7mm On Heather's Workbench - North Western Commuter Power

[Heather Kay]

With the soldering bit metaphorically between my teeth, I tackled the balance pipes and rear sandboxes. You might remember I couldn’t simply solder the boxes to the back of the steps because of the pipe castings. The obvious solution was to hack out a chunk of the boxes.

The first job was to solder the pipe castings in place. One of the downsides with this kit is the lack of definite location points for a lot of the detailing. These pipes are literally soldered to the inside of the running plate using a segment of the flanges. Not ideal, but it’s quite solid. Plonking the folded up boxes in place, a quick bit of rough marking out gave me an area to hack out of each.



The worry was the boxes might look too far out from the frames. However, lost under the steps and in the gloom, I reckon that’ll do. The steps have some measure of reinforcing now, so are much less liable to be bent accidentally.

Now, about that smokebox saddle…

 

[Heather Kay]

Prepping some CAD before actually committing the smokebox saddle to metal.

 

[Heather Kay]

A bit of a hiatus due to personal stuff, so the actual CAD was delayed until this afternoon.



Here’s the problem. The inside motion protrudes, like the real thing, into the space occupied by the saddle. The valve rods need room to move back and forth. The pencil outline shows where the saddle will sit. The socking gert nut holds the body to the chassis.



The rather ropey cast saddle would need quite a lot of surgery to accommodate the nut and rods. Otherwise, aside from a fettle to tidy it up, it would do admirably.

Anyway, after some marking out on the cardboard, I had produced a saddle front and back that looked about right. A short while later, they were joined by two sides. Then they were all joined together.



From the front. Looking adequate.



From the rear, showing a rebate to clear the valve rod glands. As I was taping them together, the thought crossed my mind that it might be possible to mark up and cut out the whole shape from the flat metal, simply folded up. I think, however, it will prove simpler to make four individual parts.



Some of the kit parts can be used more or less straight, aside from additional rivet work. The side pieces, for example, will fit nicely. I think I need an extra thickness of sheet at the bottom of the front part, from which the piano front will be hinged. I’m fairly pleased with the way it looks, so I suppose I ought to get the metal out and get cutting.



Raw materials. This is NS sheet scrap from a kit manufacturer, off-cuts from etch sheets. It’s sometimes worth checking with various manufacturers if they are willing to sell bundles of this kind of thing. It’s very useful for just the kind of work I have in mind, and I am grateful that Best Beloved had the foresight to acquire just such a mixed bundle of brass and NS material some years back. Some manufacturers, of course, will simply turn in this stuff for scrap, but the likes of Laurie Griffin might be persuaded to sell it to you instead. It’s worth asking, at least.

 

[LarryG]

Looks to me like you adopted the best solution. There's nothing like working with metal sheet. I trapped my nut within the smokebox after having a similar problem with a 4mm Lanky Radial.

 

[Heather Kay]

I trapped my nut

<Sub-Lieutenant Phillips>Ooh, nasty!</Sub-Lieutenant Phillips>



Happily, it doesn’t matter if the nut is trapped on this loco, as the screw goes in from underneath the frames.



I did a bit of lateral thinking while I was wielding the piercing saw to cut out the front and back parts. I was wondering how I could form the curved saddle sides, especially as the original plan had them as part of the flat sides as well. I wondered if I could find a suitable diameter of brass tube.

Well, yes, I could. It was then a case of carefully cutting two segments to fit. Then another brainwave struck - not often that happens twice in a row! - and I found some brass channel the right size to make the sides. The channel section will hopefully make it easier to locate and solder the parts in place. Let’s see...

 

[Heather Kay]

I didn’t update progress last night. I was so engrossed I didn’t notice the time, and at my age I tend to need my beauty sleep - not that it does any good as far as I can tell!



It’s not been tidied up, because I fully expected to take it all apart again. However, I think my CAD did the trick. I rather think I shall disassemble it again, because the saddle part needs some fettling for a neat fit round the smokebox.



Here are the "cheeks" all punched with their rivets. A quick dry fit last night proved they fitted neatly against the various parts, so I call that a win. The remains of the paper templates are shown. I stuck them to the sheet material using Spray Mount. They might just prove reusable if the need arises, although they began to delaminate as I peeled them off the metal.

Right, time for some further fettling. I feel a boiler may be attached to the bodywork properly today.

 

[Heather Kay]

I did take it all apart again. I decided to make fresh side pieces the right size and with the spring shackle hole in the right place.





That’s with the boiler assembly tacked on. The kit side cheeks will (hopefully) hide a multitude of sins. Meanwhile, I'm going to leave it like that and see if I still like what I see later. Time, I think, to consider what I need to scratch together the motor train gear.

 

[Heather Kay]

Back to this beastie. I had hoped I might finish and paint it in time for the Doncaster O gauge show at the start of June. I’m not going to hold myself to that, though it might be there unpainted.

