I have not seen a video this good in a very long time.
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I agree , excellent video of making — hand building a brass train engine in Japan .
I would love to hang out in that shop and just learn the methods. I have a huge interest in learning how to build brass steamers from scratch but it looks like he has a lot of equipment that I just couldn't justify having around for how often I would use it.
Individually made leaf springs-amazing. I agree I would love to spend some time in his shop.
The video only shows about ten percent of what is involved. How did he make all the detail castings, spoke wheels??? Truly a master here.
Pete
Simply beautiful!
Dan Weinhold
Very interesting. I believe that model is a European locomotive. At first glance I did think of a Hudson, but when he popped it over the smoke box door looks like one of the French engines from the Big Book of Trains I have. If I remember correctly, the actual prototype is a mid green color, sort of darker than an apple, or comparable to the green engines of Thomas fame.
This is a daunting task that I have only enjoyed as a reader, not as a modeler. My hat is off to those with machinist skills.
I remember reading Gordon Odegard's excellent 8-part series in Model Railroader Oct 1982 to Nov 1983 on scratch building a USRA Mikado in brass.
A quick search revealed other brass loco scratch building articles in the hobby press. Model Railroader ran a series by Stephen Anderson on building an HO brass locomotive from October 1997 to May 1998. (back issues available on eBay, also was available as a pdf download). Bob Turner wrote a series on crafting a Hudson locomotive in brass in O Scale News from April1996 to Feb 1998. Bob Walker did a 4-part series How I Scratchbuilt my first Steam Locomotive Oct 1980 to Jan 1981.
Here are some other references and links on the topic.
Bob
Bob Turner has written many articles on scratch building from an 0-6-0 in OGR to Pacifics, Hudsons, to a cab forward in OSN or OST. They are all very well written.