Chris is famous!

[Kim]

Just got my latest issue of Live Steam and Outdoor Railroading!  You're famous now Chris!  Not that you weren't before, but you made the cover of LSOR! That's wonderful!

Congratulations, Chris!  Well-deserved recognition for sure! 

Kim

[cnr6400]

 

[crueby]

Thanks guys!!   

I'm jealous - you got your copy before I got mine! Last I talked with the editor, he mentioned that this issue got delayed slightly by a backup in their print shop so it didn't mail out till a week or so ago, he hadn't even gotten his copies yet. I've been camped out at the mailbox waiting for mine, had to make do with the cover shot from their website:

The article will be running for a fair while since it will include a full set of plans for the model. Four twin-cylinder steam engines and all! The cover is of the model sitting in front of the real one, last surviving Marion Model 91 steam shovel about 20 minutes from my house, its been sitting outside the quarry there since the 1940's when they drove it out and parked it. I got permission from the town historical society (the shovel is sitting on a little plot of land owned by the town now) to get in and measure/photograph it a number of times, I donated a full set of full-scale measured drawings back to the town as thanks.  The little rock sitting under the bucket on the model is a chunk of limestone that was broken off the huge chunk under the real one's bucket in the background. Was a great day out, had the model sitting on the track of the real one while we did talks to the audience there, it was an open access day at the shovel. Sad part is the town, very small, doesn't have the resources to do preservation work on the shovel, and it is slowly rusting away. When it was first parked, the quarry company sprayed it with a coat of tar of some sort, which preserved it quite well for decades. When I got in to measure it, that coating was starting to flake off, by now its pretty much all fallen off and its rusting pretty badly.

My build log is over in the vehicles/models section of the forum, finished the model a few years ago.

Oh, and if you read about the shovel on places like Wikipedia, it says that this shovel was used on the Panama Canal, quoting a book by one of the quarry owners back in the 1950's. That is quite wrong. It is the same MODEL of shovel as used on the canal (along with a herd of Bucyrus shovels), but this one was at the quarry 5 years before they started on the canal, and I found the Canal Commission reports where they state all the surviving Marion shovels from the canal (one was squished flat in a landslide) were sold as a lot to a large quarry company in Ohio, none came here. This is the last one of its type remaining, and we figure the guy that wrote the book heard the company stories about it being the same type as used on the canal, and along the way the story changed to this one being there, common kind of word of mouth mistake.

Anyway, thanks!      The shop elves are still sitting out by the mailbox waiting for our copies...

[samc88]

Nice one Chris! Well deserved cover placement, Im sure the serial will go down well

[Jo]

Well done Chris 

Jo

[PJPickard]

I will suggest that the title of this thread be corrected: Chris is Famous, Again!

Impressive model, Again!

[steam guy willy]

Hi Chris , Well done and impressive , good to see that our talents are out there for all to see 
Willy

[ShopShoe]

Congratulations to Chris!

I followed the build all the way and learned a lot about how to organize a large, long project like this (Although Chris's "long" is not the long the rest of us have in our lives.)

I'd like to say take a rest and enjoy the fanfare, but that would mean we'd have to wait for posts on the progress of other outstanding builds.

ShopShoe

[vcutajar]

Well deserved Chris.

Vince

[Roger B]

Well done      (still no cider emoticon)

[crueby]

Thanks very much everyone, much appreciated!   

ShopShoe, you are right about my timelines, for me a long project is one year!  Retirement sure does help!

[Michael S.]

Chris, you always show an iron will to build models of machines that you like. Of course something like this has to be published.
It must be an interesting magazine. I might like it too.

Michael

[crueby]

Chris, you always show an iron will to build models of machines that you like. Of course something like this has to be published.
It must be an interesting magazine. I might like it too.

Michael

Thanks Michael,

The magazine has had a lot of locomotive builds, though the editor is trying to broaden the mix more to general steam engines. All of Kozo's books have started as article series in it, then are published as books. The same publisher does a handful of magazines, lots of books, and does custom publishing too. They are currently in the process of starting a digital-only subscription that will include back issue access, though he tells me it will take time for them to digitize the back issue library and get it online, that has not gone live yet. I've had a number of articles over the last five years, starting with my Lombard Hauler model, and last year started a regular tips column 'Shop Elves Corner'. They do mail internationally, though the prices are higher.

Their website is https://livesteam.net/

Disclaimer: I am not an employee of theirs, or have any stake in the company, though as any article submitter I do get paid for the articles of mine they publish.  There are a lot of people on this forum that could get published there!

[kuhncw]

Congratulations Chris.  Well done.

Chuck

[Pete49]

Untill I saw this picture I didn't relate to the size of that unit. Waaaaay outa my league... Well done Chris