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Caledonian tank loco scratch build (From post No. 10)


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Hi chaps, as some of you might have seen I started a thread on Caledonian engines from RTR locos a few weeks ago to throw a few ideas into the melting pot. So Here is the first which I apologise for as its one that’s been done by many people before but this is my take on it, its going to be one of the Caley 439 class 0-4-4 tanks and like many before the starting point will be the Hornby M7 tank. OK I know the photo in the book behind is a 19 class but dimension wise apart from the tank and bunker height and some details it’s otherwise the same. I’ll be working from the dimensions in this book “40 years of Caledonian locomotives a set of plans for the 19 class and a nice set of drawings of the 439 class in the August copy of Railway modeller. I’ve already chopped it up but have taken photo’s so will add these in the next post

 

 

Edited by Londontram
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Looking forward to seeing how this one turns out.

I was looking at the newer Hornby M7 to do a similar modification, but looking at this model it looks too good to start cutting about.

In the meantime I managed to pick up a cheap part built DJH Caley, 0-4-4T, so will stick with that for now.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not much to report as I've had a few doctor and hospital visits this weeks so not had a lot of modeling time and like all good modelers were not happy unless we have at least half a dozen projects on the go at the same time. Any way the cab and bunkers is glued back on now and I've put a lip round the cab opening and I've done a bit of filling and sanding too as you can see from the tank tops. Something didn't look right and after checking I found the bunker is about 1 to 1 1/2 mm to high so I'll need to file that down a bit before making the coal rails so just the one photo this time with the engine sat in front of one of the other "projects" on the go at the moment which is a 6 wheel coach made by cutting down an old Triang clerestory and mounting on a Hornby 6 wheel van chassis. I hope when finished and painted it will look a bit like a Caledonian 6 wheeler. I plan to do four or five of these in different combinations and if not exact hope to get door, window and panel positions right so they at least look right. I'll keep another five or so at their full length which is a scale 45 ft remove the clerestory sections and alter the sides to match Caley 45 ft coaches as well (all the purists had better sit down at this point)

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Looking very nice.

 

I've noticed that you can get sprung T9 buffers as spares from Peters Spares, a lot cheaper than brass ones....

 

Have you lowered the body so that it siits at the right height?

 

Andy G

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Looking very nice.

 

I've noticed that you can get sprung T9 buffers as spares from Peters Spares, a lot cheaper than brass ones....

 

Have you lowered the body so that it siits at the right height?

 

Andy G

Yes if you go back to one of the earlier posts you will see where I shortened the chassis at the front and you will see I filed a step in the front of the chassis and on the body I raised the front lug holes about 1 mm which is why there is a blanking plate over the cylinder cover under the smoke box to cover this. Also at the back there is a new mounting point which allows the body to sit a little lower and the two bits that stick out on the main chassis block behind the motor were filed down about 1mm so I  hope that brings the buffer hight down a bit Steve

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As the saying goes "slow and steady wins the race" so just a small progress report today. first job was to take about 2mm off the bunker which I had built slightly to high I also made the base for the safety valves but at the moment it looks a bit messy with the filler on it. The two tank fillers came next and they just need a bit of dressing up with a needle file and some wet and dry. Now I was going to leave the dome even though its to small and sits about 4 mm to far back but I  found a dome in my spares box which was bigger but flat topped so after cutting off the old dome I filled the hole and put some filler on top of the dome and will round it off when dry I.ve also cut the slots in the buffer beams for the screw couplings I find it easyer to cut up from the bottom with a razor saw and back fill the slot raher than try to drill out a slot. Just a few hours work but is all progress

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Edited by Londontram
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Again just a short report today as I spent too long playing around with my three old Airfix 4Fs. The wife wants to have ago a painting something (she's into her arts and crafts and is a dab hand with a paint brush) As everything I have is 1950/60s dirty black at the moment she wanted to do something "brighter" All I could think of was a 4F in SDJR blue which quite appealed to her after she had seen a photo of one so I had to make the decision of which one to sacrifice to her which meant I had to have a good play with them first. Any way if it keeps her on side its worth it. It can't be a bad thing to have a missis who support your hobby. so anyway back to the caley tank.

