Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0DM 'David No. 58'

[Guest Isambarduk]

Noted added 10 Sept 18 :- I have now collated this write-up on my website Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0DM

 

 

 

Although I thought that my building of this model did not warrant a write-up at the time because there is little to report that has not been seen many times here before, two friends have encouraged me to make a few notes that might help others intending to build a similar model from this kit.

 

However, before that, a bit of background: I decided to build this model (even though I don’t usually look at diesels, other than old shunters) because my wife bought me one of the nameplates (above) from the prototype as a birthday present a few years ago.

David No. 58 was built by Hudswell Clarke (Works number D1128 of 1958), new to NCB Cadeby Colliery Conisburgh near Rotherham, later to NCB Elsecar Main Barnsley and New Stubbin Colliery Rotherham. However, according to Ron Redman (The Railway Foundry Leeds Hudswell Clarke & Co. Ltd. The Diesel Era) HC D1128 was new to NCB Elsecar Main 29/10/58. It was later scrapped.​ I am sure that more is known but I'll admit that I don't really like doing the research.

I always look upon even the best of kits as an aid to scratch-building, recognising that some kits are more of an aid than others and that some are of no aid at all. The Mercian Model Rail kit DL 3 is certainly an aid and a good starting point, and Trevor Cousens is a very helpful chap, a real gentleman (so if you have any issues with his kits, do speak to him first), who put together a suitable kit for me.

 

In summary, I fitted Slater's wheels and a Fine Scale Brass motor/gearbox but I also made a fair number of scratch-built additional and replacement components, including flycranks, air cylinders and sandboxes.

With a view to potentially helping others, rather than give a blow-by-blow account, I think it would be helpful to point out some of the ‘sharks’ in this kit that might bite you if you are unaware; I am quite eagle-eyed when it comes to this sort of thing but two still got me and I just had to put up with one and concoct a less than ideal work-around for the other but I could have avoided both had I known earlier.

 

The instructions in the kit refer to Slater’s wheels (Ref. 7802/02 but I think that this is a typo as it should probably be 7842/02, which appears in the list of ‘Parts required for motorising’ at the end; Ref. 7802 is a set of crankpins) which are 3' 6" diameter 10 spoke crankpin between spokes (intended for BR Class 02) but …

No.1
… after I had already made some balance weights and machined out part of some of the spokes to receive them (example above from another loco), I discovered that the wheels should be 3’ 0” in diameter 10 spoke crankpin inline. (OK, yes, I know, I should have done more research beforehand but it’s the part I like the least). Slater’s Ref. 7839I 3' 3" diameter 10 spoke crankpin between spokes (intended for Hudswell Clarke) would have been a better bet. To start again, to have made smaller wheels and to have rearranged the suspension to suit was more than I could be troubled with so 3’ 6” diameter wheels it has – but it certainly does look wrong.

The kit that Trevor put together for me had a fret of etched overlays for bonnet doors that should have allowed for the rear two doors to have louvered panels but …

No. 2
… of the four overlays, there were three left hand doors and but only one right hand door. Looking at photographs of completed models, the builders chose to fit one of the right hand doors upside down (ie with the louvre openings pointing upwards) but I decided to correct this by cutting out the louvered panel from each of the overlays, carefully opening up a suitable hole in each of the door impressions that are etched into the bonnet and soldering in an overlay. Actually, making a virtue out of a necessity, I think these panels look more realistic (cruel enlargement below).

 

More to follow …

 

 

David

Edited September 10, 2018 by Isambarduk

[Respite]

This is wonderful.

I well remember the loco at Cadeby Main. After the  miners strike I decided to check out what was left of NCB railways in Yorkshire. I had been told about the HC diesels in the area and so my first foray was to Cadeby. This was in my white Sierra during the autumn of 1985. It came back covered in coal slurry from the local roads due to the amount of coal going out by road.

 

Cadeby had three locos, 'Ken' a Sentinel  and 'Dick' and 'David' two of the old HC diesels. By this time 'David' was awaiting the fitting of new fluid coupling in its transmission. It had been left ticking over with the coupling (scoup)  left in the drive position. 'Dick' was main loco and 'Ken' a dodgy standby. However on the day of my visit 'Dick' had an electrical problem and wouldn't start so Ken was sliding about in a sea of very liquid slurry that buried the rails. 'David' was in the unusual six road loco shed at Cadeby. It was still in its original HC livery as per your model and looked rather good. 'Dick' had had a repaint into an unlined dark green and 'Ken' was in yellow. On a return visit 'Dick' was working and 'David' was still waiting for the replacement fluid coupling to be installed which was lying on the shed floor next to it. The driver told me that the HCs were a very good loco with a highly reliable Gardner engine and better than the sentinel which would handle six loaded MGRs compared to eight with the Hudswells.

