The Home Machinist!

Equally important is going to be the gloss/varnish effect. Colours which look too dark if they are matt/semi gloss may well look quite a bit brighter if varnished...

James

Well to the north, up here in Canada, I believe you will find Abbotsford MES with about 1200' of 2 1/2", 3 1/2" and 5". BCSME has a back and forth 3 1/2" (not finished, last I heard...) and a mile of 7.5 or so. Vancouver Island Model Engineers has a 1200' 3 1/2, 4 3/4 & 5" raised track & about a mil...

Ok- so from a full sized prospective, with oil fired boilers, the way we treated the fireside was to leave the last 12 hours of soot ON the boilers if they were going to be dry. If you know that the fireside is going to get wet, then you want as little as possible there. It's also the reasoning behi...

Another option is to use low silver content (high melting point) lead solder. Be aware, once you do that particular trick the boiler is nackered for trying again with silver, as they won't stick to each other, or in the vicinity of lead fumes. A lot depends on "how bad" it really is- things you don'...

I too am surprised about her passing,

James Powell

Coal fired Superheated Caribou goes like snot off a shovel. Will do >8 MPH with those little wheels, and will pull >1200 lb. The Fartin' Martin boiler design is sensitive to coal quality in comparison to LBSC's Britannia. Probably a little too small grate and lack of combustion chamber. The unsuperh...

While in OO, I have a mechanical interlocking on Long Marton: https://live.staticflickr.com/5338/7188288986_973e3643da_c.jpg Long Marton Signal Box by Peach James , on Flickr There is a video of how it operates on there too, the whole layout is setup around the interlocking. If I want to drive a loc...

Good compression fittings are certainly rated high enough for steam, even in brass. (B-400-xx-xxx, like I knew the Swageloc series #'s by memory...9 is a 90% el, the 400 is 1/4" tube). The stainless ones certainly are rated vastly higher than what model steam uses, I used them extensively on 600 PSI...

Nothing wrong with oil, until you get it WRONG: https://live.staticflickr.com/8030/7998486096_7012e83666_z.jpg If you look at the stacks, if you are firing coal (or oil properly, which ^ is not...), there should be an economic haze. Which means that it is probably around 10% opacity. Any less genera...

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5756/21716872916_a4bd884a33_c.jpg MLS (2) by Peach James , on Flickr Nope, she never drives... mind, neither of us have driven an (railway) engine in the last few years. Dad kidnapped that one ! We've been very busy with the boys, so things like Steam have taken a bac...

All my stuff is going to geocache. I thought this was the way to go after seeing all of those guys looking for "the BIG W". Just give me the GPS #'s so I can go collect... (next to be seen running over the hill with a 3.5" loco under each arm...) Dad's got it fairly easy, when he pops off, I have t...

I would suggest, as the owner of a somewhat lubrication sensitive 3.5" gauge loco, that a pumped supply is better than a stuart turner style displacement lubricator. The more complicated hydraulic driven displacement style are probably co-equal with a pumped lubricator. The type of steam oil can mat...