valve gear

hi all, well i have assembled the valve gear on one of the chassies. i made the pins, they were either rivithed or soldered in place. i am still experimenting.

rolling chassie

hi all, well i can say the first stage of construction is over. pics show the rolling chassie. the only modification is i some washers/spaces to go between the frames and the wheel centres as the tires would foul the frame and cause a short.
regards

na axles

hi all, i have been making axles these week. they are turned from brass. For those that need it a gear pressed on and soldered in place. the gear is cut from spur gear stock. hope to have a rolling chassie soon.

wheels

hi all, well after lots of thought i decided that one should always do the best job one can, so here they are. spoked wheels 22 scale inches in diameter. The tire is machined brass, and the centre is styrene as per last post.
they look even better in real life :-)
the gunk still attached gets collected when they are handled, a blow with the air cleans them quite nice.

more bits

hi all, a few more pics.
i re-worked the cam program so better toolpaths were followed this gave a much better shape to the cranks.
Second pic shows the spokes being cut. this in in .040" styrene.

hi all, another pic. this time the cod rods and cranks. again made on the mill. this time the brass is 15 thou, needed a sprue so i could hold it. if you look close the rod show a little relief showing the differences in thinkness.

nbh wagon

i tried something new for the nbh kit. i had a master sprue printed on a 3-d printer, the resolution is down to around 15 micros, i have included pics showing the printed master.

this master can be used to make a mould in silicone rubber. I'll post cad drawings of above soon.

nm wagon

well i thought i better add some more pics of other rollingstock, firstly a nm wagon. i etched the bodies of these some time ago.

NA frames

Well the first parts have come out quite nicely, good old k&s brass can't go wrong.

the frames were cut out on a cnc mill using a high speed head. i used a .029" slot drill at 20 000 rpm.

intro

hello world :-) i thought i would invite everyone on a little (tiny) journey of sorts. the task is the construction of a nn30 (yep 5mm gauge and 1:160 scale) na class locomotive. Why a na you might ask, well they dont have a complicated valve gear and look good.
plans i found in a recent issue of narrow gauge downunder.

the na's are famous as they are the mainstay of the fleet for the puffing billy railway.

go to http://www.puffingbilly.com.au/fan/fleet/NA_photo_gallery.htm for a look.

i have started a 3-d drawing of the model using alibre design.

the frames are the first thing i will make.