Frankenpannier III
Entry posted by richbrummitt
406 views
With the bunker in place it was on to the cab next. First of all though some business below the footplate: steps. I wanted all the steps to be uniform section. Rather than try to bend neat channel up from flat sheet I reasoned to have a go at filing the required section from a piece of brass bar given how small they are. The whole bar was clamped in the vice for ease of holding whilst first the channel was formed.
A serious of slits made to create individual step 'fingers' with a fine piercing saw.
These were then fitted in place.
A basic firebox has been bent up and soldered in place and the side beading on the cab has also fitted. The cab beading started as a thin etch strip, which was drilled close to the end to accept the handrail wire. The strip was shaped and adjusted and readjusted and adjusted some more with tweezers and small smooth jaw pliers until the shape matched closely with the cab side sheet before carefully soldering in place. A dimple was drilled into the footplate to locate the handrail and I started soldering there. (My first effort commenced with soldering the beading and caused a separation of the handrail - beading join and a fruitless search for ~10mm of 0.3mm dia. n/s wire on the floor.) Carefully the beading was held in correct alignment and soldered a little at a time until it was all in place before filing back to nearly flush.
A detail that I noticed when poring over photographs is a detail on 645 class that does not seem to be present on any other type of pannier tank is that the footplate is cut away at the top of the cab steps so I've done the same. (The front guard irons will need to be cut off since I haven't seen a 645 class with any of those.) A cab roof has also been cut rolled and fitted. The final size adjustment was made by filing after fixing in place. I pondered whether fitting this now would restrict access for fitting further detail (springs, reverser, backhead, floor, &c.) but of those details that will be visible around a fireman and guard they are the larger items and the backhead will need to be glued in place anyway since I plan to use a steamprint/NBS one from shapeways, which is plastic. Here's the current status with the chassis and what's left of the Farish body balanced.
A replacement safety valve bonnet is on order, and with a chimney and buffers it will be smaller and smaller details. That said the new motor mount (with the tanks lowered the old one will no longer fit and is unsuitable for modification) and body fixings are fairly major details still to be sorted and I shouldn't put them off much longer.
According to a thread I found the other day but can no longer locate there is a picture of my chosen engine (769) in Locomotives Illustrated 118 on p19. I've not yet found a copy but I would be very interested to see the picture if anyone knows an alternate source of the image...
-
2
-
2
5 Comments
Recommended Comments
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now