Scanlon
Western Thunderer
46240 is slowly being reassembled or so I thought! As the smokebox had become loose during the paint stripping stage the fine handrails did not survive and have had to be cut off. The join between boiler and smokebox required careful cleaning up to ensure the resin castings were not to be reduced in overall length. I used the flat side of a scalpel to remove 90% of the remaining paper washer together with whatever glue had been used. This was followed up with a light wire brushing using a brass wheel. The assembly was then re-glued together and stood upright for two hours to let everything set.
The cab was screwed onto the firebox and then the entire assembly was offered up to the frames. Minor filing was required at the front to get the smokebox to fit snugly on the running plate. A trial run with a deflector was made and revealed a gap between the slight drop section of the deflector and the leading edge of the running plate. Short filler pieces of nickel silver to "bridge" the gap have been made up. Replacing the fittings which had fallen off during cleaning and building the utility front end including deflectors has taken a good 8 hours. A few of the very delicate lubrication pipes had come adrift and these too were attended to.
Work on the body is now almost finished with the AWS, speedo, a pair of handrails and the vacuum and steam heat pipes to refit.
Attention has turned to the frames. The major alteration was to replace the cylinder wrappers for the post war style. Some of the pipework has come adrift and in places was not properly located under/within the running plate. Also one coupling rod needed some attention. I knew this was going to open a can of worms but when, during removing the cylinders the front framing dropped off, I had that light bulb moment this would be a long job. After an hour I was down to this
Unfortunately the previous builder had soldered the cylinder wrappers to the frames so it was only after they had been removed would the main cylinder etch move. A further problem was the front of the frames had been pinned to the motion bracket assembly and it took some time to work out what had been done and how to extract the pins. As both the upper slidebars had been mounted incorrectly they were also removed. All work I had not been expecting.
During discussions with Richard I had expressed concern at the frail mounting of the utility front end under the smokebox. Just two fillets of solder, very vulnerable and liable to fracture.
It was decided to mount the entire structure on the front of the frames once they were reassembled, this was the new parts list.
Now the frames look like this
The front frames have been completely stripped down and rebuilt. The utility front end was installed and squared up following which the whole assembly was then pinned to the main frames in accordance with the build procedure and once finally in place soldered up. Given the opportunity both coupling rods were re-fettled and the cylinders have received the new post war outer wrappers. At present the motion bracket assembly has not been put into the frames as more work is necessary to make it drop into their locating slots.
The cab was screwed onto the firebox and then the entire assembly was offered up to the frames. Minor filing was required at the front to get the smokebox to fit snugly on the running plate. A trial run with a deflector was made and revealed a gap between the slight drop section of the deflector and the leading edge of the running plate. Short filler pieces of nickel silver to "bridge" the gap have been made up. Replacing the fittings which had fallen off during cleaning and building the utility front end including deflectors has taken a good 8 hours. A few of the very delicate lubrication pipes had come adrift and these too were attended to.
Work on the body is now almost finished with the AWS, speedo, a pair of handrails and the vacuum and steam heat pipes to refit.
Attention has turned to the frames. The major alteration was to replace the cylinder wrappers for the post war style. Some of the pipework has come adrift and in places was not properly located under/within the running plate. Also one coupling rod needed some attention. I knew this was going to open a can of worms but when, during removing the cylinders the front framing dropped off, I had that light bulb moment this would be a long job. After an hour I was down to this
Unfortunately the previous builder had soldered the cylinder wrappers to the frames so it was only after they had been removed would the main cylinder etch move. A further problem was the front of the frames had been pinned to the motion bracket assembly and it took some time to work out what had been done and how to extract the pins. As both the upper slidebars had been mounted incorrectly they were also removed. All work I had not been expecting.
During discussions with Richard I had expressed concern at the frail mounting of the utility front end under the smokebox. Just two fillets of solder, very vulnerable and liable to fracture.
It was decided to mount the entire structure on the front of the frames once they were reassembled, this was the new parts list.
Now the frames look like this
The front frames have been completely stripped down and rebuilt. The utility front end was installed and squared up following which the whole assembly was then pinned to the main frames in accordance with the build procedure and once finally in place soldered up. Given the opportunity both coupling rods were re-fettled and the cylinders have received the new post war outer wrappers. At present the motion bracket assembly has not been put into the frames as more work is necessary to make it drop into their locating slots.
