Phil Mortimers 7mm WorkBench - Mercian Vivian Style Garratt

[PhilMortimer]

No real progress at the moment. Day job and other external things getting in the way. Will probably be like this for a few weeks or so, so there won't be a lot to report for a while. Sorry

[Simond]

'S ok. We'll wait!

 

Best

Simon

[PhilMortimer]

Trying to get myself back into this. My modelling mojo is a little low at present. Too much work, not enough time, too much to do, too damned hot!

 

Anyhow, I've been working on filling the gaps in the frames between the cylinder front and rear etches, and tweaking the frames into shape. One complete set of frames is finished (front and hind unit) and the second one is well under way. Frames are not quite as straight as I'd like, but with a little bit of tweaking (technical term!), I'll get there. Hopefully more to report shortly, possibly even with pictures!

[PhilMortimer]

Spent a bit of time last night tweaking a set of frames straight. They were splayed where it passed through the front cylinder etch and required removal of the front face, opening of the slots and re-setting. The gaps were then filled and filed back. Again, the frames are not as good as I'd like, especially after all the tweaking and futzing around, but they are good enough and should not be visible once the foot-plate and everything else is fully assembled. And industrial's generally get battered around anyhow!

 

Just on to the last frame now - will be glad when this is done, as it's somewhat tedious. Hope the next loco I build is drawn up more accurately (Severn models 9F and 8P), though I still have an OO9 K1 to finish.

[PhilMortimer]

Time for an update on this slow moving project. I've now completed filling in all the gaps between the cylinder etches and the frames. Basically, brass wire of the appropriate thickness was soldered into place, and the whole lot flooded with solder and filed back. Here are some pictures of the work in progress.

 

WF_Garratt_060 by Phil Mortimer, on Flickr

 

The frame unit showing the gap between the frame and the rear cylinder etch (LH cylinder). This needs to be filled.

 

 

WF_Garratt_061 by Phil Mortimer, on Flickr

 

Brass wire jigged into place ready for soldering.

 

 

WF_Garratt_062 by Phil Mortimer, on Flickr

 

Closeup of the wire in the gap.

 

 

WF_Garratt_063 by Phil Mortimer, on Flickr

 

Wire and gap flooded with solder. The wire is then clipped off and the excess solder and wire filed back flush to the surface.

 

WF_Garratt_064 by Phil Mortimer, on Flickr

 

After filing. Job done. Can you see the gap? Very tedious to do with 16 individual gaps needing to be filled for each loco (32 for both loco's), but worthwhile and necessary.

 

 

I'm now working on the motion bracket, having folded up the outer strengtheners and cut out and cleaned up the parts that make the pivot for the expansion bracket. This will be a tricky assembly to make and I'm still figuring out how to go about it. The motion bracket is also going to need some gap-filling wire when installed into the frames.

Edited July 1, 2017 by PhilMortimer

[Giles]

Bear in mind that there was usually a bolting angle between the bracket and frames that you can add to cover the gap.....

Edited July 14, 2016 by Giles

[PhilMortimer]

Yes, I was thinking of something along those lines. Maybe some L angle with bomped out rivets. Need to look at pictures of the motion bracket and it's fixing to the frame carefully.

 

However, need to make up the brackets first before thinking about fitting them.

 

P

[Fastdax]

bomped

 

Superbly accurate word!

[PhilMortimer]

It's a very technical term!

[PhilMortimer]

I actually use the GW press for embossing rivets. It's easy to use and quite theraputic. It's also far superior to any that I've seen over here such as that from NWSL (which i don't think is even available at this time). I wonder how many GW presses actually exist in North America?

[PhilMortimer]

So, work continues. I have been making up the motion brackets and adding the pivots for the expansion link. These are all etched in rather then N/S and are a bit of a pain to set up. Much careful work with the square was required, but eventually all 4 were assembled using the RSU and 188 degree solder paint for minimal cleanup. A piece of wire run through all 4 pivots on each bracket confirms that the pivots are indeed all ligned up.

 

So here are two completed brackets basking in the sun.

 

WF_Garratt_065 by Phil Mortimer, on Flickr

 

I have actually completed all four of these assemblies and since the picture was taken, these have been installed on the power bogie frames. Some careful alignment was needed due to overly large gaps and slots, but we got there in the end. Pictures to follow. Some gaps will need to be covered with some detailing flanges, though how much anyone will see under there once all the valve gear is fitted and the frame is suitably muckied up, I don't know.

 

I have since been fabricating new buffer beams. unlike those in Giles's kit, mine are not assymetric, but when compared to the drawing, they are definitely wrongly proportioned. New ones are being fabricated from layers of brass laminated together to form a block, that is then filed to size and drilled for the hook and buffers. I would love to say that I just milled them to shape, but I don't possess a mill so it's just careful filing to get the beams to the correct dimensions..........

