One of my serious interests is model engineering. I've built steam locomotives in 5 inch gauge, and also in gauge 1. Interest in the hobby seems to have grown quite a lot in the last few years - certainly my local model engineering society is a lot busier. Several people I've spoken to have expressed an interest in building a loco. These days, sadly, most of the college based courses are no longer running making it harder to start from scratch.
I have just started building a 3 1/2 inch gauge loco and thought I would keep a journal of my progress. I thought if I set up a blog perhaps it might help someone else to get going. I will share some notes and photographs documenting my progress. Hopefully my blog will promote discussion with like minded people.
The loco I am building is a GWR Hall (3 1/2" gauge).
Its an LBSC design: the construction looks typical of lots of locos, so the construction notes should transfer to other locos.
Truth to tell, I bought it at a club auction, as a set of frames with the wheels already machined. There were a few other components which had been made up, but, sadly, they were rusted beyond hope. The drawings are original blueprints, and pretty fragile. I think they would disintegrate if used very much. I tried photographing them - this was surprisingliy good, especially when converted to black and white and invertes. In the end, I scanned the drawings in sections, and worked from both. So there will be no notes for the loco frames or wheels.
I have just started building a 3 1/2 inch gauge loco and thought I would keep a journal of my progress. I thought if I set up a blog perhaps it might help someone else to get going. I will share some notes and photographs documenting my progress. Hopefully my blog will promote discussion with like minded people.
The loco I am building is a GWR Hall (3 1/2" gauge).
Its an LBSC design: the construction looks typical of lots of locos, so the construction notes should transfer to other locos.
Truth to tell, I bought it at a club auction, as a set of frames with the wheels already machined. There were a few other components which had been made up, but, sadly, they were rusted beyond hope. The drawings are original blueprints, and pretty fragile. I think they would disintegrate if used very much. I tried photographing them - this was surprisingliy good, especially when converted to black and white and invertes. In the end, I scanned the drawings in sections, and worked from both. So there will be no notes for the loco frames or wheels.
Comments
Tonniece
I'm so glad we'll get a chance to see all the work you are doing on your trains. Welcome to the blogger world...
Dianne
We can't seem to see the other pics above, so good luck with this.. I'll be checking back...