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Caprotti 'Black Five' 44687, part 1

Timara

Entry posted by Timara

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Love them or hate them, the Ivatt-built Caprotti 'Black Fives' aren't exactly the most attractive of machines. Nonetheless, I cannot get away without modelling a few of them for my chosen line, thanks to nine of them being allocated to Llandudno Junction (6G) and being used on a lot of the main passenger work for that shed. They were especially common on the 'Club Trains' to and from Liverpool/Manchester.

 

I've had this model on the "ongoing" list for a while now, but it's never got very far in terms of detail. Prompted by the fact I need to get on with my two Standard 5MT conversion with the same style of valve gear, I decided to use this one as a test bed for scratch-building it instead of using the Golden Arrow white-metal castings I've used before.

 

Here is how things stand at present. All the various mounting blocks and brackets are now in place, bar the link between both sides just behind the cylinders. I have to say I'm not entirely happy with the chimney, so that will get replaced by one from Brassmasters. The one for their 'Royal Scot' is about right as others "designed" for use for a Black Five are rather on the large side....

 

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A close-up of the lubricator support bracket and motion bracket on the right-hand side. The slidebar brackets were carefully cut from 80 thou black plasticard with a piercing saw and then finished with fine files. The profile of the mainframes is apparent here; these were fixed during the re-wheeling process (in this case, Alan Gibson; fitted last summer). The sandboxes have also been fitted. These are made from Evergreen plastic section (4mm x 2.5mm), with the angled section cut with the piercing saw and glued on top afterwards.

 

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Finally, a shot of the tender. I need to tidy up the gash on the left hand side where a little too much came off during the thinning of the side raves. I've got some thin slivers somewhere.... This is a version unavailable from Hornby; the part-welded version. I've removed a few lines of rivets where required and then carefully smoothed off the witness marks afterwards. I forget how many of these I've done now, but they're not that difficult to now in fairness. Axleboxes are from Comet.

 

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If all goes to plan, I should have this one done by the end of the month. Part two should cover the valve gear itself.

 

Cheers for now!

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Philip52LC

I will be watching this with interest Tim as I always fancied one of these, but the Comet kit looked a bit beyond my capabilities. Do you by any chance have any other photo's of the build please, particularly  how the new footplates were made and front end altered. I'm sure will look great when finished. Regards Philip

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Timara

I will be watching this with interest Tim as I always fancied one of these, but the Comet kit looked a bit beyond my capabilities. Do you by any chance have any other photo's of the build please, particularly  how the new footplates were made and front end altered. I'm sure will look great when finished. Regards Philip

Thanks Phil. I'm afraid I did the running plate work some three years ago now, but I can certainly measure them for you. I used 30 thou plasticard for them, but hindsight tells me I should have used black instead of white!

 

Converting the Comet Caprotti isn't easy, but someone did manage it

I know that model (it's also on here in a gallery somewhere) but it does have a fair number of issues about it. The valve gear is quite considerably too chunky and ill-proportioned. The (middle) support shaft should only be 1.5mm diameter after all....

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Dave Holt

Tim,

 

Your loco is looking good, so far. I agree the chimney needs something done, such as the Brassmaster's Scot or perhaps the Comet  - although that looks a bit chunky to my eye.

It's not too hard to make a representation of the Caprotti gear using brass wire and tube. Good representations of the exposed universal joints is a bit of a pain but can be achieved with patience. I've done this for a BR Standard 5 (73129). I would show you a photo of the results, but I can't see how to attach images to a blog reply. Perhaps I could post a blog with the photos, if that's of any interest?

 

Dave.

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Timara

Hi Dave,
 
If you upload them to a Gallery page, you can then link them into a reply here by clicking the "My Media" link in the reply box :). I'll be interested in seeing how you've done the UJs too as I've got a few ideas on how I might do them, but would welcome any alternative ideas!

 

Incidentally, the chimney was an attempt to use a spare one off the Ivatt 4, suitably shortened in length.  The slightly too tall one off a current Hornby Scot would certainly do the trick though, being as it needs to be taller than that on a Scot.  Hmmm....

 

Cheers!

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Philip52LC

Thanks Tim, to be honest I'd be more interested how you modelled the cylinders as on looking again I think I can work out the running plate. Another fabulous model which I look forward to seeing photo's when completed.

 

Regards

 

Philip

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Timara

Phil,

 

I have to admit that it's so long ago that I've forgotten how I did the cylinders!  They are the originals underneath though and I know some of my usual 4x2.5mm strip was used in the construction.  The top section for the cam-box I think is 80 thou with a bit of 10 thou on top.  They tend to look a bit sorry for themselves after all the cuts have been made and you do have to be careful the stretcher doesn't snap as it's a little on the fragile side!

 

I've packed out the rear of them so that they're not able to bow inwards (and ultimately snap) which means they're nice and solid.  The same tube I use for sleeving the axles when re-wheeling is used for the steam pipes (Evergreen 4mm OD).

 

Hope that helps!

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