Phil and Canyon last night
Just a couple of pictures of Canyon and I working together last night after work. It was a rough day at work, but this made up for it. It was just a short ride, but we were practicing a few things and he was perfect. The sunset was the icing on the cake.
Riding off into the sunset
A dusk ride
Tree in front of our House
We’ve had a gorgeous Fall this year in the mid-Atlantic region. Yes, I call it fall rather than Autumn, because everyone here does. But note that I spelt “colour” correctly – I haven’t gone that native!
Normally Fall starts well in this region, but then all the leaves get knocked down by rain and wind. This year though, we’ve had great weather for several weeks and the colours have really developed. I’ve been most remiss about getting some good photo’s, but here are a couple looking out outside of our house.
Looking across Neighbours yard
Further Round
Last Saturday, Libby and i went to the Fall Car show. It should have been held last month, but we had the remnants of a hurricane passing through at the time and so it was rescheduled. Unfortunately, Saturday was the first wintry day we’ve had (we’ve had a gorgeous fall this year) and so attendance was a little sparse. Still, there were some interesting vehicles on display. Land Rovers were thin on the ground, just Libby and a Defender 130 being rebuilt, although a Santana 88 turned up for a short while (so short that I couldn’t get a picture of it). There were however a considerable number of Triumphs – I think I counted 10 at one point, as well as a large number of British accents. It seems like the Baltimore region is home to a number of exiles!
Still, here are the photo’s for your enjoyment.
Libby on Display
Peerless racing car behind
Just proving who owns it (or does it own me?)
Best of British
Land Rover, Peerless and Triumph TR6 (LHD)
Peerless
Red TR6 and an Austin Healey
TR6 LHD
Moggie Minor Traveller and yet another Triumph!
Triumph
Traveller. My Gran used to have one of these in red and this brings back memories of wet summer holidays with misted windows and the smell of wet dog from the back
All British lineup
Restored E-type – Yours for a mere $150K!
D130 – Looks like a custom (re)build
Elderly Porsche
Can’t remember what this one was, but I think it was Italian
Restored Morgan
Whippet – a manufacturer I’ve never heard of before
Taxi and a white TR6
Childs size electric sports car
Jag (I think) in the workshop
It said Morgan on the front, so I guess it is. But I don’t know much about the actual vehicle type. It’s a three wheeler and looks like a crossover between a car and motorcycle.
I’ve been building a model for a client back in the UK. It is for locomotive K1, one of two K class garratt articulated locomotives built by Beyer Peacock in 1909 for operation by the Tasmanian Government Railways. These were the first ever garratt class locomotives built and the first one, No K1 was repatriated to the UK and now lives and operates on the restored Welsh Highland Railway in North Wales. More information on these locomotives can be found here and here.
I was asked to build a model of this loco for a client in OO9 scale. This is the same that I model in and is 4mm/ft (OO scale, 1:76.2), with 9mm (N-gauge) track. This results in a narrow gauge model. I’ve always wanted one of these locomotives for the railway, so ended up building two in parallel. The models were based on etched brass and nickel-silver kits by Backwoods Miniatures, though I modified the kits with a certain amount of scratch building including replacing the boiler barrel, new firebox front sculpted from brass and new smoke-box door. These were certainly tricky models to build and get running well, but the first one is now finished and ready for dispatch to it’s owner in the UK. The locomotives is equipped with DCC control, which drives two motors, one for each power bogie. Valve gear is functional and the locomotive is outside framed with both axles of each power bogie driven through a layshaft worm / gear drive. The full story of the build can be found here, though you may need to register to access the content. The boiler unit of my own locomotive has been completed, as have the front and rear tanks, and work is ongoing on the two powered chassis units.
So without further ado, attached are some pictures of the build.
Opening the box
Etched sheets
Boiler cradle assembled and firebox structure being assembled
Firebox and new boiler barrel
Test fitting cab and boiler to cradle
Cradle unit and boiler ready for permanent attachment
Boiler in brass
Boiler unit nearly complete with smokebox door and boiler fittings added
Initial cylinder assembly
Cylinder units
Basic chassis Units
Motor and gearbox assembled into chassis
Gear box
Front and rear tanks with details
Interior of rear tank / bunker
Test fitting assemblies – starting to look like K1 now
External flycranks assembled, added to axles and painted
Valve gear assembly – slide-bars, cross heads and connecting rods
Further valve gear sub-assemblies
Four assembled valve gear sets ready for fitting
Close up of valve gear assembly
Valve gear fitted to chassis units
Painted and detailed firebox backheads.
Backhead installed in locomotive cab
Completed loco working a short freight on my layout
Waiting for the off
Completed loco working a short freight on my layout
So there we are. A very tricky and frustrating build, but it finally yielded a decent model. I hope my own comes out to the same standard.
It will go in the mail tomorrow and i hope the client is pleased with it. Now to finish my own loco and on to the next project…….
(PS and by the way i hate this new WordPress – it makes it very difficult to lay out pages with pictures correctly. There, I’ve gotten that off my chest now!)
Libby is supposed to be out on display again tommorrow. We’ll see if the weather holds.
