Build Yourself a Steam Locomotive 

Imagine getting bent out of shape because someone did something that pleases themselves. It's your channel. Post whatever you want. It's up to me whether I watch it or not.

“Despite appearances I’m not a train spotter” brilliant!

This is your channel, and I love watching it. Do not ever! let other people intimidate you or dictate what you put on it! Please do not ever let some mealy mouthed person dictate what they 'expect' to see. These people are totally free to make their own channel with their own content. Please keep doing what you wish to do. thanks for allowing me to learn from you. (Great to see your Irish video). Thank you.

The first time i ever visited my local model engineering society they had a committee member who was there to point new members in the right direction - he asked what my interests were etc. and introduced me to a few people with similar interests. I don't know if this is common with other clubs but ours is a relatively large club of 200+ members so being pointed the right direction was a big help to me. That first day, two people in particular gave me advice and within the first couple of hours i had my first drive of a miniature loco. The advice given was pretty much the same from both members - 1. Build something you WANT to build, not what others tell you to build. 2. For a first loco, just build it to work - don't get obsessed by perfection. Perfection is great if you achieve it but it isn't the be all and end all. 3. If you wan't a recommendation as to a perfect beginners loco, build a Sweet Pea. There advice for me was perfect and five years later i had my first run with a loco i had built - the level of satisfaction, pride and enjoyment was immense! If i was asked the same question today (over 20 years after that first visit) my advice would be the same, with 1 added extra - enjoy this amazing hobby.

I have to admit Crispin, watching you build your locomotive gave me some inspiration to accept the challenge of my steam engine build. That was something I never attempted. I look forward to seeing this project progress. Stay well.

3:50 - 4:19 The reason I am here to learn from this hilarious, concise, skilled, handsome young man. Never will build a loco. Learn so much small shop machining when I'm here. Thank you, Mr Crispin.

Mr. Crispin, you are not just a meticulous engineer and machinist, but really very good at talking about it, unscripted, and keeping it flowing well. As an occasional teacher and public speaker I am in awe of your fluency and ability to keep my interest! Thank you for slowing down your build substantially in order to share it all with us!

Hi Crispin, well thought out content and well presented, hopefully this may save at least a few rushing in and regretting not doing due diligence, only to get disillusioned shortly afterwards. Looking forward to the Harrison rebuild. Your channel, post what you want, everyone who has the ability to click play, also has the ability to click stop one would assume! Cheers, Jon

Impressive slug balancing skills.

I wouldn't mind some varied subject matter. I find it enjoyable to personalize content creators. Thank you sir.

I thoroughly enjoyed this video Mr Crispin. As always, your humour is priceless.

Sir, you are a wonderful anachronism, a 1935 company instructional film is where I think you hail from. Lovely delivery Mr Crispin, most enjoyable - thank you for sharing.

The video is an excellent one to watch for anyone considering building a model loco. It is very informative to give you plenty of points to consider. well worth watching. could save a lot of disappointment.

I came here years ago for the engine build and I have loved watching every episode. That’s not to say I’ve watched them all just yet, but I will 👍👍😎👍👍. Your energy and unwavering enthusiasm is quite infectious, and I come to binge watch and catch up when I’m in desperate need for inspiration. Mr Crispin, you always deliver. Thank you 🙏

It’s your channel! You post whatever you like, we are all lucky to get your valuable time when you do your engineering videos 😊

Most are grateful that you and taking the time to share you knowledge your skills and your dreams with all of us…if people don’t like the video then they can just skip over it…you wanting to share trips and adventures is In my eyes part of the journey and I think it’s awesome that you would want share with us…all in all it’s your Channel do and share what makes you happy…thanks again for taking your time to make great videos ❤️

Great videos Mr Crispin. Your machining methods take me back to when I was a precision engineer before CNC. Manual machining has almost disappeared from the manufacturing industry but great to see it has been kept alive by model engineering.

Great content here MrC. Post what you like most of us will watch it anyway. You are wiser than your years and its refreshing to see a "young 'un" speak in such a good manner. well done.

Nice 'stache, Mr. Crispin! It amplifies the wisdom you say :) Always great to hear from you, even not something machining related. Thank you! Phil.

How I love your sense of humor! You start with a spiel about all vids needing a machine tool (capitalized even) and then proceed to talk with the only tool being a cutter grinder(?) Over your shoulder. Love it baby, keep em coming. Your vids are a wonderful coffee and smoke break from an otherwise monotonous day hanging upside down in the bilge of a boat.

