A West Midlands Works

[Scanlon]

Adjusting the inspection covers on the cylinders was relatively straightforward and the correct position was gleaned from photos. The next job was to fit the lubricators. There are twelve pipes running from each lubricator together with a warming pipe to and from the lubricator on the driver's side. This photo shows them as work in progress.

The layout of the pipes seems to be slightly different on each side and I have worked from photos of locos in the late 1950's. Only four drills were lost drilling out each body, the fifth is still useable! I seem to have got away quite easily given the usual attrition rate when using very tiny drills.

General detailing is now complete and the specific areas still to be address are the injectors, cab fittings and valve gear. I decided to replace the etched lampirons with castings and also replaced the whitemetal injectors for lost wax castings from the Ragstone range. The latter was forced on me as drilling out those provided in the kit proved disastrous.

I now intend to test the frame in its simplified for, providing all is well they will then be stripped, sprayed and reassembled and the valve gear built and installed. The loco can then go away to Warren for painting.


Next into the works will be a rebuilt Bulleid light pacific.

 

[Scanlon]

At last two engines ready to go home or already at home
and


2620 just lasted into BR ownership.
73129 has been lined by Warren.

 

[Scanlon]

The Bulleid is waiting in the wings while 42548 is completed. Running trials were successfully completed courtesy of Dikitriki so the frames can be stripped down for painting. Once painted the valve gear will be installed.

Most of the detailing has been completed on the body and at last the injectors are in place and piped up

and

The Ragstone Gresham and Craven live steam injectors were used and for the firemans side major alterations were required to convert it from left hand to right hand. I had hoped to first solder all the pipes in place and then solder the whole unit to the mountings under the cab. This proved impossible so each pipe had to be fitted separately but the effort has been worthwhile. Photos were used to get the pipe layout correct.


Just sandpipes to add to the frames, the boiler backplate to complete and the build is almost finished. Another winner from the David Andrews stable.

 

[Scanlon]

Work on the Stanier Tank is nearing completion. The backplate for the cab has been built but I'm waiting for the Reading show when I hope to get a sanding valve and large and small ejector controls from the Hobbyhorse range. So far the backhead looks like this, much cleaning still required.

Sandpipes have been installed and various bits and pieces cleaned up on the frames which are ready for spraying.

Work is now concentrated on building a David Andrews rebuilt West Country. The loco will be 34010 Sidmouth and be the first from my workshop to be fitted with a sound chip. Fortunately The Snapper has offered to install the bits.

From previous experience I know it is difficult to fit pick-ups to the chassis so this loco has been fitted with Gladiator plungers.

The odd angle of the rear set has been dictated by the gearbox which otherwise might interfere with the plunger springs. Construction of these complicated frames has been done on the chassis jig to ensure everything is square.

The frames have reached this stage

The side rods faithfully reflect the chunky appearance of the real rods, unfortunately the four etched pieces at each bearing point build up much too deep for the Slaters bearings. Some severe filing has been necessary to reduce their width while retaining the intended look.

Two of my own fleet have just returned from weathering administered by Tony (Dibateg). Both locos are in a "clean" but used condition which taxed Tony as he likes very dirty machines.

30827 has now been coaled and is awaiting a crew and runs excellently.

Strangely Lord St. Vincent has developed a bogie problem which I thought had been resolved prior to going away for painting. Investigations will start shortly.

 

[Scanlon]

The bogie problem on Lord St. Vincent benefitted from an inspection by two eminent loco builders and a quick and simple solution resolved the problem. Heyside now occasionally sees a Southampton bound boat train passing through, well those Eastleigh men got everywhere!

Back to Sidmouth, this is the third rebuilt West Country I have built but never cease to underestimate the amount of work required to build them. Getting the frames built and powered up was simple when compared to building the brake gear. This photo shows the basic parts to build a set of brake callipers plus a completed unit

A jig is provided to build the callipers but inevitably once offered up to the loco they need further adjustment. In all there are 49 pieces to make up the brakes and at times I was losing the will to live. But the trials and tribulations are worth the swearing and occasional burn from the soldering iron. Each set of wheels has two pull rods but for now only the inner rods have been fitted although here they are shown outside the wheels.

