The Heybridge Railway, 1889 to 1913

[Richard Gawler]

Boiler fittings and handrails.

. . .

The skill in kit building has always been about taking the supplied parts and making the best of them.

Ian.

I have rather taken this observation of Ian's to heart. I can understand why a professional builder would buy a few aftermarket boiler fittings instead of spending a whole Sunday afternoon fettling the ones in the kit; but at my present skill level I think it is better for me to try to make the most of what I have.

I continued to lap the flares of the chimney, dome and safety valve to try to match the curves of the model. Just a careful motion on emery cloth pressed onto the surface of the model. The edges ended up sharp enough to feel like they would cut human flesh, so I stopped before they fell apart.

I wanted to clean up the outsides of the castings so I ended up adding some spigots to hold them from brass tube. I used tube partly because I didn't have any solid rod, but also tube has a lot less metal so easier to solder without melting the casting.


Metric drill bit slightly smaller than chosen imperial tube.


Tube pressed into place with tailstock, no soldering required!


The drill bit for opening up the chimney had to jam sooner or later, so I had something to hold the casting while I dressed the surface.


Evidence of hefty chuck use when holding dome. The tube for the chimney received some solder afterwards.


Light tinning to encourage bond of Araldite, I'm not sure if this is really necessary.


The handrails need a custom-length knob on the side of the smokebox, so I took a "short" knob and removed the shoulder. The wire held the knob in the right place while I soldered it up.

The handrail knobs went on after preparing the castings but before fixing them to the model. I used 188 degree solder paint for the knobs, a drop in each hole in the boiler and then a flash of heat from the micro flame torch. This is the first solder paint on the model, I bought the stuff months ago and couldn't get on with it. I suppose, necessity forced the issue. The paint actually worked really well, hardly any cleaning up afterwards.


Photo composed to show off rather than show detail.

• Safety valve base held with solder, I could get the iron inside the firebox
• Chimney, dome and sand box lids fixed with Araldite (the old-fashioned 24-hour one)
• Valve cover soldered onto only the smokebox, so the boiler assembly still detaches
• LNER-style smokebox door added with double-sided tape because it makes the model look so much better while I find a GER one

The long handrails slide out for painting. These are nickel silver to represent the unpainted steel used by the GER. The buffer heads, clack valves, whistle and cab glazing will go on after painting.

I feel the base of the chimney does look like it is closely attached to the smokebox wrapper, while the covers of the dome and safety valve look more like pressed steel parts resting in place, very happy

 

[Rob Pulham]

Hi Richard,
A little tip for holding items like castings in the chuck without marking them, is to cut open an empty drinks can and use the thin aluminium to wrap around the part. I tend to cut it a bit narrow so that it doesn't overlap and throw the item out of true. Usually you can ensure the gap in the wrapper fits between jaws so that the item isn't marked by the jaw pressure.

 

[Richard Gawler]

I can remember being taught to use emery cloth turned inside out to hold work without marking it. I suppose I was fifteen or sixteen at the time so it would have been unethical to recommend the use of beer can. The emery cloth didn't work in the lathe, I will get some beer in cans

 

[Dog Star]

I will get some beer in cans

The beer, in the cans, is not going to help with holding anything in the lathe chuck... drink the can contents and then review the situation.

 

[Richard Gawler]

Now that's really unethical, to suggest drinking alcohol before approaching the lathe

 

[simond]

He didn't, he suggested drinking and then "reviewing the situation".

Such a review can take days, even without the addition of beer, and might explain why I get so little done..

 

[Richard Gawler]

He didn't, he suggested drinking and then "reviewing the situation".

Such a review can take days, even without the addition of beer, and might explain why I get so little done..

Yes Simon you are quite correct. But the good news, I had a present this afternoon. I gave her a paper-engineered card with integral red LEDs and pre-programmed to play "Happy" from Despicable Me 2. She gave me this fridge pack of pre-loaded aluminium shim stock.


This could be quite a lengthy review ahead, I can begin with the style of the cab steps

Further debate is possible on why a complete sound-enabled Valentine's card costs £6 while a DCC sound decoder is £100 up.

 

[simond]

The trick, once the sound enabled card has justified the six quid, is to extract the useful bits and work out how to reprogram it to do something useful, such as an AWS bell or horn, or clicketty-click drifting into the distance as the train goes into the fiddle yard…

or an annoyed bellowing bull when the cattle truck is roughly shunted.

etc

 

[Richard Gawler]

A Y14 miscellany.