I sanded down all the filler I put on the dome, safety valve and bunker back  then had a sort through the parts box and found an old bogie from a Hornby hall which had metal wheels and replaced the all plastic ones that were on the caley tank so I could eventually fit pickups on the bogie, while the bogie was off I cut the old coupling mounting off with those horrible guide horns they used to have on the bogie and glued a bit of plasticard over the end to tidy it up, I'll make some new horns for the front and rear from brass you can see the old bit in front of the bogie. I cut two bits of paxolin for the new pickups as well my goodness that tough old stuff to cut. the only other job today was to polish the drivers wheels with fine wet and dry. So thats it sorry chaps

 

Just the one photo with the replaced wheels and cut bogie 

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Edited by Londontram
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  • 8 months later...

It’s a while since I did any modelling as I’ve had to many jobs to catch up on round the house now I’m getting more mobile, so having a lull in the jobs round the house this week I’ve had a little play round with some projects but for a change haven’t gone back to the six wheel coaches I thought I might have a look on the loco front instead. I started by looking at the 439 class loco which was the feature of the original article and wondered how I was going to proceed as there are a few big mistakes and problems with it and I can’t decide if to try to fix them or pick up a spare body off ebay and start again.

          So while I pondered that I looked at another project which is to use a Hornby J83 0-6-0 as a base for converting to a Caledonian 104 class 0-4-4 as used on the Edinburgh's Balerno branch and Glasgow suburban Cathcart circle route. This loco in my opinion bares a lot of similarities in both looks and dimensions to the J83 i.e. the driving wheel diameters are the same the boiler diameter as well a features like sand boxes on the front splashers bunker and side tank shape etc. The 104 class is 1 ½ ft longer than a J83 (that's 6mm in 00 scale) but I’ll come to how I’ll do that later but to give you some idea here’s a picture of a 104 class loco.

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The first job is to convert the chassis to a 0-4-4 which meant removing the rear driving axle and cutting a big chunk out of the chassis. Removing the wheels is easy by unscrewing the two small screws that hold the plastic “keeper” plate on the underside the axles can then drop out, the rear wheels were removed from there axle and fitted to the center axle replacing the flange less traction tyres on the center axle which is the one driven by the motor, quartering was done by passing a rod through the spokes of one wheel to line up with the corresponding spokes on the second wheel having previously worked out which one this was before removing the wheels off the old axle it must have worked as when the rods were refitted it ran freely first time.

       While it was stripped I fitted a new worm and gear from Pete’s spares as the old ones were looking a bit sloppy. With it already having split coupling rods it was just a case of removing the rear ones though the front ones will need some work. A pony truck was sourced from the spares box but as this was too long one of the axle holes was re-drilled so the pony wheel base was now the correct 20mm instead of the original 25mm the excess body of the truck was cut of and while the wheels were off a recess was cut on the underside so as to mount a bit of copper clad board to mount pickup on, you can see this in this picture of the under side of the pony truck.  

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    After marking out where the cuts were to be made the chassis was firmly mounted in a vice and the excess metal was first ground away then finally filled to shape. I elected to use a trailing arm to mount the pony truck as experiments with a pivot mount restricted the radius the loco would go round plus even with a very week spring there was a tendency for the pony truck to lift the rear of the two driving axles causing the wheels to spin now there was no traction tyres fitted, although the pony truck is free floating the short wheel base means there is very little swing out as the loco goes through points and second radius curves with no problems. When done I’ll mount some lead in the side tanks and above the motor to keep the weight over the driving wheels. Removing the rear of the chassis where the rear axle was meant I lost one of the screw holes that held the keeper plate in place, as I needed to mount the pony trucks mounting arm I drilled through the chassis and used a small BA nut and bolt to hold the keeper plate and pony mounting arm in place, the bolt had to be counter sunk into the chassis on the top side as it sat under the motor and would have stopped it sitting flush on its mounting and thus not meshing.

    Once all back together the loco was test run through curved and straight points in all directions without problems and without sticking even though not yet having pickups on the pony trucks Originally the pickups were on the two outer axles but by simple bending the rear one back on it’s self it then sat behind the second set of driving wheels making the pick up now work off the first and second axles as can be seen in the first of these two pictures.

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Next thing will be to start on the body mods which will involve a second spare body using slices from that body to lengthen this one. Thanks for looking and sorry to go on for so long Steve

 

The last photo showing two Hornby J83 chassis one modified the other original and the wheel base is now right on the modified one for the 104 class. The second J83 chassis will eventually go under a Jumbo 0-6-0 which will use a scratch built body.