Today the loco has become a pacific. The bogie is a very simple affair to build up and presented no problems. Parts for side to side control are included but I find it is more of a hindrance than a help, my locos 34052 and 34108 do not have it and work fine. If the control were fitted two 1.6mm rods are used and I intend to fit them to give the bogie just a little more robustness.


The pony truck is an altogether different animal being a mixture of etch, whitemetal and lost wax castings. The basic construction is relatively straightforward and all parts fitted very snugly. However fitting the wheels started to present problems. They are in a self contained box unit which bolts onto the frame and when first offered up the flanges were touching the frame. A bit of filing eventually gave free movement but work will be required on the rear of the frames to allow the pony truck a little upward and more side to side movement as this photo shows


The issue with the side rods has been attended to and I now have a freely flowing chassis.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Came across this this in my grandfathers inherited photograph and negative collection. Taken at Fenchurch Street during the 1930's.

A bit late for your Stanier 2-6-4T build and I would suspect it's the 3 cylinder version (I haven't checked the numbers).

 

[Scanlon]

Dave
Thanks for the photo and yes it is a 3 cylinder machine, however it shows some subtle differences between it and the 2 cylinder locos.
Roger

 

[Scanlon]

At the start of the week the cylinders and some of the motion for 34010 were built. All the castings for the cylinders required only the minimum of a clean up before being installed. Inevitably the slidebars needed a fair amount of work to get the crossheads to run smoothly but castings are much easier to work with than etches. With the connecting rods in place it was time for a test on the rolling road.

For a while the slidebars were rocking when each crosshead was closest to the cylinders, why? They were not tight in the slidebars. Eventually I twigged they were very slightly twisted, they are not now although it took hours to find. The cylinders etc. were off and on more times than a fiddlers elbow was up and down! Buoyed up by this success I should have realised I was in for a fall.

A trial run of the frames in front of witnesses showed they ran perfectly in a straight line but derailed on any curve!. I was quite annoyed with myself but admit all the problems were of my own making. Firstly the pony truck wheels are too big, they are fine for a Merchant so I’ll get a smaller pair (3ft 1”) at the Reading show. Of course I had adjusted the frames for the bigger wheels but with everything fitted under the cab you will hardly know anything had been modified. By the way all of my West Country pacific's have the larger pony wheels so that accounts for the difficulties I have had getting them to run properly, they will be visiting the works shortly.

Reviewing the bogie I quickly found out why it would not go side to side; sloppy filing! This is now resolved and the loco has been tried on my test track and it does run well. Also I moved the front sanding pipes slightly further out to allow the trailing axle some more freedom of movement.

Having got over my errors I have started work on the body as you can see.


The running plate, saddle and fall plate have been built up and I have started on the cab which is quite difficult to construct.

It is quite easy to deform the main sides/roof and the rear cab spectacle plate etches. To provide additional strength I added the cab windows, rainstrips and basic cab seats. The spectacle plate was fully detailed to make it more robust. The solid infill to aid construction was removed once the cab had been built up. The injector water and steam controls have been added to the floor as they are a devil to get in place once everything has been built up.

Now to fit those front windows and a lot more.

 

[Dikitriki]

Wow, you're cracking on with that

 

[mickoo]

Roger just curious why you fitted 3'-7" wheels to the Delta truck I think they were only fitted to the MN. The BP has 3'-1" through out on the engine.

MD

 

[Scanlon]

This week has seen a return to the Stanier 2-6-4t. With the frames sprayed I was able to start erecting the valve gear and this threw up a number of issues which have proved somewhat frustrating. I started by building the driver's side and all was well until the body was located on the frames to find the top of the expansion link was rubbing on the underside of the valance.

This photo shows the problem. The brass etch hanging over the wheel is the reversing rod which I'd managed to displace, yet another issue. Time for a rethink.

Following discussions with other modellers the valve gear was stripped down and the expansion link modified by reducing its overall height. A small fillet of nickel silver etch was soldered inside the link and then filed down. This worked and with everything reinstalled was tested only to find the return crank was rubbing against the injector delivery pipe. With the pipe thinned down the issue went away. Building the fireman's side was relatively straightforward taking account of all the lessons learned from the other side.

