progress

here some shots of where I am at.  Remember, nothing is glued together, just press fit or sitting in place for the photos.  The cylinder shield could not be snapped into place because the holes for the piping need to be cleaned out so they sit tighter to the boiler.

I reprinted the entire boiler and smokebox.  I was not happy with the way the cab was attaching, it made it hard to get it straight on the boiler.  I made an indexing slot on the cab front wall which required a tab on the boiler.  Because I was reprinting the boiler I figured I might as well do the smokebox since the one I had was printed on the lower resolution printer.  I also decided to try and print the number plate to see if it was possible, which it turned out great except the font around the number was a little too bold, new prints with thinner font are being painted right now.

The cab was a big of an issue.  When I first designed the cab I made the upper half of the rear wall part of the cab, and the lower half part of the tender, dividing them at the prototype seam.  However assembling them was not working out like I had hoped.  I changed the design to have the entire rear wall part of the tender, which allowed me to print the cab vertical with supports going up inside the cab and attaching the back of the front wall, tiny supports were used all around the back edge to keep it from sagging.

even with the redesign of the cab / tender I still was having trouble gluing the two together.  I ended up printing an assembly fixture in PLA which allowed me to screw the cab and tender down, drawing the joints tight and square.  With the cab and tender screwed to the fixture plate I ran thin CA on the inside joint and let it sit and cure naturally.

the other thing I have been working on is wiring.  I installed the speaker and ran all the wires under the floor through holes that I had printed into the frame and firebox.  My goal is to have cab interior lights, firebox flickering light, and the little light above the tender all work.  On the upper rear wall of the cab the Manns Creek had a light that must have been used for filling the tender in the dark, it was mounted up under the rear cab roof, I thought it would be a neat touch to add it. 

here is the cab on the assembly fixture

the rusted top edge of the tender turned out better than I had hoped, I am really happy I did it.

here is the decoder and tender speaker installed.  There is also a speaker up in the smoke stack.

and here is the wiring under the frame, I will paint it black when it is all finished.

Sweet Shay....

Can you print me a couple of those in N scale?? 

I've got one of the Atlas 3 truck Shays in N.... it's a great runner, though I haven't worked up the nerve to attempt a DCC install on it yet. I've got a log train for it, and also intend to use it as a switcher in the yard... an option for standard gauge Shays not frequently modeled.

Awesome execution

Thanks for sharing your work, and your construction process.  There is a lot of great learning points.

Regards,

Jerry

Many kudos to you

Hi Jeff, 

I am so impressed by this project - amazing work, and thank you for sharing.  There's so much to look at and think about in this model.  I enjoy living vicariously through your modeling, and have been through all your posts on this site and your old blog on the other site too.  The Mann's Creek is my keenest eastern obsession and I've dreamed about modeling it in On3 too, although I live out here in RGS country and model standard gauge C&O stuff.  I used to live in Edmond, WV, not too far from Clifftop, and have walked the whole MC line.  I love that area so much.  What a railroad!  I will look forward to your future posts - keep up the great work.

Ole