richard carr
Western Thunderer
This was one of my Christmas presents from Emma. I have always fancied building an MOK kit and this seemed like a good starting point, a chance to practice on something before the 9f comes out. There is something about these engines, even if it's that they are just ugly. I also felt it was time to get back to building something that requires solder !
Now a few may be thinking what am I doing building a kettle, shouldn't it be a blue diesel, well like steam engines too, especially those of the north east and particularly those that worked on the Stainmore line, so this one is going to be 43055, which was shedded at Kirkby Stephen in 1955 and ended its days at North Blyth in 1966 and never really left the north eastern region.
I'm going to start with the tender and take it from there, following the extensive instructions closely.
It starts with the tender chassis frame spacers, here are a few of them made up
View attachment 51513
Here are the frames with one of the spacers attached with the tabs
View attachment 51511
The kit makes extensive use of tabs and slots, these aren't just a lose fit, these have so far all fitted perfectly together, the parts can only go in one position
The tender chassis uses a 3 point compensation system, (although it looks a bit 4 point to me). These are the rocking beams.
And here's the chassis put together
The front 2 bearings are fixed and the other 2 on each side can move up and down about 1.5 mm and rock from side to side a s a unit of 4 by about 1 mm.
I'm sure it will work just fine.
Now a few may be thinking what am I doing building a kettle, shouldn't it be a blue diesel, well like steam engines too, especially those of the north east and particularly those that worked on the Stainmore line, so this one is going to be 43055, which was shedded at Kirkby Stephen in 1955 and ended its days at North Blyth in 1966 and never really left the north eastern region.
I'm going to start with the tender and take it from there, following the extensive instructions closely.
It starts with the tender chassis frame spacers, here are a few of them made up
View attachment 51513
Here are the frames with one of the spacers attached with the tabs
View attachment 51511
The kit makes extensive use of tabs and slots, these aren't just a lose fit, these have so far all fitted perfectly together, the parts can only go in one position
The tender chassis uses a 3 point compensation system, (although it looks a bit 4 point to me). These are the rocking beams.
And here's the chassis put together
The front 2 bearings are fixed and the other 2 on each side can move up and down about 1.5 mm and rock from side to side a s a unit of 4 by about 1 mm.
I'm sure it will work just fine.