To add to the valve gear woes I had a recalcitrant Zimo chip which turns out does not like working on DC which I use for test purposes only. With the chip removed the motor was wired direct to a DC transformer and everything worked. Out came the DCC equipment, chip reinstalled and the handset would not recognise the chip. This lead me to the conclusion that the fault was with the pick-ups and after removal of the chip the loco was again wired for DC. It worked properly, so no problem there. The chip was reinstalled, frames placed back on the DCC track and still nothing. A fraught telephone conversation with the supplier did not help other than the offer to exchange the chip. Something told me to try again and blow me down it worked. I simply do not know what happened but it is fine now although it won’t work on DC unlike all of its other brethren in my collection. It is so easy to waste 3 hours dabbling with electrics.

With the body in place the loco was tested again. On the underside of the tanks there are etched cut outs for the crankpins and those for the middle axle needed to be enlarged. The bogie was also striking the pipework on the injectors and minor alterations had to be made to avoid shorting out. With these alterations completed the buffers and couplings were added.

and a bunker view

The loco is now ready for painting in 1962 mixed traffic livery courtesy of Warren Heywood.

Work on 34010 Sidmouth has also continued and the cab structure is now complete and represents 16 hours work.

A start has been made on detailing the running plate and the next job is to install the boiler and smokebox.

 

[TheSnapper]

Hi Roger

Re: not working on DC, can you check the value of CV29 on the Programming Track and let me know?
Alternatively, I can do it for you.

Tim

 

[Steph Dale]

Roger,

I suspect Tim is right, that CV29 doesn't have its default setting. It happens more often than might be expected that decoders don't have their default settings. Testing is one obvious reason and I suspect there are others.

It's always best practice to do a reset on a decoder once its been installed and that may well overcome your issue.

Steph

 

[Scanlon]

Thanks Steph and Tim for information about CV29.

Back to 34010, irrespective of kit provider Bulleid cabs are quite difficult to assemble, fitting the front windows was always going to be a challenge but success comes to those who persevere. The trouble is the actual window etch is almost sacrificial as about 80% of it is filed away to achieve the very large front window apertures. The cab construction is now almost finished with just a few details to be added, then there will be the boiler backhead to detail.


With this work out of the way it was time to detail the running plate prior to fitting the boiler etc. The oil boxes plus the covers for the support links of the radius rod were fitted. I am always worried when working with resin bodies because one wrong move and you could wreck the most expensive part of a kit. Construction of the smokebox was straightforward as was getting it to sit correctly on the front of the boiler. Alongside its construction I prepared the firebox to sit absolutely flat on the front of the cab. Some deft work with a file and all seemed well, the holes for the self tapping screws were drilled and one was fitted to see if any more filing was necessary. It was a perfect fit first time on both the cab front and the running plate. Before fitting the boiler pilot holes were drilled for all the fittings which are still to be fitted.

After the glue had set between smokebox and boiler the assembly was fitted to the running plate. There were a few tricky moments but all went well and it fitted perfectly first time, I must be getting better. The AWS/electrical conduiting has been fitted along the left hand running plate and that accounts for the two wires leaning against the smokebox.


With this success I decided to turn my attention to the tender, the frames of which are complete including additional pick-ups on the two leading axles.


Constructing the body seems deceptively simple but this is a complicated and time consuming job. Starting with the lockers the front of the tender was built up,


this was followed by soldering the various inner supports in place and constructing the coal space and floor of the tank.


By now a fairly robust box was constructed but set squares were used at all times to ensure the "box" was square. Prior to adding the sides they were passed through rollers to create the distinctive very slight lower curve. Although the whole tender is built on the slot and tab principle one side gave a lot of grief before it was finally in place. Probably the most difficult part of the build so far has been installing the short roof over the lockers. The etch required considerable filing before it would sit cleanly in place and more work is needed to improve the sides of the roof. .

The build is now starting to look like a Bulleid

Next week the outer tender frames will be built and a start made on detailing the engine body.

