Garden Railway Forum

Once again I thank you for your inputs and advice.

Here are a couple more pictures, one of it in the little box I made for it.

I "think" its just a few minor painting details to do and some steps to make for the cab. Not yet 100% positive on how I am going to make them, I have a couple of ideas and will see how they turn out

She does look good Steve.

Like the box you have made for her too.

FWLR wrote: ↑Fri Dec 21, 2018 7:28 am She does look good Steve.

Like the box you have made for her too.

Thank you, I make boxes for all my loco's, not only for display and protection, but also keeps the dust off them when they are not in use

Did a final weigh in today, comes in at a whopping 12lbs, not bad for a loco with a completely plastic body, goes to show what the complete chassis weighs. Measure a little over 17.5" at buffer to buffer!

Well, I think this is what I am calling finished, other than I might make a wooden floor for the cab at some point. Pretty happy with the result of my work and it's honestly much better than I ever could have imagined it would turn out, lol It's not perfect, but then, neither am I. It is however quite a bit better in real life than the pictures as they photo's seem to highlight any errors more so than you can actually see them in the flesh, so to speak.

I hope you all enjoyed the thread and it's many pictures and hopefully someone other than myself learnt something along the way.

Any chance of seeing it in action?

tom_tom_go wrote: ↑Fri Dec 21, 2018 5:22 pm Any chance of seeing it in action?

Most certainly, I will get a video done of it around my layout and post it up when time and weather allow. I might add quite a few of my wagons to it, just to see what it can pull, but I am guessing it will pull everything I have as it's so heavy, just missed the 1 stone mark by a couple of pounds, lol

Very nice Steve. Well done.

Get it to pull a dead live steamer

tom_tom_go wrote: ↑Fri Dec 21, 2018 5:48 pm Get it to pull a dead live steamer

Good idea to see if it meets expectations. I do know it needs the current 15:1 gearboxes replacing with 30:1 gearboxes but I knew that from day one, but I believe it still might manage it as it is, we shall see

It really is a very impressive build Steve and you should be very proud of it...

I know I would be like the cat that licked the cream if it was mine.....

I know what you mean here, when I built my GRS Pecket loco, the chassis was supplied with a MFA motor and gearbox with a 15:1 ratio. Worked beautifully apart from running around like a scalded cat, so it didn't take me long to change the gearbox for a 30:1 ratio. Now looks so much more realistic and it is a joy to carry out shunting manoeuvres especially now I have fitted a Deltang r/c system.
By the way I have no connection with any of the suppliers apart from being a satisfied customer.

Well I did a video of it this morning and despite dropping my keys half way through it seemed to cope ok. A little bit of wheel slippage on the wet track and this would probably be better if the steam engine had the regulator open but I didn't have the controller to hand at the time. Definitely needs to 30:1 gearboxes on as this would help quite a bit.

Rod, I am very happy with it, but with any one that builds their own, you always pick up on the the things that you wish you had done better or any small errors, rather than the overall look and what it went from and to.

I also have a GRS Pecket to build after Christmas, so I will bear in mind that I am likely to need 3 gearboxes and not just 2, thank you

Will post up the video once Youtube has finished processing it.

Well here it is, looks a bit scrappy in places, not sure if it was my phone trying to focus or it will get better once YouTube has finished processing it.

Sorry about the pause half way, thought I had dropped a key and then couldn't find it. All sorted now.

Will get the 30:1 gearboxes ordered soon and try it with the steam regulator open and the engines forward / reverse gear open. Pretty confident it will recover an entire loco and carriages / trucks. I picked the heaviest loco I had for the test.

Very impressive.

Looks good and an impressive performer too!

I do see why now the loco struggled a little bit. If you look at the video around 26 to 29 seconds in, you can see the steamer trying to lock up it's wheels as the regulator and forward / reverse levers were both closed making the wheels difficult to turn. Will have to try again once the new gearboxes are here in the new year and set the regulator and reverser lever both to open. I think that will help matter somewhat.

Very impressive, and a mighty beast at 12lb! It looks even better in motion than it does in the still photos. Great thread, thanks!

Agree with other members, it's very impressive indeed. Especially pushing a loco with it's wheels locking.