I found each stage took about six weeks each, but is very dependent on the time you have to dedicate.

I decided to paint the loco as I went, because I couldn't face building it up and then taking the whole thing completely apart again for painting. I didnt find this was a problem apart from the odd scratch, which was easily sorted.

The instructions were generally very good but not full proof . Some of these I believe are because the loco has been updated and the instructions have not necessarily kept up.

Over the building duration I made a few calls to Andy and Alex (paint specialist) at Maxitrak www.maxitrak.co.uk who were always able to solve My problems.     

Stage 1

Chassis is cast aluminum and needs a lot of preparation, I used a red oxide primer for the aluminum and in hindsight wished I had spent more and bought the proper aerosol etch primer which at the time was £18 a can. It worked fine but if you look very closely you can detect brush marks. I had to remove the paint on the wheels where I found the coupling rod touched. I did read an article where someone had a little material machined from the back of the coupling rods to prevent this.

Stage 2

This was more interesting constructing the cylinders although cutting each thread length is a bit tedious.(20 per cylinder)

I made a mistake when I loctited the steam chests to the cylinders. I was very careful not to over do the loctite for fear of blocking the steam ways. Only recently having watched a video of Ruby running did I notice that she had a major steam leak where i had not put enough loctite this was plain to see on dismantling the cylinders. 

Stage 3 

Now this is starting to look like a loco, I was getting excited now. Stage 3 was my favourite part installing the boiler and some of the pipe work. I think with hindsight I would lag the boiler with heat insulation and certainly the steam pipe to the cylinders. Andy did mention this at the time of collection but there is no mention in the instructions. I have noticed this winter that the loco cools down rapidly in cold weather, and therefore I would assume there are large losses of efficiency. 

Stage 4

There we are all done with my own tender design sitting on a Ride on Railways 4 wheel braked truck. I am very pleased with the tender which houses the coal, poker, shovel and rag comfortably. I have since increased the coupler rod length to the loco as I could not see the pressure gauge or shovel coal easily with it so close.

If only it had been as simple as just looking at 4 photos.  

One point I would advise anyone with is (says the now expert!) when steaming up Ruby for the first time as she took off with oil, water and all sorts of crud coming out of the chimney was the paint was soft on the boiler from the heat and got impregnated with bits. I would recommend either steaming her up and then allow to cool down without running the first time or put a shield over the boiler paint. After the first run the paint baked on hard. 

Ruby with her first steam up at Wickham Railway, proud owner learning how she works.