 

Sadly 'David' didn't get repaired and it and 'Dick' got scrapped in 1986 when Cadeby closed. Ironically Ken went to Maltby for further use and was retyred and had its seized brakes repaired by Thomas Hills of Rotherham. It was either Booths of Rotherham or Hartwood Exports who scrapped Dick and David. Besides the loco plates that you have the mechanical lubricator from David went to a preservation group. The engines from these old HCs were a prized item with scrap merchants and Hartwood exports sent them to China for use in junks.

 

The link below is to a photo of the three locos awaiting their fate at Cadeby after the colliery closed.

 

https://keithsphotos.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=158665699

[Guest Isambarduk]

Thank you for your kind words, Respite, and thank you also for the prototype information - that was most interesting and useful, particularly the scrapping date and other details; I love the idea that the Gardener engine from David No. 58 might have seen a new life on the water in the Far East … and still be going.

 

The photograph was interesting, too.  A photo that I have of David No. 58 shows no mechanical lubricator on the LHS so it doesn't appear on my model.  I fitted two on my 15" Hunslet, Airedale, and they actually index round stepwise with a small internal pawl and ratchet.

 

 

Details of Airedale

 

David

Edited August 24, 2018 by Isambarduk

[Guest Isambarduk]

Looking at photographs of the prototype and comparing them with the etchings of the kit, I noticed that the spectacles in the rear cab sheet were too far inboard. Whilst I was contemplating if this would be acceptable or if I should make a replacement cab sheet, I realised that …


No. 3

… the cab sheet was not symmetrical but that one spectacle hole was further from the side than the other, by a full millimetre.

So, the decision was easily taken and I made a replacement rear cab sheet with the spectacle holes at the correct distance. I machined up some spectacles and soldered them in.

I made the rear lamp from scratch and I later fitted it with a warm white LED that I had to machine down in length and diameter to allow it to fit inside.

As I build my models, I think about how I am going to paint and line them so I tend to make them in modules that may be screwed together after all the ‘decoration’ is finished (it amuses me to read some kit instructions that would have you solder everything together and then, as a last instruction, say ‘now all you have to do is paint it’ – Hmm, professional painters do have words to say about this).

To this end, my plan was to make the bonnet, cab and running plate as three separate modules with the bonnet being neatly located over the upturned flanges on the running plate. To support the bonnet, there are formers to be inserted inside and at the rear end (against the front cab sheet); the front of the bonnet is supported by the curved radiator grille. The formers were a good match to the upturned flanges but the radiator grille …

No.4

 

… was etched to the same profile as the formers without any allowance for its being curved, so it was too narrow. My solution was to use one of the alternative grilles (with two headlight openings) as a former just inside of the front of the bonnet and to fit the desired grille in front, ‘making good’ the surrounding gap with a piece of shaped copper wire. Although this looks plausible enough, it is not correct as the corner on the prototypes are clean and sharp.

The whitemetal castings included in the kit for the buffers and chimney were very good, requiring only a little cleaning up, but those for the buffer planks (buffer beams? I don’t know what they are called on a diesel loco) were much smaller than the brass overlays and so they could not be used. I decided to use the overlays, epoxy glue them to aluminium sheets and to cut them out. The rivets/bolts are half etched in the overlays but, when I came to punch them out …

No. 5

… the half etched depressions were not symmetrical from side to side, they were not in line and their shapes were far from circular and they were of different sizes (they gave the impression of the original artwork having been sketched in free-hand). I decide to ignore the half etches, glue on the overlays and then to drill the front faces for the insertion of pieces of brass wire. With some trial fitting, I discovered that the buffer planks were also too short (would probably have been acceptable with 3’ 0” diameter wheels) so I added some lower extensions in styrene (pinned and glued). If I were tackling this exercise again, I would have made completely new buffer planks from suitably thick brass or aluminium sheet.

