Loco built in 9 months

I seem to spend all my shed time making tooling etc that I will "one day" use to actually make a model of something or other.

James ran it again today but the axle pump caused trouble and he intends to make a new one. The pump stretcher, which is also the motion bracket, is too flimsy and need replacing with a thicker one. After yesterday's first run, he went home and worked on it for 5 hours straight, lifting the boiler and repairing leaking bunker tank, etc.. Amazing.

Hats off to that man... seems like I'm 'too slow to catch cold'... I'm at this stage of my build... taking into account of redoing the piston & crankshaft... crankshaft measurements on dwg didn't tally with actual build... I guess I didn't measure twice somewhere ... .

Oh well, onward & upward, at my snails pace.

George.

Good morning all,

A very good friend built his first locomotive, a 5" gauge Butch in just under twelve months followed up with a 5" gauge Springbok, again in twelve months; he puts me to shame. The quickest locomotive I've ever built was a Don Young designed 3.5" gauge 4F which I built in just under sixteen months, incidentally the only bought in items being the castings for the wheels, cylinders and a pressure gauge.

Old LBSC would quote his "two hour hand pump" It takes me that long to find the materials these days!

Regards,

Bob.

From a very beginners perspective I expect that it is down to a question of it is confidence, having the equipment & knowing how to do it. I mess about trying to set something up from whatI have, ordering bits, using parts that are not really suitable so they have to be worked on first etc etc.

Its all about having the parts available , knowing what one wants to do with them, having the right equipment set up tools etc & just getting on with the job & not faffing.

for example:-One has to know how to read the dials on the machine. I take ages, checking & double checking because I am not confident. They work perfectly & really i should just be able to wind them in once, do a single adjustment & that is it, job done, but I doubt I would ever get confident enough to do that