Nick Dunhill's workbench - Scratchbuilding a Reid NBR Atlantic from an ACE Kit.

[Martin Shaw]

I've always though it somewhat strange that despite J.F.MacIntosh originating in the locomotive running department the cab interior is a major disaster for the crew, especially the driver when running in reverse, or the fireman if he wants to put any coal on. The Stroudley firehole door, the utterly appalling blower valve control, a directly operated whistle valve are some of it's failings. By contrast the large 5' 9" driving wheels accelerate the thing b quick if necessarily without much grip, and the double beat regulator is a joy to operate, both light and responsive, Sir Nigel could have usefully learnt something here. The reversing lever leans so far back that you have to do neat pirouettes around it to change from looking out the side to sounding the whistle. Perhaps in Caley days they didnt run in reverse so much although 50% of the Cathcart Circle must have been done backwards. They were actually quite small as 0-4-4Ts go, certainly compared to an M7 or H class.

Anyway Nick if you need any prototype pics I can access the real one easily enough, just ask.

Regards
Martin

 

[Daddyman]

Shame about the parking…

Personally, I'm grateful for it (the parking) - I'd tried for years to work out how the clothing was arranged!

 

[Overseer]

Also, some discussion on the Caledonian Association forum suggested that the plate on the frame stretcher under the bufferbeam was the Prussian eagle with no reason for why it's there.

The plaque looks more like a Scotch Thistle emblem to me, with slightly more elaborate leaf work than usual, possibly more likely as well.

 

[Daddyman]

if you need any prototype pics I can access the real one easily enough, just ask.

I'd say Nick is going to need a view looking down the boiler from the cab, showing the curves in the boiler clothing/tank tops. I took loads at Bo'ness a few years back but can't currently find them.

 

[Nick Dunhill]

So here we are after a restful holiday back on the tools. During the holiday a nice bag of parts arrived from LGM so it seemed appropriate to finish the tender. I added the lamp irons, a shortened water filler casting and the reverser handle, the picture might not show all the castings in place!

Laurie's bag of delights for the cab did not include a firehole door or a few of the other fittings. Can't imagine why NBR fittings aren't the top of everyone's wish list! You won't find any in the kit either.

So here's the backhead detail as it was made. The water gauges are made from the top and bottom valve castings and some 2 x 2 mm perspex tube drilled down the middle. It is all detachable for painting.

This is a picture of the backhead with the offering in the kit.

And here's that backhead with the rest of the whitemetal parts supplied in the kit.

But I did find a use for them....

......as ballast. More comfort from the knowledge that some of the kit came to good use.

Here's the finished cab. Pretty much everything is either scratchbuilt or castings bought in.....except the cab floor. I used the cab floor!

The last job of the week was the Westinghouse pump. The kit had 2 identical castings for this item but both were wrong. Why supply 2 wrong ones? One correct one would have been better, am I asking too much?

Anyway I modified one left over from the LSWR 02 builds I did last year. The pump is mounted on a stand and of course there's nothing in the kit for that either, or the regulator casting. So a happy friday afternoon was spent with the piercing saw out of it's box again.

The ACE box is now mercifully empty of the items that are, laughably, described collectively as a kit. I used about 10% of it, or to be more accurate Graham did before he gave up building it. The description 'Misrepresentation' springs to my mind. I have enjoyed my scratchbuilding adventure so far, whether my client will enjoy paying my builder's fee remains to be seen.

Should finish the thing next week.

 

[Overseer]

Nick, you are making it difficult to click the like button. I like what you are ending up with but feel sorry for you having to work out what is wrong and throw most of the kit away. Looking at the cab layout these must have been awkward locos to drive and see where you are going. Did the driver perch on the box in front of the reverser to reach the brake valves while stretching to reach the regulator?

 

[Nick Dunhill]

Everything does seem a bit inconveniently located. I just followed the drawing I have, perhaps ergonomics wasn't the thing it is now?

''Just get on with it son! There's plenty more where you came from!'' No Mick Lynch in those days.

 

[GrahamMc]

I used about 10% of it

Can I have the bits that are left over please, there's something I want to make...

 

[Pencarrow]

I was looking at the Ace Kits Merchant Navy kit. I quite fancy one in wartime black with flush smoke deflectors. I think it looks quite sinister. I wonder if the kit is as 'challenging' as the Reid Atlantic?

Mike

Late to the party...

Having seen finished ACE kits of the MN I would stay well clear. I say that from the point of view that it just looks wrong rather than from being a kit builder.

 

[Pencarrow]

I had a bit of computer drama this week which is mercifully resolved. The work on the boiler continued and I was able nail it all together and add the boiler bands and the boiler fittings. That nice Mr Davies printed me a lovely dome to replace the dome-like white metal lump in the kit.

The painter got in touch and sent me a picture of a Reid Allantic with a star symbol under the smoke box door handles. I descovered that lots of these locos had such a feature and it was a Masonic thing, reflecting the membership of lots of railwaymen at that time. Anyway I accepted his challenge and made one.

Apparently its a Masonic Blazing Star. The kit had two smokebox door castings (one decent one would have done) but I modified the casting to make it a bit more acceptable.

