Toby in the Workshop 8

Toby has now been fitted with battery pack and radio control. The boiler has been temporarily fitted and new handrails have been fabricated.

The final jobs are to fit the smoke generator, the sound card and speakers. There's no room left inside for a 2 inch speaker so I'm waiting for a couple of small laptop speakers to arrive from eBay.

Hopefully Toby's transformation should be completed sometime next week.

Thomas the Tank Engine and His Friends Discuss G Scale

Thomas and his friends on the Sandwell Valley Railway discuss if they are good for promoting G Scale, or if people seeing them conclude that G Scale is simply all about toys.

Toby in the Workshop 7

Toby's cab sides and windows have now been tidied up and the paint touched up.

The windows have been glued in place.

Toby's boiler can be glimpsed through the cab door.

Toby undressed. The funnel extension from the smoke box lines up with the funnel on the cab roof.  The wires from the smoke unit will pass down the funnel.

The lower half of the boiler is boxed in to leave room for the battery pack and electronics to be installed.

Toby's eye operating mechanism has been painted matt black. This will not be boxed in. Hopefully it won't be noticed behind his driver.

Toby in the Workshop 6

Top to Bottom: Boiler, rear cab back, front cab back.

Work on Toby has stalled lately. I've still got to tidy up and paint the cab and window openings.
Meanwhile I've fabricated backs for both cabs and started work on the boiler.
The cut out in the front cab back is for the Toby's eye mechanism.
The boiler is being made from 38mm plastic waste pipe. The smoke box and firebox have been made from a No More Nails container.
Toby can't have a complete boiler because of the location of the motor and gearbox. Also enough room is having to be left to add the battery pack, sound and R/C components.

Toby in the Workshop 5

Toby's windows have now been made and his cab floors painted.

Toby with glazing temporarily in place.

Toby in the Workshop 4

Floors have been made for both cabs, so now Toby's driver and fireman have somewhere to stand.

Toby in the Workshop 3

All opening have now been cut out, including the side windows. The red circle which can be seen through the left hand cab window is the bottom of the smoke unit.

A slightly different view of Toby. The smoke unit and motor block can be seen more clearly in this photograph.

A view showing the smoke unit in place.

Toby is based on a LNER class J70. A lot of information about J70s can be found at http://www.lner.info/locos/J/j70.shtml

This is what a J70 looked like with the body removed.

A side view of a J70 with the skirts removed.