NS 6200 class

Detailing the NS6200

In June and July 2011 I was in a rush to finish the loco before the summer pause for two reasons. I had already experienced that a summer pause lasts until November - December because there's always so much ado after the summer. Second there is a beautiful box in my room begging "build me, build me". This lovely little bastard calls himself an AD60 Garratt.... Most of the work pictured below was done in a few days in June - July 2011. Despite the rush I didn't finish the 6200 before the summer though and indeed it was not before the very end of December before I took up modelling again.
As discussed in the Parts page there is a lot of detailing to do. Oh boy, fun!!
	First I provided the feed water pump with a support to stand on its own. The prototype seems to have a similar arrangement but I could not get a clear picture of it. The support was made of a scrap brass strip, carefully bent over a milled fold line and tapered on the top to get a snug fit to the boiler. I also drilled the holes to receive the piping.
	The feed water heater is a gem! Again I did some drilling to accommodate the piping. This time the support was included in the kit.
	Space is at a premium and it takes some careful consideration to position the feed water heater and the feed pump. Photos of the prototype are a treasure!!
	On the prototype the lower part of the air pump extended through the foot plate. So prior to mounting on the foot plate the air pump needs to be shortened a little.
	A support was provided for the air pump as well, but I considered it to be very crude and there was sufficient room to attach the pump directly to the foot plate and the boiler.
	The foot steps and head lamps were soldered into place. They were soldered in the back of the buffer beam and then bent forward to mimic the prototype's arrangement.
	Other steps as well. Tedious work, these steps size a few millimeters by even less millimeters.
	Fitting the dome presented a challenge. It was a hollow pressed brass thing without a center pin to position it easily on the boiler. Glueing it directly to the boiler would always be a nuisance. Glue it before painting and there will be a lot of masking to do. Glue it after painting and it will always be a very delicate thing. Bump it and it will tear the paint off. I decided to glue a bolt in the dome which would be used to attach the dome after painting. This would result in a firm fixation without the fuss of masking. It would also allow exact positioning of the dome. First I filed the rim thin and formed it to fit exactly over the boiler's contour.
	I attached the bolt to the boiler with two nuts. The length of the bolt was such that the dome would just fit over it without being lifted from the boiler. I applied a drop of five minute epoxy glue, put the dome over it and let it cure for 24 hours.
	Tada. The dome can now effortlessly be removed by "unnutting" the bolt from the inside.
	On the rear end the steps and raised coal bunker where fitted.
By now the superstructure had progressed to the state pictured below. I also bent all the piping and handrails needed. I did not fit them though. I will fit them after the paint job. I will blacken them chemically as paint has proved very vulnerable on these small parts while building the NGG16. I will also add the buffers and couplings later as they contain moving parts and I do not want to disturb their good working.