Earlier this month I got the piston rods for the Fairlie made, and then fitted and finish turned the pistons. I also turned up the piston rod glands. I have now fitted one of the cylinders to the frames. I have also part machined the valves. So that project is coming along quite nicely.
I took Zebedee to the 7.25" gauge AGM at Woking last Wednesday. I chose the first day of running so that it would be less hectic that I remember them to be from my youth - but I didn't expect to have the track to myself!!! The sun shone, the people were lovely, and Zebedee (of course) was the star of the show. The signalman told me afterwards that she had covered over 15 miles between 13:00 and 17:00 - much more than she could have done in the same time at Swanley but then Woking is a circuit, so you save the turnround time. Zebedee leaves for Inverness next weekend, and I'm now confident that she's well run in and all the gremlins are out of her system.
I must get on with Marc's tink so that I have an excuse to go back to Woking - they were amazed by how good a real locomotive is (as opposed to a model). 'Responsive' 'Comfortable' 'Easy to drive' were just some of the comments I got - I just find it amazing the number of people that haven't experienced a real locomotive!!
Real work is currently getting in the way of serious locomotive building at the moment, but I found some time the week before last to bore out 2 sets of tinkerbell coupling rods. As well as Marc's, a chap from East Anglia has asked me to build him a very basic rolling chassis, so when I can easily do so I'm going to make parts for Zebedee's brother as well.
