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Sorry
Yes once again it has been nearly 3 months since
writing a newsletter. I know this is important to a lot of
people, but it does take time and effort. Hopefully the wait is
worth it.
Our Largest Loco Yet
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No its not the blue loco on the left. This 5"
gauge lcoc was loosely based on Captain Howey which is
based on the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway. As a
member of Chingford and District Model Engineering Club I
was asked if I would join a team in building a 7
1/4" gauge club loco.
As a group (three of us) we liked the Captain Howey
but wanted it as a ride in loco. Simply upscaling the
drawings, stretching, squeezing and generally messing
them about we got a rather larger loco.
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| A little bit bigger than the one above.
At just over 7 foot and 2 foot wide it is simply big. Right
- the chassis under construction with the cab in place to
get an initial feeling for the loco.
Below- A thanks to East Herts Railway, who kindly let
us take the loco to the track for a test drive. Too big
for putting in a car I moved it by strapping the chassis
to my trailer.
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| The back end of the loco was a temporary construction
to give us an idea of riding position and width of the
rear. The plywood was one side of the crate which the new
bandsaw arrived in. We are hoping to have the loco
finished for 15th May for a naming ceremony at the
Chingford track.
I will post pictures of the progress in the next
newsletter.
As to whether we produce these commercially - that
depends if there is any interest.
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| To help break up the rear end we need so grills. Not
having the size we wanted available off the shelf, there
was no alternative but to make our own. The grill on the
right is made from a laser cut blank and put in to a jig
made from more laser cut steel parts. Not bad for my
first attempt. One of these grills will act as a door for
the loco. |
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Workshop
Not the most exciting few months
in the workshop bit there have been a fewe improvements .
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Left - Paint shop- the use of a lazy susan bearing
has let me built a really nice turntable. This allows for
easy turning of heavy items such as this 7 1/4"
gauge chassis. Below Left - after a lengthy delay our
new belt sander arrived. We had a 12" disk sander
which works fine but with glue backed pads it takes
nearly 1/2 hour to replace the disk. The belt sander
allows for easier change of the belt. The other
achievement is a new shelf - not as exciting.
Below - As we are in rented premises and the back wall
goes on to another property, I opted to finally duct the
cooker hood over the welding bench to an exisitng extract
fan. Being cheap the duct is an olf flue liner which came
out of a skip in the yard. Want not waste not. I also put
a 4' tube under the hood as the inbuilt light was a bit
dim.
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Alexander Palace Show
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Although we didn't have a stand at the show I did
take the oppotunity to drop off products to customers and
enjoy a visit as a member of the public. Left &
below left - Station Road Steam's Stafford. The wagon
behind was one we produced and dropped off at the show.
This was the first of our improved trucks with flip up
running boards and external brake handle.
Below - the power bogies from Captain Howey on
Chingford stand. created a bit of interest. These bogies
are not quite standard as Rin Manning made quite a few
improvements including guards and sleeved pivots.
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Big to Small
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Lovely new signal box from Bachmann. Look behind at
the wall and you will see the arches. In the past on my
dads 00 railway we hand cut arches and covered them in
brick paper. Reasonable appearance but many hours of
work.
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On the last batch of MDF laser cutting I tacked on
3mm MDF cut arches. These were spray painted in red oxide
primer and speckled with black, grey and white. A bit of
smudging with black helped make them look more weathered. They
might not be as good looking but this ramp and rear wall
took less than hour to build.
Another use of laser cutting mdf.
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Next time - bogie raised driving
truck - being developed - as ad when I get the time.
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