5JAN03
A view of the pilot, cylinders, boiler and springs. The pilot is a Vance Bass (specially produced and no longer available) which I used to save cutting all of those staves.



8FEB03
The smokebox front.
The front bolts are Grandt Line hex castings and the smokebox rivets are the sprues from the castings. I used the turn the disks on a mandrel chucked into my Dremel method. The green blobs are squadron putty. And the brass blob is Aussie goop.

In the far distance the tapered boiler shows up. Fitting that was quite a process. I've decided that I must have been putting the taper under stress so that when I cut or sanded, tension released and the thing warped leaving a gap around the dome base so off it came and another went on.


Got the domes and headlight bracket.


18FEB03
I went with Fletch's Style 3 on the headlight bracket - the one that says South Park to me.


The domes. The Sand dome top is made up of discs turned using the Dremel as a vertical lathe.


30MAR03
The cool front stanchions with inset star.


31MAY03
And a couple of overall views:


15JUN03
Some work on the tender and a comparison with an HOn3 Forney:


12JUL03
More work done on the tender:


30JUL03
Working on the tender:


2NOV03
Tender with hungry boards, railings, water fill and various plumbing pieces:


5DEC03
And the firebox:


15DEC03
And the Congdon stack: the basic stack comes from the Bachmann balloon stack, the upper cylinder comes from a dish detergent bottle and then various wrappers with rivets impressed. Plus a tea strainer for the cinder catcher.

Next up is the 23inch box headlight; mocked up here:


22DEC03
Headlight mockup replaced by the real thing:


4JAN04
Some overall views, shot in a hurry:




AUG04
It's starting to look like a locomotive. Since I have no frame, I'm using wood blocks to get a sense of the proportions:
I took a break to build some cars for the Bogie to haul since the frame and motor cobination was not forthcoming. But Fletch had designed and commissioned a laser cutter to cut out a stainless steel frame so I went back to work.

JUL05
Started with the drivers. These are just a representation of the Mason drivers which were far more elegant:

Without access to a lathe, I made the bearing out of brass tube finished to length on my Sherline mini-mill:

Then I added the rods (stainless steel laser cut):

And it lines up like this:


AUG05
Next it's time to go to work on the rods that convert the steam power to the turning motion of the wheels.
Spacing the crosshead guide accurately is important:

As attached:

And it lines up like this:

Then we do the crosshead itself:


SEP05
We attach the rods and the crosshead:

And make a movie of the rods and crosshead under (electric) power:



NOV05
We add the piston and the gland where the piston moves in and out of the cylinder:



FEB06
We add valve gear. The valve gear synchronizes the emission/exhaust of steam from the cylinders with the motion of the piston, so that we get push and pull of the piston which the rods translate into rotating motion of the wheels. This particular valve gear is called a Walschaerts valve gear :

And make a movie of the rods and crosshead under (manual because it's stuck together with tape, literally) power:



APR06
Finding a way to hook the parts together took some time. The frame under the engine needs to be tied to the underneath of the cab and tender. The final result was an aluminum bar milled to correct width and length:

Which let me put the engine together (the tender truck is a special casting):



JUL06
Some paint has been applied (that's my inspiration on the corkboard in the background):

The lighting makes a difference:


SEP06
One needs a blower to get the fire going (note non-scale dust everywhere):

And something for the engineer and fireman to do; here's the partially completed backhead that fills up most of the cab:


SEP06
The coupler pocket gets added so the locomotive can pull some cars (below is a photo with the parts labeled):



OCT06
And we're essentially done (just need the decals still to be printed):