[modeleng] Now Ga1 was 3½ versus 5
- From: Harry Wade <hww@xxxxxxxx>
- To: modeleng@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 04 Oct 2005 10:19:44 -0500
At 02:34 PM 10/4/05 +0100, you wrote:
>On the other hand, the big stuff doesn't come cheap. There are the
>machined parts for a 7=BD Romulus for sale in our club at =A32100.
Jem,
This is unfortunate but highly specialized technology, even 200 year
old technology, isn't coming cheaply any more. I am surprised at the raw
cost of the Romulus castings but then I haven't bought castings in a long
while.
When I was a kid I used to see an occasional piece in my father's
D.I.Y. magazine about various old coots, usually out in Califiornia, who
built "real working model steam locomotives" and as often as not there was
some statement to the effect that it cost "$25,000 in materials alone" and
one I recall was even higher, and this in 1950's dollars. Now I recognize
these were inflated claims, because I still hear the same claims today.
My first locomotive attempt, a Little Engines 4-4-0 (7.5"ga), begun
around 1967, remains unfinished for various reasons, although all major
components are complete. Although eventually I had a mentor and occasional
use of machine tools, I had no machine tools of my own for years after I
began it and acquired those bit at a time along the way, But even so I
don't think I invested more than about $600, $100 of which at the time was
the price of my first lathe. But then once upon a time a new Myford could
be had for 69UKP!
I'm keeping an accounting of both the time and the material costs of
the 7.5"ga TICH I have under construction and I'll be very surprised if I
have more than $1k in it at the end. The time investment is another matter.=
=20
It should go without saying that many things affect the investment
one must lay out in order to have or build a larger scale loco, but mostly
it's a function of your available tools/machines and the availability of
material resources. If you have sufficient tooling, and sympathetic (or at
least not antagonistic) local materials sources, and a bit of skip-diver in
you, it can be made a great deal less expensive than if you don't.
I was unable to find a picture posting of the Scottie but I'll keep
looking.
Regards,
Harry
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