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 […]

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; […]

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 […]

The weather this weekend was definitely conducive to model railroading. This was fortunate because the Virtual Display Room at the Railway Modellers’ Meet is already starting to fill up. I’m planning to get 622 assembled for some photos so I can present her next Thursday. The major engineering and electrical work is hopefully complete, and […]

The hardest part about scratchbuilding is that there are no instructions. Usually that simply means I’m on my own to solve every problem – territory so familiar, I don’t know I could actually follow someone else’s planned sequence of steps. This time, the piece of instructions I am missing is the map of the etch […]