Piece by piece

Piece by piece the train is coming together. Today I knocked the edges off of the steam cylinders and fit the bottoms to the pipe that would go through the fittings. Then I set the large piece in place to check the fit. It looks pretty cool! Now I can add the details to the cylinders before the painting of this part begins.

With the bulk of the pieces now in place the little Shay locomotive is looking a lot more like the concept drawing.

This coming week we'll add the guages, steam dome top, the bell and the large smokestack along with a few other bits and pieces. Then it will be time to move onto the log car. Stay tuned...

-grampa dan

RUST MAGIC

Through the years we have gathered many 'magic' tricks to make the materials we use look like something other than what they really are. We can mimic almost everything imaginable.

We made many components of the train from Precision Board high density urethane (HDU). This HDU is pretty tough stuff but it isn't the heavy cast iron it is supposed to be. But no worries for we have the perfect cure for that. We simply paint the HDU to look like something else...  in this case heavy cast iron. While everyone else we know is painting steel to stop it from rusting we are painting other materials with a special paint that actually rusts. The paint we use has iron particles in it and is a dark grey as it goes on. Once it is dry (after two coats) we then spray on a reactive solution which makes those tiny iron particles actually rust. After twenty minutes or so you can actually watch the rust form. It is a little more exciting than watching paint dry.  :)

Here's the HDU train truck assembled and ready for paint.

I brushed on the two coats of iron paint (letting it dry between them), then sprayed on the first coat of reactive solution. This is twenty minutes later.

I waited half an hour before applying a second coat of reactive solution. Here's the piece an hour later.

Two hours later I snuck out to the shop to take some more pictures. The rust was beginning to look pretty cool!

It is amazing how heavy the running gear of the train suddenly appeared. The train looks a hundred years old in a hurry as well! 

By morning the transformation will be complete. I'll post more pictures tomorrow.

-grampa dan

Details and more details

I spent the day with the die grinder easing the edges of all the cut Precision Board pieces and making sure everything lined up to go together. Then the pieces were glued togeher to form the complete trucks at last. Just for fun, I included the owners' initials (Jeff and Janice) into the truck gear castings - one 'J' on each end. The trucks are now ready for the special paint and rust treatment.

At each end of the engine and log car the couplings were welded into place.

The little Shay looking more authentic every day.

-grampa dan