dajt

Re the tight spot, it sounds like the check gauge is too narrow. Either the check rail has to go out, or the wing rail that the wheel rides up on has to go out. I made a bunch of turnouts recently using 16.2mm gauge and had this problem at least once. Those are the first turnouts I've made and I found it quite instructive to look really hard at what the wheel treads and flanges were doing through the crossing, pushing them through with the wheel out at the stock rail hard up against the stock rail and also hard up against the check rail. That seemed to show if there were any hassles with the crossing, and ensure the wheel going through the crossing couldn't ride up on the knuckle or snag the point of the crossing. My turnouts were built using PCB sleepers so adjusting things was pretty easy. Not sure how you'll go with all those chairs glued down. Regards, David.

Looking good, but I wonder how you're going to go with the flat plate across the front of the tanks. The photo shows the boiler is slightly above the top of the tanks meaning you're going to have a huge cutout in the boiler tube. Thinking about it you may be onto something. This will save you forming the tricky tank front curves where the boiler goes through. Good idea! Regards, David.

That is coming along really well, you must be happy with it You've done a good job on the engine cover, the top looks nice and even. Regards, David.

Funny looking critter. Needs a wash too. Great job, as always. Regards, David.

Ozzy, It probably isn't an ashpan, I just mean the bit of the firebox below the footplate and between the frames. Simon, I agree CAD can be slow. I don't use it that often and find it always takes me a while to get back into the swing of using it. However it is certainly worth knowing for doing high precision stuff, or just for being able to easily ensure things like circle centres and radii are where they should be. It has various other advantages too. For instance things like cab roofs, if you don't know what the radius is you can make a curve between points or lines representing the cab sides and then squash it until it looks right. That's not exactly high precision and doesn't handle compound curves, but my building abilities don't stretch to that either. Another good thing is you can type what you want, rather than draw it. So you can type in (and later change) the coordinates of lines and circles etc which is sometimes easiler than drawing them if you know exactly what you want. Regards, David.

Yes, my latest frames and splashers had lots of drawings done before being cut out... and there has been a lot of scribing and measuring before cutting going on too. Luckily most of the model is tinplate so not too expensive to throw away. I was able to get a 7mm drawing of the loco to work from so I use photocopies from that as templates where possible. For other things, like the spectacle plate where having the centres of the windows and the boiler centre marked is useful, I draw it in CAD and can then print as many as required. Another useful feature of CAD is to be able to draw a line of rivets all evenly spaced. I used that for the ashpan. Still, I expect it will be a while before I've broken my bad habits and subscribed fully to the "think first, cut later" school. Regards, David.

Very tidy build, and a great idea for the seat!

That is looking good I'm pretty sure everyone's scratchbuilding process is making mistakes and fixing them. On the 4-4-0 I'm building I have made 3 sets of frames, 3 cabs, 2 footplates, 2 smokebox fronts (so far), 2 sets of splasher tops, 2 goes at mounting the front bogie, cut and shut the firebox sides to make a better fit... the list goes on. It's like grand dad's axe. The only parts that have not changed are the splasher sides, valances, equalising spring brackets, and smokebox sides. It's a worry when you know exactly what hasn't changed. Regards, David.

I have a 5" gauge freelance 0-4-0. I've just done some CAD drawings for the tender frames for a 24-class NSWGR 2-6-0 which we're going to get laser cut - about 8 people are going to try to build one following along with one of the club's better builders as he makes one for himself. The club does have a focus for NSWGR prototypes, and have a special NSW steam running day each year, but we also have some guys making NSW diesel models. There is a beautiful Silver City comet which was featured in AME recently, and a railcar too. Live steam is a lot of fun, the engines certainly smell right compared to our little electric ones But then being so small they're also tricky to keep going. I used to be a stoker on a preseved steam yacht on Sydney Harbour and it's full size boiler was probably easier to run than these little ones! Regards, David.

Well, you came over at the right time of year... avoid the summer heat and all I know one guys who models in HO, and some of the guys in the model engineering club have various small scale models as one-offs and long dormant layouts which don't seem to be as much fun as riding around on the bigger trains! I'm getting spread a bit too thin with family, work, study, an OO scale trainset to build for the boys, O scale modelling for myself, I've just joined the S scale society because that looks like my sort of group, repainting my current 5" gauge 0-4-0, building an electric one with some spare bits I have, and there is a 5" gauge 2-6-0 project to get started. Not hard to see I'm a good starter but not much of a finisher! Regards, David.

Hi, I live in Orange, NSW. I'd love to get to know any other modellers around here. Regards, David Taylor.

Great thread, I really like your work.

Hi Ken, The Dukedog looks great. Are the splashers on the 4-6-0 Immingham over-width to account for FS-O? I've had a lot of trouble with that in my current project and am interested in what dodges kit designers have to perform to get around it. Regards, David.

I think plastic RTR HO steam is pretty common now for NSW modellers.

Have a look at this site. It is the only one I could find still selling NSW HO loco kits. A few years ago they were everywhere, but the latest issue of Australian Model Railway Journal I have (Oct 2010) doesn't have a single advertisement for loco kits. It's all RTR these days in HO. http://www.arkits.com/files/djh_products.php?p=20&c=16 Regards, David Taylor.

You put them together so well it is a shame to paint them and hide the workmanship. That looks great as-is. This is one of my two favourite threads on RMWeb - very inspirational. Regards, David.

Thanks for that set of photos - very informative! Nice result too. I'll have a go at that for my old 0-6-0 chassis which needs new rods made for it. Regards, David.

Re fluted rods, how do you do the fluting? Sweat a couple of thin strips along the edges of the rod? Would it be possible for you to take some photos of various rods under construction, showing how you form the forked joints and fluted rods? There must be a good magazine article in your work... I find very little about scratchbuilding in the model press, even in MRJ these days. I started to write an article about a project, but that loco never got finshed so neither did the article I was meant to show how you could build a loco using only hand tools and a pillar drill, before I owned a lathe, because I used to be driven mad when an article would contain "put a piece of x rod in the 3 jaw chuck...". I have 2, 4, and 6 year old kids, and my wife is now asking for another! Luckily she's also figured out that not giving me any hobby time really doesn't work so I've finally been able to put some time into my projects. Having said that I took a week off work to get some real progress made. Work, kids, part time uni - not much time for building things. Can't wait to be retired Regards, David.

Agreed, a great thread. As for tools, I only thought to use an Olfa cutter the other day for cutting thin strips. Much better than tinsnips, although it takes a while longer. I do have a lathe but I find it difficult to make some of the things as small as we need them as the runout on the chuck is substantial I only have 1 lathe tool which isn't all that flexible. Must purchase some tool steel someday. It is a real boon for drilling holes down the centre of things as long as they are not too long Regards, David.

Hi Ken, I can't believe how fast you work, or the results that appear - amazing. How do you go about making all those little bits of valve gear? What machinery/tools do you use? Regards, David.