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Scorpio Models 7mm GWR Steam Railmotor kit build.


ROSSPOP

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With aging hands and eyesight this will be the last kit build for me as I`ve now got quite a selection of builds to play with, plus it`s time to start playing with them all.

 

I`ve been wanting to build one of these for quite a while and took the plunge just after Christmas.   £ 400  gets you a complete kit including wheels and a motor/gearbox kit plus all the  detail parts in either lost wax or white metal including seating parts for the passenger saloon. Scorpio supply three instruction booklets, covering  the motor bogie, trailing bogie and body. It is a complex kit.

 

As ever I kicked off with building  the motorised bogie and vertical boiler unit, starting with the coupling rods.

 

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There is a great set of etches in nickel silver for the bogie frames etc.  There is provision for beam compensation but I have opted for a fixed chassis as this is a complex build.

 

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Reading the instructions several times is essential for this kit as they flit about rather than flow in sequence.

 

Nickel silver solders so well and I numbered the parts required at each stage.

 

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 The etched bearing holes are accurately positioned.

 

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But I like to be doubly sure, as this mechanism will be difficult to be dismantled even for painting.

 

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I do like to have compensation with loco chassis but this would have added too much complication with the internal white metal detailing.

 

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The motion parts are very finely etched or lost wax which benefit from fettling before assembly.

 

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Not the simplest of ways to construct slide bars, but they do look the part.

 

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But after a bit of a clean up  it all comes together....

 

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.......................... more to follow...........................

 

 

 

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26 Comments


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  • RMweb Gold

I’m very much looking forward to following this build, I’ve been planning on building something similar for Sherton Abbas.  What you’ve achieved so far looks excellent!
 

BW

 

Dave

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  • RMweb Gold
11 hours ago, wenlock said:

I’m very much looking forward to following this build, I’ve been planning on building something similar for Sherton Abbas.  What you’ve achieved so far looks excellent!
 

BW

 

Dave

 

 

Thanks Dave, Ah yes Sherton Abbas a favourite of mine....... more about that anon....

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  • RMweb Gold

The valve gear is small and there is not much wriggle room for errors. Pleasingly the kit etches are accurate and if you take time enough a satisfactory mechanism is easily achievable.

 

DSC06004.JPG.793ec6b06e5316f877430778986d7d3d.JPG

 

 

The gearbox is a simple fold up etch and fits the bogie innards very well....

 

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The kit provides some lovely front axle bearing castings to help with the tightness of space behind the slide bars.

 

All in all a very enjoyable build so far.

 

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This kit is for an` experienced` modeller.... now there`s a funny thing.   `Experience` well you can be a modeller of 40 years plus and have achieved one experience or you can be a modeller of one year and have achieved 40 experiences.   I would say that if you feel confident and competent and not scared of soldering  then this kit is for you....

 

 

 

Now back to Dave and his Sherton Abbas layout where a Steam Railcar would fit in nicely....

 

An enjoyable interlude at Sherton last seen by me at ` Telfords End ` while I return to the shed........................

 

 

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bgman

Posted (edited)

Lovely to see your mechanism working John, it's what has put me off slightly but your words are encouraging, I had a bad enough time making it work in 4mm. It must be much better on the eyes to assemble in 7mm.

Certainly looking forward to the rest of your build and I think it will be well suited to the revised layout.

 

 

Edited by bgman
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  • RMweb Gold
21 hours ago, bgman said:

Lovely to see your mechanism working John, it's what has put me off slightly but your words are encouraging, I had a bad enough time making it work in 4mm. It must be much better on the eyes to assemble in 7mm.

Certainly looking forward to the rest of your build and I think it will be well suited to the revised layout.

 

 

Thanks Graham,

 

I still have nightmares about the valve gear on the Jidenco  4mm LSWR Railcar from way back in the 1980`s !!!

 

Which was the last steam ralicar I made.

 

1390380_Lifetimeofmodelling.jpg.2f01b846d6da80097db9bf9f57da4284.jpg

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  • RMweb Gold

Meanwhile, back at the shed......

 

last night I wrestled with making no less than three cones and a round tube which played havoc with my arthritic fingers.....

 

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Pondering about using a screw fixing to keep the boiler attached to the bogie...but at a later date. There are a myriad of lost wax boiler parts to be fitted later.

I`ve decided to push forward with making the un-powered bogie and the Railmotor body completed  before super detailing when all the complex parts have been made.

 

DSC06013.JPG.70f6d2d569b87b23768161dc49ec8d20.JPG

 

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It's looking beautiful and great to see the video too.  I could watch Walshaerts motion for hours :)

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  • RMweb Gold

Thanks Mike,

 

Spent a few days on the trailing  `fish belly` bogie which is quite a kit in itself......

 

DSC06017.JPG.632ddf41342c6b8c19bc478e001e3f4d.JPG

 

 

Having assembled the basic bogie chassis I spent time piecing together all the brake rigging and white metal brake blocks and after a struggle trying to get it all in place decided that there was far too much risk of electrical shorting between the brake blocks and wheels....far too risky for an impending DCC sound set up.

 

 

DSC06020.JPG.34bcc2f6267333ca59a70a5fa7f68cbf.JPG

 

Also, I needed as much space as possible for unobtrusive wiper pickups so without all the brake rigging is going to be much easier.

 

 

At any rate the bogie is now completed, so on to the basic body build........

 

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Edited by ROSSPOP
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  • RMweb Gold

Today I started the Railmotor body construction.

