MDC 3tr Shay

Various details of the superstructure

January 22, 2006

Things were now rapidly coming to an end. And though patience was still the one most important factor to complete the superstructure no major obstacles lay ahead.

The air tank and its pipes.

I swapped the air tank with the toolbox (not visible here) . It makes the air tank more prominent and it is far more interesting and attractive than the toolbox. It makes the front view of the Shay more powerful and more in balance.

The bell and whistle cords are made of one single strand of electric wire.

It's less than 0,1 mm in diameter. I simply glued them with ACC after making a tiny twirl. Unfortunately I confused both cords and they are going the wrong way. The whistle cord should go to the roof and the bell cord to the cab front. Because the bell is now located the wrong way I have no other option but to leave it like that.

A tad too short

Better!

One unexpected problem arose when the water siphon proved to be too short. The water column wouldn't sway over the fuel bunker. I corrected the problem by adding a piece of scrap plastic sprue to the water column. Some sanding is still needed but I'll fix that just before painting the model

Part of the fun of detailing Shays is that you can let you imagination do its work.

I stumbled over a bag of gear on a fair and a few hours later the tender was littered with stuff. The cable was made three strands of electrical wire.

Finally you'll need to install two couplers.

Beautiful pieces of ingenuity, far better the European every-for-his-own lump couplers