London & Greenwich Railway - Royal William - Pt .1
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London & Greenwich Railway - Royal William – Part One
The London & Greenwich Railway opened for traffic in 1836. Built on approximately four miles of brick arched viaduct, it was the first Railway to serve the Capital. Royal William was L&G No.1, built by Charles Tayleur & Company to Stephenson’s ‘Planet’ design. Although there is a fairly well known tinted drawing of this locomotive, we are lucky to have a drawing from the Vulcan Foundry archives, which confirms (or otherwise) the accuracy of the more familiar image. Combining both sources provides a fairly good guide and certainly enough information to have a go at building a model of this little engine, which in my opinion is a historically significant locomotive and deserves more attention.
Scratchbuilding such a small loco in 4mm scale throws up myriad problems to be overcome. The first and most obvious is how to squeeze in a motor and gearbox where it is clear there is ‘nowhere to hide’. Building in EM helps as in 00 gauge the wheels would foul the boiler. I chanced on a small 12v motor and spur gear box on a well-known internet auction site. It was only a few pounds with free delivery from China (if you are prepared to wait a few weeks). The shaft output speed is a mere 100rpm. This may even prove to be too slow in the long run, however, it will not be required to take charge of a top link express so it’s just as well. With a bit of fettling I managed to shoehorn it inside the brass tube boiler with a slot cut in the bottom to accommodate one of the larger spurs and the pinion. A ‘new old stock’ Romford worm and wheel gear set was rescued from the scrap box. The worm was bored out to push fit onto the 3mm output shaft of the gearbox and the pinion sleeved to fit onto a 2mm axle. I don’t know what the reduction ratio is but it’s very crude and needs to be as the gearbox provides all the reduction you could ever wish for. I expect if the engine was set against a snail in a race it would lose by some margin.
The second obvious sticking point was the wheels. The spokes are round, straight and sport a small decorative ball about half way along each one. Cleary proprietary wheels would not do, but could at least provide a steel tyre.
I started with a driving wheel at 5ft dia., or 20mm in 4mm scale. A 2mm axle bearing was used as a hub to which twenty 0.7mm brass wire spokes were soldered. I then threaded a small nut and bolt through the centre and mounted it in a drill chuck on the lathe. Very gently the spokes were marked at the correct length all round and then trimmed to length. Tiny brass wire rings were made from some wire, which once graced a rather nice bottle of red wine (do they do they to stop the bottle escaping or persuade you to spend more?), and these were threaded on each spoke and spot soldered in place. The rim and tyre of the wheel were butchered from a Gibson driver, the rim being cut from its spokes and filed to take each new spoke before the whole lot was glued in place. Finally the hub was filled with Chavant and the completed wheel, sans tyre, was placed in a mould to be cast in whitemetal.
I then turned my attention to the leading wheel. This is 3’ 6” or 14mm with 14 decorative spokes as per the driver. Choosing a small enough hub was a problem so instead I did away with the idea and soldered together a series of V shaped pieces of wire set inside a hand bent rim of the correct diameter to fit inside a steel tyre. These were soldered to a single full length spoke already soldered to the rim. The resulting blob of solder in the middle forms the hub. Under close inspection the spokes don’t quite line up but hidden behind the outside axlebox and frame this will not be an issue. The whole wheel was then clamped in the lathe chuck and the centre drilled out. Once done, the wheel joined the driver in a mould and both were cast in whitemetal.
The freshly cast wheels were popped back in the lathe, re-drilled, trued up and generally tinkered with until they ran smooth and true, The final job was to fit them into their steel tyres, de-grease and etch prime. The last job will be to fit nylon insulating bushes to the centre to isolate them from the axle. Pick up will be in the usual way from the back of the tyre.
Other major sections of the loco such as the smokebox, firebox, chimney and frames were fabricated in styrene and cast in whitemetal. The need to create as much tractive ballast in such a small engine is paramount and by casting the bigger parts as solid lumps it should help a great deal.
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