[Ozzie21]

Just thought I'd share some more kits on my bench and i'm playing with my new digital camera, Fuji S9500, at the same time.

SouthEastern Fine Cast 61XX. A joy to build as there's no valve gear but it still came out slightly wrong as I forgot to check to see if the footplate was straight. The footplate was okay in the vertical plane but had a slight twist in the horizontal plane and I didn't notice till I went to mate the chassis up to the footplate. Still looks okay if you don't look from above. This has a 1620Mashima with a Branchlines 50:1 gearbox and it's a bit noisy so I'm going to replace it with a Romford GB1. It runs okay but gets noisy at speed.

A Side view of the same.

A Comet Models rebuilt Royal Scot. Nice kit with some excellent castings. Frames are a bit of a pain as unlike SEFC or DJH there are no tabs for the frame spacers so position is done by guestimation. I got one in slightly the wrong spot but as usual you dont find this out till you get a bit further along but it's easy to unsolder after you have painted the frames.

Valve gear is in kit form so I took a leaf from Tony Wright's book and used brass deck pins that model boat builders use. A lot easier and stronger than riviting. Rods and made from to pieces and laminated together. Crankpins holes are well undersized and require opening out with an appropriate broach.

Cab is a nice etching and it's sits funny because I haven't trimmed the shaft off the motor yet as I may still fit a flywheel.

Partially complete front end with the shanks of Gibson 16" buffers

I'm building the tender next so it'll be next up so I can check ride height and decide on what sort of drawgear to use.

Ozzie21

 

[dwb]

I do admire people who are brave enough to build locomotives. I look forward to pictures of further progress.

David

 

[pedromorgan]

Looking good ozzie. i am also in the process of doing a comet chassis and i didnt like the lack of tabs for the spacers either.

The front bogie on the tank loco looks stunning.

I cant seem to make my branchline gearboxes run quietly either. i have had 2 attempts but i am pretty dissapointed with it. i may quietly drop it and try a comet one instead.

Your new camera is taking us some very good pictures.
Peter

 

[Ozzie21]

Pedro, the front bogie on the 61XX is a stunner. It was the easiest part I've ever had to fold up. I'm going to add some weight to it though as it moves about a bit on my rather rough track on the test board.

The Comet chassis is as good as the SEFC chassis but I'd recommend building any bogies and pony's and the the cylinder block so you can get any spacers in the right spots if anything has to pivot off them.

I think with the Branchline gearbox it's the lack of rigidity in the the thin side sheets that allow it to flex somewhat. I've been considering fixing a spacer out of brass tube and 14BA screw and nut just to firm it up.

This camera is quite a learning curve. Using the web picture setting it'll store almost 6,000 picture in it's internal memory.

I'm going the Brisbane Miniature Train Show this week end so I hope to post some pictures from the show. Maybe some pictures of Queensland narrow gauge will get somebody excited.

Ozzie21

QUOTE (pedromorgan @ 2 May 2007, 15:42) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Looking good ozzie. i am also in the process of doing a comet chassis and i didnt like the lack of tabs for the spacers either.

The front bogie on the tank loco looks stunning.

I cant seem to make my branchline gearboxes run quietly either. i have had 2 attempts but i am pretty dissapointed with it. i may quietly drop it and try a comet one instead.

Your new camera is taking us some very good pictures.
Peter