Mick sent me a much higher resolution picture of one of the locos in works grey and I spent a lot of the week adding details to the footplate and some further pipework to the chassis that I hadn't previously noticed. I think this was just a strategy to avoid building the splashers. Finally I ran out of diversionary stuff and had to make them.

The etchings in the kit weren't a total loss. The holes in the footplate for the wheels were in the wrong place and fouled the tyres, this also meant that the foldy up splasher sides etched into the footplate were also in the wrong place. I removed them from the footplate but in any event they were too small. The kit contained some parts to make the splasher inside and top (or maybe alternative splasher outsides and tops, we'll never know.) The curved top section was too narrow and long but the front (or rear) was spot on. Further unconfined pleasure that some more of the cost of the kit had been value for money. I made 4 splashers using some of the kit and that's where work for 2022 ended. I have got a bit lucky as the new splashers disguise the fact that the appertures in the footplate for the wheels are in the wrong place, or maybe they were designed like that.

So the scrap bin did get a little fuller this week. Here's the state of play as of this morning.

Here's the new splashers, the fixing plates with the rivets is a little longer than required to cover the holes in the footplate, but I'll trim as required.

I hope to get them finished in early in January, but I'm pleased that there are mo more structures to be scratchbuilt.

nick dunhill

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Some superb work in this thread Nick, oh for a 10th of your skill!

Out of interest what happens to the bucket when full? Do you get it weighed in at a scrap yard or just take it to the tip, sorry, recycling centre??

 

[Eastsidepilot]

Some superb work in this thread Nick, oh for a 10th of your skill!

Out of interest what happens to the bucket when full? Do you get it weighed in at a scrap yard or just take it to the tip, sorry, recycling centre??

On the few occasions I took scrap brass and nickel to the scrap merchant it paid for a few more sheets of brass and nickel to continue scratch building

 

[Nick Dunhill]

Both bins total about 11 kg of brass/NS and there's some bronze in there too (knackered motorcycle suspension parts.) I'll wait 'till the top one is fuller and take them here;

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And get about 3.50GBP/kg. I'll do it on a sunny day and take my motorcycle into the Peak District and spend the cash on a nice lunch for my wife and myself.

In the middle of winter I always wish I lived somewhere with a warmer climate!

 

[Dog Star]

Can I have the bits that are left over please, there's something I want to make...

View attachment 177508

You might benefit from speaking to Tony (@Osgood), I think that he is likely to have most of the fittings in one of his storage sheds.

 

[Nick Dunhill]

With regards to the ACE Merchant Navy, and other ACE kits. He has some kits in his range that have been 'bought-in' ie designed by others. He has some of the old Meteor Kits in his range and they were OK I hear, so it would be wrong to dismiss the whole range. All the ones I have built (or considered building) have been in-house jobs and were all crap. His stuff has distinctive labeling and numbering on the border of the etch and the ACE logo, I'd avoid anything William designed.

You can see here that the Reid Atlantic kit I'm making comes with his Jersey Lilley chassis! Wonder if it fits the rest of his Jersey Lilley kit?

With regards to un-rebuilt MNs, I've been asked several times to make a model, and approached Mickoo to see about getting some custom etches made and maybe selling them as a kit. The big problem we discovered is that barely any MNs were the same and they were modified many times which makes a generic kit difficult/impossible.

 

[Pencarrow]

With regards to the ACE Merchant Navy, and other ACE kits. He has some kits in his range that have been 'bought-in' ie designed by others. He has some of the old Meteor Kits in his range and they were OK I hear, so it would be wrong to dismiss the whole range. All the ones I have built (or considered building) have been in-house jobs and were all crap. His stuff has distinctive labeling and numbering on the border of the etch and the ACE logo, I'd avoid anything William designed.

You can see here that the Reid Atlantic kit I'm making comes with his Jersey Lilley chassis! Wonder if it fits the rest of his Jersey Lilley kit?

With regards to un-rebuilt MNs, I've been asked several times to make a model, and approached Mickoo to see about getting some custom etches made and maybe selling them as a kit. The big problem we discovered is that barely any MNs were the same and they were modified many times which makes a generic kit difficult/impossible.

To be fair it's only the cabs, tenders, body, ashpan, fronts and a multitude of other fittings that changed from loco to loco...

 

[spikey faz]

With regards to un-rebuilt MNs, I've been asked several times to make a model, and approached Mickoo to see about getting some custom etches made and maybe selling them as a kit. The big problem we discovered is that barely any MNs were the same and they were modified many times which makes a generic kit difficult/impossible.

Looks like I'll have to build one from scratch then! See you in about ten years time.

Mike

 

[chigley]

Can I have the bits that are left over please, there's something I want to make...

View attachment 177508

is that a ace kit

 

[simond]

is that a ace kit

Yep, for a pannier tank.

 

[Eastsidepilot]

The 'Ace' name came from the wrong end of the pack maybe 'Joker' would have been more appropriate !

Nick, this book has some excellent reference on the history and there are details of dates, liveries and lettering that the individual loco's received.




ISBN 0 7153 5588 0 Published by David & Charles.

 

[Nick Dunhill]

Thanks Col, I have a copy of that book already.