Entry posted by Jon020
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Well, with the first of the class celebrating her (his?) 50th birthday this week (delivery to BR 28th Jan 1961) and about to embark on a mammoth 3-day rail tour. Funny to think that 50 years after delivery, 29 years after withdrawal, a Deltic will tomorrow haul a train from the NW into Euston, On Saturday, it’ll run down and up the ECML between the capitals (and I’ll be enjoying this bit), and on Sunday it’ll depart Paddington back for its NW home. Absolutely Splendid!!!! Well done Martin W and his dedicated team!
So, I thought I ought to provide a brief update to my EE Type 5 modifications.
Over the last two weeks, the focus has, when permitted, been given to the front ends, mainly that of the bufferbeams.
The basic parts are Extreme etch items, folded and trimmed to fit. As I think I’ve already mentioned, to fit the beam between the buffers I’ve used, I needed to trim the outermost sections (beyond the outboard angle pieces). If you’re using Brian’s resin nose this probably isn’t necessary... and given the amount of work I’ve expended on the project, I will be going for the resin nose next time. Apart from the headcode and buffer positions, this will prevent me having to make new tail lamp housings.... they were a bit of a pain!
The etch items has a number of holes into which the various pipes and bolt ends can be added. There’s one hole missing – that needed for the Airbrake supply pipe/valve, but I’m guessing that Brian left these off so that you can model a non-airbrake fitted version and not have a hole to plug (did I guess right Brian?). It’s no problem drilling another hole. There are holes for the vac pipe and steam heat pipes in the correct places. For the brake control pipes (vac or air), it will be necessary to determine what you’re going to use... there isn’t a part supplied by Bachmann for these. At the end of the buffer beam there are two protrusions onto which these can be fitted. I was unsure whether to bend these over of leave them vertical... and went for the latter.
For the airbrake control pipes, I opted to use some Heljan class 47 pipes (thanks to Howes for re-stocking these spares... and for whoever on here posted a status message advising of this). There was some difficulty with these as they represent hanging pipes and when running Deltics would stow these. For my model, which will sit on a depot layout (eventually, oh yes, eventually!!!!) so leaving these hanging won’t be too much of a problem, although I may have an alternative for the No. 2 end (thanks Raffles). In addition, these pipes were a bit long... so eventually they were trimmed and new end fittings fabricated from thinned plastic rod. Fitting them was the next challenge – how to do this?
Of course, had I managed to get some cast pipes I could solder them on... but these plastic ones needed gluing to the etch. I drilled out small (0.4mm) holes into the lower brackets , and similar holes into the back of the valve head – once the tab was trimmed back a bit. To provide the control pipes, additional 0.4mm holes were drilled into the side of the valves (inner side) and these were then cut to shape. The lever was then trimmed to look a little more realistic and secured using a short length of the 0.4mm wire to affix to the etch – well and truly glued in with Zap-a-gap.
A short length of 0.25 wire was crimped along its length and glued into a small hole drilled into the bottom of the valve – hanging down this is intended to represent the pipe securing chain, with a small plastic end fitting stuck on – a little crude, but I didn’t think I was going to find any 80 links to the inch chain that would look the part (Tooooo small!)
The protruding part of the wire at the back allowed thinner wires to be attached to represent the ETS linkages (?) Oh, and at the top of the 0.4mm wire that connects the brake control valves, I added a wrap of 0.25mm nickel silver wire to represent the end fitting.
Brake Exhauster pipes were fashioned from 0.8mm wire and glued through the etch plate’s holes. A new hole was drilled for the air supply pipe about 0.5mm, and the Bachmann hose used with an added wire and plasticard valve lever.
The steam heat pipe was a Heljan Class 47 item although this looked a little thin, so I added a wrap of 0.25mm nickel silver wire... and once painted this should look ok.
The Vacuum pipe needed a little research: The Bachmann pipe has a valve fitted – which isn’t there in reality... so a new one was constructed using two pieces of 0.8mm brass wire, one bent to shape to form the main part of the hose, and then this is drilled with a 0.5mm hole to take the sharpened end of the other length that plugs back into the buffer beam hole. 0.25mm nickel silver wire is then wrapped around this to represent the rubber hose and end fittings and flanges fashioned from plasticard (0.8mm hole drilled though) and pushed onto the relevant part of the hose.
Finally, additional research was needed to see how this terminates. Clearly, with no valve there will be a terminating point.. but this was difficult to see in photos.
Here the powers of RMweb come to the fore... a quick e-mail to my mate Rob of this parish identified that he was going over to have a look at 55022 last weekend and he’d get me some pics. I’m waiting for him to say ok to me posting one or two on this blog – but I guess he’s busy preparing for his weekend... I’ll put these up sometime later if he oks this...[Edit - he said yes... so here it is]
The photos (of a very shiny RSG with white pipes – yea I know, it’s like Marmite, love it or not ;-)) showed the bracket on the bottom corner of the large striker plate (behind coupling)... so this I made with a piece of plasticard, glued in place – and this is where the vac pipe terminates, giving the correct sway angle.
Finally, I thought that I ought to add the ETS modules, so these were glued to the platforms inside the nose corners (underneath the buffer units)... and the wire attached to the upper unit cut and bent to shape. So, in celebration of the type’s official 50th, here’s my version of the EE type 5. Still a work in progress.. but now beginning to look a little more realistic.
I’ve still those tanks to tackle – with a spare chassis on its way via fleebay to practice on.
Paint will also soon be needed!
That’s in for now... time to take a break and savour the might of Twin Napiers on the ECML. Then it’s back home to decorating youngest’s bedroom... so a bigger brush will be needed for this ;-)
For now, Happy Birthday Royal Scots Grey ... and the Deltic class
[Edit - after James's coment, I went and had a look at the pipes again... yes they are too thick. What to do? Possibly cut off the hose leaving the valve in place, file the end flat and drill a hole to take a new plastic or wire "hose"... with a new end piece. That will wait until time allows some rework. Too tired tonight... but thanks for pointing this out... I'll get it right eventually 
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