7mm Dikitriki's Dark side: A WD 2-8-0

[Dikitriki]

Back to post 838, and over 1 1/2 years later, I'm putting the Duchess back together.

A recap, it's been on and off my bench for almost 30 years, undergoing a couple of rebuilds; an MMP kit I bought when they first came out. Since the backhead is part of the firebox, it and the cab interior had to be weathered before they could be united, and before I could do that, I needed CPL to re-release their LMS printed dials. I picked the dials up at Telford, spent a week of evenings clearing and tidying the workbench, and gave myself Boxing Day to make a start.

The backhead was far too bright, shiny and clean, so that was dulled down, as was the cab paintwork, and the body and footplate/cab reunited - not an easy task as there was not a lot of room to get the firebox through the footplate. There are errors in my build, I know, mostly stemming from my ignorance when I was building it and the (relative) lack of source material at the time, but it stands up pretty well all things considered.

Anyway, here's the firebox and cab.



I have a few bits to touch up, then it's crew and cab roof, and wait for the chip to arrive.

Richard

 

[Silverystreaks]

Lovely job Richard. I almost purchased one of those kits but it was a MF Duchess which arrived via Father Christmas a few years later that filled the void. Incidentally, it took me almost another twenty years to get around to finishing that.

Regards
Bob

 

[P A D]

20 to 30 years to finish a kit! That's the result of affluence.

Until a few years ago, my disposable income only allowed for one kit at a time, so it was started, built, painted and lined and was up and running before anything else was started. In recent times, having sold on some models and being more affluent, I now have an A3, A4, BR 4MT and Stanier 4P all built but not finished. OK, the A3 and A4 are going through Warren Haywood's paintshop, but I still need to strip down the big tanks and get them over to Ossett. Easy to do of course, but then some character over on RMWeb gets me interested in his wares and now there's a Stanier 3P on the bench. Modelling life is simpler when you don't have spare cash.
And yes, I lived in a shoe box in the middle of the road.

 

[P A D]

PS.
The Duchess looks superb and it would be good to see more of it.
Cheers,
Peter

 

[Genghis]

20 to 30 years to finish a kit! That's the result of affluence.

And yes, I lived in a shoe box in the middle of the road.

So you were affluent even then......

 

[Dikitriki]

20 to 30 years to finish a kit! That's the result of affluence.

So you were affluent even then......

Cheeky sods, the pair of you . I think it more reflects the fact that my skills had to catch up with my aspirations, and that at the time, railway modelling was my 3rd string hobby. so I didn't have much time to devote to it.

PS.
The Duchess looks superb and it would be good to see more of it.
Cheers,
Peter

As it goes back together, I shall take more photos. In the absence of a 30 year old re-assembly manual, I am taking it slowly. At least I have found the box with all the bits in

Cheers,

Richard

 

[oldravendale]

If you need the instructions, Richard, I have one of the MMP kits here......... I hasten to say that it was bought years before I had any aspirations towards Finney.

B

 

[P A D]

So you were affluent even then......

David, don't tell me you were the kid down the road who lived in the shoe box lid. There's always somebody worse off than yourself.

Cheeky sods, the pair of you . I think it more reflects the fact that my skills had to catch up with my aspirations, and that at the time, railway modelling was my 3rd string hobby. so I didn't have much time to devote to it.

A stock pile of kits and three hobbies! Now that is affluence.

 

[Genghis]

David, don't tell me you were the kid down the road who lived in the shoe box lid. There's always somebody worse off than you.

We only dreamed of a shoebox lid..........

Anyway, the Duchess may be 30 years old but she looks a treat!

 

[Dikitriki]

Hi,

I'm dotting around a bit as is my wont, but my attention has turned towards Heyside-specific things as we are going to Warley in November.

The locomotive nearest completion is in fact a WD 2-8-0. This was part built by Clive - he was working on it at the time of his death - and the components were spread to the 4 winds in his workshop, all over the place. It took me a few hours to methodically work through all the containers and stuff on his bench to be reasonably sure I'd picked up everything.