Well done Mr. Crispin thanking for sharing you have answered my questions I asked earlier of you.

As usual, well thought out video with plenty of good information. Thank you.

I’ll watch any videos you put out man. Your personality is worth the watch no matter the content. Cheers

👍 I appreciate your channel and find your communication and filming to be superb. As a full time machinist myself of 30+ years, I enjoy the endless learning and growth to better myself in this trade. Thank you for sharing what you do. You have a lot to offer. Keep doing you, and the hell with anyone who complains.

Very well thought-out and presented! Lots of options here and motivations. Thanks for the great advice!

All good things to be considered :) I have a small chinese lathe and milling machine, and I'm building a Juliet II after building a Stuart s50. The tooling alone if you don't have any must be considered cost wise.

I would never build a loco my self, but always interesting to learn what makes other peoples projects tick. Thanks for sharing. And welcome to the proud world of beards.

Thank you for your explanation. This has helped me to understand exactly why you chose to build Martin Evans 'Springbok' over many other more accurate designs. Looking forward to more progress on the build.

I enjoy watching your videos as a sort of "busman's holiday". Having been a machinist/tool maker for 46 years, I am still fascinated by how others approach simular problems that I have encountered. Your knack for thoroughly explaining what and why you do what you do is amazing (not to mention your wicked sense of humor) and surely a boon to those trying to undertake the daunting task of building a model such as the one you are making. As far as I'm concerned, post any video you see fit and ignore the nay-sayers. Nice start on the cookie duster 😉

so great seeing you on U Tube...cheers from the States, Paul

An excellent thought provoking talk. Great points raised that are seldom thought of.

What a very well produced video. I had no idea of the time scale for these engines. Thanks.

Hi Mr Crispin I enjoyed your video in Ireland nice to see some country side. Thanks for showing

Oh my. What a ‘stash. Great to see a video up.

Have seen steam models running at a local steammuseum, but never knew how mutch work and skill wend in to them. Good luck and keep enjoying the build.

Thanks for filming it!!!

your workshop is a credit,some great advice on the size of a project.

Hello Mr Crispin, for my first locomotive build I decided on a 7.25” gauge ‘Tinkerbell’ and it’s huge, I’ve had to do a lot of clearing out at my workshop to build it. I fully understand the filming part adding time on, as I’m doing exactly the same, filming it’s construction has drastically slowed the build down. Keep up the good work, I maybe able to learn a thing or two on machining!! 👍

Interesting vid as usual Mr Crispin, thanks for sharing,

i have just walked into my room with a cup of tea and some biccys, switched the computor on to find that you have posted. result....

Thanks for sharing! You brought up a lot of good points. I was just thinking that very soon you're going to have to build a lift table because you're not to far from starting to assemble the lower end.

I dont mind a different theme now and again. That tree planting looked hard work good video

Great stuff as always.

Very well explained video and yes the filming will double the time to make parts but I’m sure everyone appreciates it. I don’t mind you showing videos of a different topic, I’ll still find it interesting. Thanks for sharing this video.

Totally agree regarding lathe and milling machine. I started off making my LBSC Tich with a vertical slide and it was so frustrating, getting a small mill has been a game changer. Like you Im interested in building a loco for the engineering side of things rather than running which is why ive gone for a small tank engine subject

Excellent advice and insight.

Spot on mr crispin , curly Lawrence. Used the pen name l.b.s.c. In model engineer magazine he often used to write you can’t scale nature ,you just gave a brilliant lecture on building a loco do s and don’t s thanks

Very informative video and should be mandatory viewing for every model engineer before starting a project. I am building a 7 1/4" Dart 0-4-2 originally designed by Martin Evans, it transpires there are 13 errors in his original drawings from parts out of the scale position to the brake controls running through the ashpan. I have heard Martin Evans referred to as Martin Errors. As you say, filming a project takes up a lot of time and in a week you might spend 5 days building and two days editting and posting the video, apart from the time setting up the camera, starting and storring filming in between machining parts. Steve

I the software development world the time estimate model goes like this. Develop your best estimate, then double the quantity and increment the units. Think it will take 6 week? Then it will actually take 12 months. 2 months? Yup, that's 4 years. With luck your time estimates are better grounded. Thank you for a well laid out thought process.

I love a non matching video. Thanks for your work

Often, a "one hour long" project will take three times longer than you thought it should + 20 minutes. So, a two year long train building project will take at least 6 years + 20 days....

