Garden Railway Forum

I built a little Decauville over the winter, with a resin printed boiler and cylinders, and nickel silver tanks, cab and chassis. Its radio controlled with my own 'steam' unit.



The driver also has a servo fitted for head movement



I confess that it has been the most difficult loco I've built to date!

Giles wrote: ↑Tue May 06, 2025 7:13 pm I confess that it has been the most difficult loco I've built to date!

Given the level of detail, I am not surprised. Even the water gauge is a thing of beauty!!

Rik

Giles wrote: ↑Tue May 06, 2025 7:13 pm I built a little Decauville over the winter...

I confess that it has been the most difficult loco I've built to date!

Looks like you got the hang of it now!
What an absolute beauty.

Superb.
Can we see a video please?

That looks stunning, what a great model.

Incredible!
The level and crispness of the detail is superb.
Grant.

I am speechless!
Thank you.

BTW, how do you do the smoke effect?

Absolutely amazing!

WOW!!!!!
Everything looks perfect.
The mister is really convincing. Be interested to hear if you do manage to get eight hours running from the two 1500mAh cells.

Rik

Wow has already been said but another Wow it has to be,

Phil

That's simply perfect. (nothing simple about getting there )

How did you get that sight glass to the correct level?

The smoke effect is a cheap mister unit off ebay, running via a 4-magnet disc on the leading axle to give the chuffs. Being radio controlled, and 1S, the nominal 4.2V is good for the mister unit. There is a water tank in the smoke box/front end of the boiler, and the mister unit is mounted on top of that, with the wick dropped through.

The water gauge is a solid block of polished perspex, drilled right through giving the actual tube, and then a shorter length of nickel silver rod inserted in the lower end to represent the water, as it so often appears silvery in a gauge glass.

Tattoo backhead shown below

That is a beautiful piece of work, Giles.

The boiler unit with fittings was drawn up in Designspark Mechanical



And printed on my Mars 2 Pro





Tanks, footplate and cab were fabricated in nickel silver.



Chassis is brass

That black finish on the boiler looks so realistic.

Rik

I must have another look at Design Spark Mechanical. I've played with it a couple of times but went back to my trusty old SketchUp because I couldn't be bothered with the learning curve. SU is showing its age now so perhaps it's time to move on if DSM can produce work of this quality.

Which slicer do you use?

The slicer was Chitubox, but I work at 10micron layer height, which makes for very long print times, but very good print quality.

Thanks Giles. I've always stuck to the 'standard' 50micron, maybe I'll have to do some experimenting.