I spent the better part of a week reassembling it, with most of the work on the chassis which Clive had not got to the running stage. In particular, he had not identified which hornblock went with which axle, nor which way up or round they should be. That was fun and games. Eventually I got the chassis rolling, and got to this stage.







It is, of course, the Snowhill model from Roxey.

So, I chipped it and it was running very nicely. Yesterday, I took it upstairs to go through the tome on WDs to see if I could identify which loco Clive was building. After a good few hours happy browsing, I worked out he'd built a 'neverwazza'. (Add naughty word of choice).

There were 9 key details that Roger and I had identified when we inspected it earlier:

Inside top feed delivery pipes
Not GW (no fire iron tunnel)
Not a Doncaster built firebox
4 lubricator pipes on fireman's side, none on driver's side
Pipe unions in middle of lubricator pipe runs on fireman's side
Little grab handle on smokebox
Blower pipe to front of steam pipe on driver's side
No aws
No top feed cover.

I got close with some locos, but it was the pipe runs with unions in middle coupled with a non-Darlington firebox that stymied everything.

I get the impression that Clive worked from the best pictures in the book without having a specific loco in mind.

Late last night, I did an internet trawl and came up with a loco that I thought satisfied all but one of the conditions, as far as I could tell, and that would only mean me removing the small looped grab handle on the smokebox.

This super picture refers - VIEW Steam loco WD Austerity 90450 photo for sale/download

If anyone wants to have a go at finding a loco that satisfies all the conditions, then please do so, but bear in mind that the shed has to be somewhere vaguely near the Oldham Loop!

90450 was a Dairycoates engine, so that's OK.

Now I am happy to finish it off!

Richard

 

[bilboe43106]

it will look very nice Painted !! and weathered.

phil

 

[Dikitriki]

Hi,

I've been working my way round the tender. The last thing I need to add are the doors. I didn't find any in the bits left on Clive's workbench, and the instructions are, shall we say, lacking. The are a couple of decent pictures in the tome, so I made 4 x simplified hinge brackets based on the photos.



I've still to make the doors, but at least I know where I'm going with them. That's tomorrow I hope.


Richard

 

[Dikitriki]

Hi

Hinge brackets attached, doors made - in fact I did an extra pair for the engine while I was at it.





I'll attach them tomorrow by means of a soldered on miniature washer to the top pin, Then ultra sonic bath and a scoosh of primer.

Richard

 

[Dikitriki]

Hi,

The doors were attached using the tiniest of tiny washers on the top bracket. I blackened the tube first so I didn't solder the lot solid.



Final clean, ultrasonic bath then primer. The primer coat showed just a few areas that required filler, and that's where I am at the moment, waiting for the filler to harden.

Richard

 

[7mmMick]

Looking forward to seeing this one in black and shades of dirt

 

[john lewsey]

I read somewhere that engine crews were very fond of these locos but we as modellers think they look great
John

 

[LarryG]

There were so many Austerity 2-8-0's around Lancs & Yorks that I barely took an interest in them, but they always seem to make very interesting and attractive models. Or maybe its just me getting old. When younger, I favored the locos I had just missed whereas today I find the most interesting ones are the locos I saw.

 

[Dikitriki]

Hi,

I had my 'studio' up, so took some photos of the tender in works grey.









I've started cleaning up the body, and I think I'm missing the cab spectacle plate window frames. If anyone has an unstarted kit, can they please scan the window frames so I can see what they look like. Thanks.

Richard

 

[LarryG]

Neat clean build. No.90306 was a Lees engine photographed by Jim Davenport from both sides at seemingly different periods seeing as the firebox and ejector pipe are different in a 1957 view. Also pictured passing Heyside with Bain arc roof stock at front of excursion in late 1950's. This engine might be worth checking out.

 

[7mmMick]

Hi Richard,

The tender looks great

I dug out my kit and here’s a picture of the window frames as requested;