I have lost (mislaid) my 188 degree solder. This may be a good thing for a while because it is forcing me to use my 188 degree solder paint. The paint is working really well for me as long as I use the micro flame torch. There is hardly any cleaning up and it is easy to do. Attempts using the iron seem to fail because the bit draws the solder/flux mix out of the joint and makes a mess.

I have reinforced the backs of the cab steps with scraps of fret. This is a lesson learnt from my tender truck and then Nellie, it should let me relax when friends pick up the model. Nellie got lengths of thick wire behind her steps but I think the fret is neater.

The fall plate has grooves etched on the back to aid bending. These have given me a slightly chunky curve, curious really because the one-piece side of the tender and the tender fall plate have similar grooves and worked out fine. This fall plate goes in below the extension for the cab floor so only the ends will show.

I tried to blacken the buffer heads by heating to blue and quenching in cooking oil. For some reason, the faces came out purple so I buffed them back to bright. These are Markits buffers, I am wondering if they are a high-ish carbon or even stainless steel. The same quenching technique on Nellie’s buffers, which are mild steel, worked perfectly. I have already lost two of the Markits springs, the substitutes are from wagon buffers.

The kit includes a beautiful lost-wax cast whistle but sadly, this won’t reach to the cab from the Ramsbottom safety valve. So I am working up the white metal whistle, also from the kit.

I have had another go at the fire irons. I have given the poker a shaft from wire, I tried a second layer of scrap fret but it looked chunky. I might re-do the rake to match but experience tells me any attempt to re-work the shovel is going to make it disintegrate.

This lot probably seems a bit random but the unused parts left in the kit are diminishing. I can move on to try making some fresh details.

 

[Richard Gawler]

The trick, once the sound enabled card has justified the six quid, is to extract the useful bits and work out how to reprogram it to do something useful, such as an AWS bell or horn, or clicketty-click drifting into the distance as the train goes into the fiddle yard…

or an annoyed bellowing bull when the cattle truck is roughly shunted.

etc

Okay . . . a child's sound book with rather weak batteries, purchased from a charity shop for 50p. Sound module pulled off to reveal three self-tappers holding the case assembly together, these removed.



The pcb is single-sided, there is nothing to see on the back. Four of the lead-outs from the IC are difficult to understand (R2 and the three capacitors), perhaps programming involves treating some of these as a serial port?

Supposing I accept what I bought for my 50p, SW2 triggers a horn very like the bulb horn on a veteran car. The other sounds are less useful - direction indicators clicking, a bell and the theme tune. The functions are blocking, you cannot start a new sound or restart the present sound when one is playing.

If I could find a farmyard book including cows then the cattle wagon seems a good project, just a pendulum switch to set things going.

Apparently, farmyard books go quickly, I did ask

 

[Richard Gawler]

Roscoe lubricator.


All Y14 locos built down to 1892 had a single Roscoe lubricator, usually located on the right-hand side of the smokebox and feeding the cylinders.

I started with some wire, two scraps of tube one inside the other, a handwheel intended for the cab, and a handrail knob with its base turned down to accept another handwheel. Of course the piece of wire up the middle became three lengths after I drilled the transverse holes.


I had high hopes of making the lubricator as a self-contained assembly to be plugged into place after painting . . .


. . . but it fell apart so often I ended up building it in position on the smokebox.

I couldn't find myself enough space to put the lubrication feed pipe above and behind the sandbox filler, so I cheated and fed the pipe back into the smokebox(!) through a third hole below the first two. I suspect the filler lid is a little too tall and my lubricator is a little too low. Anyway, the crooked steam pipes (previous photo) look a lot better now they are mostly hidden inside the smokebox.


I am pleased with the overall effect.

The lubricator rather shows up the gap between dreams and abilities. I would be happier making something twice the size . . . I don't have room for Gauge 3 so I will have to get more practice or lower my sights . . . probably a bit of both.

 

[Dog Star]

A good description and photos, making one of those parts now holds no fears. Thank you.

regards, Graham

 

[Richard Gawler]

The brass tube came in a pack of "mixed tube offcuts" from K&S Metals. This seemed a bit expensive at the time (I got several aluminium pieces as well as brass and copper ones), but it has been very useful for odd details from time to time, and making one fixture instead of buying a lost wax one does mean the pack has now paid for itself.

PS. I couldn't actually find a Roscoe lubricator to buy, so this rather forced the issue onto me and I'm glad I tried.

