection whereby the wheels on each side are connected electrically to the frame on that side. This means that the two ends of the axles are in turn isolated electrically. In the case of #10, I used split axles available from the EM Gauge Society, while for #622, […]

Holding onto more Axles

Continuing the “science” from last week, I’ve now seen how CA affects the performance of both a press-fit, and a keyed fit when the CA is applied before pressing the axle into the wheel. Because it would be great to be able to fine tune the quartering after assembly, I also picked up some Locktite […]