Skyyyy Pilot...

Began making the skyline casing.  Used 20 GA (0.036) steel.  Used the same method of bending as on the tender.  Here the front section is being bent.

Cut out the portion around the stack and made the insert.  Used the wood block for support and gauge.

The front was molded into shape and welded up.

Needed some half-round brass for the edging.  I made this jig.  Basically it goes in round and comes out with half removed.

A steady hand and some prompting ended up with some good results.

Here's the half-round bent to shape before being soldered.

All done soldering, now for some cleanup.

Well, that about finishes the front casing.

Was still figuring out how I was going to make the rest of the casing.  Decided to make it in 3 parts.  Here's the middle section being bent. 

And here it is showing the brackets that will be welded to the inside to stiffen it up.

Been trying to find an easy way to "pop" these things on/off without using any tools.  This is what I came up with.  Made these metal brackets, riveted it to the boiler jacketing and screwed a brass clip on top.  It has 2 balls pressing inwards which grabs the other half installed on the casing.  Three of these clips were used, one for each section.  The casings interlock with each other and are also attached to the cab and smokebox. 

Here is a close-up of the cutouts for the safeties (middle section) and the turbos (rear section).

Here's the front.  Still need to make the side lights and other "details".

It's all ready to be painted. 

Been working on the front skyline casing section adding some "detail" to it.  Here is how I made the lights that go on the sides of the front piece.  After the plans were drawn up, I started out with a couple billets of aluminum. They were drilled and threaded for 3/8" NPT, shoved a pipe in it and mounted in the lathe for some trimming...

Then I used the lathe's X-Y axis freehand until I got the shape below.  A template was made and was used to get the shape.

After some filing and much sanding/buffing they were drilled for the lights and wiring.  You can see the temporary threads in the front light opening which was used to hold the piece while machining it.

Next thing to address were the number boards.  Made a couple samples out of cardboard and ended up with these.  The numbers are brass stencils with white translucent plastic placed behind them to diffuse the light. 

Here, the position of the LED's were being tested to see what angle was needed to distribute the light the best.  Most LED's are brightest head-on, but these have a special coating which gives it a 360 degree span.  2 LED's were used inside.  They were held in place by rubber grommets inserted in brackets which were later soldered into position.

A shot of what the final wiring looked like.  Wire nuts were used to make it easier to remove the lights if I ever needed to.  The circle on the right in the photo is a jack which is used to plug the 12v power into for the lights.

This is the plug (in circle) that goes in the jack above.  This lets me take the skylight casing off without having to deal with a permanently wired connection.

The number boards and lights are all mounted.  Still have to paint this thing a nice black. 

A view with the lights ON...

A fake horn was made and mounted on the front casing.  This just about does it for the skyline casing.  Once the weather breaks, it can be finally painted.

And here it is with the flag stands.