USATC S100

spikey faz

spikey faz

Western Thunderer
Dangerous Davies said:
Mike
your S100 is coming along very well despite the odd curved balls that it has thrown at you. A GWR 15XX class is a similar beast, perchance your next model?
Cheers

Dave
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Cheers Dave.

To be fair to the kit (and its manufacturer) I've thrown the odd curved ball myself! ;)

I'm a Southern person at heart, but I that 15xx class is an impressive machine. :thumbs: Is there an O scale kit available? Edit: Warren Shepherd kit seems to be available.

Mike
 
Yorkshire Dave

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
spikey faz said:
Steam pipes in place. They came up a tad short, which I suspect is due to my failure to measure everything properly! :D A bit of packing soon sorted this out.

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That is exactly how I mounted the steam pipes - on the cylinders rather than dangling from t'smokebox. Less chance of being damaged and also trapping the lubricator drive rod.

S100 2.jpg
 
Yorkshire Dave

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
Dangerous Davies said:
your S100 is coming along very well despite the odd curved balls that it has thrown at you.
Click to expand...

You do have to make it up as you go along to a degree with this kit and not build it as the designer intended. It's a kit of it's time and certain areas have to be strengthened and other parts adapted as demonstrated with the cab step, cab roof and steam pipes.

I found it better to have the cab steps and steam pipes mounted to the chassis and not dangling from the body inviting unintentional damage.
 
spikey faz

spikey faz

Western Thunderer
Holiday followed by bathroom painting & decorating stopped play!

Pics of locomotives whilst on hols herewith, but no pics of diy! :))
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I have since done some work on the brakes and have begun adding detail to the buffer beams. Needless to say it's mostly all had to be scratchbuilt.
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Mike
 
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spikey faz

spikey faz

Western Thunderer
The frames are stripped down and awaiting some paint. There's still some detail parts to add, but at least the paint will give the impression of progress. ;)

I took some pictures for my own reference in case I forget how it all goes back together, but then I thought I'd post them here as someone might find them of use if they attempt a similar build.

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I'm sure I read somewhere that the Minerva model won't be available until next year, but happy to be told otherwise. I'd like to think I'll complete this build before then!

Mike
 
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spikey faz

spikey faz

Western Thunderer
Ian@StEnochs said:
No doubt you will be plagued with ‘is that the Minerva model?’ if you show it off. Take great satisfaction in saying a firm No, I built it myself.

Ian.
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I doubt anyone will have much difficulty in seeing which is which. Mine has lots of wobbly lines and dubious alignment of some key components! :))

I am though quite pleased how the chassis on my build is looking. I think it captures the 'airiness' of the real thing quite well.

Mike
 
spikey faz

spikey faz

Western Thunderer
I find one of the benefits of posting build pictures on WT is that I often spot errors/omissions more easily than if the model is staring me in the face on my workbench. Sure enough I realised no sanding pipes had been fitted. :eek: They are fairly visible down by the wheels, especially the rear ones, but then snake up out of sight behind the sidetanks.

I cheated a bit with the mountings for the rear pipes, but it all seems to work OK. Final adjustment will follow in due course.
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Mike
 
spikey faz

spikey faz

Western Thunderer
Amazingly it all works! :eek:
I ended up running a couple of bus-bars down each side of the chassis and then soldered the pickup wires and motor wires to these.

As ever with my methods of construction I envisaged a much neater setup, but despite the open nature of the bar-frames it all seems to hide quite well. A further coat of satin black paint may help blend it all in.
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The bits of bus-bar that hang down behind the rear wheels are so I can attach a feed to the motor when indulging in wheel cleaning duties.

I can see why split chassis pickups would make more sense, but slicing up axles to insulate them is a bit beyond my skills. :)

Mike
 
simond

simond

Western Thunderer
Steph Dale published a treatise on split axles which I followed to a first attempt success. You do need a lathe (or at least access to one) but it works well. I’ll see if I can find it & post here, though Brian @oldravendale might be able to beat me to it

Of course, you don’t need it now, but for next time… ;)
 
simond

simond

Western Thunderer
Cheers Brian

From memory Steph did three descriptions - there’s another article about the split axles that covers double-splits for the axle on which the gearbox is mounted, using pultruded fibreglass rod, which was the one I was thinking of.

Atb
Simon
 
simond

simond

Western Thunderer
Brian,

Assuming Steph’s agreeable, please could you post these very useful articles in the WT resources? They’ll be easy to find there.

Cheers
Simon
 
oldravendale

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
I'll check, Simon. Late this pm he said he couldn't get member access to WT - he's not been here for a long while despite my encouragement - he's out with friends at the moment so I may get a reply this evening - or tomorrow. I guess it'll depend how well the evening goes. :))
 
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