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Edited by Londontram
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Hi Steve, interesting stuff here, but I`m not sure you`re not making things harder for yourself. Chassis and wheel spotting is a good start, you`re sure of something that runs, but cutting and shutting is hard work. I can see the point of using fittings and tricky shapes like cab roofs, but wouldn`t you be better building out of plasticard and abs tube? It`s your hobby and you should do what gives you pleasure, but I spy a scratchbuilder.

Edited by Tren
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  • 1 year later...

Right chaps this has not been updated for a while but there have been other projects on the go including the rally season with the classic car which has taken up quite a bit of time. I decided to start a new build and a select few have seen the progress on private mails and I didn't put it on here until it had reached the stage where it was almost finished which it would be but due to a problem getting the last few bits is where it is now so I made the decision of putting it on here as it might even help in getting the last few bits.

 

    "Buhar" formally know as Tren you were right cut and shut is more trouble than its worth and building the body from scratch is the way to go. after this the 439 has been stripped right down to a point where I'll be starting almost from scratch as the quality of that build next to this was so poor even I couldn't except it as it was.

 

      So whats the subject? well another Caledonian loco this time a 492 class 0-8-0 heavy shunting and short trip working tank from around 1900. There was only 6 built and they were built to shunt and pull the then new 30 ton bogie mineral wagon (The one made by Ratio) they were also used for banking as well.

 

   Starting point? well you all know I'm no chassis builder so after chopping the Hornby J83 successfully into a 0-4-4 I thought I would use that route again this time as well as changing the wheel arrangement from an 0-6-0 to an 0-8-0 I would be fitting Romford wheels after finding a supply in the bottom of a parts box that I forgot I had. At first glance it might be a strange choice but here's why the 492 class is a very short wheel base chassis and the 0-8-0 arrangement will fit within the J83 chassis length, the first and second axle on the J83 chassis are already in the correct position the second being the driven axle so that's already set up, Finally there cheap off ebay so if it goes wrong then there's no real loss . Here's a picture of an original loco in early LMS days showing the tight 0-8-0 wheel arrangement.

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     The chassis was stripped to the bare block and the position of the two new third and forth axles was marked out, on the original J83 chassis the rear axle is sprung by two small coil springs pushing down on the rear axle from little pockets above the axle the springs being about the size of the springs that you find on the back of three link coupling hooks. I decided to incorporate this into the new forth axle so the cutting was started. The axles on this chassis rather than sitting in holes are sat in open slots cut from the bottom of the chassis and the axles are held in place by a plastic keeper plate screwed to the bottom of the chassis. so this method was copied with the new cuts.

   

      The Hornby axles run in brass bearings and the Romford axles are just a little smaller diameter so some Romford axles made to fit Triang Hornby axle holes and bearings were ordered from Markets. until they came the chassis was tested on the original Hornby wheels to see how it would go through points and around curves and even though its an 0-8-0 it went through medium Peco points and second radius curves very well. before the chassis was put back together the large block at the front of the chassis was cut away leaving just enough to mount the motor the result being when done there would be plenty of day light under the boiler. Here's two pictures of the chassis the first shows it on the original Hornby wheels and before the chassis block at the front was cut off and the second is the chassis now on Romfords sat on a set of scale plans showing that the axle position is spot on.

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and the next shot showing the block at the front of the chassis cut away which you can see by the raw shiny cut area.

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One advantage of the Romford wheels being finer than the Hornby originals is the Hornby wheels being so corse and because of the short wheel base the flanges of the rear axles were almost touching but now with the Romfords you get a better more balanced look, the other advantage of changing wheels is the second axle on the J83 has traction tyres and the Romford second axle like the original loco is now flange less.

 

   So there we are for now, as I said this one is all but done so the reports aren't going to peter out half way through the build. More next time, sorry for going on but I needed to set the scene. Steve

Edited by Londontram
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One more to round off the chassis for now before moving onto the body, here's a picture of the chassis running while suspended. I had at this stage pushed it through various track and point formations by hand to test it and found no problems and it test run smooth enough when suspended but Andy uax6 talked up the first real problem when he said "Have you tested it under its own power on the track as they don't always run as well as when suspended"

 

    Buggor as when tested under its own power it ran like shite so he talked that one up the problem was all at the back axle which seemed to be hopping around like a dog with a lame leg. I'd made the rods so the first thing I checked was to make sure there was no binding or locking there, I'd used Romford wheels so there was no quartering problems and with trial and error I found that a bit of weight over the bunker area (OK a lot of weight over the bunker area) fixed the problem, It couldn't run with this much weight there wasn't room for it for starters so there had to be another solution.

