Mercian 0-4-0 0-4-0 Garratt, Heljan 37 & Kerr Stuart Wren

[ngtrains.com]

One cause of errors was the lack of access to the prototype. I'm told that Bressingham wouldn't let them see one side of it!

 

 

That may be so but some of its basic errors are just down to piss poor drawings unless you are trying to say things like the cylinders aren't symmetrical around the centreline!

[Giles]

Phil – thank you for the vote of confidence in my build! I hope it gets there......

 

At least I'm under no pressure from Paul...... :-)

 

Slight inaccuracies and simplifications to the prototype for whatever reason (access, lack of drawings, photos etc. ) I don't mind too much, but I have found myself deeply frustrated by inconsistent drawing on some of the etches - such as significant asymmetry to components - even simple ones like buffer beams, let alone cylinders and roof curves. These ARE basics for etching artwork (fortunately should be historical now with CAD) and I suspect that the kit may not have gone through the final stage of pre-production testing/building that would have found these issues.

 

I wasn't aware of any issues at all when I bought the kit, a couple of years ago - and so was slightly disillusioned to find out some of these things early on when I started the kit (it was a model I really wanted) – but I'm determined to get a decent loco out the other end of this - and I hope other people do too!

 

It takes more work than one should (comparably) have to put into a kit, in terms of corrections and rectifications, but not a catastrophic amount, but I hope it will be helpful if people know they need to file 2mm off that bit there BEFORE they've soldered it on, rather than afterwards......

[ngtrains.com]

I suspect that the kit may not have gone through the final stage of pre-production testing/building that would have found these issues.

 

There is something in that.......

 

My understanding from what I was told by Jim at the time I bought this was that it was a project started under the Wychbury banner but that there was some epic falling out between the three members before, or shortly after, its release. That falling out resulted in three separate companies from then on (Jim Harris, Mercian and Agenoria) and a lot of hard feelings and accusations with each of the three owning copies of artwork in various stages of completion and which resulted in similar products from each of them.

 

As far as I am aware they all used Grainge & Hodder for their etches and until a couple of years ago they could still work from hand drawn artwork  (artwork is hand drawn and coloured at X times full size and then photographed and reduced to make the tool which, simplistically, is like a big photo negative) but as that camera was effectively built into the building it was lost when they moved premises.  Hand drawn artwork needs to be a thing of the past!

[Giles]

It's the smoke box saddle next.

 

First of all, it's worth carefully matching the saddle end plates to the actual smokebox wrapper curve - bearing in mind that your finished smokebox may not be perfectly round.....

 

The saddle is a four-piece assembly which is a slight fiddle, but nothing unreasonable. Check it sits neatly on the bottom of the smokebox before fitting  to the frames.

 

It is vital that you locate the saddle by using the fully finished boiler to position it correctly, and don't rely on anything else!. The smokebox should sit down on the flat of the frame stretcher. If like me, you correct the boiler length, you'll need to grind back the top of the pivot pin to allow the smoke box to sit down fully.

The rear of the saddle lines up with where the front tube plate would be, more or less, so there's a very large over-hang at the front. (see my pics)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The etch for the front cover plate would have been a real fiddle to solder in, so first I soldered on a short length of angle on each side to support it. This made fitting the plate sooo much easier.

 

 

There's a rectangular hole missing in the RH running board (mentioned in the instructions) - but there's no mention of exactly how big and what position it should be........ This is my best estimate of the missing hole (in relation to the correct smokebox etc......)

 

Edited March 17, 2014 by Giles

[Giles]

The boiler was then epoxied in (so as not to disturb all the other soldered stuff)

 

I thought I'd have a look at the cab hand rails. 0.9mm wire is supplied, but the real thing has tapered rails. It's one of those things which can look quite nice, and is quite easy to do if you've got a lathe.

I have a little Unimat 3 which ha been around for 30 years, and is brilliant. Putting some 1.2mm brass wire/rod in the chuck, poking out just enough, I very easily dressed a taper on with a fine 10" file by hand. The wire flexes away and prevents you from putting a deep cut on. As long as you're gentle it's really quite easy. a final rub with 600 wet-and-dry while it's still rotating and it's finished. While I was at it, I made two tapered rods for the grab posts one for each end.

