A62

Some pictures on this page are pre-digital camera days!

A62; (above) she was built in 1873 by Dubs & Co of Glasgow, The "old" A class was NZR's smallest locomotive to be given a classification. This is the only model I have made that the
proto-type still surrives today in a private museum in Auckland.

Below; 3 pictures of A62 on the Ashburton Forks Railway, she entered service October 2002. .

Building A 62

A62 is built on a Bachmann 0-4-0 side tank Porter chassis, it has under gone major modification to narrow the width of the pistons etc. 

Above Left; The porter chassis has been stripped & modified the crank pins on the wheels have been machined off to get minimal clearance from side rod to wheel. The other major difference is the motor was altered form horizontal to a vertical position. This hides away in the Dubs sand-box quite nicely & allows a clear foot-plate. Above Right; The under-side of the loco with the pistons attached, you might just be able to make out that the piston rods aren't centre to the cylinder block, that is because I ran out of room & this was the only way I could do it & get the cylinders narrow enough to keep the appearance of the loco realistic.

Above Left; Back head detail has been added, alot of the pipe work was used from the porter. Above Right; Smoke-Box door is very English looking. The boiler is plastic pipe with a lead weight inside, being a small loco I had to put weight where ever I could. Funnel & dome were machined out of nylon that was laying around a machine shop where I once worked!!

Above Left; The 2 side tanks are made from 10mm x 18mm steel flat to get the weight, styrene was glued to these to get the wright dimensions & to form the curves at the ends. The water filler lids were turned out of a plastic knitting needle. Above Right; In amoungst the mess of my old workbench the "A" takes shape.

Above 2 Pictures; Everything in place for a dry run before painting, the cowcatchers are very fragile being made from strips of 0.5mm styrene. The painting of the loco was VHT grey primer with VHT gloss black (spray cans) & lined with 1mm wide yellow pin stripping with a Humbrol maroon brushed on.