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A Bird for Brent Pt7 - The bogie & a problem

The Fatadder

Entry posted by The Fatadder

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Hopefully this is the penultimate blog before the Bird enters the paint shop, (so I really need to confirm its colour!)

 

The first job was a couple of minor repairs after cleaning and priming the model, a handrail had come unsoldered and somewhere along the line a lower step had broken off.  These were quickly soldered back into position before the real work could start.  This was followed by gluing the reverser cover into place (which should have been fitted the night before…)   There were also a couple of areas which needed a small amount of filler.

 

With that done attention turned to the smokebox, using Archers rivet transfers to add the ring of rivets around the front and rear edge.  This was my first time using the product and I have to say I am impressed.  It now needs another coat of primer to seal them all in before the next stage of work on the body.

 

Next up the bogie.   As mentioned last night the bogie fitted to the model appeared to be scratch built, and had a number of errors (no rivets, missing the raised sections behind the wheels and the wheelbase was about 3mm too long.)  The solution to which was to use a Bachmann spare bogie which was included with my City of Truro.  However this only provides the frames, so it needed something to hold the axles in place.  Looking through the scrap box I found a single Y25 bogie etched inner frame with the right spacing.  Naturally this was wider than the bogie, my solution was to remove the two side frames and solder them to a Comet OO bogie spacer.  A couple of modifications to the ends (removing the NEM socket, and removing plastic from the rear to clear the linkage) and it was ready to fit.  The inner unit semi clicks into position on the plastic bogie frame, and is held into position by a bolt running the whole way through to the linkage.  (Note at this point I still have the old wheels which came with the model fitted, as they are rather crude they will be replaced with some Gibsons at some point in the future.

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However once the bogie was fitted it was apparent that there was a problem.  I already had suspicions that the model might originally have been a scratch build, now I am even more convinced.  The outer frame for the front half of the loco is too thick (so the bogie is stuck in the straight position).  This is compounded by the left hand frame being almost a mm deeper than the right.  Some work with a file got them back to the same thickness, but I think is still too thick (it certainly still fouls the bogie).  I need to dig out the drawings in Russell and check the thickness as I think it still looks too thick, with as much as a mm of metal needing to be removed.  All very annoying as it will risk damage to the smokebox, hence no work can be done until I have given the rivets a coat of primer to seal them all in!

1ED8EB0B-F0E8-48E4-AE90-BE273D6ADC2D.jpeg.95d6b8423896e9f8ea9244e09245b37b.jpeg6AFEF0D6-4345-4D59-B4B0-9DA06978FBBB.jpeg.8f3c9c5d33e580ae0384d89ab7084a1d.jpeg

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  • RMweb Gold
The Fatadder
  • RMweb Gold

I didn’t have time to do much work last night, but did manage to dig out my copy of Russell to review the drawing.  
 

Having measured the frames from the drawing I set my micrometer and used it to scribe a line in the correct place.  Looks like there is about half a mm of metal to remove (but close to 1mm at the firebox end). Once I have sorted this the next job will be to test on Brent to see if it can handle the curves.

 

if not it’s a decision between removing material from the top of the bogie vs having the frames thinner than the prototype.

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  • RMweb Gold
The Fatadder
  • RMweb Gold
2 hours ago, Ravenser said:

It's good to see someone's vintage scratchbuild being finished and being given life and purpose

Originally it was going to just be a quick respray and have something basic to fill the gap until I got on and built the core fleet of Bulldogs.  But the core scratch build had been put together so nicely it just felt right to do it properly and set it up for the long term.

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  • RMweb Gold
Barry Ten
  • RMweb Gold

It looks good; to be fair bogie clearances are always going to be a bit of a sod on a Bird. I ended up adding tiny shims to the body a step at a time until the bogie deflection was just enough. I also chamfered the inner profile of the frames just to get a fraction of a mm extra clearance.

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  • RMweb Gold
The Fatadder
  • RMweb Gold
2 hours ago, Ravenser said:

It's good to see someone's vintage scratchbuild being finished and being given life and purpose

Originally it was going to just be a quick respray and have something basic to fill the gap until I got on and built the core fleet of Bulldogs.  But the core scratch build had been put together so nicely it just felt right to do it properly and set it up for the long term.

  • Like 1
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