Sandy Harper
Western Thunderer
This series of photographs shows the complexity of some parts of the kit. The cylinder attachment consists of a cylinder spacer with 'handed'cylinder 'attachment brackets' to obtain the correct 15 degree slope of the cylinders and the front and rear cylinder faces. The casting, that sits under the smokebox, needs to be carefully shaped to be a neat fit over the top of the cylinder and chassis spacers.
The axle bearings depart from the traditional method by being inserted from the inside of the chassis. This is to allow the chassis to be wider than normal due to their being no 'footplate on this engine. This also means that normal plunger pickups cannot be easily used so I used a method, shown in the photographs, of making a small 'cutout' in the top of the chassis, behind the driving wheels , and attaching a sprung 'back scratcher' pickup to a short length of copper clad, glued to the inside of the chassis frames. The Nickel Silver wire shown in the photograph was changed for 32swg phosphor bronze wire.
The brakes were a bit tricky to get right as there is not a lot of room between the front driver and cylinder rear.
If you look closely at the bearing for the middle axle you will see a couple of further modifications I have made. I formed a recess in the end of the bearing for the spring to sit in and filed a flat on the bearing to slide against a length of scrap 'L' shaped brass to prevent the bearing rotating.
The valve gear, all cast nickle, was the next challenge but it all fits together quite well. I modified it so that the cylinders and motion bracket could be removed as one which will require the Slaters crank pins replacing with 10BA bolts and also tapping the bearings 10BA (8 in total as 4 are needed for the middle cranks)
Regards
Sandy
The axle bearings depart from the traditional method by being inserted from the inside of the chassis. This is to allow the chassis to be wider than normal due to their being no 'footplate on this engine. This also means that normal plunger pickups cannot be easily used so I used a method, shown in the photographs, of making a small 'cutout' in the top of the chassis, behind the driving wheels , and attaching a sprung 'back scratcher' pickup to a short length of copper clad, glued to the inside of the chassis frames. The Nickel Silver wire shown in the photograph was changed for 32swg phosphor bronze wire.
The brakes were a bit tricky to get right as there is not a lot of room between the front driver and cylinder rear.
If you look closely at the bearing for the middle axle you will see a couple of further modifications I have made. I formed a recess in the end of the bearing for the spring to sit in and filed a flat on the bearing to slide against a length of scrap 'L' shaped brass to prevent the bearing rotating.
The valve gear, all cast nickle, was the next challenge but it all fits together quite well. I modified it so that the cylinders and motion bracket could be removed as one which will require the Slaters crank pins replacing with 10BA bolts and also tapping the bearings 10BA (8 in total as 4 are needed for the middle cranks)
Regards
Sandy
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