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Greetings from Justin at the Komoka Railway Museum

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justinKRM:
Hi there,


I hail from Komoka where I am a member of the local railway museum. For the last 5 years I have been running the live steam locomotive that my grandfather built in South Africa. I have finally been able to get the equipment to start a workshop (Lathe, drill press, bandsaw & power hacksaw). My goal is to construct my own steam locomotive.


I plan to start with simple projects to start learning the skills and then work my way up to the goal. I have non previous machining experience (software engineer) but am reasonably handy and one of the other members is a machinst by trade and will be able to help me along the way. I discovered this forum while hunting for ideas for which locomotive to build.


I'd love to build CN 6060 as i grew up near 6063 which is nearly identical, but it is likely too ambitious for a first locomotive. i'm really hoping to build a canadian locomotive but have not had much luck finding plans for one.


My plan is to work up in complexity gradually:
1) start with rolling stock
2) build a battery operated "diesel" (F-unit)
3) build the steam locomotive
4) build 6060!?


Great to meet you all.


Here is a video of the first time we ran my grandfathers locomotive (it hadn't run in 30+ years): [youtube1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7ZDvSdHCIk&list=PLpQKmmdr-fkbxPgq8-Y7xAhzgMnSIC2js[/youtube1]

crueby:
Welcome!
Lots of great info here, and great people.

Kim:
Hi Justin,
Welcome to the forum!

Yeah, the CN6060 does look like a big project, but a really nice one for sure!  I think your strategy of working your way up sounds like a pretty solid idea.  But people have been known to build some pretty complex stuff as a first project.  But I think it really does help to get some experience before you tackle the really big things.  Just my thoughts.

Anyway, welcome!  Looking forward to seeing your builds!

Kim

cnr6400:
Howdy Justin! welcome to the forum. As you can probably tell from my avatar I am partial to the CNR 6400 class engines. I do like the 6060 series too. When I was a kid I actually rode behind 6060 on an excursion from Peterborough Ont to Anson Junction near Campbellford, probably in 1973 or thereabouts. Great fun and a fine engine.

If you are thinking about 6060 in 7 1/4" gauge (or 4 3/4" gauge) do think about costs, machine capacity needed, and how you will transport a half to 3/4 ton machine. As others say, starting with a smaller locomotive like Juliet would be a great learning experience to prep for a 6060.  But do build something, as often as possible!

justinKRM:
@cnr6400 The CN 6400 series looks very nice.

We already have a Juliet (from my grandfather). I was thinking the battery operated as an initial one would allow my son (10) to drive the train on his own and also if Juliet is having difficulty firing up which sometimes happens, or if she's in for service it gives us a backup.

For building a CN 6060 i would probably look at 3.5" or 4.75" as those are the gauges we have at the museum. But given the weight I'd be more inclined to 3.5" for her.
The CN6060 series has come into our sphere of interest through several paths. The first was while growing up in Sarnia the riverside park has 6063 on static display. At the local hobby shop, one of the long time clients gave my son an HO scale model of 6060 and finally one of the members of the museum who recently passed away used to work on her. He was also the final living founder of the museum and although decades apart in age, he and our son would just sit and watch the trains go by together and were great friends. It was a real loss to all of us when he passed. In a way it will honor him as well. Our son even grew a maple tree from seed and planted it beside the museum tracks as a tribute to him.

I'm not sure however if i should try a different steam locomotive before tackling something like CN6060 to build up further experience. I started looking to see what "beginner" locomotives were available but they were more British (which I do like, i'm English/Welsh descent) or one US (the A3 designed by Kozo) but i didn't see any that were Canadian. I'm not sure if there are any Canadian models you can suggest might be an intermediate option? I was trying to see if there was a 2-6-0 live steamer as i wouldn't mind trying to build #86 which is local to us.

Thanks!

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