FfarquharDeveloper's TrackMaster Customs

[FfarquharDeveloper]

2/25/21 Update

Fergus:
Fergus had his front wheel moved forward, and was shortened down to size at the front end, his buffer beam was also moved back and refitted to the chassis with Superglue.

[Super]

Fantastic, I am excited to see this custom Fergus progress. Keep up this great work Ffar.

[DalaGStanator]

Looks like you're already "doing it right" at the moment. How difficult was it to rebuild Emily's chassis to suit him?

I didn't recall you having Wooden Railway as well. Are you using the Wooden Fergus for reference only, or will parts from it be used on the custom? If so, I'd rather the whole smokebox be carrried over and not only the face. I'd also suggest you take a battery truck (with a switch) from an old Talking/RC engine, fit a motor (not drive unit) to Fergus and wire him to it so he could be loco driven. Ideally a grey one with stones like the one from early FP Talking Thomas.

[FfarquharDeveloper]

@laG rebuilding his chassis wasn't hard, it was just annoying as parts had to be fixed in with glue and held in with tape while the glue dried.

Originally I wanted to do that with the battery truck and motor like Emily, but I don't think I'll go through with that idea since I'm building Fergus' main body almost entirely from scratch for him to be more proportionate and in scale with Thomas. Instead, I'll probably get one of those motorized trucks from Plarail or give a regular plank truck a motor to give Fergus some sort of motive power.

[FfarquharDeveloper]

Anyways onto the 2/27/21 Update

Fergus:

Fergus' main chassis was basically completed, quite a bit of cut-away plastic was used to help fill in some of the gaps. Additionally, a bit of it was used to fit the front wheel into place correctly so it would be level with his drive wheel.

Front of Fergus:


Rear of Fergus:
A bit of plastic had to be shaved from what was left of the runningboard to allow for clearance on the rear bufferbeam.


Top of Fergus:


Bottom of Fergus:
A proper way to hold the two pieces in together aswell as that front wheel still needs to be worked out, it'll probably be a long screw that goes through once everything is fitted in correctly.


I also would've worked on the Locomotive Driven Emily today, however I'm gonna push her off for another week or two due to other pressing matters at hand right now.

[Super]

I sure am liking what I am seeing Ffar. Question: with the shortened wheelbase I take it he won't have traction rods or are they going to be modified too?

[FfarquharDeveloper]

He doesn't have them on the prop. His basis has them but I'm basing Fergus off his appearance in the show.

[DalaGStanator]

Blue Circle has coupling rods? I never saw them clearly the whole time, so it must be one of the only steam locos with internal rods.

Unless it's actually a brake, could this be one of them (outlined in yellow)?

[FfarquharDeveloper]

I'm referring to the cylinder on the boiler with a coupling rod connected to a mechanism powering it's flywheel.

[DalaGStanator]

That makes much more sense because other traction engines have it (except it's concealed on Trevor, George, Buster and Fergus). Turns out the part I outlined does move while the loco is running, but only by a few millimeters and not like a coupling rod. Now that I've seen how the actual rod operates, it's more similar to the ones Rocky has to power his arm.