Anyway, today's fun and games was fitting the cab door handrails. Another of those little compromises because it’s all but impossible to build them like the prototype from the kit. They’ll do. After that, I spent a good while disassembling the boiler, firebox and cab front because it was all skew-whiff. It’s still not quite right, but it’s ten times better than when I first looked this morning!

Next up, I think I’ll sort out the buffer beam details, then attack the smokebox area and motor fitting bits.

 

[LarryG]

Heather, Watch those boiler handrail knob holes, as they look too low. The handrail should clear the top of the tanks and then end.

 

[Heather Kay]

Heather, Watch those boiler handrail knob holes, as they look too low. The handrail should clear the top of the tanks and then end.

I know.

I think the whole boiler assembly sits too low. I’m afraid it’s going to be another compromise. I guess I’m up for filling and drilling new holes a snitch further up.

The side in the photo will have to have the front hole filled as its space is taken up with the motor fitting gear.

 

[Heather Kay]

The handrail knob holes have been moved. It’s amazing what you can do with a molecular rearranger.



First I worked out the datum for the new holes, then projected the existing holes upwards using a square based on the footplate.



The exercise was repeated on the other side.



Some 1.2mm brass rod was found to be ideal to bung to old holes, but before that I drilled pilots for the new holes. Too much solder, but better than not enough.



On the other side.



The pegs and solder were ground and filed away, then the pilots enlarged to fit the handrail knobs.



Now, what else was I going to do? Oh, yes, buffer beam and motor fitting gear. Probably.

 

[Heather Kay]

Pleased at that. Buffer beams, you say? Oh, alright them. *sigh*

 

[Peter Cross]

Can't remember how many times I've had to move handrail knob holes on older kits, quite often different side to side.

 

[Heather Kay]

After a fair start to the week, things fell apart yesterday. I broke a slitting disc and a piercing saw blade, something else annoyed me and very little after that wanted to go to any kind of plan. Anyway, I sort of came up with a solution to how to build the motor-fitted gear.



That’s perched there for testing. This is going to sound trite, but I made it from some brass tube, some thin sheet, some wire, a couple of tiny nuts and some swearing. I do like to actually have a clue how something is supposed to work when I start scratch building it, and it took quite a bit of digging around various books and web sites to get real clear views of the mechanism. Happily, the Midland Railway used the same equipment on their fitted locos, and I finally came up trumps with a good clear image of the gubbins in one of the Jenkinson/Essery tomes on LMS locos.

The next stage is to make the lever, drop rod and the bottom cylinder. Actually, the latter is already made, and just needs installing on the footplate.

The kit shipped with some lovely brass castings for the various buffer beam pipes. Sadly, none of them are quite right. I am, however, considering that I shall simply use them anyway. A compromised tale for another day.

 

[Heather Kay]

I’m not sure I’m up to all this microsoldering game. Lots of tiddly fiddly widdly niggly eensy bits and bobs that like to lose themselves at the first opportunity.



Although this isn’t from the loco I’m building, and there are one or two detail differences, this is what I was trying to recreate. I found some old Model Signal Engineering etches of point and signal operating levers and wheels. From that I managed to find donor parts for the lever at the top of the gubbins. I’d already made the cylinders at either end, so I needed then to make up the connecting rod.



I’m happy with it. It’s not perfect - and isn’t actually attached to anything just yet - but I reckon that captures the overall appearance quite well.

I doubt I could have done any of it without optical aids. Ah, the joys of old age and 1.6x magnification…



I’m going to lie down for a bit.

 

[LarryG]

Heather, the auto-vac gear is a 1930's 'thing' and started to appear on LMS and LNER & constituent engines in the mid 1930's to replace the old mechanical linkage. I enlisted Bob Essery's help on this when I was writing a book that happened to cover the subject of push-pull trains. Fair do's, your construction looks fine.

 

[Heather Kay]

It seems this build may well be let down by the smallest details.



It was time to sort out the smokebox side cheeks and front springs. Thankfully, the kit provides plain and detailed side cheeks, so I could at least work up the correct pattern of rivets and bolts on the plain ones. I will add some cosmetic bolts later in the build, because my riveting tool probably can’t make lumps the right size. I do have the GW riveter with all the tools, but swapping the anvil and punch means essentially taking the entire thing apart, and who has time for that?



I am unhappy with the cylinder inspection cover. There’s a flat one in the kit, but like so many things with these locos there were as many variations as Heinz! Anyway, from what I can make out from photos of the loco I’m trying to represent - trying being a good word in several contexts here - the cover was not like the expected curved piano front. Of course, forming the right sort of shape leaves gaps where you don’t really want them. I’ll probably end up stuffing some styrene scrap in the holes and carving to shape. There’s also a relatively prominent strip of rivets under the smokebox in the photos, and I found a suitable strip of etched things that has been pressed into service. At best, it’s an approximation of what I can make out on the actual loco.

