Building Kozo's New Shay locomotive

[crueby]

It used to be midwinter, then they moved it later. I hope it stays in spring, winter driving up here can really suck. Attendance has been good, don't know why they might move it. For those going to the show, ask about it!

[crueby]

Back in the shop, made up the manhole cover that goes in the water tank lid. It makes both a good handle for lifting the lid, plus the handle for the manual pump in the tank can run through the manhole cover. The book calls for brass for the base ring, but I did not have any quite large enough, did have some 6061 aluminum, so made it from that. The outside lip was turned to size, the ring parted off and turned around to bore the center out. (photo 1)

I did have a piece of brass large enough diameter for the cover plate, so parted off a disc of that, and milled the flat on the edge for the hinge (matching flat also on the base ring). (photo 2)

For the hinges, started with two short lengths of flat bar, and drilled through for the hinge pin on the lathe. (photo 3)

With a length of rod through the hinge pin hole to position it in the vise, used the mill to step the bars. (photo 4)

Last steps were to mill out the center section of the longer bar to fit around the shorter one, and drill bolt holes to hold them to the base ring and cover. (photo 5)

Next photo (6) shows the cover ready to fit to the tank lid.

Last photo shows the cover in place on the tank lid, ready to paint.

[crueby]

Other part made today was the bracket to hold the light on the back of the tender. It was made just like the headlight on the front of the boiler - notch three pieces of sheet brass so they slip together, and silver solder the joints. (photos 1 and 2)

Then, the overlaps are cut and filed down to shape. (last two photos)

[crueby]

Been short on shop time lately, starting to get back to normal now. Next thing up on the tender were the sandbox and ladder for the back end. The sandbox is a simple shape, just a large box with the center area cut out, but it is quite large. In the book he mentions that you can make it out of two blocks of brass, or anything else. I happened to have some aluminum bar the right size, so I used that. It was made in two halves, with the shape done on the mill while the blocks were clamped down on a piece of wood to protect the table. (photo 1)

After milling the outline, the two blocks were glued together with some JB Weld epoxy (a spacer block on the back side also straddles the joint to help hold it together. The lid plates on top were made out of brass. (photo 2)

A coat of paint, and the sandbox was done. (photo 3)

Next up was the ladder. The sides were bent from some square brass bar (heated with a torch and bent hot). Holes were drilled in the sides for the rungs. The rungs themselves were made frm brass rod, with the ends turned down with the parting tool (did the end, moved it out in the chuck, positioned the parting tool to proper length by counting turns on the lathe bed, and the other end turned in). This way the rungs self-spaced the sides for soldering. (photo 4)

With the rungs soldered on, and some crossbars at top/bottom to take bolts to hold it in place, the ladder was done. (photo 5)

I took the engine and tender down to the basement to get some more painting done the other day, and now that the paint has cured up it was time to get the lettering onto the tender. I had done some experiments with printing the text onto self-adhesive film to make stencils with, but that was a failure. So, went back to old standby of using dry transfer (rub on) letters. Woodland Scenics has a good font available in white letters, so got several sets of those (each page only has a few of some letters, so needed 4 pages altogether). To get a spacing guide, I set up a light box from my photography days and traced the lettering off onto a sheet of paper. Important thing was to get the spacing to look right, so the tracing mainly had the left/right edges with the middle of the letter just sketched in. When I had a set of tracings that looked good, they were cut out and taped just below where the actual letters would go, and I started laying down the real letters. If you have never used them, quick description: the letters are printed onto the back of a sheet of plastic - you line up the letter you want on the surface you want it on, and rub over the top of the plastic with a burnisher or (what I like to use) a dull pencil (do kids today know what a pencil is?) That rubbing sticks the letter to your work, and releases it from the plastic sheet. After they are all down, you go back and rub it some more through another sheet that looks like heavy tracing paper to make sure it is well stuck down. If you want you can clear coat over them (I have done that on boat models, for this project I did not). (photo 6)

Next photo shows the first panel with all the letters on, ready to bolt onto the tender (the plate has threaded studs in the corners that go through the tender walls and bolt on the inside).

Last photo shows the tender just about done, still needs the white strip along the edge of the floor - next up will be the lights for back of tender and front of the boiler. Really looking like a train now - amazing how different it looks with the tender made. For those following along with Kozo's book, I have skipped over all the remaining plumbing steps - will go back to that stuff last.

