back story
To back up a little, I had painted, decaled, detailed, and weathered the cab and tender, which had been glued together on a 3D printed jig. I installed the operating doors and cab window frames, along with real glass windows. I wired the cab to have interior lights and the special light that was under the rear cab overhang, presumable used to refuel the locomotive in the dark. Everything looked great and the end of the project was in sight.
I installed the custom made weights into the tender, they fit perfect and added much needed weight. I was now ready to glue the cab and tender assembly to the boiler, which now had a weight in it and the motor and flywheel. So far so good, the assembly of the three sections sat on the workbench waiting to be screwed to the frame. As I went to pick up the cab/tender/boiler assembly, lifting by the cab, the weight of the boiler and tender snapped the cab right in half. As disappointed as I was (and deflated) I can’t say that I did not see it coming, and what I was really disappointed with is that I knew this was going to happen and I told myself “maybe it won’t”.
At that point I had no choice but to pry off all the detail parts, pull out all the lights, and start over, or almost over. The first thing I had to fix was the way the cab mounted to the boiler, I made a much stronger mount that is now a tight slip fit, which is strong enough to not need glue, keeping the cab free from the boiler if needed. Next I thickened up the cab roof and the cab back wall to 0.080” (it was 0.025”). To hide the thickness I used a trick that I used on the cab windows, which is basically make a socket slightly larger than the opening on the inside wall, which gives the illusion of a scale thickness panel.
The boiler weight stayed the same but the tender weights changed. I decided to mount the weights to the frame and slip the tender over the weights, that way the tender will not flex the cab’s rear wall and the thin roof section over the doors.
After the three main parts were printed (cab, tender, and boiler) I test fit them to each other and then installed the weights, and test fit it all to the frame. Everything worked much better and I learned a better way for the next one. I started to reapply all the parts I had taken off the first one (which was actually more like the 10th one) and repainted, re-decaled, and re-weathered it all over again.
I also decided to stop dragging my feet and finish up the air pump. I am not sure why I was dreading making that part. I think the big reason is that I really did not know what the part looked like. I had some sketches, some dimensions, and some images, but not enough to really be able to just sit down and model it. It is amazing how fast a part can be modeled if you have a scale drawing and some good images. But I managed to push through and get it done, along with all the piping to fit the locomotive, which I printed all as one piece.
With the new parts fitting better, and the air pump finished I did a final test fit. Of all the parts the only one that did not fit well was the cylinder shield. As I type this I have adjusted and reprinted the cylinder shield and you will see it in place in the near future.
So here are a couple images to show where I am at, I took these yesterday, but I made even more progress this morning (but I forgot to take some images). As you can see I am using some brass wire for the sanding rod and the handrails.
Remember, nothing is glued together so you will see some crooked parts and some gaps.
here is how I made the weights.
and here is a test run to make sure the final drive is working and all the wiring is ok. When everything checks out I will touch up all the paint and blend it with some final weathering.
