Tim Watson
Western Thunderer
I had already put up some posts on the what’s on the workbench thread, but I thought it might be appropriate to have its own thread. Happy to desist if the moderators are unhappy with the heavy stuff.
Station Road Steam have had some locos from the late Ian Jaycroft for sale over the last few months. One of these has been a substantially complete King Arthur.
3 1/2 inch gauge Southern Railway "King Arthur" 4-6-0 - Stock code 9711
I have recently purchased this and it will hopefully end up looking like this:
The loco will be called ‘Sir Sagramore’ No 771. (My previous loco, an A3, ‘Hyperion’ has been sold on.)
Ian Jaycroft incorporated some amazing engineering into the KA; not least a Wakefield pattern lubricator for feeding the internal bearings (KAs didn’t have these, but I’m willing to overlook that, for the practicality of it).
The quality of the engineering is outstanding.
The video shows the drain cock mechanism at work.
I’ve recently been working on the front end of Sir Sagramore. The KAs were handsome engines when first built, especially the NBL locos: these had smooth lines and very few rivets at the front end. Once smoke deflectors started to be fitted so did hundreds of rivets!
I’m not sure whether Ian intended to do further work on the KA smokebox, but it wasn’t quite right - looking a bit like a Hughes L&Y engine.
A morning’s work on the lathe has made some modifications.
It’s quite tempting to make the rings more prominent, similar to the MR Deeley doors, but these Maunsell smoke box fronts are rather more subtle. I suspect that the very small inner ring is used to seal the door and it helps to visually thicken it up.
The bottom front plate of the smoke box has many surplus holes in it which will be covered by a sheet of N/S, complete with smokebox step. There are a further two steps to be made also.
Main priority now will be to get the boiler shell tested.
Tim
Station Road Steam have had some locos from the late Ian Jaycroft for sale over the last few months. One of these has been a substantially complete King Arthur.
3 1/2 inch gauge Southern Railway "King Arthur" 4-6-0 - Stock code 9711
I have recently purchased this and it will hopefully end up looking like this:
The loco will be called ‘Sir Sagramore’ No 771. (My previous loco, an A3, ‘Hyperion’ has been sold on.)
Ian Jaycroft incorporated some amazing engineering into the KA; not least a Wakefield pattern lubricator for feeding the internal bearings (KAs didn’t have these, but I’m willing to overlook that, for the practicality of it).
The quality of the engineering is outstanding.
The video shows the drain cock mechanism at work.
I’ve recently been working on the front end of Sir Sagramore. The KAs were handsome engines when first built, especially the NBL locos: these had smooth lines and very few rivets at the front end. Once smoke deflectors started to be fitted so did hundreds of rivets!
I’m not sure whether Ian intended to do further work on the KA smokebox, but it wasn’t quite right - looking a bit like a Hughes L&Y engine.
A morning’s work on the lathe has made some modifications.
It’s quite tempting to make the rings more prominent, similar to the MR Deeley doors, but these Maunsell smoke box fronts are rather more subtle. I suspect that the very small inner ring is used to seal the door and it helps to visually thicken it up.
The bottom front plate of the smoke box has many surplus holes in it which will be covered by a sheet of N/S, complete with smokebox step. There are a further two steps to be made also.
Main priority now will be to get the boiler shell tested.
Tim
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