The problem of free-hand misshapen and misplaced half etched rivet depressions occurred in other places, although mostly they were quite acceptable. The other notably poor example was the horizontal strapping along the bonnet (above the louvers, below the horizontal hand rails); in this case, I chose to use my milling machine to drill shallow blind holes into the back of the bonnet etch so that I could punch them at the correct spacing in the right place – fortunately, only one hole came half in and half out of a misplaced half etched depression.

More to follow …

David

[Guest Isambarduk]

Turning to the brake gear, rather than the typical etched brake hangers+shoes soldered to a piece of wire between the frames and another between the bottom of the hangers, I prefer to make the hangers, shoes and rods as a demountable assembly that springs into place on a set of decent looking brackets soldered to the frames. This is not intended as a criticism of the kit, merely an improvement that I chose to undertake; I reused the etched hangers but I machined up a set of shoes in plastic.

All fitted up nicely to the wheels (note the balance weights and the replacement, larges bosses fitted to the Slater’s wheels) but then I discovered a problem with the brake cross-shaft …

No. 6 
… the bracket for the brake cross-shaft (transfers the motion from the handbrake standard and air brake cylinder to the brake rods) that is etched into the frames is rather too long so that, the brake rods would droop down to their short cranks. I decided to make an ‘overlay’ for a shorter bracket (looks rather neater anyway) and to fudge the short cranks with just two small pulley-like turnings as a representation of very small cranks.

Many kits are designed with their frames a tad on the narrow side, presumably to allow for coarsescale wheels and sturdy axle boxes but, where I am able, I modify the frame spacers with a cut-and-shut (or I make replacements) to push the dimension over the outside of the frames to 28.0mm and to leave a pleasingly small gap between wheels and frame.

This was an easy exercise with this kit and it did not lead to any knock-on effects as it might with other models (location of cylinders, motion brackets and sandboxes, for example). However, even with my widened frames, I found that when I came to address fitting the sandboxes …

No. 7 
… the sandboxes were far too thin to fit in line with the wheels and they each needed to be packed out with a spacer; OK, this was not a big job and not really a serious shark but it was the last one.

Of course, I made a good number of other mods for my own pleasing, which are not shortcomings in the kit, but I’ll describe them later because I think they might give some food for thought, if nothing else.

More to follow …

David

[Guest Isambarduk]

Thank you for all the interest and likes, people; much appreciated so I am pleased I did decide to write it all down now.  Moving on to my chosen mods:

Handrail knobs – The knobs supplied with the kit are the traditional rounded variety that we all know so well but these Hudswell Clarke locos, like some/most of the Hunslet ‘Austerities’, had very plain knobs, merely a cylinder with a cross hole.
 

I expect that these knobs are available commercially but they are easy enough to make with suitable tackle.

Nameplates – Although I have etched plates for myself before, I ordered these from Narrow Planet, who were happy to work from my photo. I was delighted with the result for an incredibly reasonable charge.

 

Ladder – Etchings are provided in the kit for the sides of the ladder but they were a bit over-scale and the holes for the rungs were a bit irregular so I decided to make new sides from nickel silver strip and to silver solder on the curved top to one of them. I used the etch as guide to marking out the curved extension but it needed a bit of thinning down and shaping to suit. I temporarily soldered the two sides together and then drilled the holes for the rungs on my milling machine, thus ensuring that the spacing was even and correct.
 

I pinned the ladder to the bonnet and running plate and it is hooked onto the handrail (makes for far easier painting and lining).
 

 

Toolboxes / Battery boxes – Etches are provided for one 'toolbox' but David No.58 had two, one through each side of the running plate. For me, it was easiest to mill upper and lower sections (from aluminium, because I had some suitable stock material) and screw them together through the running plate. Although the item is referred to as a toolbox in the instructions and elsewhere, it is more likely that they are battery boxes; anybody know for sure?
 

Horn – The brass casting for the horn was not up to the standard of the whitemetal casings for the buffers, chimney and sandboxes but it was a pleasant little turning job to make a replacement and the mounting bracket (not visible in the photo) needs to be made, anyway.

 

Air tanks – Similarly, the whitemetal castings for the two air tanks were rather poor in comparison to the other castings but I easily made replacements from brass. As an aid to painting and lining, I arranged for the tanks to be mounted on brackets that support the steps to the cab and which are screwed to the frames.
 

