I've been doing a little turning work again - the steam and sand domes are now finished. Here is the basic construction: a piece of copper pipe, and top and bottom parts made of the same urethane plastic high-density foam that I used for my wheel patterns - it cuts just like wood, but has no grain. Dusty work, however...

A little paint and some brass around them, and they start to look like they really belong on top of the boiler. Next, the handrails...

I've also started building a couple more cars, one low-sided, identical to the previous one, and one baggage car with brakeman's cab. Since we never used American style cabooses in Finland, a car with a brakeman's cab was usually the last one coupled to a train.

The wheels for the cars are turned from solid steel, not cast iron. I obtained "baloney slices", 100 mm diameter, 23 mm thick - not too much to remove to reveal the wheel hiding inside the chunk. Much cleaner work, too, a bit slower for sure, but darn it, those flying chips are HOT! Using carbide tools and high speed on the lathe, too light a feed causes the chips to actually burn - the exothermic reaction of the chips merely oxidizing on the surface turns endothermic in a small fireworks display around the tool point!

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