Edited July 1, 2017 by PhilMortimer

[PhilMortimer]

Just some quick pictures of the power unit frames taken this morning with the motion brackets added. These were taken on my window sill and the light was very bright, so not the best pictures. All 4 power units have been fitted with the motion brackets and look OK.

 

WF_Garratt_066 by Phil Mortimer, on Flickr

 

WF_Garratt_067 by Phil Mortimer, on Flickr

 

 

Finally, here are the 8 blanks for the new bufferbeams. These have been cut from brass sheet and will now be laminated together for sanding to final size. They will then be marked out and drilled for the buffer and hook holes. After delaminating, the sheets will then be paired and laminated back together to give four near correct thickness bufferbeams. The reason that I'm doing this again is that I c@#&*d up the first attempt. I reserve the right to screw up once in a while!

 

WF_Garratt_068 by Phil Mortimer, on Flickr

 

 

Finally, something totally unrelated, but I thought I'd share with you all. I was in Montreal a few weeks ago for family reasons. Whilst we were there, Diane had a business meeting, so with a few hours to kill, I went to the Canadian Railway Museum (Exporail), which is in Delson / St Constant, close to Montreal. I hadn't been there for 10 years or so, so it was good to re-visit it and see the improvements. There are lots of interesting exhibits, not just trains, but also streetcars (trams), etc. Anyhow, whilst I was there, I found this.

 

Dominion of Canada_Small by Phil Mortimer, on Flickr

 

When I last saw this, it was still in BR green in a shed at the back. Contrary to what has been written in the railway press, it was in fairly good condition, with the motion well greased and exercised a few times a year. The paint was a bit shabby, but I've seen worse on working loco's! Anyhow, being in North America, I missed the great gathering of A4's, so was glad to see this. I actually prefer the A4's in BR green with the double chimney, but I have to admit that the loco does look absolutely bloody stunning in it's fress coat of garter blue and it is a credit to all who carried out the cosmetic overhaul. The loco is standing next to a Canadian pacific Royal Hudson and the difference in size of the UK and North American loading gauges is noticeable.

 

The museum is well worth a visit. Just don't lose your rental car keys there. It's a big site and takes ages to find them. Ask me how I know.........

Edited July 1, 2017 by PhilMortimer

[PhilMortimer]

Today's not very exciting installment is that I've continued working on the replacement bufferbeams. The photo below shows the 8 blanks seen yesterday all soldered together into a block of brass and filed to the correct dimensions. Some creative use of smooth tiles and squares allowed the block to be filed to shape whilst remaining square in all three dimensions. There is about 4 thou variance across the width of the long axis, and each side is flat along it's length. Not bad for hand filing. Really would like a mill though! Anyhow, the centers for the buffers and hook have been marked out and pilot holes started. I hope to drill these tonight, after which the laminated block will be separated into it's individual parts ready for assembly and lamination of the individual beams. Hopefully more work will be done over the weekend.

 

WF_Garratt_069 by Phil Mortimer, on Flickr

 

One of the etched bufferbeams supplied in the kit is also shown for comparison purposes.

Edited July 1, 2017 by PhilMortimer

[Giles]

This looks a lot more like it! The originals played havoc with the lateral position of the tanks, apart from anything else.... A job well worth doing!

[PhilMortimer]

So I had big plans this weekend to push on with the garratt, which ultimately did not come to fruition. It is very hot and humid here at the moment and really too hot to do much soldering. Plus I was teaching much of the morning on Saturday, recuperating from which put me out of action for most of the rest of the day.

 

Anyhow, on Sunday I drilled out the block of layered bufferbeams and then separated them into their individual layers. Each was then cleaned up, then 4 pairs were clamped together after ensuring that they were all carefully aligned. Each pair was edge soldered to form a single unit, then the edges cleaned up. I now have 4 pairs of shiny bufferbeams which match the prototype. I still need to square up the hole for the draw hook, but that will be done on each individual beam with a file. The new beams are thicker than the original etched examples and have a more realistic heft to them.

 

The buffer beam locating tabs on the frames have been filed back flush. It was found that the RH frame of each chassis unit was fractionally longer than the LHS, so this has been resolved to square everything up. The next step will be to fit the beams to the frames, along with the running plates. To do this, I'm still working out the relationship between the bufferbeam and the footplate. Photo's appear to indicate that the foot plate extends fractionally over the beams, and this appears to be borne out by the GA drawing. But I need to do more research into this before proceeding

 

Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures this morning of the completed beams. These will follow.

 

PM

[Simond]

It does rather begin to sound like making the frames, cylinder formers, motion brackets and buffer beams from sheet material might have been easier than using the kit...

