Return to Decauville

[Gandalf]

Now that Esmeralda and her matching wagon have been completed thoughts have returned to Paul Decauville. Now the crossheads are virtually finished, slidebars attached to the cylinders and the new and more correct smokebox saddle made from two door handles and a letterbox resulting in a lot of brass chips scattered over the workshop floor. That is not a problem since I have a vacuum cleaner handy but these chips get in your socks and things then start to get very uncomfortable. Next I think I'll mount the funnel on a spigot and machine the base to fit the boiler rather than bore a big hole accurately so the funnel stands upright and not point to other parts of the solar sysatem rather than straight up.
Valve gear is the next major construction job involving curved slides and matching bars not to mention the other bits that swing in the breeze (or clouds of steam from leaky glands). Hopefully the garden will be soon be covered in a yellow haze from the steam coal saved for the last 20 years for keeping the midges away.
John.