Boston & Maine B15 2-6-0 Scratchbuild

[garethashenden]

I've been wanting to do this for a while, and planning since at least March. Well, yesterday I finally started. I'm working to FS160 standards with a lot of components from the 2mm Association. Here's what I've done so far.

I started with the locomotive chassis.
Two pieces of nickel silver to be sweated together.


I marked out the locations of the axles, and with the connecting rods soldered on top I drilled everything through with a 0.5mm drill. After that I unsoldered the rods and enlarged the holes in the chassis up to 2.5mm. Unfortunately, the front axle is a little bit further forward that it should be. Luckily the rods and the frames match, so it will still work. You can see the discrepancy when the scale drawing was glued to the frames:


After a few minutes with the piecing saw, the frames are starting to take shape.



A hot iron and scalpel soon separated the two frames from each other. Next the phosphor bronze bushings were soldered into place, six for the wheels and two for the gearing.


Here are the frames with the wheels temporarily in place.


Next, the frames were soldered together with PCB spacers.



And balancing on the wheels.



Not bad for a days work.

[Lemosteam]

@garethashenden Looking forward to much more if this!  Proto photo?

[Chris333]

How far off is the B&M loco from the Model Power 2-6-0?

I really wish I could pull this off. Does the 2mm association sell everything needed?  Like valve gear and cylinders?

Also what thickness are the frame plates?

[garethashenden]

@garethashenden Looking forward to much more if this!  Proto photo?

[R L Smith]

Oustanding!! I'm looking forward to following your progress. The B-15 was a long-lived class of locos on the B&M.

I hope your writing things down in addition to your photos; I would love to see a multi-part series in one of the magazines one day!

Ron

[garethashenden]

How far off is the B&M loco from the Model Power 2-6-0?

I really wish I could pull this off. Does the 2mm association sell everything needed?  Like valve gear and cylinders?

The MP B&M 2-6-0 is fairly close actually. I have a problem, however, with modifying locomotives. I'm not good at finishing projects in a timely manner, and the thought of spending $100+ on a locomotive to then cut up kinda turns me off. Nothing against the people who do it, it's just not for me.

One advantage of this prototype is that the valve gear is inside the frames and I'm going to leave it out. All I'll have to do it the cylinders and crossheads. "All" 

[Chris333]

By "valve gear" I meant main rods, drive rods, crossheads, crosshead slides.

[mu26aeh]

I'm not much for steam but all I can say is WOW     

[garethashenden]

By "valve gear" I meant main rods, drive rods, crossheads, crosshead slides.

In that case, no they don't. There's an etch of assorted connecting rods, but none of them are the appropriate length for this project.

[badlandnp]

Looks great! Where did the drivers and axles come from?

[peteski]

Not bad for a days work.

Not at all!  Very nice beginning!

[garethashenden]

Looks great! Where did the drivers and axles come from?

The wheels have integral half axles and are from the 2mm Scale Association.

[Cajonpassfan]

  Sweet!

Otto

[nkalanaga]

Far beyond me, but that's scratchbuilding, the way it used to be.  MR and RMC used to run articles on building locos exactly this way decades ago, mostly before N scale had been heard of.  Wonder what some of those modelers would think if they could see this?

[Iain]

Nice!

How thick are the frame halves, and are the frames electrically isolated from each other?