 

    I wondered if the idea of using the coil spring rear suspension from the original Hornby axle was the problem at first thinking it was too stiff but it quickly became obvious that it was not to stiff but to loose, it seemed that as the wheels were turning the soft springs were allowing the cranks to create a sort of "walking" motion causing the back end to rise up and down. As all the cranks are separate and not one piece it was only affecting the rear axle. The fix was easy by inserting a piece of plasticard under the spring to increase the tension on them it cured the motion completely and now the bunker area has just a normal weight in it to aid adhesion. 

 

    The rods were made from the original Hornby rods for two reasons one I had some spare left over from the 0-4-4 conversion and two cost - as you know I work to a tight budget having these there in front of me and not using them was silly, the front rods were undisturbed so apart from filling in the flutes to give them a flat look they could go on as was. I found that the Hornby crank screws fitted the thread on the Romford wheels only needing a few quick strokes with a file on the back as the Romfords being a finer wheel the screws extended through slightly and might have caught the pick ups and caused shorting. The rear rods were cut so that a there was a few mm over lap which was shamffered off each part then tinned and sweat soldered together, they still need a little dressing with a file and wet and dry but work very well if not as refined looking as etched one would be.

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   Thanks for looking Steve

Edited by Londontram
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Having got the chassis into a fairly good running condition I could start thinking about the body and the next step would logically be the running plate. Using the plans the running plate was cut from I think it was 15 thou plasticard and the two buffer beams were cut at the same time, I must confess the next idea I got from fellow forum member david65061 from his scratch build of an LNER J21 This was the running plate valance which I made from sections of brass rod which when measured had V cuts at each end and the ends folder in at right angles and soldered for the sections behind the buffer beams, when done and cleaned up these were attached to the running plate with super glue and the buffer beams fixed in the same way. This made a very strong backbone to the running plate and made a good foundation to start building the body on, it would also have the added advantage that later I would be able to solder the steps direct to this as I intended to make the steps from brass as well.

 

     Even though the new wheel arrangement fitted with in the original Hornby chassis the body was still some what larger than a standard 0-6-0 so some extensions to the chassis were made and attached with super glue and these extensions can be seen with the other running plate components laid out in this next picture

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and in this picture the chassis extensions fitted

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I intended to use the original "Lugs" at the front of the chassis to fix the body to the chassis, generations of model railway enthusiasts will recognize these as they've been a feature of all the 0-6-0 tanks going right back to the Triang days. Crude as they are they work but to give them a bit more credibility they will be hidden behind a new valve chest cover. The rear extension will be where I will mount a fixed nut for the rear fixing point for the body. To give the body the correct height a few pieces of 10 thou plasticard were laminated up under the front of the chassis as shown in this next picture of the now assembled running plate

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Next time I'll continue the build and talk about making the buffers as seen in the last picture above. Thanks for looking Steve

Edited by Londontram
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This first picture in this post shows the first trial fit of the running plate on the chassis.

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Hmm looks like one more piece of 10 thou plasticard needs adding to the front to bring it up tight to the lugs

In the next picture this has been done but also now I've fitted the buffers which were made with some old Hornby heads and some brass tube soldered to a BA washer base these fixed in place with super glue I did this to A. save costs as all these little £2.99p bits here and there soon add up but also B. to give it the correct Caledonian round base as sorting through my spares box I found a surprising amount of buffers I didn't know I had but none with round bases.

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Happy with that I turned my thoughts to building upwards and the one thing that gives all locos a heart the boiler so started looking through the bits and bobs box for some suitable tube When I came across one of the GBL T9 locos and found the boiler to be a pretty close match size wise to the Caley loco so using the plans I cut the smoke box down to the correct length and had a look at how it sat on the chassis and after adding a couple of pieces of 10 thou plasticard under the smoke box saddle to get it to sit at the right height it looked like it would make a good boiler for this project and here is the first picture of the T9 boiler being offered up to the chassis.

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In this view you can see how effective cutting away the cast block on the chassis is, later on you will see how the remaining part of the motor mount falls nicely inside the bunker area leaving this nice open area under the boiler.

 

       Looking at this picture of the loco at this stage some of you are thinking "Yeah - really that's going to be a Caledonian loco" but I think you have to have an idea in your minds eye when doing something like this as it happened the T9 boiler was perfect being long enough and just the right width for the Caley boiler and made an ideal base from which to build the loco around.

