Monday, March 01, 2010

Loco planning

In Saturdays comments section;

On your steamers undergoing some kind of anthromorphology at present, what were/are you going to do about things like funnels, sand boxes, things-on-top?

Well, since its all in my head, they are made from fairy dust and moonbeams ( or more likely, beer and wine..). Seriously though, I guess I should lay out the plan.
Current thinking is to have the boiler done in one piece with all the attached structures. This would either be pewter or resin. Since its only 15mm by 90mm, I can't see why it can't be cast in one piece in either material. I've sen some enormous items cast in resin with no problems, and I've also been in touch with a caster in Australia who thinks he can do a similar size in pewter.
then its just a small job of attaching all the plumbing. The rest of the loco I think will probably be etched.

AND what would you consider to be the smallest NZR locomotive you'd build/own?

Well, I once built a dubs A on a Ibertren 0-4-0 that wasn't too much bigger than it should have been, as well as an F and a Canterbury J 2-6-0. Having said this, I do have some philosophical problems with 0-4-0 locos (in any scale really) due to a lack of pickups. I did catch myself looking at a drewry TR the other day and thinking 'that would be a cool model to do', so the philosophical 'me' is obviously the more practical and less fun side.

Maybe we could shift this thread over to NZ120.org to debate the pros and con's of small locos?

(Oh, and yesterdays post was number 600, just to check up on how many of you are paying attention)

3 comments:

mu-her Anon said...

thanks for all the info -
One piece cast pewter complete with gubbins'... hmmmm

I've just applied to the administrator to be let loose on the NZ120.org website and I've already found a fascinating article on Ds/Dsa chassis'.

Isn't life great

Unknown said...

Have just posted another update on the NZ120.org thread about this "project" with pictures of a "naked" Graham Farish BR Class 08 N scale mechanism, which is under serious consideration for powering a TTn3.5 scale Drewry Ds loco - looks most promising - now just need the new body etches to test fit to the power unit.

Unknown said...

To further the alice in wonderland debate as to feasible smaller & smaller NZR type locos in TTn3.5, its worth noting that Arnold now has a number of 0-4-0/0-6-0 steam & diesel locos promoted at the 2010 Nuremberg Toy Fair, and ROCO has an 0-6-0 diesel & steamer in HOe that may be suitable donors - just need to find the dinero.

These evidently run pretty well, as do some of the new UK inspired small locos from Graham Farish/Bachmann UK & Dapol.

What recent experience do we have with this "new breed" of motive power?