the printer has been running around the clock for the last three days.  By the end of the week I should have all parts printed and the final assembly and detailing can start.  This week I will be printing the cab / tender after I finish up the digital details.  it's pretty exciting to see it all materialize.

Here is an progress report on my 42 ton Shay that I am modeling in On3.

Thanks everyone for the comments and helpful information.  For the second test (4th build) I was going to try and use a Serv-O-Link chain to eliminate the four spur gears and hopefully get rid of that grinding noise.  I had tried the chain drive on a Westside Models Heisler with some success but in the end I used a design that inspired this shay drive. 

I have been working on a project for a while now and I now that I have something to show I would post where I am at with it, and where I a going (or need to go).

I started to design an On3 shay that I had planned to scratch build from brass.  The original intent was to have some parts printed by Shapeways in brass, while other parts I would use existing castings from PSC along with photo etched parts for the boiler, cab, and tender.  My main goal was to be able to use a can motor to power the shay, rather than the coreless motors typically used. 

I finished the operating tipple.  here is a video of it in operation along with some photos taken outside.

here are some photos taken outside

The narrow gauge Manns Creek Railway hauled coal 9 miles from an area where they opened many small coal mines to the town of Sewell, located on the New River, where it was converted to coke or sized and loaded into standard gauge C&O hoppers.  during WWII a 200 ton coal receiving bin where newly opened strip mining operations trucked strip mine coal to be dumped and loaded into the narrow gauge hopper cars for the trip down to Sewell.  the heart of my new On3 layout will be the live loading of coal into my On3 hopper cars and the unloading of the coal at Sewell.  The unlo

Welcome to my first entry for what will be the blog on my new Manns Creek Railway in On3.  I started build in On30 a little more than 10 years ago as a diversion from working in HO scale.  At the time I had built a fictional railroad in HO scale called the Roanoke and Southern, which was featured in the May 2010 issue of MR.  by the time my article was published is was firmly hooked on O scale narrow gauge.  Although if first started constructing models in On30 (O scale models with 30" track gauge) I soon widened the gauge out to On3 (O scale models w