Very informative, thanks for posting

Juliet and Conway are 2 nice engines to make. Worked on Juliet whilst I was at school in the 1960's. I built in 1985 a 3.5 inch Canadian Switcher called Caribou, runs nice, pulls well. Park Rides on a Sunday afternoon. My workmate saw me building Caribou and decided to make a Conway. He did not finish it, the last I heard was that he gave it away to a Nephew who was starting an engineering apprenticeship. If he is still alive he must be almost 90 now.

Hi Cris, as you know I'm building a Clayton Steam Wagon. I chose that because: I didn't want to be tied to a track, has a relatively simple to build vertical boiler, fits the available space, has features that I am familiar with on full size road vehicles such as steering gear and differential. But I guess like you its the journey rather than the finished model that interests me the most. I have a Simplex and its a good loco but haven't used in 3 years, having said that lockdown has got in the way for most of that. Look forward to more videos.

Well said. I have friend building a 7 1/4" Berkshire and it will weigh 2500 pounds. He has over 10 years in the construction and he will never see the completed locomotive in his lifetime. If it is completed it will be one the most accurate models ever built. thanks for sharing.

Mr crispin,you are curiously entertaining to watch,I would quite happily listen to you read the phone book to me. 👌 your style brings to mind another eccentric English garden shed genius,Allen Millyard.. I highly recommend him to anyone watching this channel.

Good overview and advice. I was attracted to the hobby for the same reason as you, that is the “engineering/building “ side of the hobby. To add to your comments, if you can find a mentor to guide you as you build your project, you will be very fortunate!

I enjoyed your visit to your parents farm. Nice to see some tree planting. Your, comments on a suitable modern home machine shop, I found to be especially interesting. Yes, I can see your line of thinking. Take myself, I learnt to turn as a young boy, in the 1950s, on a 1912 Drummond treadle lathe. Very different to today. I have come back to ME after a lifetime playing golf. In industry, I was in Engineering design. So naturally I prefer to design my own stuff. I have the obligatory ML7 Plus the tooling. & like you say I see the need for a milling machine. I read a lot about the old ways of doing stuff & I see that a milling machine has always been seen as a good thing to have. But in the pre-war days they never needed to be that big or powerful. So when you tell me that a good friend of yours has built many large Steam engines on one of the cheaper old imported belt driven Milling Machines of a kind much frowned on by many. Then I can comfortably believe you.

Continue to post as You like, for sure I'll watch it. Looking forward to be here for the next few years until first puff of vapor porpels the machine.

It's your show, post whatever content pleases you. Thank you for sharing.

Kozo Hiraoka has written a series of books on how to build Live Steam locomotives. Each book tackles a specific locomotive. The books not only contain detailed drawings but the author also describes step by step how to fabricate each part. He wrote "The Pennsylvania A3 Switcher" with the complete beginner in mind. Highly recommended.

I have many subscriptions but few notifications and yours is one of the few. I’m a big fan of machining and what I enjoy the most about your channel is the order of operations and various methods you use. I’m not interested in train building but again the process lends to other processes which I find beneficial. I don’t mind the off the cuff videos but I also follow you on Instagram which is nice for those moments I think “what’s Crispin up to today?. Run your channel how you like you are doing a fine job.

Great video Crispin, just thought I’d add for any beginners who are looking to pick up a book that’s extremely useful and also covers a lot of the aspects touched on in this video is “a beginners guide to model steam locomotives” by Tom Coles. It’s helped many generations of model engineers get started including myself.

I see you've found a new use for bro's toothbrush. Great channel keep

Great video - I must get a milling machine! Tree planting very interesting too - it must have been a pretty daunting prospect at the outset.

My goodness, you are good at this.

Excellent

Interesting and well presented. Thanks

G’day Chris I have been watching you for a long time and it was great to see you in your own shop. You gave some very good advice on how to build and what to build, I’m still building my Super Simplex and Martin Evans gives some grate advice. I would like to build without using castings because they are expensive and they are not very good . You still crack me up but it’s nice to see you again. I have subscribed look after yourself regards John. Tasmania

This is first video of yours I've come across and really enjoyed it as its very informative. I'll be subbing as welln

Some good points to consider there. Cheers .

All excellent advice.

Great video Mr crispin

Using the unlisted video is a great idea. I never thought of that as a way to present a non-topical video on a topical channel. You're smart to keep them separate in my opinion. I have 7 different Instagram accounts for the same reason. You're a clever guy and that's why I listen to what you have to say!

