It's taking shape! 2001-08-14

"An hour a day keeps the boredom away."

Well, actually, these past few days it's been quite a bit more than an hour a day - an intensive weekend with a new electric saw (wondrously, all fingers are still intact ;-) and a few tins of paint, and suddenly, the 3003 project is starting to resemble something loco-like...

The cab and running boards are made of waterproof plywood, with real glass in the windows, thin wooden strips on the cab walls, the roof is coated with sandpaper (3 1/2, coarsest I could get) and painted black to simulate the original felt. I've finally used the sheet metal bending machine I bought half a year ago - forming the brass "fenders" over the driving wheels. They are made of 0.8 mm (1/32") brass that I sawed to shape in my small bandsaw. This kept the metal straight - had I used ordinary shears, the edge would have been quite wavy...

The cab is painted red-brown, just as the wheels. The running boards and inside of the cab are painted to resemble wood - a brownish yellow base color with light brush streaks in darker brown to simulate the grain. The original waterproof plywood was an ugly dark brown color...

I've still to paint the fenders (red-brown with red and yellow stripes, shiny brass edges) and the boiler support braces (black). I was asked to take the unfinished model with me to the Steam Festival & Exhibition in Porvoo next weekend, so I'm trying to get the loco as good looking as possible by Saturday - and the paint dry enough to withstand the public's poking fingers! (Definition of a 5-year old boy: "A dirty noise"... ;-)


Added later: Well, I got quite a few fingerprint on the 3003 brass during the festival... The most frequent questions asked were "How long have you worked / will you work on it?" (grownups) and "How fast will it go?" (kids). The Porvoo Steam festival is the largest steam event in Scandinavia, and this year's attendance broke the record!

On September 1, 2001, it will be exactly one year since I started the project - that's when I bought the large lathe and began working on the wheel patterns. (The patterns "seasoned" for quite some time, even though the castings did not. ;-) I estimate I've spent about 600 hours so far on this project - with perhaps a thousand more to go...

By the way: Kusti Nyholm (see previous page about casting) has now succeeded in "home-casting" wheels for his upcoming 7 1/4" gauge "Tk3" 2-8-0 freight engine, by using a blower fan to get more air into his furnace burner. He has published webpages about his own projects - they are here: http://www.sparetimelabs.com


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