Keepin' on building

First post for the new year, and something new. I have recently been working on a Baldwin Steam Tram Motor in N scale, the chassis, which I initially had a go at in printed circuit board turned out to be a bit of a failure, so I reverted to my usual methods of using brass with bearings and whipper pickups made from Phosphor Bronze. A Caramel N motor is used with gears from a Life Like switcher bogie used to transmit motion to drive a single axle with side rods being used to transfer power to the other set of wheels.

I have also completed models of:

3229 - with 6 wheel tender

3229 was inspired by a photograph in Train Hobby Publication's book "Central - The Steam Station" and the tender is fairly unusual in that the hungry boards are flush with the tender sides. Archer Fine Transfers form the rivet detail and the motor is mounted in the tender with a shaft across to the engine.

5278 - Standard goods with etched turret tender

The engine was scratchbuilt and the tender was an etch already completed which I merely made a chassis for with Kato Caboose bogies fitted for smooth pickup. The motor is mounted in the smokebox and the worm is just visible above the centre drivers.

3044 - C30 Tank Engine

My second build of a 30 class tank, this time without headlight. 

The Fleet Expands

Recently I have been pretty busy working on various things, as illustrated below, including remaking a chassis to fit under 1709, adding finishing details to a pair of Z12 class locos and assembling some laser cut FG carriages I drew in CAD and doing up a Badgerbits TAM sleeping car: 

Slow progress...on the Z19 with Baldwin Tender

Months go by and I do a bit here, and there on the loco that has sat on my workbench for quite some time now. The following photos show progress made on the body and the construction of the tender. 

The body is almost ready for final detailing, a drawbar needs to be fashioned to join the tender and engine. Pickups need to be fitted to the engine, but in a cool stroke of God's grace the engine has taken its first steps under its own power with pickups fitted to the tender. The piano wire link between tender and engine works! 

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.