Pics of my loco construction

[UnkaJesse]

Trot, it beats the everlovin' blue eyed world outta me! The first time I clicked on that web site a couple of days ago it perked werfectly, but now all I get is the ofoto thing. Dunno wot 'as 'appened ter the beautimus lokie that wuz in the pics. Methinks yer gotta speak Ozonian ter make it work.

[Tel]

Nah - Ozonian don't work on it either - seems to have gone dead. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/confused.gif"%20alt="[/img]

[RossB]

Post deleted by RossB

[Tel]

It was the attachment that was dead Ross, see it's workin' again now tho',

Tel
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[RossB]

Thanks everybody for the kind words! Sorry about Ofoto, it did work for a start. Think we have it right again as an attachment. Generally, I make as much as I can myself. We are fortunate here to have some nice lost wax bits and pieces available plus a fair few patterns/ castings / drawings etc etc for Australian engines amongst the Club network. As I mentioned this is loco number eleven for me and to be practical, I have made use of what's around rather than doing absolutely everything the hard way if you know what I mean! The only castings are the spoked wheels and the cylinders; other stuff like motion brackets, crossheads and everthing else is fabricated or machined from solid. (Don't like making those damn wood patterns!)

[Phill]

Ross,

It looks like your engine will look really good when you're finished.

WWhat gets me is...... Why do so many people build a loco completely, before painting it??? Why not paint it as you go? Then you know it will fit together when it's all painted.

Keep up the good work Ross.

Cheers,

Phill.

[TrotFox]

Now I see's it! Right purty lookin' lok there. { : ]

Can't wait to see what colors you put on her. It has always been the colors that did it for me when talking about loco's from across the pond. ; ]

Trot, the gray, fox...

[Al_Messer]

Whooo-eee! Looks great!!

[RossB]

Hi Nate!

I'm going answer your question with caution. The short answer is that I did not build the boiler on this ocassion. If this makes me any less of a man then I'm sorry! I would normally build the boiler myself. I have made several boilers in copper and in steel (we have a code for a dry firebox type which suits the narrow gauge stuff) doing the welding myself bla bla bla. In the case of 5148 there were a number of influencing factors (ranging from divorce to a mate who needed some extra cash) which convinced me to sub this one out. However, the stuff that you can see is from my own hands and I wouldn't have it any other way. The exception to that rule is in cases like injectors and the pump - hey, life is too short! Why spend week when for a days pay you can get something perfect for the job?

Thanks for your comments
Ross
ps regarding the other enquiry re color: - the choices are: - Black, dark black, midnite black or extreme charcoal!

[UnkaJesse]

Phill, I am one of those "paint as you go" guys, when I get through with it, I am ready to run. I haven't done it with the newbie engine yet but it is a fixin' to happen soon, IE: when I tear it down to put in the gaskets. "Igor" (and I) just had to see it run since he had put in so much time learning machine work on it.

Unka Jesse

[Nate]

Great work, all fine by me! I'm going to ship out my boiler work to someone once I get the money to do so considering I'm only on my first steam loco. Keep up the great work!
-Nate

[RossB]

Phill,
Sometimes paint stuff as I go especially if I'm sure it's finished with. On the fifty there's quite a lot of detail to hang on there so it's pretty hard to know when something is finished. Just today I was making the metal brackets to support the timber footplate and discovered two of them are attached to the running boards. Made the running boards a year ago without giving it a thought! Now I've got some silver soldering to do...Thats why its not painted till the nearer the end!
It might be different working from a published reliable set of drawings (do they exist??) but in the case of the fifty, I'm making it up as I go along by poring over photos and referring to full size drawings. It might look like a fifty on the outside but it ain't built like one! The aim is to have a few main assemblies (completely detailed) that hang together with a few stragically placed bolts. The green Fowler shown in the other post is assembled like a real one with 100's of scale bolts doing the work - bugger of a thing to get apart! Won't do that again. The fifty has two bolts holding the boiler on, two for the cab and apart from pipes connecting stuff together, will break up into three main pieces in about ten mintues! Great for working on the inside valve gear if I need to. When it's all made, I'll paint her up with as much assembled as possible and final assembly will just be a few out of sight bolts.