 

[Giles]

^{Clot of the week goes to ..... me!!!!!}

 

^{See those nice cab grab rails? The instructions have a very crude drawing, which I took as an indication which appeared to show the boss for the rail (on each end of the cut-out beading) on the outside - and therefore I soldered the beading onto the cab side sheets with the boss to the out-side..... I was looking at some photos today, and noticed that actually the grab rails are to the INSIDE of the cab side sheets.}

 

^{This meant that the rails had to come off, and the beading had to come off, and each re-solder onto the opposite side (after salvage...).. Not my favourite job.... but successful, at any rate.}

 

 

 

^{I've also altered the ash-pan, so it sits about 1.5mm higher than it did before}

 

 

[Giles]

The value of photos..... I've just seen that I've soldered one of the rails in upside down..... What a. ......"

 

..... 22.03.14. Easily sorted - un soldered the offending rail, and replaced it the right way up! Now all the rails are in-board, and tapered thin at the top, thick at the bottom!

 

I've also taken a leaf out of Phil's book, and sold re strips of nickel silver all orotund the top of the cab to aid in glueing the cab roof on later.

 

I'm also in the process of soldering on the brass fittings onto the boiler where I can, before I make a start on attaching white metal fittings.

Edited March 22, 2014 by Giles

[Giles]

_{Before handrails go on, the other 'pipes' must go on - as these pass underneath the handrails.}

 

_{These pipes are (at the fire-box) the steam feed from the whistle turret to the injectors, and then the water from the injectors to the clacks on top of the boiler, in front of the steam dome. Thus starts the story....}

 

_{I actually only had one injector casting supplied with the kit (there should be two - one for each side) and that bore little resemblance to the actual injector (Gresham & Craven No. 9) as the casting was too long, and had no water feed valve at the top. I therefore decided to knock-up a fairly crude pair (one RH and one LH) something closer to the correct length, and with a valve on top. These were made of 3mm dia. silver steel (because that's what I has to hand) silver soldered, so that I could soft solder pipes to them with no fear of them falling apart. If you have never silver-soldered - it's very easy with a fairly small torch, and borax flux. I dare say there are countless YouTube clips on it.}

_{Just so people know, an injector needs four pipes connected to it - steam in, water in - steam/water to boiler, water over-flow. some injectors have a built in valve to control and fine-tune the water flow coming in - and this is one of them.}

 

 

 

Pipes were then bent and fitted from 1.5mm brass (to be truly scale it should be 1.3mm) and soldered in.

 

 

 

 

 

[Giles]

However - we require the water feed...... This comes from the left side of the Boiler Cradle, where we need to fit a sump box, fed from large bore pipe (it needs to be 2.4mm dia. to be scale)running both forward and backwards from the box, so as to take water from the tanks on both the front and hind engines. These pipes run inside the diagonal 'braces', and should have a 90 degree elbow taking them through the frames level with the engine pivot points. Obviously neither the pipe nor elbows are supplied, so I heated up my 2.4mm brass rod (bought at an exhibition) to red heat on the cooker gas ring,  and bent it round sharply to form the 90 degrees., trimming it off afterwards.

 

The upper pipe feeds the LH injector, and the lower pipe crosses over to feed the RH injector.  HOWEVER, the pipes need to clear the brake shaft - which also isn't supplied, and neither is the brake crank, cross-shaft or mounting brackets, all of which I had to deduce from photos - so it may not be bang-on....... (I have drawings of the Vivian Garrett, but the Brake gear is one of the differences). When you get into the cab, the handle should be of 0.5mm, and should be approx. 9mm wide.

 

Lastly is this part of the saga, (and one of the reasons I made the injectors) There should be a small water valve operating rod on  each side attached to the valve on the injector. This is again missing from the kit, but I wanted to fit them, as I felt they were a fairly prominent detail. Most of the rod is actually behind the fire-box cladding, with only the final 18" poking out.

 

 

 

Lastly, here's a shot of the underside to show how the exhaust pipe from the hind engine fits to the inside rear of the smoke-box (correctly) and its relationship with the front engine when it's fitted.

 

 

 

Edited April 5, 2014 by Giles

[Giles]

I should say that the most useful reference I've found for much of the missing bits is Phil's very generous photo site

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/45131642@N00/sets/72157640174384343/

 

Which has not only much better quality photos than my own, but many, many bits that I missed and couldn't get to..... I must say I would be well and truly up a gum tree were it not for this reference - so thank you Phil!

Edited January 8, 2015 by Giles

[Giles]

As a bit of a 'holiday' I pulled out a Heljan 37 I bought more than four years ago, and stashed away untouched. I bought a South West Digital sound card for it, and wired it up to the original Heljan PCB, (which works fine) and found that in the intervening four years, all four main gears had cracked..... So much for it being a 'rare' problem.... Fortunately I had already bought spares just in case......

 

The body got the rub down treatment with 2000 grit wet and dry, followed by a light buffing, and then weathering with water based oils - which I love for this job....

It's not quite finished yet, but nearly there.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 19, 2014 by Giles

[flexible_coupling]

That's an incredibly realistic "glossy metal" look on the green - I'm very impressed as it's something that's nearly never captured right!!

[Giles]

Thank you! That's because most people think in terms of varnish for creating the finish. Nowadays I always approach it the other way round, and cut the paint back really smooth with the 2000 wet and dry, and then polish it back a bit. That makes all the difference in the world, as you see when you put two pieces side-by-side - one normally painted, and one cut back. This gives a genuine 'scale' finish, which you can then weather to your hearts content.

 

No prep is needed for the transfers (as you are working on a near perfect surface) and I do not varnish afterwards either.

Edited December 19, 2014 by Giles

[TimC]

Very nice Giles, though sorry to hear about the gears.  I must get back to my JLTRT class 37.  It got shelved when I bought a layout and had to refocus and change direction slightly.....

 

Thats a very tasty looking maroon liveried loco behind the 37 in the latter part of the video clip too.

[CME and Bottlewasher]

As a bit of a 'holiday' I pulled out a Heljan 37 I bought more than four years ago, and stashed away untouched. I bought a South West Digital sound card for it, and wired it up to the original Heljan PCB, (which works fine) and found that in the intervening four years, all four main gears had cracked..... So much for it being a 'rare' problem.... Fortunately I had already bought spares just in case......

 

The body got the rub down treatment with 2000 grit wet and dry, followed by a light buffing, and then weathering with water based oils - which I love for this job....

It's not quite finished yet, but nearly there.

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Giles,

 

Cracking Thread - really nice work, as always.

 

Sorry to hear about the Cl37 gears, it is a common problem, sadly, but NOT widely reported in the press. My Hejan's havnt hardly turned a wheel yet, but have been, for the most part, stored away between three and eight years and I wasnt aware that the gears could split even when not in use (I have had a failure or two and was told that I must be just unlucky!? - I am always sceptical when a manufacturer says such things). Heljan were to have resolved the problem by the release of their Cl33, but I know of those who have had split gears on those models too. I have also known those who have had 1-5 locos all with split gears after light use, repair them and sell them on, one chap has returned to kit building.

 

On a positive note, your treatment of the Cl37's body-sides is really superb, I have used W&D and T-Cut, then after a thorough clean, if required, a light blat of Johnson's Klear (on 4mm models) to get similar results. 

 

I am using acrylics (Life Color, Humbrol, with Game Workshop paints used too) at the moment and enjoy using them as they are a lot less noxious (fumes) than the enamel and spirit washes I used to use (the use of acrylics also keeps the household authorities happy and helps my overall health these days too) - not always as versatile, but using Retarder and the like helps. Can you recommend a decent brand for water-based oils (eg W&N?) and are they compatible with acrylics? I have some 'System 3' acrylics by Daler Rowney, the popular standbys such as Burnt Umber et al. yet I am not sure if these are true oil replacements - all a bit confusing really. I do like working with the delicate finishes that Gouache's can achieve and have converted to acrylics with those. I find the use of different compatible paints and techniques helps with certain textures/effects (which are often a requirement in the larger scales and gauges) and if not completely compatible a 'barrier' coat often helps alleviate any problems.

 

Kind regards - with thanks in anticipation - and the season's greetings to your and yours and all here.

 

CME

Edited December 19, 2014 by CME and Bottlewasher

[DLT]

Thank you! That's because most people think in terms of varnish for creating the finish. Nowadays I always approach it the other way round, and cut the paint back really smooth with the 2000 wet and dry, and then polish it back a bit. That makes all the difference in the world, as you see when you put two pieces side-by-side - one normally painted, and one cut back. This gives a genuine 'scale' finish, which you can then weather to your hearts content.

 

No prep is needed for the transfers (as you are working on a near perfect surface) and I do not varnish afterwards either.

Brilliant finish Giles, but when you are rubbing down/poloshing, how do you avoid taking all the paint off the raised detail like hinges, boltheads etc?  And likewise leaving an unpolished ring around such detail?

All the best,

Dave.

[Giles]

CME - the water-based oils I've used are Windsor and Newton Artisan, and I find them excellent. I've only used two colours on the body - raw umber and lamp black, applied separately, bushed on, into all the nooks and crannies, and then wiped off (always in the direction of rain and gravity). The only down-side is that it takes two day to harden, which leaves plenty of time to work, but means you can't rush the job!

