Progress(?) of a sort with the Steam Railmotor ...
With the power unit running (albeit without its full set of Walchaerts motion), I decided that I should now turn my attention to the upper works with the items provided on the "scratch aid" etch from Worsley Works.
The etched parts provided in the "scratch aid" kit. As can be seen there are a pair of sides and ends and an underframe floor.
Initially, I turned my attention to the underframe. This comprises a floor with two fold up uprights to prevent the body sides from bowing inwards, and a pair of parts to fold into an L profile to represent the solebars. These parts were separated from the etch, the relevant folds made and strengthened with solder and the solebars united with the floor. The only hitch on the way was one of the tabs not the sole bar didn't align with its slot in the floor, so the tab was simply filed off. Despite varying my soldering points to minimise heat build up, I did end up with a very slightly bowed underframe, pressing it firmly down onto a sheet of tufnol and re-applying the iron along the floor where the sole bar slots were eradicated this issue though.
A not very clear photo of the assembled underframe (solebars at the bottom, upright support for the body sides top).
As I mentioned in my previous post, I am trying to build an SRM from an earlier lot than the preserved 1908 dated No.93 that the etch represents. The main differences that I can see is that the earlier lot(s) started life with a pair of large windows to the engine compartment (later the windows were reduced in size, a panel instated with a cover for the water filler in the middle), and the main compartment passenger door was a pair of narrow doors on the earlier lots.
With the above in mind, the first task was to enlarge the engine room windows on the etch :
First, the existing vertical window bar was removed, and the panel on the side of the windows towards the rear of the coach cut out, making good with fine files.
Second, the new window spaces received a patch of 0.004" nickel silver sheet - I had decided that it would be far better to cut the new windows in situ rather than trying to align pre-formed windows.
Third, a vertical line was marked with a permanent marker where the central window frame will be, a hole drilled in the middle of each window, then files were employed to work outwards from those holes to removed what will be the glazed area of each window.
This gave me a pair of sides with a pair of windows cut out. In reality, these windows should slide, so one should sit behind the other - the jury is still out on whether I will file one of the windows out to the panelling and solder another piece of 0.004" behind and repeat the process to give me a slightly more rebated window (I almost certainly will as I know it will bug me into the future if I don't!!)
The doors to the engine compartment at the front of the coach were next. From what I can see, it appears that the doors did not have a turn-under (indeed the later ones were sliding doors). First though, the turn-under on the coach sides was formed - I always do this by taping the bottom of the side to a piece of 3/4" round bar and forming the turn-under by rubbing along the lower part of the side with my thumb (for the thin-sided panelled coaches that I've built so far this works really well, although I'm not sure how it would work with more modern stock with thicker sides).
To allow the flat door to sit correctly against the inside of the side, I soldered some 0.004" each side of the upper half of the door frame and then soldered the door in place behind that, filling any gaps where the turn-under is with solder.
One of the engine compartment doors in place.
Now comes the problem !!!
When I originally examined the sides to ascertain whether they would be suitable for an earlier variant, one of the things I'd noticed was that the panels each side of the central passenger door(s) were equal width - the one on the side nearest the engine compartment should be wider. I decided that I could live with this minor anomaly, although even No.93 has the old arrangement of panel sizings around the central door so in actual fact there is an error in the Worsley Works artwork. I was hoping that I would be able to modify the existing single door by simply supergluing small pieces of 0.005" plasticard in the various panels/window to give the illusion that it was a double door in my model. However, it transpires that the error in panel width alluded to has introduced another error in the artwork - the door frame is too wide for the door provided :
As can be seen, the door is too narrow for the door frame (I have added a piece of 0.004" behind the door frame as I had for the engine compartment doors, although it is yet to be filed back to the size of the door frame).
I am now in a bit of a quandary, in that I'm not too sure how to progress. As I see it, I can try to make a new set of double doors to fit the door frame which will I will probably do in plasticard and glue in place after all of the soldering has been completed (I seriously doubt that I would be able to fret out a lace of mouldings in nickel silver to apply over a pair of doors). The alternative (if I want to use the existing doors) would be to lose about 1mm of length in the doorway (which would be the easy way to do (but it would give me a 69'6" SRM, which I don't mind if necessary) with potentially just a single door). Decisions, decisions!!!
Either way, I'm going to put it to one side for a few days while I cogitate
One other thing that I need to check is the coach ends - I'm not completely convinced that they aren't too tall compared to the sides!! I haven't removed them from the fret yet, but a casual look makes me think that they may be! I'll report back on that one.
Thanks for looking,
Ian
