622 makes it to sea trials

622 is finally back together again. I managed to keep the same electrical scheme albeit with a little less elegance than originally planned. Where svelte insulating layers were incorporated into the frame, I now have beefy sandwiches of nickel silver and epoxy on plastic. Where the frame originally conducted electricity covertly, there are now obvious […]

Caught the short

Because the top layer of the front cross-member admitted a gap, I broke the isolating cut into two sessions. Yesterday evening, I cut through the front half, in the hopes that the short was there. It wasn’t so, after the epoxy holding a new frame sandwich together had cured, I severed the back half. I […]

Chasing a short

It wouldn’t be one of my builds without some sort of disaster at the end. On #10, I dropped the boiler on the way to the paint booth, breaking the smokebox off completely. For 622 the disaster is a short that has developed in the frame since the last time I tested the locomotive. At […]

Tender side sill details

As I mentioned, the tender side sills were looking a little barren. So, I scurried over to the reference material to see what should be there. Interestingly, this is a point where 622 differs from its stable-mates. The details were straightforward to put together with strips of brass and some Grandt Line nut-bolt-washer castings. Now […]

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 […]

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.