 

I'm still tempted tho' !

 

Best

Simon

[PhilMortimer]

And don't forget the boiler, firebox and smokebox are almost completely scratch built as well........ Still, it allows me to hone my scratch building skills.

 

Yes, it would probably have been quicker and easier to redraw and etch news components. However, if I was going down that route, I would probably need to redraw most of the kit. I don't have the CAD skills to do that and this is probably not the best loco to start on! Also, being 3500 miles away from the real thing makes it the research a tad more difficult!

 

Still, we will eventually over come this and get there. As Giles has shown, a nice model can result eventually.

[PhilMortimer]

So last night, the bufferbeams were added to the running plate's for the power units. I had considered adding the beams to the frames and then adding the running plates, but considered this is probably the better (and more importantly, easier!) way of doing things. It certainly allowed a nice right angle to be obtained between the buffer-beams and the running plates, as shown below.

 

WF_Garratt_070 by Phil Mortimer, on Flickr

 

Front and rear running plates for one loco. As can be seen, a nice joint was to be had. This was achieved by using a right angle square to get everything lined up, tacking in place with the soldering iron and then rapidly heating with a flame to make the final joint. The flame allowed the solder blobbed in with the iron to be drawn into the joint by capillary action. (This is the reason this was done on the speckled granite off cut seen in the picture - it's nice and flat and doesn't crack with the heat. And it was free!) The reason the flame had to be used was that I think the square was acting as big heat sink and the soldering iron just couldn't cope.

 

Anyhow, after cleaning up, I couldn't resist trial fitting the plates to the frames and the rest of the loco as seen below.

WF_Garratt_071 by Phil Mortimer, on Flickr

 

Most of the fittings are just sitting on the loco at the moment, hence the twisted top feed. I'm still awaiting a supply of 100 degree solder (though i could epoxy it if necessary). The plates make the loco look so much bigger. I still need to add the valance strips and the riveted reinforcing strip at the front before soldering to the frames, but I feel like there is some progress at last. Unfortunately, I'm still not happy with the cylinder faces and am considering removing them and making replacements that can be added from the side. I'm just not happy with the alignment that results from the sloppy fit. It may be better to cut replacements and make up as complete units that can then be fitted. I need to think this one out a bit more (as in how easy it will be for me to make and fit new cylinder faces).

Edited July 1, 2017 by PhilMortimer

[PhilMortimer]

Sometimes, one has to step back from a problem and take a break from it in order to get a more realistic view of the issue.

 

I've never been very happy with the cylinder faces, which have been difficult to get aligned properly due to the sloppy fit with the frame etches. They had been twisted this way and that in an attempt to get them properly lined up. However, when fitting the footplate and bufferbeam assembly, it was obvious that things were not good. Part of the problem was that the front and rear cylinder faces were separate etches, which made getting them parallel in the large slots a difficult task.

 

After work last night, I was up at the barn where I volunteer (another of my hobbies). It was too hot to ride (close to 100 degrees), so I helped out with the various chores that needed doing (feeding, watering, mucking). Whilst trekking out to the field to bring the horses in for their dinner, I pondered the problem and came to the realization that I would probably have made life much easier for myself if I had been able to jig the front and rear face etches together as a single unit, before soldering them to the frames, rather than attaching them individually as I had done. So then I considered how I would do that and figured that some spacers clamped between two faces would hold them parallel and as a unit ready for soldering. With this happy thought, I wondered if I could use the same technique to bring everything into line on the already assembled frames? So unusually for me, I was in a hurry to get barn chores finished and head for home to try it out.

 

Once home, I measured the width of the cylinder wrappers, which quite fortuitously, came out to be 0.63 inches. Since the etches were from 15thou N/S, this gave a convenient distance between the insides faces of the cylinders of 0.6inch. So, I found a convenient piece of brass tube, not too large, but large enough to sit on the faces of the etches. Two pieces of this tube were cut and filed to a length of 0.6inch, with the faces perpendicular to the axis of the tube. It would have been nice to do this in a lathe, but I don't posses one, so it was a cut and file job. Still, came out OK.

 

The newly made spacers were then clamped between the cylinder faces on one of the frame sets as shown below, using some nifty brass sash clamps that I have. These are invaluable and make life so much simpler. Once clamped up, a careful look indicated which joints needed adjustment and so the solder on the selected joints was heated with a micro-torch. As the solder melted and the joints loosened, the etches moved on their own into the correct positions. In practice all 4 joints on each frameset were heated and remelted in a specific order get the cylinder faces in the correct position and to remove any stresses in the cylinder / frame joints.

