7mm Hudswell Clarke "Italia" class 0-6-0ST

[Dave]

There's nothing special here, or anything you don't already know about building brass kits, but I'm posting this simply to prove that I actually build the stuff I post in the gallery and that I don't have someone build it all for me (I wish I could afford to!) or have the magic loco kit fairies visit, so here is my current work-in-progess...

It's an Agenoria Models kit of what the blurb describes as an Italia class Hudswell Clarke, although I can find no loco so named in the works list contained in Ron Redman's book The Railway Foundry Leeds 1839-1969.

The kit is meant to build into the WC&P's Walton Park and is provided with name plates, but I'm not modelling the WC&P so my loco will be an anonymous version and, possibly, with a few alterations to suit other locos of the type that I have seen in photos in various books.


Rivets dimpled out, buffer beams soldered on, overlays for springs soldered on and springs bent up.


Cab assembled. I'm using resistance soldering for the first time and I'm impressed with how little cleaning up is neccessary. This picture is as put together - no cleaning has been done at all in this pic.


Screws to fix frames to bodywork soldered in and cab fitted to running plate.

I was going to build the saddletank but the wrapper is missing from the kit. I've sent an email off and am awaiting a response.

 

[Dave]

Firebox added, smokebox built up (but not fitted - I can't until the saddletank is fitted) and valances sorted out.

I'd misunderstood the instructions and fitted these centrally, thinking the gaps at either end would be filled with a thick buffer beam timber (as on the loco shown in the background photo of pic 1 in the last post). I was wrong and they should have been right up to the front bufferbeam and the bunker should overhang the rear bufferbeam.

To remove both valances would be a right PITA and, most likely, unsoldering would cause other bits to drop off, so I cut into the valances using a slitting disc and unsoldered just the ends. These were then fitted into the correct position and re-soldered. Of course this left an unsightly gap, which I have covered by offcuts of brass that have been dimpled to form rivets. The loco in the background in the pic below has exactly the same repairs so it's still prototypical.


On to the frames...

This is the first loco that I have built with more than 4 wheels so compensating it is a bit daunting. I've decided just to spring the centre axle. The pic below shows the lining up and soldering of the hornguides, for which I am using lengths of brass bar.


The frames assembled and ready for the next stage.

 

[Dave]

Yesterday I got the wheels, rods and cylinders in place. Only on one side though as a double depth crank pin bush is needed for the middle axle and I found one in my spares box. I shall have to turn one for the other side.


Six days since I sent it and still no reply to my email from Mike Willams at Agenoria...

 

[mickoo]

Dave, is that a steel plate your working on in some of the photos? Does it not act as a big heat sink when soldering flat pieces on it, like your centre axle guides?

Nice work BTW

 

[7mmMick]

Hi Dave,

I'm enjoying watching progress here, I especially like the prototype picture above. Formidable looking machine

ATB Mick

 

[Dave]

Dave, is that a steel plate your working on in some of the photos? Does it not act as a big heat sink when soldering flat pieces on it, like your centre axle guides?

Nice work BTW

Yes, it's steel plate, about 4mm thick. It acts as the earth for the RSU and the fact that it acts as a heat sink is a bonus, which means I can solder small parts and pick them up immediately without burning my fingers.

Since this morning, when I posted that last pic, I've must have had the rods and cylinders on and off over a dozen times! Trying to find and fix the tight spots is the part of kit-building that I don't like. It was driving me mad but I seem to have got it sorted now.

 

[Dave]

Last night I fitted the brake hangers and blocks, and also the springs and hornblock keeper plates. The plates are simply thin scraps of brass that are soldered across the gap at the bottom of the frame plates. The bottom spring plates are scraps of brass, soldered to the hornblocks and the springs glued to them. The top spring mounts are scraps of brass, folded over at the top to retain the spring and soldered to the frames.

 

[Dave]

With the end of the holidays, and a return to work, progress has slowed somewhat. Today I finished the brake gear, added sand boxes and pipes, and then gave the frames a coat of etch primer.


I've given the wheels an undercoat and am thinking about what colour to finish the loco in. Prussian Blue?

 

[Dave]

Last night I painted the frames and today I fitted the motor. It's a Mashima somethingorother and drives through a one-stage 40:1 worm drive. The frames have been given a dusting of weathering powders as a start as I want to weather them before the wheels, motion and pickups are fitted. I don't want to take it all apart again.

I've chosen the colour for the loco - S&DJR blue. I've already used this colour on my Peckett but I may line this one. I'm thinking yellow and black. Opinions welcome...

 

[46444]

Last night I painted the frames and today I fitted the motor. It's a Mashima somethingorother and drives through a one-stage 40:1 worm drive. The frames have been given a dusting of weathering powders as a start as I want to weather them before the wheels, motion and pickups are fitted. I don't want to take it all apart again.

I've chosen the colour for the loco - S&DJR blue. I've already used this colour on my Peckett but I may line this one. I'm thinking yellow and black. Opinions welcome...

View attachment 16319

That looks good Dave

On the subject of S&DJR blue with the lining I agree that yellow and black lining will look the part on this loco.

Cheers,

Mark

 

[Dave]

I'll have a go at the lining but don't expect anything fantastic. I've just left a coat of blue to dry on the wheels so I'll try lining on those first.

Buffers.

The kit comes with two sets of these. One are solid cast brass and the others are cast brass with a steel head and shank. Neither are brilliant.