 

Livery – From asking around, it seems that Hudswell Clarke described their ‘standard’ livery as Light Brunswick Green, sometimes referred to as ‘garden shed door green’, and that the best match would likely be LNER Darlington Green, which is believed to be very close to NER Green. I used Precision P51 - L.N.E.R. Loco' Green (Darlington Shade). I lined with gloss grey (Humbrol No. 40 Pale Grey Gloss) for the prototype’s white lining, edged in black (Humbrol 21 Black Gloss) with a lining pen and filled in with brush (Humbrol 85 Coal Black Satin).

 

 

More to follow …

David

[brack]

Thank you for posting. Sometimes its good to see something really well made.

[Michael Edge]

That variety of handrail pillar is available from Markits - M7HRKWDs. We supply them with our Barclay kits

[Andrew Young]

Cracking model of an interesting looking prototype. Thanks for writing down all the sharks which should benefit anyone else building one.

 

Andrew

[pauliebanger]

Hi David,

 

Cracking stuff as usual from you.

 

Lovely modelling.

 

Agree with Andrew, what an interesting looking loco.

 

Do you know which Gardner engine was fitted? And what type of transmission?

 

Best regards,

 

Paul

Edited August 28, 2018 by pauliebanger

[Guest Isambarduk]

Do you know which Gardiner engine was fitted? And what type of transmission?

 

Paul, All I know is that it had a 204HP Gardner engine (so an 8L3).  The mechanical transmission, using a scoop control fluid coupling and three-speed Power-flow SSS (synchro-self-shifting) gearbox, was a Hudswell Clarke speciality (so although this loco is usually referred to as 0-6-0DM it doesn't have a conventional mechanical transmission).

 

Registration and builders’ plates – The BR registration plates are a standard offering from Narrow Planet and the builders’ plates are a pair selected from the etch supplied with my RTR Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST from Ixion Model Railways (I hadn’t use any of them because they were not visible on GCR Humber, which worked in the Immingham Docks; they may have been inside the cab).

 

Flycranks – Etches are supplied in the kit to make laminated Flycranks but I choose to make my own. As I have done this several times before, I was in familiar territory.

An embryo flycrank for a Barclay 06 class loco beginning to emerge during a milling operation.

The image (above) illustrates milling a more involved flycrank for a fellow 7mm modeller. The flycranks are a force-fit on half-shafts that are joined with a muff

that fit between the frames to retains the cranks and jackshaft.

Fuel tank shade – At least, I assume that this is what it is. The etch in the kit was ‘full thickness’ but that seemed a bit hefty to me so I made a replacement out of 10 thou brass shim stock and put the stand-off pillars in the correct places according to the photos of the prototype. I also turned up a filler cap and arranged to secure the assembly by screwing into this from inside the bonnet (after all the painting and lining was complete).

Roof – I elected to add some brass angle to disguise the joint between the turned over cab side sheets and the roof, which slides in under them.

The final instalment will follow shortly …

David

[pauliebanger]

Do you know which Gardiner engine was fitted? And what type of transmission?

 

Paul, All I know is that it had a 204HP Gardner engine (so an 8L3).  The mechanical transmission, using a scoop control fluid coupling and three-speed Power-flow SSS (synchro-self-shifting) gearbox, was a Hudswell Clarke speciality (so although this loco is usually referred to as 0-6-0DM it doesn't have a conventional mechanical transmission).

 

 

Thanks David,

 

Gardner 8L3, nice. I feel a sound project coming on......  LOL

 

Best regards,

 

Paul

Edited August 28, 2018 by pauliebanger

[Guest Isambarduk]

Buffer planks - In building most 7mm scale models, it is normal and expedient to attach the buffer planks to the body/running plate but it made more sense in this case to attach the assemblies to the frames.

 

I let dowels/pins into the back of the buffer planks, to locate them most precisely on the end frame stretchers, and then let in 10BA studs to retain them. To help locate nuts on studs in awkward places such as this (the studs that retain cylinders are a more typical example), I turn down to core diameter the first mm or so of the stud so that the nut is well located and lined up before it is turned to engage the thread.

Cab interior – No interior details for the cab are provided in the kit but, to be fair, it would be difficult to see inside with the doors closed; dirty windows would ensure that no detail was needed. However, I do not weather my models and I use real glass in the windows (cut from microscope slider cover slips with a carbide tipped scriber that was originally intended for scratching a car registration number into the window glass) so I positioned both cab doors open.

 

As I enjoy reproducing the ‘boiler backhead’ and other cab details on a model of a steam locomotive, I made an attempt to model a representation of some of the controls, based rather loosely on a photograph of the interior of a different Hudswell Clarke shunter and using up some parts in my salvage bin.

