Tender details

I thought this post was going to be called “Tender final details” until I looked at the photos. Don’t the side sills look plain? That’s what I thought too, and it sent me scurrying to the reference material. So, there’ll be another post tomorrow. It turns out the handrails and lift bars are only the […]

622 Final engine details and a discovery

Despite the glorious summer, I’m still getting a few minutes of modelling time in most days. A few minutes adds up and soon there have been hours, and now I’ve finished the engine part of 622. There is still a short list of details to add to the tender, but an hour’s work should see […]

Mars Accuracy

I’ve noticed that the prints on my own 3D printer are snug compared to the same parts printed by Shapeways. Indeed, the sand dome and the ash pan wanted a little scraping where they connect with other parts. So, I made a 2 cm test cube to see what I could learn about the accuracy. […]

Sand dome for 622

It turns out that one of the benefits of having your own 3D printer is that you can afford to experiment a little bit. If a part doesn’t work out the way you thought it would, you can modify the drawing, export it, and try again. There is no 10-day wait, no shipping charges and […]

Mars sees its first action

For Father’s Day this year, my darling wife bought me an Elegoo Mars 3D printer. Well, summer being what it is, it has taken me a while to get it out of the box, but now that it is in action, I must say I am truly impressed. Now, I will confess that I have […]

Boiler stays for 622

The front boiler stays on a steam locomotive are tricky. They need to connect the boiler to the frame, but at least one end can’t be permanent or else you’ll never be able to disassemble the engine. What’s more, they are right there on the front of the engine, front and centre for most photographs; […]

A bell for 622

As a guy who at one time would have talked to a girl rather than solder two wires together, I’m pretty proud of these seven shards of brass and nickel silver that I soldered together to make a bell. Even if it isn’t quite perfectly symmetrical.

Steam dome details for 622

I continue to peck away at the details for 622. Once I figured out how to drill tiny holes again, my lathe made quick work of the whistle and safety valves. The latter sit on a removable brass plate, which fits into a hole in the top of the steam dome casing. This removable subassembly […]

Pilot details for #622

Like most Canada Atlantic locomotives, #622’s pilot was decorated with three hoses. Sure one is for brakes, but I have no idea what the others were for. Even some (but not all) of the switchers had at least one extra hose. More modern locomotives might have a signal and a steam line; usually the signal […]

Honouring the research

In a thought-provoking essay about his prototypical waybills, Tony Thompson asks, “is it merely visual?” He likens the typical approach to model railroad paperwork to operating our railroads with freight cars made of blocks of wood decorated with post-it note reporting marks. If we are happy with representational paperwork, we should also be happy with […]