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! 

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 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...

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.