The solid ones have a casting mark along their length and across the head and it's not easy to get rid of on this cast brass as it's very hard, so I have thrown them in the spares box (God knows what use they'll ever be though). Apparently all the Agenoria range have had the whitemetal castings replaced with brass but it's a bad idea IHMO.

The other set of buffers are not great castings and the shanks would not fit inside them due to little bits of stray casting. This wouldn't be a problem with whitemetal as a bit of work with a file, or holding a drill bit between fingers would have sorted it. But with brass I've had to drill them out (or is that bore them out?) on the lathe. The supposedly square bases aren't square so it's rather difficult to line them up in the chuck.

The shanks/heads are of a large diameter so I'm keeping those for another project and have substituted some from a set of LMS heavy duty wagon buffers, from Slaters. These have been drilled through the centre of the head to look like those in the prototype pictures that I'm working with.

When I bought the kit Mike Williams told me that the buffers cannot be sprung as they are not deep enough but we'll see about that...

 

[Dave]

A bit of a long post this one...

First off - the tank.

The missing brake column and tank wrapper arrived in the post yesterday so I made a start soldering the tank together.

That doesn't look very good, does it?


That's because the tank wrapper is either the wrong one, or badly designed. The half-etched lines are on a part that is almost flat and there's not enough of it to curve around the bottom of the tank on either side...


It's also too long.

I couldn't be bothered to send yet another email and wait another week for a replacement so I cracked on and decided to make my own wrapper. I'm not confident of cutting sheet brass to fit perfectly, or to get 90 degree corners so I came up with a plan that is so cunning you can brush your teeth with it.


Having measured the correct gap twixt firebox and smokebox, and having deducted from this the thickness of the three formers, I turned up some spacers from 1/2 inch brass bar. This gives me perfect 90 degree corners that I can butt the parts up to and solder to with the aid of a machined block, magnets and a length of machined angle iron.

The next stage will be to roughly cut the wrapper, solder it to the formers and then file the excess flush with the ends.

And finally...

Buffers soldered to bufferbeams, heads blackened and fitted - and yes they are sprung.

Also, one cylinder painted and lined, ready to fit.

 

[46444]

That's looking nice Dave.

Sorry to read about the problems with the saddle tank wrapper. Saying that-you appear to have come up with a very ingenious idea to remedy the problem.

Yes-and the S&D Prussian blue on that cylinder looks good with the yellow and black lining.

 

[AJC]

This sounds familiar Dave - there's been several kits where wrappers like this have proven to be wrong size and making something oversize and trimming back is just about the only way. Often, it's quite a sensible solution, just a faff that the designer hasn't got it right first time around.

Adam

 

[Dave]

Boiler backhead...


...In cruel close-up. There's not much detail with the kit as it comes and some of it is, frankly, unusable. Yet again poor brass castings have meant that they've become landfill.

As it comes the kit provides the regulator handle, the firehole doors, manifold, and gauge glasses. The gauge glass castings were awful so I made my own from plasticard and plastic section with bent wire for valve handles. I also made flanges on the boiler, where the gauges fit, as there were none on the castings or on the etches.

Another added detail is the washout plugs and pipework. The pipework is simply copper wire and the plugs are slivers of plastic rod with cubes of square rod glued to them.

I've painted the gauge glasses white but it doesn't look quite right. I suppose I should have made them from clear plastic but I don't have any. I might paint some black diagonal lines on them - opinions welcome.

Next will be to make a representation of the firehole door opening mechanism as soon as I locate a picture.

 

[7mmMick]

Looking good Dave, what are the weathering techniques you've used around the fire hole door please? I think the gauge glasses look very nice indeed. I think when the black lines are painted on and toned down a bit and viewed from layout level it won't be a problem. I know what you mean though, it would potentially look better with clear material and then the rear painted as per the real thing,

ATB Mick

 

[Dave]

Hi, Mick. I first painted the whole thing with a mix of matt black and a dash of rust (Humbrol 113). When that was dry I drybrushed some rust on the area around the doors and before that was fully dry I brushed some weathering powders on.

 

[Dave]

I have finished the tank and have started to paint the rest of the bodywork.

I've stopped short of undercoating forward of the toolbox as I'll have to clean the primer off to solder the smokebox to the running plate. At the moment it's just loosely sat on there. The tank has a slot in each end where lugs fit, one fixed to the smokebox and one to the firebox. Once the smokebox is soldered to the running plate it will hold the tank in place but I'll slap a load of epoxy around the lugs on the tank inside to make it all rigid. Therefore I won't need to solder the tank and risk damaging the paintwork.

 

[AJC]

That's an interesting approach in painting - never mind lining - the saddletank before the smokebox is fitted; it would never have occurred to me! Probably because in 4mm everything is that much smaller and heat from an iron is likely to travel that much further but I can see the advantages. I guess that in 7mm you could see the absence of lining from the underside of the tank, for example. Shaping up well I think.

Adam

 

[Dave]

It's the only way I could think of that would allow me to line the rear end of the tank. Once it's fitted there'd be no clear access to wield a paintbrush and masking tape for that's what I've mostly done it with. The straight parts are done by masking and the curve has been done freehand but with a pair or lines scribed lightly onto the blue as a guide.

The scriber was made from a piece of scrap etch. The line to the edge of the black was done first then the scriber filed to the black line in the illustration before marking for the inside edge of the yellow.


No, that's not a deformed elephant.

I suppose it's not the approved method but then I don't possess a lining pen and wouldn't know how to use it if I did.