Hello to All:

I have been able to make a little progress on my Ivo Hugh narrow gauge model and have added an engineer and fireman figures, both head and tail lanterns, and completed the blue lining on the locomotive. I am just finishing the throttle and linkage in front of the steam dome and the name and number plates are now on the way here from Narrow Planet. And yes, if you look closely you can see that the trailing truck is there, as was shown in an earlier photo.




As soon as the throttle and the name and number plates are installed I will be posting a few completion photos.

On another note I just received notice that my N-Drive power chassis' are on their way after a 4 month wait so I will be able to finally resume work on the Sir Handel engines for Chaz and myself in addition to the Proteus I am building for my narrow gauge collection.

More to follow soon,
Grandpuff

Hello to All:

I agree with Terrence that Stepney would probably be the most deserving engine from the classic era to be announced for the 75th Anniversary Year 2020. They have said that they plan on honoring the classic era specifically. So my vote is for Stepney The Bluebell Engine which has long been one of my favorites.

Photo 1


If Bachmann is planning any 75th Anniversary announcements for Narrow Gauge I cannot think of a better choice than Duke aka Granpuff. I know it would be a stretch because he is a tender engine, but there is no more fitting classic engine than Duke.

Photo 2



In any event we will all have to be patient and wait until February 2020 to find out.

After having free service dropped by Photobucket, Flickr, and Tiny Pic, I have now moved over to Imageshack which is offering a one year unlimited photo posting for $18.99. Seems to be easy to use so we shall see how this works.

Grandpuff

Hello to All:

I have not been able to post any progress on my Sir Handel and Proteus project because I am still waiting for the powered chassis to arrive from N-Drive in the UK. It has been 3 months so far but I am being told that they are being assembled and should be on their way soon. We shall see how soon.

While I have been waiting for the Sir Handel chassis to get here I have been working on a model of Ivo Hugh. I had ordered a Fleischmann N scale 0-4-0 from Ebay but that loco was lost in the mail and there were no others available on Ebay. So I went to German Ebay and found several for sale there so I purchased two and they just arrived. The photos below show Ivo Hugh from the RWS illustrations for a reference.

Photo 1


The second photo shows the 3D printed body along with the Fleischmann 7000 Piccolo 0-4-0 chassis and the trailing truck assembly that I built.

Photo 2


The third photo shows the chassis and body temporarily assembled for track testing. By the way these Fleischmann locos are very smooth runners and the same chassis I used on my Duke model a few years ago.

Photo 3


All that remains to be done is the blue lining, adding head and tail lamps, engineer and fireman figures, and the name and number plates as soon as they get here from Narrow Planet. I will post a completion photo as soon as my model is finished and let you all know when my Sir Handel chassis arrive.

Enjoy,
Grandpuff

Hello Streak:

I liked the work you are doing on your merchandise designs, very nicely done.

I am including a photo showing the open air green coaches that I did for everyones enjoyment.



Also just to let every one know what else I am working on, present projects are to build Sir Handel models for Chaz and myself and also Proteus for myself. The only holdup has been waiting 3 months for the chassis to arrive from the UK. I am also building an Ivo Hugh model and hope to have some photos soon now that I have at least temporally solved my image sharing problem. Once those are done I will build a Victor model and I think that will complete my Narrow Gauge Locomotive projects.

Enjoy,
Grandpuff

Hello to All:

It has been awhile since I last posted and a lot has happened lately. I am just as excited as everyone else about the surprise Summer Announcements. I have the red carriages on back order with TW. I did not order the Blue Carriages since I have already built the blue and green open carriages. Peter Sam is of course a very welcome announcement too. Hopefully Sir Handel will not be far behind since they have the same wheel arrangement. In a conversation I had recently with Chaz about our Peter Sam and Sir Handel models we have been building, Chaz had a great idea of what to do when Bachmann's models come out. His idea was to re-name our models Stuart and Falcon which is perfect since they are based on the season 4 models. I thought that this was such a great idea that I immediately ordered us some new name plates from Narrow Planet so that we can do just that. Genius idea Chaz.

So a little update on what is happening with our Sir Handel project. I have three 3D printed Sir Handel models that I am using to build a Sir Handel for both Chaz and myself and the third model will be a Proteus for myself. I have the powered chassis ordered from N-Drive in the UK and I hope they get here soon. I really cannot do very much to the models until I see what modifications I need to do to the models so that the chassis will fit. So while waiting for the chassis I have started to do some of the detail work on the models.



As you can see I have added the whistle, steam pop-off valves, steam cylinder drain valves, and cab hand rails which of course will be removed before painting begins. I will post additional photos as is my custom as work progresses.

