The Chronicles of Canary Sidings - the Tale of an Untidy Workbench

[Herb Garden]

So this has nothing to do with anything....

When I was a teen-ager I had a trainset in my parents loft with a great western theme.... Well at the time we used to go on holiday into the western region as it was where my mum had family and also wasn't to hard to get to.

Although I have very little left from that setup my I still have my trusty bachmann 45xx still in OO that I've had for at least 15 years.

That said it hasn't really turned a wheel in a decade and just sat it it's box



The reason for this is every time I tried running it to check it still worked the motor started to smoke, not ideal.

So after finishing this afternoon's decorating I got a urge to do some problem solving and took it out of the box to have a look....

Look what I found jammed in the motor!

Yep that bit of wire was stuck between motor and stator. How it got there is anyone's guess

Least to say it was removed and the 45xx is now running well again and not smoking.

You may note that certain details have been removed from the front of this model. This is because in my teens I tried to back date it to 1906 condition. Just like @Ian Smith has done on his superb Modbury thread just a lot less successfully in my case....

Maybe I will finish that conversion? Maybe it will get converted to EM? But for now I am glad an old friend is running again after so many years. Yes it's nothing to do with my interests in Victorian East Anglia but I have had it so long that.... Well sentimentality gets in the way.

Anyone else have a model that they have that really had no place in Thier collection but holds a special place for sentimental reasons?

Anyhoo normal service will be resumed tomorrow....

 

[Herb Garden]

Normal service has now been resumed.... And after much resoldering we have sandboxes on both sides of the loco. First one took me 10 mins yesterday this one took me a hour go figure.....

 

[AJC]

Normal service has now been resumed.... And after much resoldering we have sandboxes on both sides of the loco. First one took me 10 mins yesterday this one took me a hour go figure.....

View attachment 187536

Coming on nicely - I have the same issue with two identical joins taking wildly different amounts of time to execute (and off piste models cluttering up the place - most of my industrials for a start…).

Adam

 

[Herb Garden]

and off piste models cluttering up the place - most of my industrials for a start…).

Adam, I think there are many of us who have an off piste collection of industrials just awaiting that cameo project....

Here's some of mine awaiting a project on a sugar beat factory theme amongst others

 

[AJC]

Adam, I think there are many of us who have an off piste collection of industrials just awaiting that cameo project....

Here's some of mine awaiting a project on a sugar beat factory theme amongst others
View attachment 187551

A nice selection - and the diesels at least are beet factory adjacent, which is more disciplined than I am. I’ve locos suitable for collieries (suitable for the NE, the Midlands and South Wales - and overlapping wagon fleets), several steel industry machines and a colony of Sentinels… so of course my layout is set in Somerset, and the wrong end for the coalfield.

Adam

 

[Herb Garden]

and the diesels at least are beet factory adjacent, which is more disciplined than I am

It's less discipline more happy coincidence.... It does help I have a certain soft spot for Ruston diesels.... Don't have a 165ds which is strange in that respect

 

[Herb Garden]

So the rivet press came out again today and proved it was worth the investment once again

This also marks the point where I add well founded speculation to what has up till this point been well evidenced fact.....

In the 1870s Will Adams and Massey Bromley replaced most smokeboxes on Johnson Locomotives. For some reason unrecorded these didn't seem to last very long and we're usually replaced less that ten years into the loco's service life.

Now as previously mentioned numbers 73 & 74 although being outshopped in 1870 as 'new'* were scrapped in 1877 and 1879 respectively and therefore they might have kept their smokeboxes as built until the end. However my plan is to push their end date out so they can run with some other early 1880s stock and give them the lifespan they should have deserved. So therefore I am now deviating from the one drawing I have to add the Adams / Bromley riveted smokebox where originally there would have been a flared front like similar Johnson locos.







So now I can start on the really fun bit putting a face on the loco in the form of the smokebox door.


* (rebuild technically - loco dept meeting demands by traffic dept when there was minimal finance to do so. What the traffic dept said when they got the new locomotives they had been promised is lost to time)

 

[Herb Garden]

So today has gone.... Modelling, wallpapering, beach, modelling, BBQ.....

Perfect bank holiday with perfect bank holiday weather...

