Building in Brass

[vw-bug]

I'm really getting into the idea of building my own loco's from scratch. But of coarse, know nothing about it. I'm not even sure if people still do this anymore. I do, however, know quite a bite about metal smithing and jewelry making. I have some of the basic tools: Jeweler's saw, pliers, files, solders and a small torch. But I have never see anyone build their own Loco and I don't really have any books on it either.

Can someone help get me pointed in the right direction?

What Tools should I be saving my pennies?

Where can I find good books or sites on the subject?

What techniques are necessary?

For those who have done one, what can I expect the first time out?
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[Jetrock]

There is a series of back issues of MR that discussed building locomotives in brass. Techniques involved would be soldering, working in brass, and probably a masochistic streak...

[IRONROOSTER]

The September, October, December 1968 issues of MR had a series on it. You can probably find some copies at a train show. There used to be some brass kits produced years ago, don't know if you can scare up one of these or not. If you haven't done so, you might want to start with one of the locomotive kits available today from Bowser or MDC. They aren't brass, but they will give you some idea of what is involved in terms of pieces and assembly sequence.
Good luck
Paul

[Anonymous]

I presume that you are wanting to scratch build steam locos.

I would question the usefulness of building the bowser or MDC kits if you actually want to sctratchbuild. They are diecast metal and screw together so are completely different in the construction techniques required.

If you are building in brass then you generally start with flat sheets of material and form these into three dimesional shapes. I have always felt this is one of the more difficult processes and the die cast kits are of no help here. In addition the chassis is a pain to get right if it is not etched or drilled to allow locating pins to be inserted while the frame spacers are put in. The die cast kits have one piece chassises which are very easy to put together but do not provide any experience that can be used in scratch building.

Tools that I find useful are;
an electric fret saw ( not hugely expensive if you consider how long it takes to cut brass with a hacksaw! ).
a temperature controlled soldering iron. This is expensive when compared to a normal one however I like to use different melting point solders (start with the hot ones and use progressively cooler ones as subassemblies are put together to avoid melting earlier work) and this is of little help without a controllable soldering iron.

There are a number of books printed here in the UK on how to scratchbuild steam locos. These include a good one by Iain Rice (you know, him) on building compensated locomotive chassises.

you might want to consider building one of the more advanced etched brass loco kits before jumping in but they are usually british outline s ounlikely to be of as much interest to you.

Hope that all helps.
Neil

[AltonFan]

During the 1950s, there were several series of articles by Mel Thornburgh, who used only very basic hand tools to build brass engines. Then there was a series in Model Railroader by the late, great Gordon Odegard, I want to say, in various issues from 1983-1986. Railroad Model Craftsman had a three-part series on building a brass loco in HOn3, sometime in the 1980s. I seem to recall an article from the 1960s in Model Railroader, in which the fabrication of steam locomotive drivers was discussed. (A lathe was required for this project.)

Now I have always wondered why Kalmbach never took the Odegard series, and collected the articles into a book, perhaps with the article about making drive wheels, and a few other articles Model Railroader published on metalworking and locomotive construction. It would be nice to have all this information in one place for those interested in scratchbuilding brass locomotives.

[nfmisso]

You may also want to join "brasslocobuilders" on Yahoo! groups.

There was a series in the 1990's in MR on building a 4-6-0.

Mainline Modeler has had several articles on this.

Check out dhj kits: http://www.djhmodelloco.co.uk/acatalog/index.html
some are brass, others cast.

[Anonymous]

If I remember correctly Model Railroader ran a series on scratcbuilding Stem locos from July 1997 trhough February 1998. I might be wrong on the start and end issiues. but the range definatly includes several issiues in which that series was ran and you can then adjust accordingly.

[vw-bug]

Hey everyone thanks for the help I really appreciate it. I have access to a hugh MR library so it of and digging now.
Thanks again