Well, I've had some some success and some gremlins. The gremlins have to do with the gas system. After the first successful run on my RR I took the Bogie to Don Beach's steam-up in Colorado for show and tell. The burner would not stay lit very well and I only managed to make one circuit around Don's layout and that was with several stops to build steam. I though it might be the altitude, 9000+ ft., but the problem persisted when I got back home. After some fiddling including blowing out the jet and adding a sleeve to the air intake it seemed to be doing better but today I tried to run outside and had the same problem. So I tore down the entire system and blew out the jet, fuel lines and valve. I disassembled the valve and the removed the fill valve, rinsed it out with alcohol and put it all back together. It now seems to be burning well on the bench but I have not had it back on the track.

The successes.I now have built the smoke-box door and the smoke stack. They are not as perfect as I would like but I think with a little epoxy filler and paint they will be OK. Here are some pictures.

Smoke-box door in layers


Smoke-box door completed (there are two spring tabs on the back to hold it into the front of the smoke-box) I decided not to make an operating door.


Smoke stack parts (the long center piece is my attempt to replicate the very successful chuff amplifier I built for the C16)



The stack and smoke-box door installed

Looking into the top of the stack (the tabs visible around the inside are to hold the removable top in place. Being a steamer I figured that it would be good to be able to clean it out once in a while!)

Yesterday I ran the MB outside. The burner now is working well, only a couple of flame-outs before it got heated up. The tiny boiler has a hard time keeping up. Once everything is warmed up it does OK but before that it spits out copious amounts of water. I made one circuit of my layout and the water level was almost down to the flue top. There only seems to be about 100 CC of usable water. Looks like I will be doing a lot of filling or install an automatic water pump. The stack talk is pretty good but not as good as I had hoped. I'm glad to have the valve that puts the initial condensate out under the cylinders otherwise the stack would be full of water! The domes are now built. Here are some pics.

Dome parts


Domes assembled The outer ring will be soldered to the boiler wrapper then the skirt on the dome will slip inside thus making the domes easily removable for servicing.


The domes in place but not yet soldered

I seem to be going mighty slow. Been attending several steam-ups including one on my own Zia & Columbine RR, volunteering at events on the D&SNGRR and took my wife for a ride on the Silver Vista with an over night say in Silverton for her birthday the end of September. The color was spectacular!! I have gotten a few more pieces done.

Air compressor parts


Compressor assembled


A back top view of the compressor The little 'bolts' around the top cover are 1/32nd rods inserted into holes drilled around the top.

Smoke box saddle and blast pipe support


Head light support


I'm trying to get all the bits and pieces that attach to the boiler so I can finish that part of this project. This shows the rear bulkhead of the wagontop.


The wagontop installed


The boiler wrapper with wagontop and dome bases attached


The domes are a slip fit into the bases allowing easy removal for servicing. The sand dome top is removable to give access to the Goodall valve. (The existing filler plug has been turned down in diameter and will be converted into a Goodall valve.) The sand dome had to be placed about 1/10th of an inch closer to the steam dome than prototypical because of the placement of fittings on the Roundhouse boiler.

I'm making a little more progress, now have finished the firebox. A lot of little pieces to deal with. I pined a number of the larger pieces together so they would not fall apart during soldering.

Here is an overall view of the firebox and braces


The inside of the firebox showing the mounting to the foot plate


Two views of the fireman's side




The engineer's side


I'm still working on all the pieces that attach to the boiler wrapper. I was not happy with the boiler jacket, it was not very straight and the domes were off center a bit. This became very obvious when I mounted the bell rig. So I made a new one which came out much better.

New jacket


Here are a couple of shots with the new jacket, the tender with cladding and a cab side. It is finally starting to look like something!!!



I need to finish the cab so I can make sure everything is located properly.

OK everybody, here is the headlight. The top is made of layers of brass similar to what Fletch shows on the drawings. Some sanding on the edges of the various layers before soldering and a lot of filing after and the shape came out pretty good. There are a few minor imperfections that I had to fill with epoxy and it needs some polishing before painting. The four sides were made in one piece and bent to shape. The base is three layers, two that show and an inner layer that gives something to solder the sides to. The top is a slight press fit so that it can be removed. The reflector is made from a stainless steel measuring spoon. I destroyed 4 drill bits making the hole for the light!!! Wow that was that stuff hard.

This first photo shows the layers of perf board used for the light assembly. I used a yellow LED p/n 276-350 from Radio Shack, a CR2016 button cell p/n 23-160 ans a 1/4 W 100 ohm resistor. The second layer shows the back of the LED, the resistor and a brass strip that makes contact from the negative lead of the LED to the headlight housing. The fourth layer has a brass plate that is connected to the resistor and contacts the positive side of the battery. The fifth layer has a hole in the center that contains the battery. The sixth layer has a small hole for the control screw to go through.


This shows all the layers stacked up. The brass tabs on the sides make contact with the headlight housing.


The light assembly installed in the housing.


The top in place and the light turned on. A screw in the back of the housing screws in to contact the -(minus) side of the button cell and turn the light, out to turn it off.


The headlight installed.


This general setup was described in Steam in the garden. I have also used it on my C16 and it works very well.
Here is the back-head so far. I may add some more detail after I figure out the the reverse and throttle linkages and servo hookup. After getting this far I realized that the fire box door should be oval, not round, but since this is just a cosmetic thing and can't be very accurate anyway I decided to leave it as is. I may add some brake control details if they won't get in the way of operating parts. I'm not sure what the two looped pipes on top of the boiler are for, injector plumbing? I may add them also.







The small hole at the top is where the throttle shaft will exit. I made the fire box door operable to make sure that the burner would get enough air.


The cab is now painted and I hope to start assembling that this week. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL.