At the end of my last post, I felt that I had solved all the main problems associated with building my Armstrong Goods engine, although a lot of detailing remains to be done.
To complete the model, I needed to add a tender, which I intended to contain the drive unit. I have made several powered tenders based on 'Hornby' ring-field mechanisms, around which I used components from either plastic or white metal kits. I have used two different 'Hornby' mechanisms: type X9105 with 7' 6" +
My first post in this series described how I produced a working drawing for a model of GWR No.184. Now, it's time to consider the tender and, for this, information is less readily available. Wet and windy weather has kept me indoors, so that progress has been rather quicker than I had anticipated.
The various photographs of No.184 show it partnered with a variety of different tenders, so I decided to try to model the tender shown together with its 1893 re-build. I have not found a br
Since reading Part Three of the RCTS "Locomotives of the Great Western Railway" series, I have become fascinated by the first standard-gauge locomotives to run on the GWR. I shared some of my findings in a forum thread - now updated at https://www.rmweb.co.uk/blogs/entry/26175-early-gwr-absorbed-engines/
My interest has gradually become focused on GWR No.184, which was built by E.B.Wilson and Company for the Oxford, Worcester, & Wolverhampton Railway in 1853. It was photographed
I've now built my second GWR 3-planker from a David Geen kit. This time, I made a floor from 10 thou brass sheet, which acted as a template to keep the body panels square. It certainly solved the problem of trying to align several lumps of white metal in my far-from-steady hands!
My method, when working with brass sheet, is to print a scale drawing of the part onto paper and then stick the paper to the brass using a glue-stick. For the wagon floor, I simply used a guillotine to cut o
My first post in the Forums was in July 2013 while I started this blog a little later, in August. I've not been doing much modelling recently, since other activities take up most of my time during the Summer months, but I do spend time thinking "where next?" and also taking stock of the past year.
A year ago, i had just started trying to re-create some late-19th century "atmosphere", while knowing rather little about how things were actually done. Thanks to the patience and help of m
I realise that I left matters hanging with the tender for No.184, in my post of almost two years ago!
The awful truth is that I rather lost interest, when I found that I had made the frames of the locomotive too wide, so that the outside cranks tended to bind. I simply couldn’t face starting again from scratch until, quite recently, I hit on the idea of simply cutting off the folded edges of the plate which supported these frames and fitting new support members, made from short lengt
It's been a while since my last entry in this blog - lots of summertime activities getting in the way of modelling! I've also had that common modeller's problem of having so many things to do that it's been hard to decide where to start.
I'm afraid that I have, once again, ignored Blanche's petulant pleas for new dresses and got down to the more mundane task of building a tender for No.184. I produced an outline drawing for this tender by starting from a side-on photograph of what ap
I have written before in this blog about the convenience of using tender-drive for small 19th century locomotives, especially for 'single wheelers'.
In my earlier post, I described the conversion of two types of tender kit, both of which represented Dean 3000 gallon tenders. Since then, I've read 'GWR Tenders and all that' in drduncan's blog, which, amongst many other useful insights, showed the close similarity between Dean's 2500 gallon and 3000 gallon designs. He also comments on
In my previous post, I showed the brass components that will form the ‘hard’ skeleton of my planned model of an Armstrong Standard Goods engine. The fireman’s side of No.661 is shown below to complement my previous illustrations of the driver’s side of No.31:
Armstrong Standard Goods No.661
Now, I shall describe my procedures for producing 3D-printed parts to form the ‘flesh’ of the model, which will carry the details of the outside frames, footplate, boiler cladding, smok
On a number of occasions over the years, I have posted comments indicating my dis-satisfaction with the ‘Mainline’ Dean Goods that is currently serving on my North Leigh layout. It’s really too late for my period, with Belpaire firebox and other details that place it long after the turn of the century.
My model Dean Goods at North Leigh
I have recently been following Mikkel’s conversion of a ‘Belpaire’ Dean Goods into an earlier ‘round-top’ version and have thought o
There is one problem that has been lurking in the background throughout my design of this outside-framed locomotive – how to fit the wheels? The wheels need to be pressed onto their axles and set to gauge, before fitting them to the locomotive.
I had already decided that this engine will be tender driven, so I do not have to make provision for a gear train. After considering various options, I decided to adopt the method used in the tender-drive ‘Mainline’ Dean Goods model. Since I h
At the end of the previous part, I had printed the main body components but was experiencing difficulty in printing small boiler fittings. The difficulty was that, on their own, these had no flat surface to lay on the printer bed. My next idea was to ‘slice’ these components just above the curved flanges that fit around the boiler and print the upper and lower parts separately, so that they could subsequently be glued together across their flat faces.
To my surprise, the tiny compone
Never become complacent! After a long spell of trouble-free printing, I started to encounter problems a couple of weeks ago. First off, the old problem of lack of adhesion to the printer bed returned. I had become lazy about replacing the blue masking tape and the surface had become worn. After replacement and re-levelling, all seemed well again ... until the heat wave struck. The next problem was uneven printing. It was too hot for me in my work room, so I left it alone while I got on with des
It’s some time since I’ve scratch-built a standard gauge locomotive, having been spending my time recently on Broad Gauge models. I learned several lessons, however, during the construction of my previous 00-gauge models, the most important of which was to remember that 00-gauge is actually a narrow gauge – closer to 4’ than 4’ 8 ½”, when scaled.
My first scratch-build, described in 'Railway Modeller', July 2014, was of a 2-2-2 ‘Queen’ class engine, which was a simple choice because
I find it hard to believe that more than six years have passed since I started to build a model of one of the early standard gauge engines, transferred to the GWR when they acquired the Oxford, Worcester, & Wolverhampton Railway (The Old Worse & Worse, as it was colloquially known)
I have been reminding myself of what is in this, my older ‘Pre-Grouping’ blog, before I changed over to (became obsessed with) the Broad Gauge! My model of No.184, shown below, was the last model
I've read that some people like blog posts to be fairly substantial, so I'll include a resumé, in this post, of the story so far, before showing photos of my model of GWR No. 184. There are more details in the earlier posts in this series.
Background
I chose this prototype since it was one of the first standard-gauge engines to run on the GWR, following the absorption of the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railway (otherwise known as the 'Old Worse and Worse'). No.18
I had hoped to have moved a lot further with No.184 but, unfortunately, have made a very elementary mistake! I knew that one of the problems with 00-gauge is that it is, in fact, a narrow gauge, with implications for fitting the boiler, etc., between the wheels. I think this had lulled me into a false sense of security with the outer dimensions, but these do become rather important in the case of an outside-framed locomotive with outside cranks! I 'got away with it' on my earlier scratch-built '
Although this may seem a short post, it represents a very big step for me! I had been seriously concerned that I would not be able to construct a chassis with sufficiently well-aligned axles, within the constraints of my own abilities and my lack of any real workshop facilities - just a desk and Dremel drill on a stand.
My work-desk
When one builds a kit, the designer has already made lots of difficult decisions for you. A scratch-builder has to think out eve
I feel it is time for an update on progress with my model of GWR No.184. After a rather static period, when I did little actual modelling but thought quite a lot about the details of this engine, I have at last been cutting metal.
In fact, apart from the fact that it is now made of brass, I have made few changes to my initial paper template. My method of construction followed that used on my first scratch-built model (GWR 'Queen'-class - described in Railway Modeller July 2014). In s
Part 4 already, and I've not actually touched any metal yet! My thanks to all who have given encouragement by their 'Likes' and a warning not to expect any 'model engineering' in this thread - it's more like cut-out scrap-booking - but I enjoy it and it might lead to a working model.
Since my last post, I've re-visited the cab area, so that it can accommodate the rear pair of drivers. On my paper model, I've cut slots in the front of the cab and floor, to allow for the 14.4mm back-to
I've re-titled this thread, so that it doesn't read as though I'm building a whole fleet of engines - one at a time is enough for me!
My first attempt at scratch building was a 'Queen'-class 2-2-2. I chose it on the grounds of simplicity, since building an uncoupled 2-2-2 is little different from building a wagon. My first step was to draw the constituent parts and then cut these out as a series of paper templates, so that I could check the fit of the parts and explore different asse
In an earlier post in my blog, I described construction of a GWR Tilt Wagon, based on a photograph in a Forum Post by Wagonman. I also reported that, when Sir John saw it in North Leigh station, he commented that it might just hold all his daughter's hat boxes. So, I now call it my 'Hat Box'.
At the time of my earlier entry, I had designed and built the basic body and started adding some of the detail. Completing the rest has been a very fiddly task, using lots of rivet strip (from M
In my previous post, I made the self-fulfilling prophesy that I would be distracted by the forum thread on GWR standard gauge 'tilt' wagons, started by drduncan. Initially there was some discussion as to whether the photo shown was, in fact, of a Broad Gauge wagon but the dimensions (especially the height) seemed sufficiently different to indicate that the vehicle under discussion was indeed Standard Gauge.
Something 'clicked' for me and I decided that I had to add one to my stock, s
In my previous entry, I mentioned some of the research that I have been doing into Brunel's 'Broad Gauge' railway. There are several old books that provide a detailed survey of the early days of the GWR. One that I found particularly useful is the 'History of the GWR' by G A Nokes (2nd edtion, 1895). The preface begins: "I would remind the reader that it is 'The Story of the Broad Gauge' that is here chronicled, so that while in the first thirty years or so of the Great Western Railway's existen
As I mentioned in my first entry in this blog, my layout started many years ago as a Hornby Dublo layout for my young son. The plan was taken directly from the Hornby Dublo Handbook of 2-Rail Track Formations (1st edition), as shown below, drawn using SCARM software
Original Track Plan (as built in 1979)
This track plan formed the basis for a small, simple layout, to which I added a narrow gauge section (009) at a higher level, for additional interest. The up
