Month: January 2013

The air compressor is one of the appliances included in the kit, and comes completed as one piece. The only thing left to do is add some details to it and mount it on the boiler.

Here’s the compressor painted gloss black. Since the compressor operates on steam, the top part, where it receives the steam, gets hot, so a lagging and jacket is added to protect the crew. You can see the circular jacket at the top.

Then the brass bands and the builder’s plate (middle) were added. The brass lines on the side are steam condensation drain lines.

The headlight brackets are fashioned from the drawing in the plan book. If you have it, you might note that the dimension given for the bracket’s height, 11″, is given as the finished and curved height. (The front view shows that the bracket curves with the front of the smokebox.) So, simple math is used to obtain the actual height of the bracket, before the curve: the arc length is the radius times the angle of the arc, or:

s = r * Θ

Remember that Θ must be in radian!

Plugging in the values from the plan, the radius of 15.539″ and the arc angle of 44.72 degrees, or 44.72/180*pi radian, the arc length is 12.128″. So, starting with 12.128″ high bracket, bending it around the smokebox will give a finished height of 11″.

Taking those values and scaling them 1:20, the brackets are then drawn on a styrene sheet then cut out, and then mounted on front of the smoke box.

Meanwhile, here are some shots of the base and the beginning of cab painting.

The model is getting close to finish. Next week, I’ll work on posting detailed information like the parts included and price for the kit.

While I’m working on the train, my girlfriend, Lynne, was inspired to try her hand at making a model, too. I suggested that she could make the base for the engine. It would need to have a custom track laid on a wooden base. But instead of having a plain base, we thought it would be a good idea to make a diorama scene.

From there, we decided to model the scene roughly after the DRR sidings in 1955, with its bare decomposed granite ground, gray track ballast, and “ranch style” wooden fence along the track.

So, after planning out the scene, she got to work. Here’s Lynne’s progress on the base:

The tracks were dry laid just to see how it’s all coming together. The ballast is still being tweaked.

The fencing was built to be about waist-height, so that it doesn’t block the view of the engine. The next steps will be making the vegetation and weathering.

After the footplate and the sidesheets, the running boards then get set on their supports. The boards were cut out directly from a template made from the plan. With some money, the plan could actually be sent to a waterjet cutter and have meticulously cut running boards. But in this case, the template was traced over a sheet metal and cut with a pair of sheers. Then, brass strips were attached for the edges.

The detailing on the model will even include major plumbing. The first line to be installed is the air line from the forward air tank to the air brake stand in the cab.

Here’s a section from the plan with the air line highlighted.

The line gets stubbed up from the bottom into the cab and turn right into the brake stand.

Seen along in this shot are the first two valve handles to go in: the dual try-cocks. Also, the firebox door, handle (unpainted), and the oil-can shelf.

And on the left side the first line installed is the outside portion of the blower, which goes from the cab to the smokebox.

Here again, the line is highlighted.