'T2' takes shape

I'm busy in the workshop at the moment working on a new 'Gauge 0' locomotive. Actually it has been 'on the go' a couple of years- if you get focused on writing theses then other stuff has to take a back seat. But now I'm having a determined drive to finish this in the next couple of weeks, I just have to wait for some gears to arrive from England and also find some brass wire to use for hand rails which will probably mean a trip into Chiba. I want it finished because if possible I want a second model completed too before I head back to England in the Spring.

The original design - a North Eastern Railway 0-8-0 'T2' chugged around the Durham coalfields for sixty years hauling heavy train loads of coal. Working in this scale of 1:43 is a real pleasure - it is big and 'chunky' enough to result in fine results without ending up with too much 'watch making' and fiddling with miniature parts.

Making things in metal is just so much fun. I enjoy most creative forms - thinking, writing and making music - but to craft something in metal is quite a different kind of creativity. Things don't make themselves, you have to intuitively sense how to heat to apply to solder things together, how much to file or machine away to give just the right amount of freedom of movement. Often in assembly you need to make compromises between 'squareness' and creating a strong joint. There is always a stage when flux has run too far, something has warped a bit with heat and you need to recover a 'balance' in the work.

None of this knowledge comes from books - you can only learn by doing and making mistakes. And you need to understand the materials - what do brass and steel do.

This kind of physical creativity is just so different, you put yourself into it in a quite different way.

Nice messy bench in the shed eh? This is my way of working - once you start on a job be careful never to put anything away until you have finished or you will never know where to find it!