[ths]

That's looking so good Chris - must be the paint job (nice colours!). Is that Letraset you've used? Perhaps there are substitutes available, I haven't seen it for a while. That is a good font, I guess dealing it with a clear coat would clash with the matt finish. Cheers, Hugh.

[Roger B]

Just caught up with your build again    Magnificent as ever   

[crueby]

That's looking so good Chris - must be the paint job (nice colours!). Is that Letraset you've used? Perhaps there are substitutes available, I haven't seen it for a while. That is a good font, I guess dealing it with a clear coat would clash with the matt finish. Cheers, Hugh.

Letraset also makes letters like this, though their selection in white letters is very limited. For this one I used ones from Woodland Scenics - they have a big selection in railroad styles. I did try a clear coat on some scrap, even the matte finish stuff was too glossy to match up. The paint I am using is actually more of a glossy finish, but with thinning way down for airbrushing it goes on in a nice flat pebbly finish since it is drying almost as it hits.

[90LX_Notch]

Chris-

One word: stunning.

-Bob

[crueby]

Thanks Bob!


Moving on to more of the finishing touches - time to make the head/tail lights for the loco. They started out as a length of brass rod stock, outside turned to size with a shallow ring detail at one end, then bored out for the light mechanism. Since the through-hole was larger than the hole in the center of the chuck, I bored the through hole from one end to about halfway through the length, then flipped it around and finished it from the other end. A step was left at the lens end of the lights, to hold the glass in place. (photo 1)

Next step was to make the base and side pieces. They needed to have an inside radius to match the outside of the light body, so I bored a hole in a larger piece of bar stock, then moved it over to the rotary table on the mill to put on the flats around the outside. All the pieces for both lights were gotten out of one piece - in the book he shows getting one set per block, but it all fits from one bar. The bases are taller than the side blocks, so two of the flats are farther from the center than the other four. (photo 2)

After that, a hacksaw was used to make the lengthwise cuts to seperate out the blocks. As you can see in the next photo, the base blocks have tapered sides, the side blocks are rectangular. (photo 3)

With all the cuts made, the pieces were parted off from the bar, and they were clamped in place on the bodies to drill/tap for temporary screws to hold everything for silver soldering. (photo 4)

After soldering the blocks on, the screws were milled off flush, and recesses made in the outer panels of the side blocks. (photo 5)

With the shell done, aluminum center pieces were turned to fit inside the bodies, with a hemispherical reflector shape bored/sanded into the ends. (photo 6)

Last two photos show the lights all assembled, with a brass back panel bolted onto the back. There are holes internally to hold a light bulb (I will find an LED light to fit, might cannibalize some cheap flashlights), and a hole in the back/bottom for the power lead. A little paint and they will be ready to mount to the tender and front of the boiler...

[crueby]

Time to ring in the bell for the loco. It started as a short length of brass bar, with a hole drilled most of the way in. That was bored out at an angle (freehand turning both cranks) to form the inside of the bell. (photo 1)

Then, with a combination of the left and right handed turning tools, followed by files and sandpaper, the outside of the bell was shaped down to the 'bell' curve shape, and parted off. (photo 2)

The hanger bracket was made from a bit of sheet brass, drilled/bent/silver soldered to a length of rod. The center section of the rod was then cut out, leaving the projections at either end. (photo 3)

Next two photos (4/5) - turning down the cap nut for the top, and the clapper for the bell. A short length of threaded rod will go through the bell, and the clapper will hang on a loop of wire through a hole in the bottom of the rod.

Photo 6 shows all the pieces, ready for assembly.

And last two photos show the bell all together - has a nice tone, very high pitch since it is only an inch across. Next up will be the base bracket for the bell, and then the whistle...

[b.lindsey]

All these details only serve to make it all the more awesome Chris. Love it!!

Bill

[Kim]

That bell is really cute!  I love it!  The lights too.  Can't wait to see all the bells & lights (or whistles? ) on the engine!
Kim

[fumopuc]

Hi Chris, as already mentioned by the others, all these details will give the special touch to your model. I like it very much.

[Roger B]

+1 for the bell and the light   

[zeeprogrammer]

All these details only serve to make it all the more awesome Chris. Love it!!