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The Locomotive Shop - a survey of progress to date

drduncan

Entry posted by drduncan

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This is a preemptive blog post.

 

Gareth, who delights in pointing out my errors, omissions and oversights (for the good of my soul and development, naturally), is - I am convinced - at this very moment penning a massive missive asking oh so sweetly, but with hidden barbs of reproach, what has happened to the the locos mentioned in previous blog posts. 'After all...' I can imagine him writing 'you've done all those other conversions that you talked about today, what about the others?'

 

Ah yes, the others. I'd been trying to forget about some of those....

 

So confession time.

  • The 28xx no 2811. Having (almost) thrown away the Hornby chassis in disgust I have embarked on building a complete turkey of a chassis kit. Its a Comet one and has singularly failed to impress me. I have borrowed a Poppy's loco building cradle from my club and I hope this might help deal with some of the problems encountered. A blog post will tell the full tail of woe in due course.
  • The Armstrong Goods no 788. A new tender chassis has been hacked out of brass strip using a piercing saw lubricated with bad language. This will mean that tender pick up should now be possible (unlike with the cast whitemetal offering in the kit) and have space for a sound chip and speaker. A blog post will continue the story when there is more definitive progress.
  • The 43xx 4321. This was going great and I was looking forward to a triumphant single post on this loco but then I found that in EM gauge (EM gauge!) there was insufficient space between the crosshead and crankpin nut (even with it turned around) to prevent them jamming each other solid. The cylinders were cut off the stretcher and spacers inserted. Now screwing up the courage to see if it will still fit the body and then not foul Hope under Dinmore's platforms and ground signals. A blog post will report the success of not of this action...
  • The Buffalo 1076 ST. This was going well until I decided to try to design in sub-assemblies to aid painting in that beautiful pre-1906 livery. It was set aside to complete 4321 as a quickie and you've already read how well that turned out.
  • The 1854 saddle tank. On hold as I really should get at least one of the above finished first.
  • The 2021 saddle tank. On hold as I really should get at least one of the above finished first - and I can't get the saddle tank to match up with the cab front (the saddle tank is too high) but without a good drawing I can't tell whether its the saddle tank being too high, or the cab front too low... I need a better drawing than you get in Russell's books. (If anyone has got a proper GA drawing for a 2021 ST please do PM me. Don't PM me to suggest the Russell books...)
  • The 36xx. Chassis started but guess what? I really should finish one of the above first!


What might throw these good intentions off track:

  • Finding/being given (one lives in hope) a decent set of cross section drawings for the GWR D0 boiler, especially the shape of the lower firebox as this would allow me to have a crack at a 3031 or two (I've got three to build and at least one I want in one of them in rebuilt condition and yes I know that there were two distinct groups of rebuilds with two different boilers one of which was a D0 according to the RCTS bible). It would also allow me to have an un-rebuilt 26xx, a long standing ambition. If any of you 3d printer wizzes are bored....
  • The Great Bear.
  • Getting a Scott Class Atlantic (don't have one yet but if you want to sell yours PM me).


And then there are the following waiting to be started:

  • A Finney City
  • A Finney curved frame Bulldog
  • A Finney Stella
  • A Finney Dean Goods
  • A Churchward Models 45xx
  • A Mitchell 44xx
  • A Jackson Evans 39xx
  • Lady Margret


So I'll be busy for a while yet - and then there will be the coaches too!

 

drduncan

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garethashenden

Some would say that your cylinder problems are caused by EM wheels being too wide and nearly sharing an outside width with P4.  I wouldn't say that. I would be much more inclined to put the blame squarely at Swindon's door.

Unless it was an etched chassis drawn for OO? What should the overall width be and what is it on the model now?

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Horsetan

....Unless it was an etched chassis drawn for OO? What should the overall width be and what is it on the model now?

 

The frames by themselves wouldn't be a problem, but the piston rod / cylinder centres could be - for example, when Comet developed their cylinder sets in brass, these were originally set to be "OO"-friendly. The changeover to nickel-silver also heralded a change to a more EM/P4-friendly width.

 

I wonder if "drduncan" is using the Comet parts for the 43xx? I'd be surprised if it were Mitchell parts causing the difficulty, as the Mitchell 43xx was definitely designed with the EM and P4 bands in mind.

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Mikkel
  • RMweb Gold

A lovely assembly of prototypes. Can I ask what kit is the 2021 ST? I have a Sutherland whitemetal one and am also struggling with the tank height - and the Russell drawing not helping much as you say.

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drduncan

Hi Mikkel,

It's a Sutherland one! Whilst I'm sorry you're having problems with it too, I'm also a bit relieved as it suggests I haven't done something bloody stupid...

Regards

Duncan

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drduncan

Gareth and 'Horsetan',

It's an early Perseverence. The combined 43/61xx chassis... The spacers are em. The cylinders are on a separate stretcher and there is lots of room between the rear wheels face and the frames, just not the front face and the cross head.

D

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Mikkel
  • RMweb Gold

Hi Mikkel, It's a Sutherland one! Whilst I'm sorry you're having problems with it too, I'm also a bit relieved as it suggests I haven't done something bloody stupid... Regards Duncan

 

I'm sure you haven't done anything stupid (or maybe both of us have!). Mine was half-built when I got it. I have taken it apart and started over, but am realizing now that perhaps the previous owner ran into the same problems that we are having...

 

Looking at photos of 2021s I'm thinking the saddle is sitting too high - but it also depends on boiler types I think, as there seems to be a difference in the photos.

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drduncan

I'm at the point where I think it's going to get a dunk in boiling water to reduce it to its component parts. I'll be taking a very critical look at the fit of the saddle and boiler so thanks for the tip.

D

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drduncan

Progress of a sort on the 43xx... I have now got a set of comet cylinders, slide bars and cross heads. The measurements are quite interesting. The comet and perseverance cylinders have the same em frame width, 15mm. The distance between the inner faces of the comet slide bars is just over 26.5mm, while the distance across the outer faces of the crank pin nuts is 25.55mm. The issue I think is in the width of the slide bars and cross heads. The Perseverence ones are 2.5mm overall, while the comet ones are 2mm. So I think that I might now have about 0.25mm at least of clearence.

D

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