    Thanks for looking lots more to come. Steve

Edited by Londontram
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Crikey, to get all those assorted bits to come together, and run, and start to look like a Caley loco, Steve, you're a genius. I'm assuming your abortive trip to the model shop was for brass tube? I checked out my stuff but I ain't got none the right sizes, sorry. Keep up the good work.

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Crikey, to get all those assorted bits to come together, and run, and start to look like a Caley loco, Steve, you're a genius. I'm assuming your abortive trip to the model shop was for brass tube? I checked out my stuff but I ain't got none the right sizes, sorry. Keep up the good work.

Its a leap of faith believe me, I do tend to sit on an idea for six months or so mulling it over looking at different options then one day I'll just feel its right to make a start, my big problem is finishing one so this time I've waited until its almost finished before I've started the build thread. As it stands today the only thing it needs before painting is the chimney which I'm working on and I'm hoping will be done by the time this thread catches up. It was for some brass tube for the chimney that I went to the model shop the other day I've since been again and got all I need now thanks. Steve

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The next step after building the running plate and finding a suitable boiler was to marry them both together but first a little more prep work would be needed. The front of the T9 smoke box had been cut back and by using a paper template a new winged front plate was made, basically when printing a copy of the drawings off for this loco I printed extra copies and from them cut out templates and these were stuck to the plasticard with a Pritt stick paper glue and then the piece required could be cut out using the template as a guide. I found as long as it wasn't left to long the paper template would just peel off when done with out leaving any trace, at worst a quick rub with some wet and dry would remove any stubborn left over paper.

 

   This new winged front plate was glued to the front of the smoke box and the same paper patterns were used to mark out the tank parts. To give the front plate something to fix too a new valve chest cover in brass had been brought off ebay ready for this, it needed some slots cut away on the back to sit over the mounting lugs and being pretty tough stuff this was done with a grinding wheel in a Dremel. This valve chest cover was super glued to the running plate so that when fitted the smoke box front plate could in turn glue to that (Have a look at the picture you'll see what I mean) All this was put together to get what you see here in this first picture.

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Also in this picture you can see one of the few other dedicated parts brought for this locomotive, again from ebay a Caley coaches smoke box door. Here is another view of the tanks and boiler fitted this time from the rear.

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Here is a final view from the front with the sides of the tanks fitted and filled. when all the glues had set a combination of filing then wet and dry gave the tank tops there characteristic Caledonian curved edge which like the smoke box wing plates are so much a feature of Caledonian locomotives.

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I hope your finding this interesting and please feel free to comment or ask questions at least I'll know some one is actually reading these posts. Regards Steve

Edited by Londontram
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So often on rmweb someone pops up with a build they've done of the loco in question. I'll be very surprised if that happens with this one.

 

I love big tank engines and this one will have a presence on your layout.

 

Using a cast-off boiler solves one of the biggest scratch build problems and reconfiguring an rtr chassis solves another. The idea of brass bracing for the running plate cracks another potential weak point when using plasticard.

 

From here on in, Steve, and in memory of George Cole, the world is your lobster.

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Thanks Buhar as I said earlier I cant claim the idea for the brass valance as being mine as I got the idea from fellow forum member david65061 but it does add a lot of strength to the running plate and I've just noticed in the last picture of the last post I'm holding the loco by the rear buffer beam and even though its early days there's already quite a lot of weight up front. I don't think I would have done that with just a plasticard running plate.

 

    As to it having presence you should see it now, I went to visit a friend from the Caledonian society the other day and although not quite finished we couldn't resist sitting it on his layout Blairgowrie and sat on shed next to a Caledonian Conner and a Jumbo it dwarfed them both (You'll see the photos in due coarse)

 

      Some might think that just using the boiler off the GBL T9 is a bit of a waste but the loco has already gone on to donate its running plate and splashers, cab and tender to other projects so it works out as quite a cost effective form of recycling. As to others modeling one I think your right it will be a while before another one comes along and as far as I know there's never been a kit of one and there's none in the pipe line. Thanks again Steve 

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Having now mounted the boiler and fitted the side tanks I added a little detail the first that you can see in the last picture of the last post a safety valve which is a white metal casting I've had for a long while I think originally from SE Finecast I was going to use some white metal Caley jumbo tank fillers but being originally for a tender they were a little to large so a set was made by cutting of slices of plastic tube about 1mm thick and then cutting two round disc for the lids with a gasket punch from a set I got off ebay which are a range of punches designed to punch different size holes in gasket paper but when used on plasticard produce a perfect round disc ideal for jobs like this. The discs were glued to the slices of rod which were in turn glued to the tank tops, the hinges were made from some evergreens micro strip. Also working from the plans a step was added to each tank side. You will be able to see this all in the next picture.