Evening Mr Crispin 🤠 You’ve made an absolutely brilliant RU-vid video that I’m really enjoying 👍🏻 Top marks 😀

All on Spot! Couldnt say it better! Head on!!!

Very interesting discussion of all the salient points. I will be interested to see your Harrison lathe refurbish.

It is your channel Sir... Do with it as you see fit. please note, NEVER FEED THE TROLLS.. speaking from experience on my old primary channel, as once you give in to them, they never get full and will demand you change more of what you are doing.. You do you sir.... Fun video...

Post whatever you want mr Crispin! If I (very unlikely) would not like the content, I can fast forward or skip - no worries! Keep up the good work!

instantly paused to watch your unlisted vid, it was great!!

Great video, you make your points very well and I enjoyed watching. On the subject of mixed content, I think that you should take your channel in any direction you feel. As an engaging and interesting presenter, I'm quite sure that your videos will continue to be entertaining and informative regardless of the subject. Best wishes, Dean in Oxfordshire.

No machine experience at all myself (though I hope to learn), but I found this interesting, my thanks and compliments. Went the fully-machined kit route for my first locomotive, a Gauge 1 0-4-0T, so that's another option one might consider if they want a locomotive, as there are kits for larger scales. Sort of what I'm hoping to do, save up for a 5 inch gauge kit and then get the machinery and skills to keep it in good repair.

Great video and well presented. I think it is important with these long projects to break the build down to bite size chunks and to set yourself some timescales to get these chunks done. A lot of projects stall because people lose momentum, then if its left you forget what you were doing or lose bits or just lose interest. I don't do machining but I have restored a few classic cars and it is important to keep going at these otherwise the car never gets back on the road.

Bought a few part built locos. Cumulatively, I'd probably have been able to afford a finished loco with the money spent but there has been some value in exploring other peoples work.

Hello MrCrispin, A very good video, I feel sure it will benefit any would be steam locomotive builders.... Take care. Paul,,

One thumbs down? Must be someone not appreciating the Oswald Mosley look. 😂

As a Ex motor mechanic Apprenticed in 1969 I have often been asked by car enthusiasts what bolt manufacturers or indeed during metrification what bolt sizes were used on a specific model As I pointed out to one Remanufacturer of Ford's UK products his turnout was a Rolls Royce compared to a Dagenham Dustbin

Vince is right. Plenty of other tubers have done likewise, and I too decide on the fly whether or not to complete watching.

Excelent video

Crispin, I admire your machining abilities and I wish I had your intellect but what is that unequal , un-machined mustache all about, are you the next James Bond? I would also be interested in Crispin non machining activities...have I spelled mustache correctly?

Brilliant.

this guy just casually voicing my dreams out loud

very good advise nice job

It’s your channel. Post whatever you want

I was not aware that actually you work for Rolls Royce. It makes perfect sense according the skills you show in every video.

I watch your channel because you're clever, and you happen to be a machinist, and I like machining. I also watch clever people in other disciplines that I like. Some are more focused than others. It's hard to imagine you doing anything without being at least a little clever about it, so whatever you post is fine with me! You could... make a hat rack. :)

On the subject of half built engines, whilst not disagreeing, I do have a part build I need to finish. I bought it as the chassis for an 0-4-0 similar to Titch at 3 1/2" gauge with drawings from a well known auction site. When it arrived it turned out to be 5" freelance contractors tank engine with original drawings, which are so good, I bought an A0 case to keep them safe and had copies made because they are getting no where near anything dirty.. The chassis runs on air fantastically well though the axles need a trim, and I need to make the boiler which shouldn't be a problem as I have had a specialist prepare a safety report on the design.

My grandfather who was a tool and die maker used to build scale model steam trains that people could ride on with tracks around the yard as a young kid i had a 5 cylinder radial model air plane engine he built I believe it was 1/4 scale it disappeared from our shop we had

As always , sound advice mr Crispin , don’t let your heart rule your head …. 3 years into a self designed 7 1/4” gauge “ Lion” all on a myford back in the 1980’s early 90’s ( had to pull the lathe round by hand to cut the tyre rads on the wheels ….. ) but events over took and now finished by its new owner I believe …….

Its your channel. Nobody should have an issue with an with any number of unlisted videos. Interesting topic, that needs a lot of consideration before embarking on a 5year(+) project