The springs were a proper fiddle. They appear to have been cast in some kind of soft metal akin to margarine. Look at them funny, and they would bend. I replaced the centre pins with brass, so at least something with some mechanical strength passes through the holes in the footplate. Not happy, but it’ll have to do.

Now, the next steps involve working out the buffer beam pipework. Somehow, I also have to cram an electrical connector affair over where the steam heat pipework goes. The kit casting for the pipe doesn’t seem right, and won’t fit where it’s supposed to be. We’ve already discussed the brake and vacuum control pipework's shortcomings. I’ve discovered the latter's upstands are supported on brackets sprung either from the buffer beam or the footplate. This explains the odd location of fixing brackets on the castings. There’s nowt in the box, obviously, so some more scratching about will ensue.

Aside from the bunker end plumbing, I also need to make up something for the sanding operating gear. I dimly recall there may be some angled levers on the etches, so that will help.

Onwards!

 

[Heather Kay]

I’d spent too long fretting over the pipework details, so I made a decision. If I couldn’t find anything better in the Bits Box, what came in the kit would be used.



Careful study of the real loco photos paid dividends. First, it showed the electrical connector I had expected to create was a post-1948 addition. As what I’m creating is pre-Nationalisation, I left it out. The plumbing to the right of the coupling - the motor-fitting vacuum pipework - was quite different to what the kit casting showed. Considering the other compromises I’ve had to make elsewhere, I decided to just go with what I had. Life can be too short to get bogged down. With the electrical connector out of the game, the steam heating pipes could be installed as well. For the pipe up stand brackets, I had one of my rare brainwaves: surplus cast lamp brackets. Worked a treat.

Laurie Griffin L&YR cast lamp brackets were also fitted. Just the sanding lids and the operating linkage to fit.



Being blessed with one of those rare things - a shot of the right loco from the bunker end - I fitted the relevant pipework. Technically, the vac gear should be taller, but no-one will know if you don’t let on.

The list of jobs is shrinking, though I am being exercised about how to fit the underslung main driver springs to the lovely frames Paul P-S built for me. I think I’ll sort out the sanding linkage, have a proper think about fitting the roof properly, then give the bodywork a nice ultrasonic bath to clear out all the flux residues and such.

Getting there, though I’m still not going to rush to meet a self-imposed deadline.

Yes, I know the buffer stocks should have bolts round the base. I will consider gluing cosmetics on, but don’t kill me if I decide not to bother.

 

[Heather Kay]

The final act for today is the sanding filler lids and the operating rods and levers. Now, on the real thing, the rod hops across the frames to the other side, with nice bends in it to clear the inside motion. On the model, the inside motion apparently moves a little more than the real one does, and no matter how much I induced bends in the sanding cross rod it was being struck by some wiggly bits. By the time I was touching the bottom of the boiler barrel, I decided to simply snip the rod short both sides and hope it gets lost in the murk.

If that solution doesn’t appeal on review, I’ll have to have a good think about how to keep the sanding levers connected without interference with boiler or motion. Hmm.

 

[Heather Kay]

Into the fray today, tackling the underparts. Ordinarily, if I have been building the kit completely and not getting someone with a clue to build the complicated stuff, I would have had a chance to assess and fit the brake gear earlier.



The instructions were a bit thin regarding the brake shoe assemblies. Let’s say each consisted of a sandwich of an outside pair plus two inner pairs. At least, that’s the way I interpreted it. I suspect I was supposed to fit the smaller "shoes" on the outside. Too late now, 'cos it ain’t coming off again! As ever, lost in the murk, I don’t suppose it’ll really show.



All joined together, with a very basic representation of the weigh shaft. There’s nothing for this area in the box, so I was left to my own devices. The frames in the kit are pretty basic, so a lot is left to the builder.



Ooh! Getting there! Various items perched on the cab and boiler. It’s definitely got the look of a 2-4-2T about it.



You can’t actually see them, but I’ve installed the main driver axle springs, and thereby hangs a sorry tail. Paul P-S made keeper plates for the axle guards, so if required the axles and valve gear can be dropped out. Sadly, this left not a lot of space to install the springs. Anyway, I started out attempting to fit the cast springs. You may recall the whitemetal castings appear to made of a form of margarine, and the driver springs were no exception. Let’s not even talk about flash. It outdid your typical Hollywood red carpet, that’s for certain. There are etched springs in the kit, so I decided to go that way.

While the etches are a bit undernourished, they do okay behind the wheels. I low melt soldered them to the keeper plates. I may revisit and use high temp solder if they decide to come apart. Being thin, they don’t block the keeper plate screws, so we're all good.

Anyway, my back is killing me. Time for a break.