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74xx - First attempt at a whitemetal kit

alanbuttler

Entry posted by alanbuttler in Kit Building

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Oswestry had a number of 74xx Panniers on its books, as well as Machynlleth and Aberystwyth, so I'd been keeping an eye out for a cheap NuCast 64xx/74xx whitemetal kit on Ebay when one came up a few months back. I'm an absolute beginner when it comes to kit building in anything other than plastic, the only contact I've had with whitemetal was a brief foray into Warhammer 40k when I was 18 and that didn't involve any soldering so probably doesn't count! The rough plan is to use the kit to get some experience and build static under repair in the works. The kit came without a motor or gear box, but has wheels and axles at least and spacers for OO gauge.

74xx's were used in various tasks on the Cambrian such as station pilots and yard shunters, though rarely on passenger services outside of Barmouth being non-auto fitted. Prototype wise, there were 5 or so 74xx's that spent most of their BR lives on the Cambrian.

  • 7405 - Oswestry until 1962, spending its final year at Carmarthen
  • 7406 - Aberystwyth until withdrawal in 1962
  • 7410 - Machynlleth to 1954 then transferred to Oswestry until withdrawal in 1961
  • 7417 - Mach to 1960, Oswestry for a year then back to Mach for the end, withdrawn 1961
  • 7434 - Oswestry (from new), to Mach in 1959, back to Oswestry in 1961, withdrawn 1962

7410 shunting on the Coney Green at Oswestry (Ben Brooksbank via Wikimedia Commons)

A notable addition is 7428 which spent it last couple of years as station pilot at Aberystwyth (coming from Croes Newydd in 1960), still with GWR letting adorned on the tanks in yellow chalk. This tradition was kept up even after she was withdrawn at Oswestry and left on the cripple sidings pending its last journey to the cutters. (A great colour picture here on Rail Online)

All 5 were frequent visitors to the works:

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7410 seems like a good choice seeing as it spent so much times visiting the works.

Onto the build. Being a first timer, I'd started the build using 2 part epoxy, for the cab and splashers. This seemed to go ok-ish, but minimising the amount of excess epoxy was tricky. That was about 2 months ago... in the mean time I've bought a soldering iron and got on with the rest of the body. I had to modify the tank/boiler assembly considerably to get it to sit flush on the cab and frames and its still not as good as it should be. It's been a good learning experience though, using a soldering iron for the first time and learning as I go. I've been using Iain Rice's Whitemetal Loco Construction and George Dent's Kit Building for Railway Modellers Vol 2 books, both which I would be lost without.

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Dry fit of the boiler/tank assembly. Some work needed to minimise those gaping holes!

There is another issue with the running plate being slightly out of alignment, so looking straight on the whole loco is slightly lopsided. As it happens 7410 was in the works in 1954 for bent front and rear buffer beams amongst other things, so I could just about get away with the poor quality of my construction :) It's rapidly becoming more of a test bed than a model that will actually be usable but I'm learning a lot so not all bad.

 

There are a few missing items in the kit, no top feed for starters, that I'll 3D print, but there should also be a cover under the smokebox, in front of the tank supports. Using some scrap brass etch I fashioned a cover with the piecing saw, I think it works, but not under any close inspection! So far, so... ok. Learnt a lot and feel a bit more confident with a soldering iron, especially after trying brass to whitemetal. There needs to be a little more time cleaning up the body before I can get stuck into the list of detailing tasks. More to come shortly.

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Edited by alanbuttler

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Ben Alder

Good for you. There's a great feeling of satisfaction once you bully/coax these venerable offerings into a finished product, swearing never to do it again. Then you start another one......

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scanman

Alan -

 

Good start.  Bear in mind if you want to strip out the glued sections & solder them, mst epoxies don't last long with 'Nitromors' (also useful to remember if you buy a 'ready-made' kit and wnat to strip the paintwork!.

 

With regard to the 'top-feed', I think a glance through 'Mainly Trains' or 'Wizard Models' will probably find you one in brass, and cheaper than 'Shapeways' can do it.  Unless you want the challenge, that is!

 

Anyway, good 'first effort' - an etched brass one next??

 

Regards

 

Ian

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Focalplane

A good initiation! I built several Keyser and Wills white metal kits back in the late 1960s and they are still around somewhere! By now you have achieved the honor of being "Fettler First Class".

 

How are your finger tips?

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Donw
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Looks quite good to me. Whitemetal parts often seem a bit warped and it was that and poking a soldering iron through a cab side put me off Whitemetal.

Don

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alanbuttler

Good for you. There's a great feeling of satisfaction once you bully/coax these venerable offerings into a finished product, swearing never to do it again. Then you start another one......

 

Cheers Ben, it has definitely felt like some unsuccessful coaxing has been involved to get things somewhere near straight, I'll trying bullying next time :) I do feel pretty satisfied this morning though after sleeping on yesterdays efforts.  A bit more cleaning up and it should look good for an undercoat.

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alanbuttler

Alan -

 

Good start.  Bear in mind if you want to strip out the glued sections & solder them, mst epoxies don't last long with 'Nitromors' (also useful to remember if you buy a 'ready-made' kit and wnat to strip the paintwork!.

 

With regard to the 'top-feed', I think a glance through 'Mainly Trains' or 'Wizard Models' will probably find you one in brass, and cheaper than 'Shapeways' can do it.  Unless you want the challenge, that is!

 

Anyway, good 'first effort' - an etched brass one next??

 

Regards

 

Ian

 

Thanks for the tip Ian, I'll look into that stuff. I've got a couple of chassis lined up next and then something a bit more complex - a DJH 2MT 78xxx

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alanbuttler

Looks quite good to me. Whitemetal parts often seem a bit warped and it was that and poking a soldering iron through a cab side put me off Whitemetal.

Don

 

Yes its been a bit of an initiation in wielding the soldering iron, I only managed to melt one small part :)

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MikeOxon

This looks really good!  I think that soldering white metal is far more daunting than brass,  because of the risk of melting the white metal into a shapeless blob (voice of experience!)

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alanbuttler

This looks really good!  I think that soldering white metal is far more daunting than brass,  because of the risk of melting the white metal into a shapeless blob (voice of experience!)

 

Thanks Mike - it was using a temperature controlled iron that gave me a little help, though I did partly melt one of the front tank supports when soldering the brass cover sheet into place.  After a bit of deliberation and not wanting to spend huge amounts of money I went for a Maplin 150-450 deg unit which so far has worked great.

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