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

[Ray Dunakin]

Wow! That'll be quite impressive!

[finescalerr]

If and when you complete it, the result should be most satisfactory.

I must chide you for your avatar because it suggests you are younger than the rest of us while, in reality, you are the same age! Your wisdom and experience long ago gave you away of course. Besides, we're all model builders so, with a little plaster, paint, and pastels we can backdate ourselves. -- Russ

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

It's the beard. I am actually much younger than the rest of you.

[Ray Dunakin]

Twice recently I've had strangers tell me that I "look like the old guy in Jurassic Park."

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

It's been a while between updates...

Recently I've returned to Wa217.  Not that I ever exactly left it, but there was a bit of development required, fresh castings to do, and thus nothing visible to report.

As a young lad I grew up with images of UK steam locomotives, where pipework is typically minimal or tucked tidily away.  NZR locomotives are rather different.  Piping for air brake and conduit for electrical systems is external in addition to the usual feed water, sand and live steam connections.

From a modelling perspective I like the challenge of the plumbing.  Historically I've done it (as I imagine most do) from wire fitted to various castings that need drilling out.  There are two problems with this.  Firstly, drilling out is far from easy to do and secondly getting entire runs from one piece of wire, entangled as it may be with other runs, can be difficult.

So for this loco I thought I'd try using fine tube for the pipework.  Albion Alloys manufacture brass tube in 0.1mm increments with 0.1mm wall.  So for 1" electrical conduit the 0.4mm (0.2mm bore) was ideal.  Most of the brake pipework needed to be 1 1/4" (0.5/0.3mm).  In principle, using the tubing gets around my two problems.  First off I did my castings with spigots to mate with the tubing bore.  Not entirely straightforward casting 0.2mm spigots, but it did work.  They were, in fact, drawn at 0.3mm dia.  The print/cast process wasted them away a bit to around 0.25mm, so I had to relieve the tube end with a root canal reamer, but this did result in a nice positive fit.  For the brake part castings spigots were a nominal 0.4mm but came out somewhat less and were dealt with the same way.

It is hard to bend tube without collapsing the walls, but I achieved this by either fitting some fishing monofilament up the bore or brass wire.  The monofilament is useful as it can be removed after forming if needed.  The brass wire will be permanent, but this is good much of the time anyway. One just needs to be careful not to turn the tube into rod, which would make fitting to the casting spigots impossible. It is very easy to butt join the tube with a wire spigot to strengthen the joint, so there is no need to do runs in one piece.  The joints are also all quite strong considering their size.

The photos show the approach worked very well.  Low stress, as there was little drilling to do, and the whole fitting process was simplified by not needing to do runs in one piece.  The pipes linking the front of the air reservoirs are cast in.

At this stage of assembly there is still a bit of extra solder here and there, but sand blasting will clean that up later.  The list of things to do on the body is getting quite short.  The chassis list is longer but everything is on hand for it, so hopefully the loco will progress a bit faster from here on.

The rear cowcatcher is new from last time too.  I realised belatedly that it is wider than the front one so I had to do a new pattern and casting for the thing.

[Hydrostat]

I really do admire your precise work!

Cheers,
Volker

[Bill Gill]

Lawrence, That is a lot of very nice work.

[finescalerr]

You continue to impress us. -- Russ

[fspg2]

I am always delighted with your little works of art!

[Hauk]

So for this loco I thought I'd try using fine tube for the pipework.  Albion Alloys manufacture brass tube in 0.1mm increments with 0.1mm wall.  So for 1" electrical conduit the 0.4mm (0.2mm bore) was ideal.  Most of the brake pipework needed to be 1 1/4" (0.5/0.3mm).  In principle, using the tubing gets around my two problems.  First off I did my castings with spigots to mate with the tubing bore.  Not entirely straightforward casting 0.2mm spigots, but it did work.  They were, in fact, drawn at 0.3mm dia.  The print/cast process wasted them away a bit to around 0.25mm, so I had to relieve the tube end with a root canal reamer, but this did result in a nice positive fit.  For the brake part castings spigots were a nominal 0.4mm but came out somewhat less and were dealt with the same way.

It is hard to bend tube without collapsing the walls, but I achieved this by either fitting some fishing monofilament up the bore or brass wire.  The monofilament is useful as it can be removed after forming if needed.  The brass wire will be permanent, but this is good much of the time anyway. One just needs to be careful not to turn the tube into rod, which would make fitting to the casting spigots impossible. It is very easy to butt join the tube with a wire spigot to strengthen the joint, so there is no need to do runs in one piece.  The joints are also all quite strong considering their size.

The photos show the approach worked very well.  Low stress, as there was little drilling to do, and the whole fitting process was simplified by not needing to do runs in one piece.  The pipes linking the front of the air reservoirs are cast in.

At this stage of assembly there is still a bit of extra solder here and there, but sand blasting will clean that up later.  The list of things to do on the body is getting quite short.  The chassis list is longer but everything is on hand for it, so hopefully the loco will progress a bit faster from here on.

The rear cowcatcher is new from last time too.  I realised belatedly that it is wider than the front one so I had to do a new pattern and casting for the thing.

Pure eyecandy.

[Barney]

Absolutely mind blowing stuff- A True Artist in more ways than one
Barney

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

Absolutely mind blowing stuff- A True Artist in more ways than one
Barney

Thanks Barney.

More of a technician I'm afraid. 

[Hauk]

Pure jewellery. Almost a shame to paint it.

[Ray Dunakin]

Magnificent! I love the look of all that piping. Also thanks for the tip about Albion Alloys. I just ordered some of their micro tubes.

[Bernhard]

Lawrence, I am really impressed by this detailed work.

Bernhard