Percy crosses the chasm

That gap. It doesn’t look so dangerous, but once I installed phosphor-bronze wipers to pick up current, the fine wire would find the tiny gap between rail heads and launch poor under-weight Percy into the sky. Sometimes with disastrous effect. Finally, with Percy’s split chassis assembled, and a few sharp corners filed away so they […]

Percy and the Split Axles

We’re coming to the home stretch of Percy’s story. After months of experiments, I have finally landed on a plan for Percy’s wheels that should work more permanently than the plans I had for #622 or #10. It was time to put it to the test, and so, I turned up some tyres, assembled some […]

Learning from Percy

Every month, the North Shore model railroaders get together, lately via Zoom, and share some recent projects. I’ve offered to do a quick presentation on what I’ve learned from Percy. I’ve put it up here should anyone be interested.

Percy and the Driver Test

I’m nearly ready to go ahead with the “final” set of wheels for Percy. These will feature a combination of keys and Loctite to ensure everything goes together in alignment and, more importantly, stays that way. The 3D printer makes test fits unusually easy, and so, I’ve broken from my damn-the-torpedoes tradition, and made a […]

12L14 Tyres

Up until now, I’ve only made tyres out of 316 Stainless Steel, which is supposed to be machinable. While small wheels were not too bad, my little Sherline lathe struggled with the 17.5 mm drivers of #622. So, I asked the local Metal Supermarket to bring in some 1″ 12L14 free-machining steel. They probably sell […]