 

[SLNCR57]

The brass tube came in a pack of "mixed tube offcuts" from K&S Metals. This seemed a bit expensive at the time (I got several aluminium pieces as well as brass and copper ones), but it has been very useful for odd details from time to time, and making one fixture instead of buying a lost wax one does mean the pack has now paid for itself.

PS. I couldn't actually find a Roscoe lubricator to buy, so this rather forced the issue onto me and I'm glad I tried.

Excellent work. I bought one of those mixed packs too and think it will see me out ! Full of all sorts of useful gubbins.

 

[Jim Read]

Hello Richard,

Hope you and yours are OK.
I've just looked through all this thread, fair play to you every part of every job done perfectly.
Recently and the reason I looked was going through our emails you once said I should have a go on here.
I did think about it and then went NG and then lost interest. I've started to cut the sleepers down from NG to 7mm.
I'll never get anywhere near what you are doing but it'll be a bit of fun, I have some daft ideas.

Cheers - J

 

[Richard Gawler]

Hello Richard,

Hope you and yours are OK.
I've just looked through all this thread, fair play to you every part of every job done perfectly.
Recently and the reason I looked was going through our emails you once said I should have a go on here.
I did think about it and then went NG and then lost interest. I've started to cut the sleepers down from NG to 7mm.
I'll never get anywhere near what you are doing but it'll be a bit of fun, I have some daft ideas.

Cheers - J

Jim, I hope you enjoy what you decide to make and feel able to share it here. You could start a workbench topic to show your progress and ideas.

 

[Richard Gawler]

Blower valve.


The early version of the blower valve on a Y14 looked like a sphere and I have used a 3/32 inch ball bearing to represent this. The manufacturing tolerance claimed by the manufacturer on the label is a bit daunting!

These balls can be had as individual samples but it was worth buying a pack of ten. The first was lost when the drill bit snapped off inside, the second went onto the floor, the third made the job and a fourth is simply missing. When a ball is this perfectly round it never stays put on the bench, except on a blob of Blue Tak.


The lathe makes boring a hole through things like this actually possible. I put a short length of brass wire as a peg to hold the ball in place. If I didn’t have the lathe I guess I would look for a map pin with a suitable head but this would mean introducing a plastic part into the model.

On the prototype, the crew operated the valve from a hand wheel inside the cab, this wheel rotating a rod running inside the long handrail. Strictly speaking, this handrail should be thicker than the others but I discovered this after soldering all of the knobs into place. And only I will see the difference.

 

[Richard Gawler]

Smokebox door.


The kit comes with the heavy style of smokebox door used in later years. I based my replacement on a brass blank by Laurie Griffen. This is 28 mm diameter and marketed for GER tank locomotives.


To this I added a dart and some brass strip from Nairnshire Model Supplies, and I made a pivot pin from oddments.


I finished the top of the pivot with a 16BA washer. As this was all going together it transpired on me I could probably arrange the door to open and close, but this is something to think of for the next loco. It needs to be planned for. The horizontal straps are wrapped around the pivot, trimmed diagonally to tuck in beside the rim of the door, and then the whole pivot assembly teased forward so everything sits flush on the smokebox.


This is the result. I have glued the door onto the model, I cannot work out how to solder it on without risking it falling apart.

“Rexxon” two-part epoxy from Lidl (Witham) at £2.99 a pack seems good value for money. This was tacky after 90 minutes and rock hard after nine hours so the setting time is slower than the “five minute” epoxies but usefully quicker than the traditional version of Araldite, which stays unchanged for 3+ hours. It is not however set after 20 minutes as claimed on the blister pack, maybe this is why it is cheap.

I have now glued the valve cover onto the front of smokebox but not the footplate. I tried soldering this casting along its top edge and it fell off, then I soldered it along both top and bottom edges and it fell off again.

 

[Rob Pulham]

Hi Richard,
To stop it all falling apart, use higher melting point solder to add the details (188 or 225 degree) then use 100 degree to solder the door on.

I too use Lidl epoxy for the odd item that I can't solder.

 

[spikey faz]

The brass tube came in a pack of "mixed tube offcuts" from K&S Metals. This seemed a bit expensive at the time (I got several aluminium pieces as well as brass and copper ones), but it has been very useful for odd details from time to time, and making one fixture instead of buying a lost wax one does mean the pack has now paid for itself.

PS. I couldn't actually find a Roscoe lubricator to buy, so this rather forced the issue onto me and I'm glad I tried.

I think LG Miniatures sell a Roscoe lubricator, but the one you've made looks fine to me.

Mike