Early April

The diesels have both been and gone, converted to 6.5hp electric start petrol engines. They are a lot smoother, and also benefit from being common in everything except shape!!! The fairlie power bogie valve gear is complete except from the eccentric rods and drop links for the reversing gear. It also needs the drain cocks fitting, but, apart from that, it's done. The frames arrived from the cutter a few weeks ago now, ready for when space allows them to be put together. But first, I have a tinkerbell and a rolling tinkerbell chassis to complete. The two pairs of cylinders for these are coming along well, the pistons are made and fitted, work now concentrating on fitting the rear covers, then glands, and fitting the valves to the valve rods, all the gaskets and then they can be fitted to the frames. That will be real progress!!!

It's been a while

It's been a while since I updated this blog, so it's probably a good time to do that now.

The single fairlie power bogie has got its connecting rods on, plus valve guides, combination levers and union links. More recently, I have mounted the lubricator and fixed up a drive system for it, and also made the left hand side radius rod, which is now fitted. So that leaves the right hand radius rod, return cranks and eccentric rods and the valve gear is complete. However, she probably will take a back seat for the next few months, as work on other people's locos proceeds.

The tinkerbell rolling chassis I'm building - well, the two wheelsets are now made up and ready to go. The castings have arrived, and I've started to machine the cylinder blocks.

Later this month, two diesels are coming in for re-engining to petrol - apparently the driver has no fillings left so wants the change!!!

Progress - Mid December

In the last few weeks, I have been working on the single fairlie. I have completed machining the crossheads, and inserted the bearings. After that, I fitted the motion plates, then the slide bars. Finally, I have started work on the connecting rods. My aim is to have these completed and fitted before Xmas. A few days ago, the wheels for the next two tinkerbells arrived.

Crossheads

Now that the cylinders are mounted on the frames, attention has moved to the crossheads. These are castings supplied by Rod Burnley, however these are not the shape I'd like them to be, so I've been doing a lot of chopping with the milling machine to get them where I want them to be.

Here is a photo of where I am up to with the single fairlie power bogie - the cylinders are now all machined and attached to the frames, we're getting there!!

September

Earlier this month I got the piston rods for the Fairlie made, and then fitted and finish turned the pistons. I also turned up the piston rod glands. I have now fitted one of the cylinders to the frames. I have also part machined the valves. So that project is coming along quite nicely.
I took Zebedee to the 7.25" gauge AGM at Woking last Wednesday. I chose the first day of running so that it would be less hectic that I remember them to be from my youth - but I didn't expect to have the track to myself!!! The sun shone, the people were lovely, and Zebedee (of course) was the star of the show. The signalman told me afterwards that she had covered over 15 miles between 13:00 and 17:00 - much more than she could have done in the same time at Swanley but then Woking is a circuit, so you save the turnround time. Zebedee leaves for Inverness next weekend, and I'm now confident that she's well run in and all the gremlins are out of her system.
I must get on with Marc's tink so that I have an excuse to go back to Woking - they were amazed by how good a real locomotive is (as opposed to a model). 'Responsive' 'Comfortable' 'Easy to drive' were just some of the comments I got - I just find it amazing the number of people that haven't experienced a real locomotive!!
Real work is currently getting in the way of serious locomotive building at the moment, but I found some time the week before last to bore out 2 sets of tinkerbell coupling rods. As well as Marc's, a chap from East Anglia has asked me to build him a very basic rolling chassis, so when I can easily do so I'm going to make parts for Zebedee's brother as well.

Post-Olympic work

I have made almost no progress on my projects in the past month due to being a volunteer at the Olympics - OK, and playing trains occasionally too!!
Today I got a bit of time to myself and I got some work on the Fairlie done:
1) Made piston rods
2) Attached pistons
3) Drilled rear cylinder covers for fixing bolts

So, in terms of the cylinders, that leaves:
1) Finish turn pistons
2) Make piston rod glands
3) Machine valves
4) Make valve rods and buckles

And then I can get the cylinders on to the frames. Now that will be progress!!!