 

     Next stage was the cab and bunker, one very prominent feature of all but one class of Caledonian locos is the step in on the cab and bunker sides the only Caley tank loco to not have this feature being the 104 class 0-4-4 tank loco all others having this design feature which is why the cab was built as a separate part from the tanks.

   

     Again templates were taken from the plans and glued to some 10 thou plasticard with a Pritt stick and I must confess this is where it all went horrible wrong because after cutting the sides out it very quickly became obvious that the measurements were out some where as the cab and bunker was about 1.5mm to long and it didn't take long to work out where, in the hardest part to correct the running plate its self I must have miss cut it or something but with the brass rods for the valance it was almost impossible to alter so what to do scrap it all and start again or push on.

 

    1.5mm in 00 is  about 4 to 5 inches in real money which as my wife keeps telling me is nothing to get excited about so I decided to push on and compress it slightly this was done by taking 0.5 of a mm off the back of the tanks and then 0.5 of a mm off both the cab and the bunker this spreading the "damage" meant the loco kept its proportions and balance and unless laid against the plans you cant tell.

 

      I thought I would fess up just to show its not always plain sailing and sometimes things go wrong, whats the old saying measure twice cut once.

 

   Any way the cab and bunker was built up on the running plate with the back of the bunker with its slight turn out being rolled cold around a thin piece of rod this was enough for it to keep its shape, after all the trouble above the cab and bunker went on well and required only a minimal of filling to finish it off. Here are a couple of pictures of the cab from the front and back.

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There is no known pictures giving details of the cab interior so I just added some generic detail using planked plasticard for the floor. I also added a rear shelf and a hand brake stanchion from a piece of plastic rod with an L shaped bit of wire for the handle. A MT finescale fret of cab detailing parts provided the reversing lever and the backhead came from the same GBL T9 as the boiler I figured by the time the cab doors are on and its painted with a crew in there and the roof on you wont be able to see much so this would probable suffice  here's a picture.

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Thanks again for following this build Steve

 

PS the cab is about 1mm to high in these pictures again my fault by cutting outside the lines of the template but this was later sanded down to the correct height with some course wet and dry on a sanding block, you will see the improvements in later posts

Edited by Londontram
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Every build seems to reach a point where up until then everything you do has a visual impact on the overall model it always seems the 80% of the build is done in 20% of the time and then all the fiddle stuff has to be done where each job takes an age and has it seems little effect on the overall model. But slowly little by little it comes together and this is the stage I think I've reached here.

 

   Having got the basic cab and bunker built I turned to the next job which was the combined sandboxes and front splashers so out came the scissors and again paper templates where made. The sides to the sandboxes and splashers were made from 10 thou plasticard but the tops were done in 5 thou and when cut to the basic size were cold rolled around a pencil to get the double curve shape that the tops had. These were glued in place as you can see in the next couple of pictures. Some sections of thin plastic tube were cut and glued in place with a bit of filler in the middle to represent the sand box fillers as you can also see in this first picture.

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These were left to set before any more work was done in this area one job being still to do later was add a joining piece of false chassis between the splasher and the tank.

So as that was setting I had a go at the cab roof which was basically a square of plasticard and again a gentle curve was put into it by cold rolling it around a suitable forma in this case a handy spray can, a lot of people talk about heating or doing jobs like this in boiling water but working in no more than 10 thou plasticard I find just cold rolling it is enough for it to keep its shape with out springing back. Once trimmed to size some strips of evergreens plasticard where cut and added to give it the roof rib detail as can be seen in this final picture of this post. The roof is only sat on at this stage and wont be glued in place till after the loco is painted so the inside of the cab can be painted and the crew added.

