Giles

Very nice! It makes me feel positively luxurious getting 1000mAh batteries in some of the narrow gauge stuff!

And just sat on the bogies....

The metal-work on the bodies is now complete Printed parts such as gearbox, service tank, tank fillers, switch panel, hinges will be added after priming . Some bits were especially fiddly to make, especially the 'spinners' on the engine bay doors, at about 3mm long

.... but still looks enchanting.

All good stuff! Keep it coming! My Slomo should be on its way.....

Progress is slow, but still happening (whilst real work isn't!) . Hand rails are fitted, including the reduced diameter in the channel section. Lifting eyes at both ends are fitted, and internal plates for mounting the loco bolsters are soldered in. In the foreground are two brake standards that now need cleaning up...... They do remind me of a pair of Gentleman's Sporting Locomotives, somehow.....

Brilliant...... thank you........!

Gorgeous....! I'm verymuch looking forward to fitting it. Excuse me asking - do you know the orientation if the magnets on your couplings, by any chance?

I've just had (and paid) the invoice for my Slomo - so hopefully that should be on its way (although that will doubtless take ages.....). I've also fitted a Chuffer, and taken the precaution of chemically blackening the top before fitting it, so it doesn't look like there's a lump of brass stuffed down the chimney! I look forward to playing with it once the Slomo is fitted, and then we'll see what to do with it.....

I now have both on frames And both have gearboxes (and covers) printed. This will all be added later if course when all the soldering is done....

One of them soldered up to a unit, and sat on bogies.....

Both locos with front and rear beading applied, together with rear grab rails. Under-frames next....

A brace of Bagnalls...... in progress. It's taken quite a few hours to get to this stage to say the least. Also, to get two good bonnets, I cut four and had two not good enough - same with the cab fronts..... so it has been a fight all the way. Cab fronts with spectacle brasses ready to solder in. First front section with 1mm beading soldered on. Care is needed not to over heat it in the process, and have it expand away and buckle, but it went well.

This visitor appeared two days ago- not very welcome, but interesting. Had a bath in our pond as well! sorry about the rubbish phone pic!

The bogie mount and fixing.... something I've been thinking about for some time. This will allow easy removal of the bogies, and give 3-pont suspension.

One of the little power bogies under test....

And makes two.......

The first bogie is now fully assembled, and fitted with its PLA printed bolster. The bolster has a hole through to accommodate the gearmotor at exactly the right position and angle, and also has a spheres the top to act as a pivot, and as a fixing (think snap fastening)

Everyone's going to get very bored with this...... however, things progress slowly. Today I made sure all was clean, and blackened the frames and epoxied the spring/horn assemblies on , which was very easy with the three holes to locate them. Everyone's going to get very bored with this...... however, things progress slowly. Today I made sure all was clean, and blackened the frames and epoxied the spring/horn assemblies on , which was very easy with the three holes to locate them. Next was etch primer, cutting axles and pressing wheels and a bevel gear on....... Thus far, I'm extremely happy with things - loving the printer, and how much it helps!

Appropriate bevel gears are obtainable from Technobots at about 45p each. I find that generally the N20s perform very well under radio control, reprogrammed with an output of 60Hz - information not much use for 2-rail running! Nice job!

Two set of bogies, together with bearings, rods, cranks etc., so we're coming along.

When I started, I built my first vehicle with single-wheel drive for cornering. It performed poorly, and I quickly converted it to a fixed driving axle (The only exception being a fork-lift which has a differential.). You need both rear wheels driven, and the half dozen 4mm vehicles and 15 or so 7mm, all corner absolutely fine.......

I think you'll find lifting the radio gear from a toy won't give you anything like the finesse you would like. I would strongly suggest you use a Deltang Rx41- 22, configured for loco use, as you don't need steering. This would enable you to use a single small transmitter (TX-22), and select up to 12 vehicles (or locos), and gives very nice inertia control as well. Importantly, you can also program the receivers pulse width modulation output (frequency) which makes a massive amount of difference as to how the motor performs, particularly at slow speed.

The first two cranks cut on the Stepcraft. they are of course slightly different for all locos, so one starts again with the drawing and toolpath - moreover, because I want a good fit on the 2mm axles, and invariably it is a different cutter, I have to do a series of test holes fractionally adjusting the size till I get a good fit on the rod I've got. Then I can try actually cutting one, only to ralise Ive made an error in the cutting path, and stop the machine, reprogram and start again..... so it takes time. These then take 17 minutes each actual cutting time, so ling as nothing goes wrong. They will have 14BA bolts silver soldered in from the back (after tapping)