Z19 and Baldwin Tender

The progress on my Z19 continues... shown here is the progressive assembly and construction of the chassis. 

Quatering was carried out by eye and was fairly easy to achieve. I have found that the use of a 'stiff' gearbox to hold a wheel in place, the one that all the rest are quartered in relation to really helps. 

Finding appropriate sideframes for the tender bogies was a bit tricky...however a Bachmann 4-4-0 old timer tender chassis proved to have an answer... 

The horrible small 'wheels' ( I say wheels because they skid) were removed and new axle points drilled with Gopher Models wheels fitted. Wheels can be bought from http://www.badgerbits.com.au/

After the wheels and base of the tender had been sorted out, from brass and PCB the sides were looked at....

Brass formed the solution and care was necessary in marking out the various 'landmark' sections, as the sides were to be formed and bent from one piece to simplify the assembly process. 

The bent top edges were done using scribing and the jaws of my unimat vice. 

The finished bent tender top prior to soldering to the chassis. 

The footplate has had the 'splashers' added. 

Attention turned to the cutaway cab, sweating two sheets of brass together and the plan side glued to permit identical cutting. 

The finished cab soldered to the footplate and accompanying tender. 

Brass Z19 Class - The Chassis

Following on from my previous post, I've done some more work on my Z19 chassis. The following pictures depicting how the gear and related wheels have been progressively fitted. Note also the 'blackening' of the frame with a marker prior to fitting the wheels...

Brass Chassis and Pannier Driver

I always seem to have several projects on the go at various stages of construction...heres some evidence. I've started constructing another brass NSWGR Z19, the chassis is an etch but the rest needs to be scratchbuilt, which is fairly straightforward. 

Wheels are Fleischmann and are seen below getting treatment on my lathe.

The wheels are turned down on their face (to thin them down to a finer thickness) and on their flange (to make them look smaller). Here all that needs to be done to finish this wheel is to use a razor blade to slice off the excess plastic that has flared up in the turning process. 

Ages ago I built a new chassis out of brass for a Grafar Pannier Tank, here is is after being blackened. 

A driver was 'cut up" from a Faller figure... seen being dismembered to fit.

Ready for the road...

Short Videos - The Trains in Action

Here are some videos of some of the models in action:

Finished Models

The other day some time was taken to properly photograph some of the completed models I've made. 

1301, lined up as the "Vintage Train" locomotive. The 13 is scratchbuilt from brass, with driving and bissel wheels turned down from Fleischmann offerings, Gopher Models wheels are used on the pony and Railey Paint was used to finish.

1948 is modelled from brass, nickel silver and a bit of phosphor bronze. It is very low geared so it can crawl, does make a bit of 'noise' though, nevermind. 

The 20 class is brass with Fleischmann wheels, turned down to size, a very good runner.

The 79 Class shunter is a lightly modified Bachmann 44 toner, with paint stirred from a mix of Humbrol Crimson and Tamiya Hull Brown (I think). Z scale couplers were added to finish.

A recent scratch building review NSWGR Z19 Class

Stone Station Building

The finished freelance stone station - complete with garden.

NSWGR Brass Z19 Class

A Badgerbits Brass etched chassis forms the basis of this model, shown in its development in the following photos. A brass diesel bogie was taken for the gear box and Fleischmann wheels were used following turning down to a finer profile. 

Following assembly of the frames and soldering the bearings the wheels were tested for fitting and free turning. 

The near complete chassis is shown with rods attached, the rod pins are turned down nails. 

Testing the chassis with tender, no pickups had been installed at this stage. 

Progress is made on the footplate and cab, note another footplate in the foreground. Several were made at the same time because I intend on making multiple Z19's to various eccentricities, a Baldwin Tender version will hopefully follow...

The boiler with smokebox and firebox wrapping being soldered on. The boiler itself is brass tube with bolier bands turned into the side on the lathe. 

Soldering the splashers on was fairly straightforward, 

phosphor bronze for the splashers and nickel silver for the footplate. 

The largely completed footplate with cab and boiler fitted. Note the excess solder around the smokebox wrapper. 

Fabrication of the tender was difficult in respect to the coal bunker rails, soldered using a wooden jig with slots for the brass wire to ensure similar spacing, the excess wire was trimmed down at the ends and soldered as necessary. 

The largely complete body of the loco. 

Detail largely complete nearly ready for the paint shop. 

Note that more wire detail is yet to be added to the tender. 

Building a small stone station

Small progress is being made on building a small styrene station building for a small layout....

Video of the Z26 taking it's first steps

I thought it might be worthwhile putting a video up of the engine with its new chassis in action. It needs to be run in, and had detail fixed up, but its nice that it works!

Z26 Class Steam Engine returns to life.....

Quite a few years ago I scratch built out of brass a model of a NSWGR Z26 class 2-6-2, only trouble is I made it to fit on a Bachmann 0-6-0 chassis. So it never really ran well.....

A couple of months ago I decided it was time to do something for a model, that potentially had a new lease of life left in it. So I started to go about designing how it would go together. Marked out some brass, drilled the chassis, soldered it all together, installed the motor and put the gears in, quartered the wheels, made some pickups and now she's a goer....

Just need to clean up the bodywork and prepare a better paint job.