 

WF_Garratt_072 by Phil Mortimer, on Flickr

 

And you know what? It worked. The cylinder faces are now parallel to each other and square to the frames (even when checked with the bufferbeams and running plate added. Things look a little messy right now as I need to clean up the heated joints and areas. The gaps between the frames and cylinders need filling and finishing again, but that is more tedious than difficult and will take a couple of days. The cylinder assembly is not perfect, largely due to all the prior tweaking to get things to fit, but is a darned side better than it was. The cylinder cladding etches have been checked to fit and look OK.

 

So, I'm happy again and the loco looks much better. Of course, the moral of the story is that if I'd used the (home-made) jigs in the first place, I would have saved myself a load of work trying to resolve the problem. I guess we just live and (hopefully) learn.......

 

Back to finishing the running plate....

Edited July 1, 2017 by PhilMortimer

[PhilMortimer]

Not much progress last night. Just removed the running plate valances from the etch and cleaned them up. One of the expansion link brackets was also repaired. Then went to bed!

[Guest Isambarduk]

I have been following your build with great interest so I was pleased when I was able to take this photograph (below) a few days ago of my little Hudwell Clarke  0-6-0ST (a heavily reworked RTR model by Ixion, see: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/69095-idea-conversion-of-ixion-hudswell-clarke/?p=1001446) accompanying two models of the Baddesley Garratt, William Francis; the further one in 'as new' condition and the nearer one looking rather well used in later industrial life.
 

 
These models were both built from the Avondale kit, almost without any modification, because the kit was designed and executed using extensive and detailed measurements that were taken of the prototype (and not from those of the known extant drawings, which are not for this loco).

 

David

Edited July 30, 2016 by Isambarduk

[PhilMortimer]

Thanks David, Those look like lovely models.

 

I'm not sure if any changes were made when Mercian released this model. However, on the models I'm building there are certainly some mistakes when compared with the existing photo's of WF both in use and as now preserved(i.e. rivet / bolt holes etched on outside of firebox wrapper, washout plugs in incorrect positions on one side, bufferbeams are not as in photo's of William Francis). I think that most of these are down to drawing errors, rather than poor research by the designers. From my (admittedly poor) understanding of the kit's history, it is possible that the artwork for the Mercian etches may originate from an earlier copy of the Avondale etches that were not fully checked, or were revised for the production kits.

 

I probably could have used the boiler barrel etching as supplied, but it was pre-rolled on a skew and badly creased, so I figured it was just easier to make a new one of thicker material. So I did!

 

Anyhow, knowing the Mercian version of this kit's history and known shortcomings, I view it as more of an aid to scratchbuilding, and as such it is a good exercise for me. I'm afraid that I can't just build a kit as it comes (though it is possible to do this with this kit), but like to improve things to my satisfaction and skill level. It is something that gives me great pleasure to do, to take a kit and take it to a higher level. I'm not looking down on those who build kits straight from the box, but in all the things I do, I like to be stretched. And this loco is certainly doing that! Another thing I like to do is build good models with regular tools. Although one day a mill and a lathe would be nice, and I have already invested in an RSU, a GW Rivet press, rolling bars and bending bars, I like to see if I can make things with regular tools.

 

It is important to note though that the 4 Garratts did indeed have a number of differences (cradle frame, tanks, the Vivian loco had vacuum breaking and thus an ejector pipe along the RHS of the boiler, etc), and as such it is important to use the correct GA drawings. I have the one for WF, and as such that is the version I'm building for myself. I have to rely on that (not always a good thing!), as now that I live in the US, it's a bit of a trek to go and measure the real thing. The other loco will be Sneyd #2, which is for a colleague of my fathers who remembers it as a child going past his house! From the photo's I have of that, the kit will make up as #2, but there are some differences, noticeably a second toolbox on the front of the leading engine. More scratch building!

[PhilMortimer]

Over the weekend the cylinder / frame joints were cleaned up and made smooth. I have also ordered some milled L-angle to make bolting flanges for the various outriggers etc.

 

Now back to the engine unit valances.

[PhilMortimer]

Valances added to the running plates of the engine units last night. Fiddly, but not particularly difficult. Job involved soldering some thin N/S strip into a half-etched rebate in the running plate. Careful alignment and the use of some brass rod as a jig got everything into place nice and square. Once tack soldered, all was checked and then seamed up. Job done. Still needs some cleaning up and possibly a few gaps filled. Next step is to attach running plates/buffer beams to the frames.

[Giles]

The rear running plate needs one of the square holes (the one on the right hand side of the locomotive adjacent to the cab) filling, as there is only one lubricator per engine, not two. One can always just fill the narrow strip after fitting the tank, but I found it easier just filling the whole square!

It was at this point that I cut the fall-plate off the front running plate in order to have a separate articulated plate (which has proved very useful in practice)

 

 

Giles