After all the work, there are relatively few assemblies for the body to bring together after painting and lining, most are screwed together but a few small items are glued with epoxy resin (eg seats window glasses and ladder, not shown in the photograph)

Suspension – The frames in the kit are designed for a ‘rigid 0-6-0 chassis’ but I fretted out the axle bearing holes to be inverted U-shapes and then I closed them at the bottom with hornstays for CSB (continuous springy beam) suspension. Although I have not used it before, it does seem to be effective.

Alternative wheels – I explained earlier that I had inadvertently used Slater’s wheels that are much too large in diameter but, with the modifications to the hub area that I made, they look about right otherwise. However, in the instructions and on the Mercian Model Rail website, is mentioned that “Milled cranks available to suit Walsall Wheels”. The latter are shown on the Accessories page, where there is a visual comparison of the wheels by Slater’s and by Walsall Model Industries (below)

Source: Mercian Model Rail

so this might be worth considering, particularly if you would rather have milled flycranks, rather than make up the etches in the kit (for possibly the incorrect size of crank throw for your chosen wheels).

Finale – I believe that is just about it. If you have questions or if I have missed a point that you were hoping I’d address, over to you now to ask …

David

Edited August 29, 2018 by Isambarduk

[Guest Isambarduk]

No questions?  Excellent, I must have answered them all ! 

 

 

 

 

David

[Ruston]

No questions?  Excellent, I must have answered them all ! 

 

 

 

 

David

What about the rods? You never mentioned the rods. They didn't match the frames on mine and I wondered if the same happened on yours, or if perhaps I'd been given the rods for something else. I was provided with a replacement set but I still couldn't get the thing to run so I ended up throwing the frames and rods in the bin and replaced the whole lot with 1/16th in. thick profile-milled parts.

 

Edited September 1, 2018 by Ruston

[pete_mcfarlane]

What about the rods? You never mentioned the rods. They didn't match the frames on mine and I wondered if the same happened on yours, or if perhaps I'd been given the rods for something else.

The ones that came with my 4mm kit also didn't quite match the frames. 

[Michael Edge]

I've just built the 4mm later version Hudswell from Mercian and none of the frames or rods matched.

[Respite]

I didn't go in David's cab  but the cab controls are not like the ones in Dick. The scoop, power handle and gear lever were all mounted vertically on a central console.

[Guest Isambarduk]

What about the rods? You never mentioned the rods. They didn't match the frames on mine and I wondered if the same happened on yours, or if perhaps I'd been given the rods for something else. I was provided with a replacement set but I still couldn't get the thing to run so I ended up throwing the frames and rods in the bin and replaced the whole lot with 1/16th in. thick profile-milled parts.

 

I am sorry to hear that but clearly that's another 'shark' to look out for.  No, I didn't mention the rods; Trevor gave me two sets of nickel silver etches, they looked to be identical.  I did check very carefully that the centre-to-centre distances of the holes in the rods matched those in the frames before I started and then I made up the rods and frames without any problem, as far as I can recall.

 

I have heard of other kits from Mercian Model Rail that have had the wrong etchings packed.  Do speak to Trevor about it as he does try to be helpful, in my experience.

 

 

 

I didn't go in David's cab  but the cab controls are not like the ones in Dick. The scoop, power handle and gear lever were all mounted vertically on a central console.

 

Interesting but, please, don't look on the internal details of the cab on my model of David No. 58 as anything more than 'gubbins to give an impression of controls'; it is hard to see any of it even with bright walls and the doors open.  As I said "I made an attempt to model a representation of some of the controls, based rather loosely on a photograph of the interior of a different Hudswell Clarke shunter and using up some parts in my salvage bin."

 

David

[Michael Edge]

Your cab interior seems to have been based on the two locos built for the LMS in the 1930s  as far as I know this arrangement was only in very early locos, all the post war Hudswells had a control desk. I can't find any HC photos of your loco but it's more likely to have looked something like this one (D999).

Handbrake wheel position varied, sometimes on the top of the desk.

[Guest Isambarduk]

Although I was working on the HMRS stand at the Warley National Model Railway Exhibition, I also belong to the LOGGIES and I was delighted to be invited to bring my model to run on their layout, Central Works, which was exhibited there this year.

 

 

 

 

David No. 58 propels 16T minerals to the coal tippler

 

David