Tuesday, July 01, 2025

On with the show

 This past weekend I was agaian at Railex in Palmy. A great show with ideal weather (drizzly) and it was busy both days. Oddly, Cabbages flying circus was split up between the halls and it was me and Michael Gee in the usual spot. I only took 2 pictures and they were of the Scale rails Fremo setup. 20 metres between return loops.

 The module closest to the camera I would single out as the overhead trackage is something I have not seen anywhere else in the country (though I don't get out much).

On the work bench this show was the Johnson A. After a look at the bits I had I got stuck into the soldering. Mr G showed plenty of interest as he has not done much work in brass. I didn't take any work-in-progress shots but can report I did not swear once during the weekend (in front of a child anyway) even when provoked by trying to get the funnel in the right place for the 7th time.

Current progress. It looks like the real thing at least.

The tender looks a bit big but is close according to photos. I also discovered during the weekend that when soldering brass on a small scale like this a paper cup 1/2 full of water is very handy in that you can pitch the whole thing into it when things get a bit toasty. It also amuses the punters.

The Plan to power the beast had been to hide a small motor in the boiler.

However, despite my efforts it proved a bridge too far as the motor struggled turning over with even the slightest misalinement, and my meager engineering skills were not up to providing that surety.Iit also got really hot.

Plan B.

 Stick a bigger motor in the tender and hide the decoder in the cab roof.

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