Rewanui - a 1940 West Coast NZ layout in 1:64

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

In this week's episode, back to locomotive building.

As you may recall the layout will feature three Wa class 2-6-2T locomotives.  While nominally the same class, the locomotives differed in almost every conceivable detail.

I've been working on patterns for the locos of late, but here is progress on the first of the three, Wa217.  In this posed pic most of the parts are placed or clipped in place so there are many gaps that will get sorted out as we move on.  Unfortunately, I'm waiting on a chimney casting so the loco looks a little unbalanced here.

217 had slide valves, single slide bars, extended cab, rod style cowcatcher and the early style of ornate sandboxes. The extended cab caught me out fitting the domes as I measured with the cab off.  Fortunately on this build I decided to screw the domes on rather than solder them, so drilling 2 new holes fixed things up.  I wasn't too far out, so the incorrect holes are still hidden under the domes.

Once the chimney is on hand I'll solder that in place and can then start fitting all the smaller details and pipework.  There are no significant unresolved bits on this loco as all the detail parts are on hand/underway.  It should just be a relatively relaxing assembly job from now on.

[finescalerr]

Satisfactory...so far. -- Russ

[Bill Gill]

Geez, that's looking good!

[Barney]

Beautiful and excellence in miniature engineering
Barney

[Bernd]

Very nice work.

I wish we had more of this in the states. I'm sure there are some companies here in the states that do etching. I also wish there were more manufactures of rolling stock producing metal etch kits. Probably will never happen a consumer wanting a finished product.

Bernd

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

Thanks Bernd

For what it's worth I would take this approach even for a one off personal scratchbuild.  In fact, my approach now is to build what I want and then to spin out the bits into a kit after the fact.  Not a good commercial approach, but putting my hobby first.

As far as sheetmetal goes you need to draw something up and work out how to put it together, however you scratchbuild the model.  Doing that is halfway to etching artwork.  Etching is relatively inexpensive.  I live in NZ and email my files to Scotland for etching, so proximity to suppliers is not limiting.  Etch for this loco including setup costs (but excl shipping) would be around US$150. That includes 2 of everything (spares), 2 frets of etches (chassis + body in different materials) and a lot of redundant/duplicate parts as the etches cover a variable class of engines. Most of that is set up, so costs for further locos would be significantly less.

In terms of castings, it's CAD, then 3d print then a contractor.  Relatively cheap.

Cash outlay for a one off scratchbuild is probably less than the price of a kit of similar specification purchased from others (if it existed).  There certainly are set up costs, but these are not huge compared to unit costs.

The difference, of course, is time.  Research and CAD work takes a lot of time that if costed commercially would make a short run kit very expensive.

Mitigating against that are experience, relationships and standard parts/existing work.

• I've been doing this for 30 years, so I have a lot of more or less standard approaches and a good feel for what will work - which saves a lot of time and means things generally work sufficiently well first time.  Undoubtedly some rework for kit release, but buildable for a one off/pilot.
• Resources are increasingly available electronically, and I know who to ask.  A couple of emails and a few days can yield the vast majority of the info required to build an NZR locomotive, if you know who and how to ask. When I started this could take months/years and I got a fraction of the data. There's a hobby in historical research and those folk can be extremely generous with their results.
• Many of the detail parts are standard, which reduces the new work a lot.

For commercial viability you need a market.  There is essentially no ready to run NZR available, so metal kits are the norm.  3D printing may well change that, although a metal loco is always going to be more durable.  Even so, a run of 30 would be my target and I'd be very happy if I reached 50. I'm most familiar with the UK market where etched kits have been common for a long time.  I gather that is not the case in the US, although historically you have had more or less similar products supplied assembled from Asia.

If there was demand, I'm sure somebody would fill it.  But coming back to earlier comments, you don't typically have a large layout if you are building your stock from etched kits.  I really enjoy a good etched kit, but they are not particularly quick to build well.

[finescalerr]

All of that makes perfect sense to me.

That is why I bought a laser, the most appropriate tool for creating the kind of model I build most often. But I suggest you make certain that tool isn't defective, like my laser, or it could cause you to abandon model building.

I very much enjoy working in CAD and designing models. It's a challenge and putting together a drawing is a lot like actual construction. Well, except for glue or solder. By contrast I find building tedious and sometimes nerve wracking but the finished product always is the payoff.

Someday it may become more difficult to find what we need from manufacturers. Should that happen, groups of hobbyists, such as those of us on this forum, may work together to help each other. Maybe one guy is a machinist, another has a 3-D printer, another has a laser, and another etches metal. The end result might be fewer models but they may be superior to anything we could buy today.

Or maybe that never will happen ....

Russ

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

Drifting off topic Russ but, yes, this is just the latest evolution in the hobby.

Locally there are half a dozen or so guys started up offering 3D design and print.  Not all of them will be good and not all will last, but the trend is towards small businesses (likely part time) offering to get you what you want.  Which is a good thing as a lot of modelling in the past has been buying kits of what you want most out of what's on offer, which is not the same as what you want.

Hobby lasers, CNC, printers etc all suffer from being priced/specified for hobbists and being in a rapidly changing field. I've had printers that used 3 different principles, one of which was a dismal failure.  While in no way supporting suppliers of defective equipment, I think we need to anticipate that such tools may not perform or last as we might wish. I treat new gear in this area as a gamble and don't spend money that I cannot afford to lose. For the most part the gambles have paid off pretty well. Of course, when it goes wrong I seek redress.

[1-32]

Hi Lawtence.
very Nice.
One question? where do you get your mechanisms from?
Cheers

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

I get my gears from the Czech Republic but otherwise I design and build the boxes myself.

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

In the latest progress most of the major castings added to Wa217.

The next step on the superstructure is to permanently fit the cab and air reservoirs and then run all of the piping.

The chassis needs the wheelsets fitted up and quartered, and some truck wheels sorting.  I have the drawings for the truck wheels but it seems from photos that these were changed often and 6 hole, 2 hole and no hole variants appear to be used (and not always the same at either end).  I've yet to conclude exactly which wheels to fit at the back.

The eagle eyed will note that the motion is averagely connected in places.  At this point some of the pins are over length and removable (or just plain missing).  The top slipper on the crosshead is a clip fit, so at this point I can still largely disassemble and remove the motion.  The need for this is largely passed but apparently I'm afraid of commitment.

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

The photo seems to have dropped off the last post, so here it is.

[finescalerr]

Most satisfactory. It has enough fine detail to make it impossible to guess the scale from a photo. -- Russ

[Krusty]

apparently I'm afraid of commitment

Don't let Jill find out.

[Ray Dunakin]

Excellent!