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So slowly coming together and definitely beginning to look more like a loco next time more detail added. Thanks for looking Steve

Edited by Londontram
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As most of my work is done under a strict budget due to my life style limitations I'm always looking for things that can be used in modeling and in some cases things that have an alternate use and one such thing was the Romford crank pins. As I had used the original Hornby cranks with the Hornby crank bolts I had the Romford crank pins surplus and found that by inserting the pin threaded end first into a pre drilled hole it made a pretty good copy of the tank locos whistle, a small length of brass will be later added at right angles to the base to form the handle into the cab. Also while working on the cab the cab doors were added in the closed position as when open if you go back to the picture on page one of the 492 tank the door hangs out side and doesn't look very neat doing nothing for the lines of the loco plus when closed they help hide the sparse cab detail as well. Here's a look on this first photo.

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Bit of a poor picture but here is the whistle with extra cross piece added, Although not obvious in this photo the cab roof has now been lowered to its correct height.

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Another job to do was fit a small air tank across the rear of the chassis for the Westinghouse braking system, now here's a good example of not planning ahead as when fitting the running plate to the chassis I used the original Hornby lugs at the front and made a captive nut and bolt arrangement at the rear end so going to put the air tank on guess where it sat? Yep right over the nut and bolt at the back of the chassis so what I did was fit it but cut out the center section that covered the bolt, this worked well as you cant see this from the rear or sides so another crises diverted but it goes to show the constant problems you come up against when embarking on a scratch build. Below are two pictures showing the air tank from the rear of the loco and from underneath showing the area cut out for the securing screw.

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The air tank was just made from a piece of plastic tube with the ends stopped up with some filler.

 

        Bit of a retrograde step now as I've covered the chassis but I thought I should mention the locos pick ups. On the original Hornby loco the pick ups were strips touching against the inner edge of the first and third wheel. the front was not disturbed but by chance when the third axle was moved forward the same pick up now touched against the rear edge of the third wheel which saved some work. As for the forth axle as you can see in the above picture some copper clad circuit board was cut and two new wiper style pick ups were soldered to it, the brass strips coming from the thin brass strips off the edge of a fret that held some W irons from another job, I always save bits like this as there are some handy lengths of nice straight cut brass that can be used for no end of things.

 

   Thanks again for looking and please let me know how you think its coming, thanks again Steve

Edited by Londontram
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The 492 class along with many Caledonian locos was fitted with a Westinghouse air pump for the air brakes as all the coaching stock on the Caledonian at this time was air braked (Some being duel vacuum braked as well for joint working with the LNWR on the west coast and other joint routes) but unlike the majority of other locos that did passenger work and were painted blue these were only used for freight work and as far as I know there is no recorded occasion of them working a passenger train.

 

      The air pump was fitted as these were designed to work the new 30 ton bogie ore/mineral wagons then being introduced by the Caledonian which because of there size and weight these wagons were air braked where as at this time the rest of the wagon fleet apart from a few exceptions was not fitted with train controlled brakes running only as loose coupled (Don't forget this was 1900 and a great many wagons were still wooden underframes with dump buffres) It is possible to build a kit of these wagons as its the 30 ton LMS x CR bogie ore/mineral wagon made by Ratio and can be seen here.

http://www.peco-uk.com/product.asp?strParents=3340,3344&CAT_ID=3350&P_ID=17893 (usual disclaimer no links to the product or company)

 

The 492 class and the 0-8-0 600 class tender locos were like the Bayer Garretts on the Midland built for a purpose that was ultimately unobtainable as like the Midland railway it was soon found that using these locos for there intended purpose was not possible as there was not loops or sidings at the time big enough to hold the trains that they were designed to pull.

 

   Any way this meant I had to fit an air pump which in the majority of Caledonian locos is fitted on the fireman's cab (left) side, I had some white metal castings but these seemed of a very poor quality and when held against the plans slightly under scale so one was made from two sections of plastic tube with round disc ends cut by the gasket cutter with a central piece of plastic rod joining the two sections together. When the glue was dry this was pre drilled for the pipe work and glued in place on the cab side and the pipe work from brass rod added the end result can be seen here.

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      Also fitted at this time was the cab hand rails and the beading around the cab cut out. this was simply made by cutting a strip of 5 thou plasticard about 2mm wide and then rolling it up round a pencil when coiled this was placed it the aperture and allowed to un-coil and expand into the cut out holding it in pretty much the right position by its self, it was just a case of using liquid polly cement and working ones way round pushing it into place at the corners with a handy round tool in this case a handle to a needle file the the liquid polly cement helping by softening the plasticard strip. Once dry this was just "dressed" with a file or wet and dry to trim it back to the slight beading you can see in the above picture.

Thanks again for looking, Steve

 

Edit,added.