Over the whole lot goes a way of dirty black/brown water (with a dash of washing up liquid) which ties it all together.

 

Dave - bless you!

You try to avoid the details - but if you do catch a rivit, a touch of paint on that rivit will cure it.... After rubbing down, I'll often give a single wipe over with duraglit, and then buff, and that cures the 'unpolished' situation that you're talking about - but when you get to the weathering, your paint will also gather round that detail, which is what you want - so it's not too much of a problem....

[Giles]

One 'polished' roof panel beside a factory finished panel

 

 

Paint applied

 

 

Paint worked in

 

 

In situ

 

 

 

 

Edited December 20, 2014 by Giles

[Giles]

Can any of the better informed tell me if the Heljan replacement gears are of a modified design that will not split - or are they more of the same?

[brian daniels]

They are modified so as not to be under so much pressure. I have not heard of any splitting again.

[Giles]

Excellent- thank you Brian - the running is still not perfect, I so I was suspecting the replacement gears.... So that's a relief.

[CME and Bottlewasher]

CME - the water-based oils I've used are Windsor and Newton Artisan, and I find them excellent. I've only used two colours on the body - raw umber and lamp black, applied separately, bushed on, into all the nooks and crannies, and then wiped off (always in the direction of rain and gravity). The only down-side is that it takes two day to harden, which leaves plenty of time to work, but means you can't rush the job!

Over the whole lot goes a way of dirty black/brown water (with a dash of washing up liquid) which ties it all together.

 

Dave - bless you!

You try to avoid the details - but if you do catch a rivit, a touch of paint on that rivit will cure it.... After rubbing down, I'll often give a single wipe over with duraglit, and then buff, and that cures the 'unpolished' situation that you're talking about - but when you get to the weathering, your paint will also gather round that detail, which is what you want - so it's not too much of a problem....

Thanks Giles that is much appreciated -I had seen that product, so it's good to know how it works  The upside/ downside of acrylics is that without Retarder then can dry very quickly, too quickly at times. Personally I have not - fingers crossed - had a problem with using enamels, oils and acrylics, if care is taken and they're all left to dry well.

 

Can any of the better informed tell me if the Heljan replacement gears are of a modified design that will not split - or are they more of the same?

I batted off an email to ask the very same...

 

They are modified so as not to be under so much pressure. I have not heard of any splitting again.

Thanks Brian, that is good to know.

 

Excellent- thank you Brian - the running is still not perfect, I so I was suspecting the replacement gears.... So that's a relief.

I have found Giles, that most of mine, which only have low/test miles on them run great straight from the box. Do you think it might just be a case of running-in the new gears?

Edited December 21, 2014 by CME and Bottlewasher

[dickcomber]

^{Clot of the week goes to ..... me!!!!!}

 

^{See those nice cab grab rails? The instructions have a very crude drawing, which I took as an indication which appeared to show the boss for the rail (on each end of the cut-out beading) on the outside - and therefore I soldered the beading onto the cab side sheets with the boss to the out-side..... I was looking at some photos today, and noticed that actually the grab rails are to the INSIDE of the cab side sheets.}

 

^{This meant that the rails had to come off, and the beading had to come off, and each re-solder onto the opposite side (after salvage...).. Not my favourite job.... but successful, at any rate.}

 

 

 

^{I've also altered the ash-pan, so it sits about 1.5mm higher than it did before}

 

 

Please can anyone tell me the colour(s) that William Francis was when running? My friend is building me a battery electric R/C gauge 1 model and it will need painting in due course. We are familiar with the brown colour the loco is now, and have seen a photo of one of those little Garratts which was green. Many thanks, Dick Comber.

[Beatty 139]

Hi Dick, the article by Orson Carter published in Railway Bylines volume 1 number 5 (Aug-Sept 1996) states the loco was finished in Black with red and White lining, in pre NCB days it carried the Dugdale family crest on the and copper cap chimney after 1947 apparently it was repainted in midlands area Blue again with Red and White lining. Hope that helps, if it will wait I will pop a photocopy 'behind the counter' at the spring meet.

[Giles]

This one, however, is being finished as a 'fifth' one (together with a consecutive builders number on the plate). The earlier ones were of course slightly different in details.....

 

This one is very nearly finished - just finishing off the valve gear now,and then buffers, and front step to do before painting the engine chassis.

The boiler unit looks a bit 'bright' at the moment, but it will tone down nicely with weathering.

 

 

Edited January 6, 2015 by Giles