Entry posted by Ian Smith
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Work has begun in earnest on my GWR Metro Tank, I chose this prototype for a number of reasons :
- I had the wheels for a GWR 0-4-2 / 2-4-0 (originally i purchased the wheels from the 2mmSA in the late '80s for a Langley 14xx which never got off the ground)
- Metro Tanks have both sets of drivers within the side tanks (there are no awkward splashers to make and ensure they don't short out on the wheels)
- I have a love of GWR small tank engines
I now have a roIling chassis built (this can be seen in an earlier post on the Gear box that I've made http://www.rmweb.co....gwr-metro-tank/), so a start was made on the footplate - this is simply a rectangular piece of 10thou nickel silver that has been narrowed at the front (the full width of the rectangle will be used to space out the tank sides - on my chosen prototype the tanks over hang the footplate).
The buffer beams were cut from 10thou nickel silver, and the front one soldered to the underside of the footplate leaving a very small overhang.
The footplate valances (no idea what the real name is) are again 10thou nickel, 2 pieces sweated together with low melt solder and carefully fretted out and filed to shape - the rear step upright section was made long enough so that I could fold the bottom 0.75mm or so up at 90 degrees to form the bottom step (to aid this a slight V was filed across the step section at the fold line, and once the bend made was re-inforced with a small amount of 188 degree solder. Once the V had been filed the two pieces were separated.
One valance was carefully positioned and tack soldered before completing the join once I was happy with the positioning, then the following side was added and finally the rear buffer beam.
The last thing to be done was to add the upper step which was fabricated from some 6 thou nickel strip which was folded into an L section, and an overlong piece soldered in place on the step upright, once I was happy with the positioning, the step was carefully filed back to the right size.
The photos below show progress so far. As can be seen I have kept the footplate whole until I had completed the soldering of the bits that would give it strength - I now have to fret out the area bounded by the 4 holes as this area will ultimately fit over the 4 drivers.
The next item I want to construct is the bunker and cab floor - the cab floor was a raised section above the footplate, and I will form the bunker sides and back around this so that the whole bunker/cab floor assembly is a separate unit which I will bolt onto the footplate. That's my theory at the moment as I will then be able to get into the cab from the rear to add the firebox backplate and detail (as the model will have an open cab).
Forgot to add a coin in the photo, but the footplate is 51mm long
Ian
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