     You know one of the great things about modeling the Caledonian in pre-grouping days is no rivets, that's right no rivets. The Caledonian had a policy of not having rivet heads on show this makes modeling this period a lot easier. You only start to see rivets appear on the locos in early LMS days when they went through the works and had new smokeboxes or boilers fitted the LMS not being so particular about the ex Caley locos appearance. 

Edited by Londontram
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Thanks for your kind words Mike I was beginning to think no one else was interested by the lack of feed back this thread was getting.

 

   Two jobs today the first being the Caledonian smokebox door catch which is a dart handle and wheel arrangement, again these are available as a casting but looking at pictures of the castings being such a delicate item the casting looks more of undefined lump so rather than buy one I had a go at making my own. For the wheel I used a suitable wheel of the MT fret of cab fitting that the reversing lever had come from this was mounted on a pin along with a small section of brass from the edge of the fret along with a couple of spacer washers left over from a motion kit (The small spacers that go on the crank pins) All this was sweat soldered together then the pin was fixed into a hole drilled in the smoke box door with super glue, I tell you what that brass they use for these castings is a tough buggor (Deliberate spelling mistake) and take a fair while to drill with a small pin size drill. Remember with metal drill slowly, metal drills are not high speed drills this burns them out and its more likely to snatch and snap I also use a bit of three in one oil to lubricate the drill head too. Here is a picture of the smokebox door with the handle and wheel fitted.

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As the loco is air braked I needed some air pipes now a few months ago I was being dragged around a garden center by Mrs London tram (Well I suppose we must all make the effort from time to time) Any way always on the look out for any thing that can be used I spotted a pack of 100 galvanized metal garden ties and even though it was a "soft" wire was very thin and was only 99p so in the basket it went.

 

    So when I came to make the air pipes I dug this pack out and by starting with a core of brass rod which I pre tinned with solder, I then soldered one end of a length of this wire to the brass rod then wound it around the rod until I had about an inch long section this was touched by the soldering iron so the the pre tinned solder on the brass rod fixed it in place. leaving a little bit of brass rod to fix in the buffer beam the pipe was trimmed to length and bent to shape and super glued in place, a second pipe was made for the rear buffer beam as well. The fruits of these labours can also be seen in the above picture.

 

   Also on the buffer beam is the base plate for the couplings which I haven't decided yet whether to go for an auto uncoupler or just a screw/three link type one, I've got a fret of Sprat and Winkle couplings which I want to use on my wagons and the beauty of these is they can couple to three link type couplings so I think I might go down the three link route for the loco.

 

    Any way another couple of pieces in the jigsaw next time I'll talk about the steps, thanks for looking

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One of the greatest banes of my life as a modeler is amongst my fleet I don't think I've ever had all the locos with out at least one that had its steps broken off and awaiting repair.so for durability and strength I always intended to make the steps from brass and if they could be soldered in place all the better. So using the plans and starting with the front the steps were marked out on some quite thick brass plate (cant for the life of me remember what size, sorry) these were cut out and filed to shape using round files and a vice the single step on the bottom of the front ones were bent in the same vice and once cleaned up the upper edge was tinned. This is where it got tricky as I now had to solder the steps to the valance rail which as you know is now glued to the plasticard running plate. So the valance rail was fluxed and then a quick touch to tin it with the soldering iron, The step was held in place and when happy with the position a little solder was loaded on the tip of the iron and was touched to the area to be joined and hay presto the step was on the only thing required was to clean up the join leaving a very strong step which shouldn't get knocked off. This was repeated on the other front step with equal success one of the finished step you can see in the next picture.

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The rear steps were a bit more of a challenge as where the front steps just had a single step at the bottom the rears had an intermediate step as well. So the basic step was made the same as the front one but an extra bit of brass was cut and fixed to the step back at the same time the top of the step was tinned. The valance was also tinned, now the trick was to solder the step in place without the center step dropping off and also not damaging the plasticard running plate. So once again the step was held in place  and the iron loaded and then the attempt was made.

 

   As it happened I was worrying over nothing as all the steps went on with very little trouble and the rears without the middle step coming off. With all the steps on they just needed cleaning up. Here are two pictures of one of the rear steps in place.

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On the original loco there is a very visible water balance pipe either side that runs behind the rear steps you can see it in the last two pictures on this post, next time I'll look at making and fitting this. Steve

 

PS in the last picture you can also see the rear air pipe and the air tank under the chassis talked about in previous posts

Edited by Londontram
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