David,
I apologize for taking so long to introduce myself. My
name in Royce Woodbury. I live in paradise (that's Santa Barbara,
CA). I am 52, married with one grown and one 16 year old daughter,
a wife, a dog (not in that order), a business (architectural millwork)
and a compulsion to build things. While my business goes a long way
towards satisfying that compulsion, I wanted something more. Some
years ago my wife decided she wanted a train to run around our Christmas
tree. After retreiving from my parents attic some of the HO stuff
I had as a kid, I set up a loop around the tree. As it turned out,
HO is too small to run on the floor about a Christmas tree, especially
with a dog. But fiddling with the toys of youth rekindled an interest
in modeling and I found myself visiting hobby stores. Sometimes
I would drag my wife with me. On the way to my parents house
in LA, we stopped at SanVal Hobbies in Van Nuys. There, my wife saw
an Aristo Christmas train and exclaimed, "This is what I want for
our tree!". So I bought it.
They also had an Aster mogul that had been gold plated and other really
cool stuff on display. I bought more magazines. Visited more
stores. And then I saw a copy of "Live Steam". I was hooked.
I formulated my plan. Build a 1:20.3 (I had figured out the scale/gauge
issue by this time) live steam model of the Southern Pacific narrow gauge
ten wheeler #18. This scale was big enough to build from scratch
and reproduce just about every detail. And since narrow gauge equipment
was frequently hand made anyway, it made it easy to build without have
to make a lot of castings. I bought a lathe. My wife
some clothes. A clausing knee mill. My wife some clothes.
Bought another lathe. Took my wife on a vacation (to Independence,
CA, where the prototype of SP18 is resting). She provided me with
refreshments as I baked in the sun while taking measurements of the prototype.
After three trips to Independence, stacks of sketches, many photos, I have
begun construction (and my wife is on the "best dressed list").
While progress is excruciatingly slow, I have managed to complete the
fully equalized frame and suspension. I have had a test casting
made in bronze for the coupled drivers to observe shrinkage rates.
And on Thanksgiving, got to work on the smokebox saddle. It is slow
going. If I could just figure out a way to get around this "work"
thing, I could make faster progress. But I am blessed to have such
a joy in my life. As I am sure all of you are.
royce
November 28, 1999
