Scratchbuilding in Z. A Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 Berkshire

[kevsmiththai]

I have been running this thread on trainboard but thought you might be interested as well. It is a series of videos showing the scratchbuilding of one of the famous Nickel Plate road 2-8-4 Berkshires in Z to run on our 'Cuyahoga' ehibition layout. I need a few of these 'Superpower' beasts and the chances of anybody bringing out a ready to run one in the near future are remote.

 

The Nickel Plate was one of the last users of main line steam in the U.S.A and resisted dieselisation long after most other railroads, Their claim to fame was fast freight traffic across the Mid west particularly perishables and the Berkshires were fantastic at pounding out the miles on fast heavy freight trains

 

 

Part one of the videos shows how I tackled the tapered boiler and firebox and in the videos I show you don't need a lot of machine tools to do a lot of the operations of scratchbuilding in this small scale

 

 

 

part one is at

 

I'll add more in a bit

cheers

KEV

[kevsmiththai]

Part two is more boiler work particulalrly holding and marking out

video is at

 

[urlhttp://youtu.be/0eklu2JCvEU[/url]

 

part three looks at boiler fittings like the chimney dome and sandbox

 

 

and the video is at

 

in part four I explain how it is relatively easy to work in sheet metal like brass and Nickel silver

 

video-

 

[kevsmiththai]

part 5 looks at how we are going to fit the cab and firebox around the donor marklin BR41 chassis

 

 

 

and in part six we look at the running plates and make a start on the four wheel trailing truck

 

 

progress so far

 

The loco is seen attached to one of the big RA22 tenders from one of my H6E 2-8-2s and a modified marklin caboose

 

 

I am taking the layout and the prototype model to a show in Leyland in august and will give it a good test run before proceeding further

 

KEV

[Bernard]

Kev - Wow, talk about doing your research! Impressive project and in "Z scale"!  :icon_thumleft:

[The_Ghan]

Kev,

 

I don't think you guys are really testing yourselves.  You should be assembling this scratch-build model in a bottle !!! 

 

Just kidding!  I think it's a top project.  I'll me reviewing those YouTube videos tonight over a bottle of shiraz.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[kevsmiththai]

Part seven of the Berkshire build.

 

I dug out an ancient Taylor Hobson pantograph engraver that had lain unused at the back of the workshop for a few years since I cut down on the number of gauge 1 and gauge 3 locos I was building. The question was whether it would screw down far enough to cut out Z gauge components

 

 

The video goes into detail of how these things work using a simple plasticard pattern to cut out Nickel Silver or Brass and concenmtrates on batch building the big 12 wheel tenders the Berkshires hauled

 

 

as you can see the bits are starting to mount up in the tray

 

video of part 7 is here at

 

 

The Berkshire had its first test run yesterday mainly to check there was no shorting out and so far so good! We have our 'Cuyahoga' layout at Leyland model railway exhibition in a couple of weeks time and we will see what it will pull

 

I'll keep you posted

KEV

[kevsmiththai]

Things are really starting to come together now as the Leyland show approaches this weekend. The main priorities were to get the front end of the engine on and get the tender rolling. Progress up to now is on part 8 of the build video.

 

Posed on the Cuyahoga turntable the 2-8-4 looks the part but there is obviously a lot of detail still to add

 

 

Video part 8 is here

 

 

The important thing now was to make sure that the loco stayed on the track, didn't short out and would actually pull something and the results can be seen here

 

 

 

I will be shooting some video at the show and I'm hoping the two AZL SD70s I've ordered turn up from the states in time to give them a work out as well, Fingers crossed

 

KEV

[cteno4]

Kevin,

 

superb work! you really have a nice shop there and the talent to use it to boot! will love seeing this project progress!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[keiman]

Rather you than me, excellent work, have built a few Robert Ray wooden kits- spine cars and the caboose.

Also built Zm nickel silver kits but a project of that scale - credit where credit is due.

Next project a Big Boy?