Enjoy,
Grandpuff

SodorRoundHouse and Thomas Fan:

I have the Red Coaches back ordered on TW and their web site still shows that they are due September 28, 2019.

The Bachmann Catalog photos are also shown on the TW backorder pages for both the red and blue coaches.

So we can only wait and see.

Grandpuff

Hello to All:

The preview photos that Chaz posted are 3D printing that I had done of 3 Sir Handel OO9 models that will be used for a joint project for Chaz and myself to complete our "First Six" plus Duke. After I finish our Sir Handel models I also plan on doing a Proteus model for my Narrow Gauge collection.

It will be a few weeks before I will have any construction progress photos for you all as I must first modify the models to receive the power chassis we plan to use. Once that is done then I can start the loco painting and detailing. We already have most of the parts I will need such as paint, red lining, brass whistles and other details, name and number plates, faces, head and tail lamps, and crew figures.

Thank you for your comments on our projects, we enjoy posting them here to hopefully inspire others to share your projects with the rest of us on this forum.

Thank you all again for your interest.

Grandpuff

Jlk2707:

Go back and take a look at page 18 of this thread. My Smudger model was started by BassTBone and then sold to me to finish. I completed the black and gold lining, added the head and tail lamps, and added the name and number plates to finish the model. While at it you should go back and review all of the previous posts on this thread so that you will be informed of topics that the rest of us have thoroughly discussed weeks, months, or years before thus making it un-necessary for you to re-open these discussions.

Grandpuff

What you really need to do is make your posts relevant or additive to the conversation or do not reply at all.

Thank you,
Grandpuff

SoCalBobS:

To insure that my comments to you are accurate I just went out to my Narrow Gauge Layout and re-checked my track grade measurements which vary slightly between 4 and 5%. My track radius varies between 9 and 11 inches. I first placed Skarloey on the track and observed that he could reliably pull about 5 cars. I then placed Rheneas on the track and observed that he could reliably pull about 4 cars probably due to the fact that Skarloey weighs a little more than Rheneas which results in a little more tractive effort.

I hope this helps you. Please post some layout photos when you are able. We all like to see layout progress photos here.

Grandpuff

Chaz:

Your photos of your growing Narrow Gauge collection are always great to see posted here. I am very glad to have a small part in finishing Duncan and building your Peter Sam too. Now we both need to try to find a suitable Sir Handel model to complete our first six plus Duke of course. I am sure that running your Narrow Gauge collection at your club is a big hit with everyone!

Also thank you to the Bachmann for fixing my posting error earlier, sorry for any confusion it caused.

Grandpuff

Duke:

Some on here may not be aware that there were some different narrow gauge locos if the RWS books are included. Besides the models shown in the collection photo above here are some of the additional narrow gauge locos that I do not intend to model:

Stuart (Peter Sam)
Falcon (Sir Handel)
Bertram (Duke)
Victor (Two Versions)
Stanley  0-4-0T
Ivo Hugh 0-4-2T

Once Sir Handel and Proteus are built I will be satisfied with the dozen or so models that I have finished to complete my narrow gauge collection. I hope you have enjoyed seeing my progress in building all of these models which goes all the way back to page 3 of this thread. And a very big thank you to Chaz for inspiring me with your model of Duke who has always been my favorite Thomas locomotive.

Grandpuff

Hello Again:

I received my Rusty from TW this past Monday and I think it is a great model. It looks fantastic and runs very smoothly. I love the rivet detail and I really do not mind the closed cab considering its small size. I personally think that Rusty does a good job portraying Midlander which after all was a very small loco compared to Skarloey and Rheneas. Here is an updated photo of my Narrow Gauge collection including Rusty.



Shown left to right are Rusty, Freddie, Millie, Luke, empty stall for Sir Handel, Peter Sam, Smudger next to shed, Mighty Mac, Duke, Skarloey, Rheneas, and Duncan. Skarloey and Rheneas are by Bachmann. The rest of my models were built by myself.

I need to figure out how to build Sir Handel next and then Proteus to complete my collection.

Enjoy,
Grandpuff

plint:

I too got fed up with using Photobucket so I switched to www.tinypic.com which works very well with no user fee issues.

Grandpuff

Hello to All:

I see that no one has posted here for a while but here goes anyway. Since I just received my Rusty today I am posting a current photo of my Narrow Gauge Collection.



Shown from left to right are Rusty, Freddie, Millie, Luke, vacant stall waiting for Sir Handel, Peter Sam, Smudger next to the Shed, Mighty Mac, Duke, Skarloey, Rheneas and Duncan. Skarloey and Rheneas are Bachmann and all of the other models were built by myself.

Enjoy,
Grandpuff