Welcome

Live steam model on 7¼" gauge of the Württembergische T3 no 924

Welcome to this blog. It will inform you about the progress of designing and building live steam model locomotives. The blog contains the description of a model Würrtembergische T3 on 7¼" gauge (built between 2006 and 2017), the wagons for this loco (built between 2018 and 2022)  and a 5" gauge model of a Great Eastern Railway Y14 class loco (started in 2020)

On the left you'll find the index where you can browse through the different articles and on the right you'll find all the extra's. On the top tabs you'll find a brief description of my other locos.

 

 

Click for the direct link to start of construction series below 
T3 7¼" steam locomotive 
 
Enjoy this site. Erik-Jan Stroetinga. The Netherlands. Europe.

 

 

 

Sunday 11 September 2022

The GER Y14 0-6-0 steam loco

 A new project, a Great Eastern Railway 0-6-0 Y14 class steam locomotive.

I started with a new 5" gauge loco; a Great Eastern Railway Y14 class 0-6-0 tender engine. This will be a British model, so I had to make the drawings and order the wheel castings, pressure gauges, injectors, and books about this loco from the UK; and have them delivered before Brexit rules came into effect (1st January 2021). 


The new project GER Y14 class





As usual, I start with a OO gauge model, photos of the real loco, and a general sketch. The model was bought after Brexit, and a friend living in England received the parcel for me. I collected it during the summer holiday when visiting him.  


With this information, I've started to make the first Solidworks drawings for this new project.  
I also visited the preserved Y14 this summer (2022) on the North Norfolk line in East Anglia




This is the last survivor of the class, which was 294 strong in total.


The drawing of the 00 gauge Hornby loco, as printed on the box the model came in. 











I'm building this locomotive together with a club member, each of us will build its own engine, but this way we can exchange ideas and experience. 
We started in December 2020, but due to Corona and because I still wanted to finish the 7¼" gauge goods wagons for the T3, progress has been slow so far. 




The wheel castings were made to order by Mark Wood Castings  (pre-Brexit).
Buying from the UK is now much more difficult.

The rear buffer beam from the tender. 




Buffers and coupling hooks. 

The laser-cut frames, made to order by Laserworx in Leek (Groningen) 



  Solidworks drawings are still under construction,  but can be downloaded from:  








Update drawing 7 February  2023.
(loco on track with a minimum radius of 7.5 meters.)



See, download, and rotate or explode the Step-CAD model at:






 Drawing as it is on May 20th, 2023
(open drawing in a new tab or download, to view full size)
















Wednesday 31 August 2022

Klappdeckelwagen Gallery (lidded wagon) (12)

The summer holiday was quite warm, so the paint has thoroughly dried.  The last thing to do was spray a coat of varnish over the whole wagon. This is to seal and protect the lettering.

There were also some tiny mistakes (sags and drips of paint) that had to be removed. This was done by sanding these down with fine sandpaper and then respraying them with green paint with an airbrush. With the airbrush, I can control the amount of paint and the area where it should be applied. 

But because only a small area is touched-up, the gloss of the green paint will differ, especially at the edges of the touched-up area. This is where the coat of varnish helps out. This coat, sprayed with my big spray gun, gives an even layer of varnish, which give a smooth and semi-gloss finish. 

The buffer heads and coupling hooks were blackened, by heating them and dipping them in old engine oil. (The same method as used for the other wagons). 

So this final step completes the Klappdeckelwagen (lidded wagon). Ready for the track. 



The photo gallery below will give an impression of the final wagon.



























So this is the final 7¼" wagon.  The coupler chains have still to be made for all three wagons. That's a job for the winter months.
The effective building time was approx. a half year, weight is about 24 kg and total length over the buffers is 81 cm. 


Cleaning the wagon after use the last year (photo 16 Oktober 2023)




Next project

We went this summer to East Anglia (England) to visit the 0-6-0 Great Eastern Railway Y14. It runs on the North Norfolk railway
I could see it in steam and take a lot of photographs. Apart from the steam pump for the T3, this will be the next project. A live steam version of this loco on 5" gauge.