Mike G's Workspace.

Mike Garwood

Western Thunderer
Still battling the man flu, I've managed to get a satin varnish onto the 51xx and start the new kit required for the County.

Finished the coupling rods, there are an awful lot of pieces to fit. And my goodness the finished articles are really thin. Disappointingly I had to open out every single etched hole. This made the build really tedious. But, the finished article looks great and the centers match. Admitedly these coupling rods are for a Hall, but they are the same measurements as a County (seven ft by seven ft nine). But once they're spinning are you really going to know the difference - if I hadn't told you?

GWR County coupling rods.jpg

Another dreadful photo from my iPhone!
Currently building the cross heads & slide bars for the County, so far everything fits without fuss. The nice thing about the slide bar construction is that Brassmasters provide a jig to build the slides and fit the pistons, very impressed with that. I'm going to order a few more of these - I have a number of built GWR engines that could do with this up grade.

Stay safe

Mike
 

simond

Western Thunderer
Mike,

I think you’re too close for it to focus. try holding the phone about 3” farther from the object, and zooming in on the screen. They do have pretty good cameras. This using my iphone, photographing the text on my iPad.


FFF7B6C0-C052-4BF3-8EED-51D0C722029F.jpeg


hth
Simon
 

Mike Garwood

Western Thunderer
Thanks to Simon I now have a decent photo of what I've been up to.

County upgrades.jpg

Top are the coupling rods, middle is one of the slide bars and cross heads - Just finished the second one before I started this. Bottom is the jig that's provided. To be honest I didn't use it as intended, but it is handy to fold up and get the registration between the piston head and the receiving piston valve absolutely spot on. Once everything was fitted in place it was just a case of removing the cusps on the slide bars and it all travels smoothly. Lovely little up grade kit, well worth the money and effort.

Back to the 51xx sometime this week, but most probably next week as my daughter has some surgery this Thursday and there will be quite a recuperation period. Here's hoping it goes as smoothly as this did. I've already placed an order for 2 more sets of this stuff.

Stay safe

Mike
 

Mike Garwood

Western Thunderer
Daughters surgery went according to plan, now recovering slowly. My man flu is still hanging around which makes it 4 weeks since it started!

Back with the 51xx...
Wheels and springing sorted on the radial truck and pony. It all runs thru my plank when pushed - which was a bit of a surprise - it'll be a different story once the body goes on and power is applied.

GWr 51xx chassis completed.jpg

I've also put the brakes in, this makes a huge difference to the look of the chassis. The surprising thing with the brakes was that I had to file down some of the brake linings to get them to fit comfortably. Nothing major, just another annoyance.

GWR 51xx brakes on.jpg

The good thing about the radial truck is that the springing is fairly unobtrusive.

GWR 51xx topping out.jpg

And finally a bit of a topping out ceremony as the polished top hat went on, and if I'm not mistaken needs some more of an adjustment for a better fit to the boiler. At least I feel as though I'm coming towards the end with this project. This Friday will see a trip to Barrow Road and there will be some more rolling stock to test. Can't wait!

Stay safe

Mike
 
Top