Ian's Workshop, G&SWR 'Auld Bogie' in S7

[Ian@StEnochs]

Hi Ian,

To make the laminated sandwich stronger, in the past I have soldered a bit of brass tube through the holes for the buffer housings. holds the inner and outer laminations together and gives more metal to solder the buffer housing to, if this helps.

JB.

I hadn’t thought of that. In the past I have just used epoxy to hold the buffers. Later on I will fix the lamp irons and brake pipes with wire ‘bolts’ which will be pressed into the wooden core with a smear of glue to make them permanent. This picture shows the almost finished planks for a Stirling 2-4-0 which is slowly going through the paint shop.

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

Yesterday I got a bit of time to complete the bogie. The basic frames are 22 thou nickel silver but the bottom is made from a slab of 1/8” brass to give a bit of weight low down. The axles run in brass tube with square axleboxes made from slices of square plastic tube glued on the ends. The axlebox guides are fabricated from brass angle and are designed so that the brass tube is insulated electrically from the frames. The wheels have one wheel live to the axle so I get one pickup each side from the bogie, the wire will be soldered on later in the build.



The axles are sprung, they need very little movement on such a short wheelbase, with piano wire springs, the red plastic sleeve provide the insulation and the screws allow adjustment of ride height once the loco is weighted. There is no bogie side play on the original loco so I am reproducing that on the model with a central bolt screwed onto the mainframe. I haven’t decided yet whether this will be rigid or have a spring but will wait until I see how the loco runs.



The next stage is to make up the basic body to check for motor clearance before detailing the frames.

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

Back to the work bench after a week working at Scotlands biggest real ale festival, a few days away to recover and a bad cold. However I got a whole day today so made some significant progress.


I used the two valances which I had sawn out previously to make a temporary jig to form the curly footplate. The plates were soldered to a bit of thick nickel silver and the footplate blanks cut from 10 thou curved over. I used a torch to anneal the parts where they were to be curved and teased the metal into shape with some offcuts of bar. Once both plates had been formed to my satisfaction they were cleaned up and the jig dismantled so that the parts could be soldered to the footplates.





I have used a rectangle of plate at the front and the drag beam and the back to support the footplates. Before soldering the cutouts for the wheels were marked off and cut out. I used a slitting disc in the mini drill which made short work cutting away the bulk but leaving some metal to be removed once the splashers were soldered on.





The splashers were assembled next. The blank for the front was fretted out of 22 thou plate soldered to a mandrel and turned to size with the front turned down to leave the beading, the blank was cut in two and rolled strip soldered on. The bottom of the splashers were offered up to the curly footplate and then trimmed to fit, quite a time consuming job. The bottom beading was traced off the splasher and soldered on before rubbing flat on some emery paper to blend the beading.





Once all 4 splashers were completed they were soldered permanently. There is very little clearance between the wheel flanges and the inside of the splasher so a piece of thin card was curved over the wheel to ensure they were on the same centres. This would be a bit tricky in fine standard O and would probably need reduced size wheels or oversize splashers.


The top bit of the frames was soldered onto the footplate and the buffer plank just slotted on for the photo.





Next stage will be fitting the motor, pickups and trying it out before finishing the frame detailing. However tomorrow is Scotgog in Linlithgow so I wont get back to the workshop until sometime next week.

 

[john lewsey]

This looks nice

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

Today I got the motor fitted and wired up the axleboxes so could to a wee test run. It runs ok but there was a bit of a short circuit on the front bogie wheels where the flanges are touching the angle iron which holds the buffer planks. I had to file the rivets down a bit until they were virtually flush. I suspect that on the original there would be some contact but then the G&SW didn’t need to worry about electrical shorts! I may just take the angle off and replace it with a thinner piece but not made that decision yet.

I may need to remove some of the motor spindle to let the boiler/firebox sit down but I will only do that if absolutely necessary. The smokebox is just sitting in place for effect. With the motor in place and a torque resisting stay fitted I made and fitted the ashpan and spring castings onto the keeper plate. While the ash pan was open I took the opportunity to fill what I could of it with lead sheet. The rear part of it is open to accommodate the gear box but it is not too obvious behind the springs.


Next job will be brakes and sanding gear.



Ian.

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

I assembled the brake gear today. It is designed as a separate unit which can be removed for painting and to let the wheels drop out.

The brake cylinder on a Manson engine was mounted right at the back of the locomotive underneath the drag beam in a little frame which had the fulcrum for the lever curving underneath and visible in profile. On this engine I mounted the frames on a thick piece of brass, adds a bit of weight where needed, secured with a 10 BA screw which will also hold the tender drawbar.





The hangers and brake beams are fretted out of 18 thou sheet while the forked ends to the pull rods and adjusters were made from brass sections. The brake blocks are made from 3 mm thick black Perspex which means I can let them touch the wheels without fear of shorts. The little hanger brackets on the frames are sawn out of 3 mm brass and shaped with files. They are soldered to the frames and reinforced with 0.5 mm wire rivets.



Until the final assembly the blocks and hangers are just held with little pieces of 0.7 wire which will be replaced with proper shaped ones.

