The buffers are now finished, springs enclosed in their sheaths. Tubes are copper-nickel silver soldered to the base plates, the spring retaining caps are brass, threaded into tubes. Note grub screw that keeps cap from unscrewing.
The back wall of the cab does look like a prison, but in full size the bars prevented the coal or wood - which sometimes was stacked high up along the wall - crashing through the window when braking...
These locos could switch from coal to wood rather easily - the large "frame" you see on the wall is not a door, but a part of the wall that could be removed when using wood as fuel. The stack was also changed, as was the grate in the firebox. (Not necessary when using propane... ;-)
The copper-nickel steam brake cylinder inside the frame. I've tested the brake system with compressed air, and it locks the wheels solid at 4 bars (50 psi).
The cab has now got three opening doors - I had to make the hinges myself, since I couldn't find small enough ones in the hardware stores!
The stack is machined from copper-nickel tubing (what else ;-) and is soldered to the base. Since the stack has a taper, I had to split the tube lengthwise, remove a widening sliver of material, hammer the tube to a smaller diameter and re-solder it together. Of course, after that I had to turn the stack to proper dimensions on the lathe! The top rim is made of 4mm dia. brass, bent to a ring which is soldered to the stack tube.
I've also attached a "non-slip" surface to the running boards - hard to see in this picture, since the pattern is rather small. I had considered several options on how to do it, including etching, but I settled for a rather simpler solution...
Steel netting (scrounged from a fireplace spark shield) epoxied to the running boards gave me the perfect pattern! I had to be careful with the epoxy, spreading it thinly and evenly, and putting the "sandwich" between steel plates in the vise while the epoxy cured. The result turned out quite realistic.
This is how the loco looks right now, January 28, 2004.
What next? To keep the suspense, I won't tell you what I'm working on right now, but I can give you a hint: It involves the vertical mill, a very tiny end mill, the lathe chuck, and the rotary table, all working together:
Don't miss the next exiting episode of the 0-6-0 story!
;-)