Dear Geoff, > You were going to build, or were building something, remember? I had > a lot of the information i retained but my hard drive crashed and > I lost it all! Was it not 1" or 1-1/2" scale American loco, a > pacific or hudson?
I am working (still) on a 4-6-0 in 3.5" gauge - 3/4" scale, plus one or two other little projects - like this one. > You were concerned as to how you were going to get > it down from your attic workshop when it was finished. I have fitted a small electric winch so that should be a little easier. > Your ongoing progress reports were very interesting with a lot > of humour! The research you had done was inspirational, (just as > the work you have done on the Cricket) - it made me decide that > such a venture for me was in some fantasy land that I could > never attain!! I am sorry that my enthusiasm for my project has dissuaded you from yours. I am good at research and have a distressing habit of wanting to go back to original source material whenever possible. This is in part prompted by my awareness of my lack of knowledge and lack of experience as I have only been involved in model engineering type activities for a few years. Self confidence, or rather lack thereof, is a keen motivator "to get it right" which is at times a hindrance as I can get too obsessed with the minutiae of detail rather than just being happy with a quicker, easier and broader brush. I don't rivet count other peoples work, but I do want to have the right number in my own in case that others might. The proof of pudding is however in the making and unfortunately whilst I produce a loaf of bread twice a week my locomotive production is somewhat less than that. Small matters like work, homemaking and what not have conspired to hamper my efforts. I have also spent a lot of the little time that I have had free in the last couple of years working on my audio amplifiers (a project that has some commercial potential, although whether I will be able to realize that is another matter). Meanwhile I have realized that I need to develop my basic metalworking skills as the quality I want for the 4-6-0 is not yet within my reach. Either that or accept that the first version is to be a look and feel rather than exact model, in effect a prototype for the super accurate version. Again it is all to easy to get buried in the detail and not make anything. Also an important part of all this is the social aspect and having a simpler locomotive that I can build (in perhaps not quite such exacting detail) in a short(er) time and run on club or home tracks is why I am distracted from the "main" project. The Byers gives me a "simple" locomotive in a large enough scale that I can realistically expect to be able to build it to an adequate standard (in my eyes) and be interesting but without excessive quantity of small scale detail. As a project locomotive I also feel that I can substitute near scale alternatives like the PM Research bottle engines and also things like sight gauges and steam fittings which are close enough to what was fitted. Having the photograph has of course upped the ante a bit as there is much that I can now see as fact rather than just interpolate from contemporary practice or description. This is dangerous as it threatens to shift the project's focus away from being a simple locomotive, which is after all the idea on which the project is founded. Making a small scale model of the model is again a side step, but hopefully one that will allow me to sort out many of the mechanical issues that I still face with the big sister. CAD drawings are easy to knock up with a bit of practice, but turning even 3D rendered glossy images into actual fact comes somewhat harder. > I will be seeing Michael O'Rourke shortly, I'll show him your CAD > and ask him to modify my Cricket accordingly - that is unlikely as he > has retired, so I shall send it to you for the mods!!! Happy to look at it, but I would have to advise you that I am distressingly slow at progressing these projects. > With full confidence in you and your ability. > > Geoff. Thank you. Best wishes, Susan. _______________________________________________ SSLiveSteam mailing list Send messages: [email protected] Cancel subscription: http://postfix.45mm.com/mailman/listinfo/sslivesteam Rules: http://www.45mm.com/sslivesteam_guide.html