I got the sandboxes on too. Shaped from brass rod and screwed on through the holes I had drilled for the temporary spacers. Sandpipes will be microbore tube but I am out of stock at the moment, I should have checked before last Telford show so will have to do a bit of mail order!

Ian.

 

[P A D]

Superb Ian!

May I ask why the axle ends and driving wheel bosses are different?

Cheers,
Peter

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

Superb Ian!

May I ask why the axle ends and driving wheel bosses are different?

Cheers,
Peter

Peter,

The front axle is cranked and both wheels are insulated from it. The rear axle is split. Once painted the differences will not be visible.

Ian.

 

[Jon Nazareth]

Ian
I liked the look of the forked ends to the pull rods. Could you tell me how you made them, please, and what size are they?

Jon

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

Ian
I liked the look of the forked ends to the pull rods. Could you tell me how you made them, please, and what size are they?

Jon

Thanks Jon,

The forked ends are made from 3 mm square brass with the end turned down and drilled in the lathe. The bar was reduced to 2 mm with a file and the end rounded then the 0.7 wide slot was cut with a piercing saw. Hope that helps.

Ian.

 

[Jon Nazareth]

Ian
Thank you for that. I've bought small clevice pins from time to time but, sometimes, they aren't small enough nor quite the right shape so, I'll have to give it a go. You must have a very small four jaw chuck in order to hold such small stock. Do you have a jewellers lathe?

Jon

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

Ian
Thank you for that. I've bought small clevice pins from time to time but, sometimes, they aren't small enough nor quite the right shape so, I'll have to give it a go. You must have a very small four jaw chuck in order to hold such small stock. Do you have a jewellers lathe?

Jon

Jon,

I have a Myford super 7. Most of the work holding is in a Burnerd griptru chuck but I also have a cheap Polish self entering 4 jaw Chuck. It will hold square stock from 1.5 and is very useful for boiler mountings and fittings. The brand is TOS, has a Myford screw and only cost me £60. It has certainly been a useful buy.

Ian.

 

[Jon Nazareth]

Ian
Is that the 4" self centring TOS chuck?

Jon

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

Ian
Is that the 4" self centring TOS chuck?

Jon

Yes Jon. I bought it about 15 years ago and it has been invaluable. The self centring jaws go down to almost 1 mm and are great for square stock. It also came with a set of soft jaws which see a lot of use in wheel turning.

Ian.

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

Quite a bit more progress made since I last posted.

The boiler is relatively simple rolled up from 10 thou NS over a couple of formers, tied with iron wire, and the butt joint soldered and reinforced with a piece of tee section brass section with the leg outwards. A couple of fine sawcuts and some manipulation to form the firebox. I used a large cutting disc in the Dremel to shape the curves round the splashers which did take quite a while to get right but any slight gaps are covered by the angle irons, 1mm brass angle, around the joints.



The smokebox is screwed to the footplate and through the hole in the front sandwiching a turned brass disc which can be removed for painting. I have also assembled the basic cab but not fixed it in place. It makes assembling and piping up the boiler fittings a lot easier than if the cab is not in the way. It is also easier to fit out the cab. The steam reverser is from a casting and is held on with a screw from inside the splasher, it still needs its pipes and controls. Looking more like a loco now.

 

[Jon Nazareth]

Yes Jon. I bought it about 15 years ago and it has been invaluable. The self centring jaws go down to almost 1 mm and are great for square stock. It also came with a set of soft jaws which see a lot of use in wheel turning.

Ian.

Ian
Thanks for the reply

Jon

 

[john lewsey]

That looks superb

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

Yesterday I completed the basic cab but it was too dark to take a photo.

The roof is quite straightforward being a simple arc. In model form I could get away with just a piece of 10 thou plate but to add a little extra weight I add an inner piece of 22thou which fits inside the sides, front and rear strut. This makes the cab more rigid and adds a little extra weight to he rear end of the loco. In the words of a well known supermarket ‘every little helps’!



The angle is 2 1/2” on the prototype so 1.5mm is about right. To form it to the roof radius without it collapsing I solder two pieces back to back and put through the rollers. It’s nicely tinned after that and easily soldered on. As there are only three ribs there is a spare for the next engine. I will leave the roof off until the interior detailing is completed.



You can see that the cab cut out beading is completed with the flat part made from 15 thou which will be filed to a roundish surface and polished after the cab is finally fixed, it’s a bit floppy just now despite the strengthening angles at the front corners. I have also got all the holes drilled for pipes and handrails, little slivers of tube make the ferrules for the hand rails. I find it easier to get the holes in the correct place, and drill them, with the cab separate from the boiler. All the pipes which go through the front and their fittings are made and safely stored until after painting. I say safely stored but there have been previous projects where I have been unable to find where they were ‘safely’ stored!

Also in the picture are the spectacle glass frames. These are turned and milled up from bar but still await their glass. These too go in after painting.

I think I will move on to the tender now. I don’t like building tenders and usually complete it first but not in this case.

Ian.

 

[john lewsey]

Hi Ian
Some really nice work there
John

 

[simond]

A “like” seems faint praise, this is very nice indeed.

Thanks for the tip re rolling angle, and I do like the idea of a thin cab roof with a thicker bit sweated t9 the inside.

Atb
Simon