A Photo for the Railway Modellers’ Meet

This is the first time in a while that we’ve had a photo display at the Railway Modellers’ Meet. Consequently, the organizing committee decided to task ourselves with ensuring there is something to see; we each need to bring something. This is not a problem for someone like Marc Simpson, who not only knows how […]

622’s Cab Takes Form

I tell you what: this business of starting with etched parts is really a lot faster than forming parts yourself. I spent about an hour this morning laying out and forming the four key-holes that I use to screw the cab to the frame, and which somehow I forgot to include in the pattern. If […]

Engine truck good enough for now

Rebuilding the engine truck wheels, including one tyre that went missing (but is not missed as it wasn’t my best work) took a morning. This time I soldered the half-axles in place before casting the spokes. So all the wheels are nice and solid now, even the one that came apart in the heat and […]

Experiments with molten lead

If you ever want to involve your teenaged son in this hobby, just tell him he gets to use the blow torch! In fact, I think you could convince a teenaged boy to do just about anything if it involved a blow torch. It’s unfortunate that they can’t use one to clean their room without […]

Engine truck: two steps forward, one step back

Obviously, things were going too well. Parts were literally flying off the frets and attaching themselves to the frame. I was hopeful of actually hitting my deadline. The optimism continued as I folded up the the engine truck. Even tacking the bottom chord onto the side frames worked reasonably easily, despite being a flawed design […]

Bearing guides and kit design

I never know what to call these things. The Brits call them “hornblock guides,” but North American engines have no hornblocks and have no need to guide them. We unimaginative North Americans call the bearings, well, “bearings.” The parts on the engine that guide them are pedestals and their wedges. There is no room to […]

Frame for 622

The framigami idea paid off, and compared to #10, the frame for 622 went together very quickly. Of course, it didn’t go perfectly according to plan. There are a few things I will change if I re-draw the etching artwork, and a few things I would remember to do differently next time. Things for next […]

Firebox

I felt a mild surge of anticipation as I cut the firebox free of the fret and set to embossing the stay bolts and rivets from the back. Others are able to use half-etched rivet holes to make convincing, even rivets. Beautiful, even. So far, this is not a skill I can count on. Maybe […]

Driver bearings

I looked around at the various offerings for bearings in both the HO scale and 4mm markets and found they were universally too large for my purposes. Maybe a more modern engine would have such a large axle box, but my little teakettle needed daintier fittings. So, I decided to make my own. I believe […]

Bearings and the finest line

I read once that the finest line in model railroading is the one that separates running clearance from slop. I made four driver bearings on the weekend, starting with a 1/8″ drilled hole in the end of some brass hex. Only after I’d completed all four did I examine them critically on an axle. They […]