So as to the modelling it is time to put a face on the loco.

Someone asked me, and I think it was @Richard Gawler, how I did my smokebox doors.... Well here's how.

We start off with two brass disks... Thin material one smaller than the other. The smaller gets anealled over the gas hob whilst no one is looking and a chamfer put on the back

This is then rolled under a massive brass ball bearing in a mould untill dished




A simple matter then of soldering the two together



Hinge is made out of strip, shawplan lamp bracket as a matter of fact and the door handle is the Alan Gibson favourite.

 

[AJC]

Nicely done smokebox door. Now - and this is @Daddyman's usual role, so apologies, David - about that smokebox door handle. It's a bit big. A more delicate alternative would be to cross drill through some fine tube (say 0.8mm OD), to solder a length of 0.3mm wire into the resulting hole before repeating the operation at a suitable angle. Looks a lot better on a small loco' like this.

Adam

 

[Herb Garden]

Nicely done smokebox door. Now - and this is @Daddyman's usual role, so apologies, David - about that smokebox door handle. It's a bit big. A more delicate alternative would be to cross drill through some fine tube (say 0.8mm OD), to solder a length of 0.3mm wire into the resulting hole before repeating the operation at a suitable angle. Looks a lot better on a small loco' like this.

Adam

I might give that a go on the next project as I do see what you mean. However I'm going to stick with this one like this cos although it is a little big but it captures the look I want to that suits me.

Also I've got it all soldered up now and the last thing I want to do is go back anywhere near it... Even with the rsu

 

[Richard Gawler]

It is good to see how the smokebox doors can be made, although in 7mm scale I might need to raid the town museum for a canonball in lieu of the ball bearing

I ended up buying two blanks from Laurie Griffin, one went onto my Y14 and the other is in a box for a future project.

 

[Herb Garden]

So after a couple of days not being too well.... I'm back at the work bench with the result we now have buffers!

 

[Herb Garden]

So there are one or two issues with modelling long gone Locomotives. One is when you want to model a piece of detail there is very little to go on.

One thing that had me baffled is the piece of plumbing just in front of the loco cab


Yeah a 2d drawing doesn't help much. Luckily we do have a photo of 108 one of the very early rebuilds.... Well what was left of it



So I worked out that that was an injector although a very old type with some form of adjustment wheel... A bit of googling later and I found the attached on Wikipedia so now know that is a Giffard injector and all I need to do is make one

 

[Herb Garden]

So continuing with the injector theme...


Basic framework


Trimmed


Starting to solder in the pipework


Makeshift injector soldering jig


All the pipework



Finished injector



And finally it gets cut in half as one side is being mounted to the chassis and the other to the footplate.... The frames will hide the join.... Will put a pin in to align

 

[Herb Garden]

Yet more injector work.... I found I had made it a bit big and it would clash with the driving wheel so I had to slim it down after taking it apart somewhat


Hmmmm

Luckily it went back together and now we have the lower half installed just needing some mounting brackets



I think I might leave the pipe under the tender providing it doesn't clash with anything.... The tender only had brakes on the far side so there should be space

 

[Richard Gawler]

The tender only had brakes on the far side so there should be space

Got to admire the Victorian engineers, especially for their drains and bridges. Did they put a steam brake on the loco, or just the brakes on one side of the tender?

 

[Herb Garden]

Did they put a steam brake on the loco, or just the brakes on one side of the tender?

Nope no brakes on anything apart from clasp brakes on each right hand wheel of the tender

Even when they got fitted with air brakes it seemed that the GER never bothered on small locos actually fitting brakes to the loco. As in the driver has two options. Handbrake on tender or air brakes on the coaching stock.... A few locos escaped steam brakes altogether.... Check out 806 in rebuilt condition.... Another sharp Stewart product and one on my list of must builds....



The single wheeler will get the same treatment.... Westinghouse fitted that is only useful if coaches are attached

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

Who needs brakes when you can put the engine into reverse gear?

 

[Herb Garden]

Who needs brakes when you can put the engine into reverse gear?

All I will say to that is:
Wells next the Sea 29 May 1879

 

[Rob R]

Why are there more early British locos preserved abroad than there are here?
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