Why "666"?
Well, there are four reasons / explanations:
- It was an actual road number on the Finnish State Railways, given to a loco of this particular 0-6-0 type, built in 1923 by Hanomag in Hannover, Germany. The other locos of this series were originally numbered 530-544, 656-670, and 781-793. There were 43 of the type altogether. Most were manufactured by Tampella in Tampere, Finland between 1913 and 1927, but ten were made by Hanomag in 1921-23, numbered 661-670. My prototype just "happens" to be sixth in that series... ;-)
- I'm not superstitious. I've walked under ladders, I've had black cats cross my path without ill effects, and I don't believe that a numer given to a locomotive - be it 13, 666, any number at all - can have any significance other than the numerical information it carries. (And yes, the 13th loco delivered to our railways in 1869 was indeed numbered 13 - it lived a long and happy life, in traffic for 43 years...)
- Since the number 666 is commonly called "the Number of the Beast", that gives me a perfect nickname for my miniature locomotive: "The Little Beast"! (This works in other languages, too. I like this name rather better than what this loco type was called by the crews: "the Chicken"... ;-)
- If I put the beautiful, brass-decorated, Victorian-style 3003 and the rather more homely-looking 0-6-0 one beside the other, I can call the pair "Beauty and the Beast"! So, really, that nickname is perhaps the *main* reason for choosing the number!
To see the technique I used to make number and builder's plates, check this page. (Please note that the 3M "i.n.t." material mentioned on that page now carries the brand name "Dynamark".)
J. Saloranta made his own plates by hot-transferring (i.e. ironing) the black toner from a mirror-image xerox copy onto the metal before etching. I haven't tried this myself, but it worked for him! Maybe I should try that technique, which seems so much easier...
... a date?
I have now removed the cab, running boards, buffer beams, boiler and side tanks from the loco in order to attach drain cock levers, water pumps and brake cylinder tubing.
So, here's an "exploded view" of "Little Beast", in honor of this page's date, April 1st...
Since this is a little joke (lame, but a joke anyway), please withhold any comments from the livesteamers and modeleng lists until tomorrow, thanks! ;-)
I have turned the loco chassis over for access - I can't help but to think of a helpless turtle, seeing the loco like this:
It's getting cramped in there, on the underside, with all the brake rigging and equalisation levers. The leaf springs are faked - made of cast iron. The *real* springing is by coil springs hidden inside the axle boxes...
0-6-0 "exploded":
Close this window when you are ready...
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