 

[Scanlon]

The tender is now almost fully detailed. I was not at all happy with the roof over the lockers and thankfully the kit has a spare etch. The original one had been formed by hand and the curve was to say the least wonky. This time I used rollers with a much better result. Once the outer frames had been accurately soldered to the underside of the tank a new issue presented itself. Trial fitting the inner frames to the new outer ones showed a height discrepancy with the inner frames about 1mm too high against the outer etches. Strips of scrap etch soon levelled of this discrepancy and has brought the tender up to its correct height.


Detailing the tender was quite straightforward, there are quite a number of fiddly etches to deal with for the handbrake but once in place they look the part. The axlebox and spring castings were up to the usual Andrews quality with the minimum of flash to be removed. The tender is now at this stage

and

Please excuse the finger-marks etc. Once the Christmas and New Year festivities are behind me I will resume work on the build. The tender requires final fit out principally rear lamps and conduit, rear ladders, vacuum and steam pipes, then it is back to the engine detailing. Still lots to do.

I wish all Western Thunder readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

 

[warren haywood]

Hi Roger here's one I built a few years ago

 

[Scanlon]

Happy New Year to all.

Work will recommence next week on 34010, in the meantime I have decided to start building a Sans Pareil Standard Class 5MT for my own fleet. This will be a longish build as the West Country has priority but developments should take place each weekend. The loco will be 73092 with a BR1C tender in fully lined out green as shown in this postcard (not my copyright).

The loco was transferred to the Southern Region in 1965, based latterly at Guildford and saw out SR steam. It was never fitted with AWS.

I have built two Standard 5's but never from the Sans Pareil kit. Not surprisingly being quite an old kit the build instructions are much briefer than those provided today. Fortunately I came across and copy of the British Railway Modelling Album for 2009 which has an article by Tony Geary on his build of one of these kits. In the article he highlighted some of the issues with the kit and makes recommendations for alternative castings and detailing. I'm following it very closely!

A start has been made on building the tender. The frames were quite straightforward and following my usual construction method were assembled on the chassis jig. After some "internal" debate I decided to use the lost wax brake gear etc. provided in the kit. The Sans Pareil brake rods are quite chunky when compared with the Ragstone products but from a side on view this is not so noticeable. The rear set of rods are just too short and have pulled the brake blocks on the other two axles some way from the wheels. Again with the outside frames in place this is hardly noticeable so I’m debating what I should you. The kit does not have any castings or etches for the handbrake support at the front of the tender so Ragstone parts have been used and married up very nicely. The brake cylinder is not fitted as it would obstruct the forward bolt location.

Will I fit a water scoop? Not sure but this loco did have one and in the spares box there is a complete MOK scoop from my 76XXX which did not have one.

For the tender tank half etched sides and rear are provided and they are very prone to deformation. From experience getting the curves on these tenders correct is a hard task but with no internal markings to aid forming them this became doubly difficult. Using the etch for the rear of the tender I approximated where the curve should begin and then drew a pencil line along the inside of the etch. A piece of 7mm brass rod was used to form the lower curves and they formed up quite well. The upper curves were something else, initially there is a tight radius curve followed by a much easier one to form the upper edge. With a piece of scrap etch in the rolling bars I trialled a variety of curves and decided that as the etches are so thin I should concentrate on the tight radius and then ease out the remaining curve. These are the basic components for the tank.

I was concerned about getting the tank square as there are no slots and tabs nor tank floor, so decided to use L shaped brass angle on the rear etch and on the underside to the tank top to aid stability. This method worked very well and quite quickly the tank took shape, however until all components were in place it was very "elastic" to say the least. Concern at the flimsiness of the half etch sides has vanished as now the tank is a very robust item and fitted on the frames perfectly.

and on the frames


Now back to 34010.

 

[Steph Dale]

Roger,

Worth just checking that the water scoop was in place when running on the Southern. Eastleigh in particular had a habit of removing them...

Steph

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Steph beat me to it - water scoops and Southern generally don't mix.

 

[Scanlon]

Steph, Dave,
Thanks for your thoughts and you have made life easier for me. No scoop.
Roger