 

My biggest concern was shaping the flat roof etch into a GWR shaped roof profile . It`s one thing shaping flat brass in 4mm but O Gauge is a major beast.....

 

I dont possess any rolling bars, not that they would be a lot of use to me.   But I wanted to get this worry out of the way so I could enjoy the rest of the build knowing I hav`nt got a black cloud hanging over me...........

 

So it was study photos of the real thing and then find suitable diameter brush and broom handles and slowly work away by hand.

 

Surprisingly, it turned out easier than I envisaged.............

 

DSC06032.JPG.7c5fca0410dd598c9191604fea42fbaa.JPG

 

 

I expected difficulties with the etched on roof rain strips going against the bends and considered filing them off in case of trouble.

 

But in the end they were`nt a problem...

 

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There are a few `dinks` here and there but these will easily be sorted later...

 

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Whew ! that headache is out of the way.  I shall retire for a cuppa and a slice of ginger cake plus Paracetamol for my aching hands and fingers.....

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  • RMweb Gold

A lot of careful brass bending and patient soldering to be done with this project.

 

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The  body needs a lot of concentration to keep everything level and square.

 

There is a novel way of using extra internal section dividers with longer tabs that protrude through the chassis to keep the roof in place.

 

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But it all seems to provide a removable roof for later internal detailing.

 

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......and I made the sliding doors and windows fully functional.

 

 

There has been a lot of work to get the prototypical steam motor bogie attachment mechanics to work properly .... but she`s  now a mover...

 

 

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  • RMweb Gold

That's looking fantastic!  Very impressed by the working sliding doors:)  It's good to see that with skill and patience the kit can build into an excellent model.  Looking forward to the next post!

 

BW

 

Dave

 

P.S. Thanks for posting the video of Sherton, It looked like it was behaving well until I forgot to change the points:rolleyes:

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Superb running and agree with Dave's comments, one more to be proud of.

 

Grahame

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  • RMweb Gold

This bank holiday weekend has seen the completion of the railmotor steam unit and I`m glad to say it fits into the body work without any problems.....

 

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The upright boiler part is held in place  by two screws at the rear , so is removable for motor servicing despite all the pipe work.

 

 

 

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  • RMweb Gold

Now you've got your eye in, if you fancy building a couple more then I'm sure Grahame and I would be delighted to take them off your hands!:D

 

BW

 

Dave

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On 12/04/2021 at 21:20, ROSSPOP said:

Today I started the Railmotor body construction.

 

My biggest concern was shaping the flat roof etch into a GWR shaped roof profile . It`s one thing shaping flat brass in 4mm but O Gauge is a major beast.....

 

I dont possess any rolling bars, not that they would be a lot of use to me.   But I wanted to get this worry out of the way so I could enjoy the rest of the build knowing I hav`nt got a black cloud hanging over me...........

 

So it was study photos of the real thing and then find suitable diameter brush and broom handles and slowly work away by hand.

 

Surprisingly, it turned out easier than I envisaged.............

 

DSC06032.JPG.7c5fca0410dd598c9191604fea42fbaa.JPG

 

 

I expected difficulties with the etched on roof rain strips going against the bends and considered filing them off in case of trouble.

 

But in the end they were`nt a problem...

 

DSC06027.JPG.59ae3fad598e2978f2783d0fc6369150.JPG

 

 

There are a few `dinks` here and there but these will easily be sorted later...

 

DSC06030.JPG.c99d07d93ba0f8b986ee1192664e8f8f.JPG

 

 

DSC06029.JPG.8d6a891c0c065b97f9f7fcac7dcdc916.JPG

 

 

DSC06034.JPG.f9dc141f0d856068d3f16db781d11cfa.JPG

 

Whew ! that headache is out of the way.  I shall retire for a cuppa and a slice of ginger cake plus Paracetamol for my aching hands and fingers.....

Ditch the paracetamol unless you have heart problems, Ibuprofen is an anti inflammatory, I use tablets as a last resort and find the gel (10%) is very effective and can be applied to the affected area. 

Love watching your builds and hopefully can start some of mine once I can get some of the ranges bought from the late Adrian Swain's estate organized. 

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  • RMweb Gold
18 hours ago, wenlock said:

Now you've got your eye in, if you fancy building a couple more then I'm sure Grahame and I would be delighted to take them off your hands!:D

 

BW

 

Dave

 Thanks , I`m honoured !!

 

Please arrange the following words into a well known phrase or saying..................

 

Nellie, Your. Not, On.....    :P

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4 hours ago, ROSSPOP said:

 Thanks , I`m honoured !!

 

Please arrange the following words into a well known phrase or saying..................

 

Nellie, Your. Not, On.....    :P

 

Your on Nellie...but Not today ! :o

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  • RMweb Gold

Apart from a good clean up the external build is now in the bag !

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20210521_234247.jpg

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  • RMweb Gold

Last entry on this build now folks as the project is completed................

 

 

 

I seem to have inadvertently come full circle over the past 40 years as my last Railmotor build was in the late 1980`s and was, in fact, a Jidenco kit of the LSWR version.........

 

1415219432_Lifetimeofmodelling.jpg.70fa66f7e229685dab2dad8e2795995c.jpg

 

.....................................  that the GWR borrowed and  the results led to the building of the one I have completed this month.

 

So, back to the plot................

 

The vertical boiler containing the motor took a fair while as it had to be hand painted with Closterman`s black etch primer.

 

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The coach part had a lot of detailing to assemble and add particularly the seating.

 

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But she`s done and dusted...............

 

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.....`scuse the roof line but I hav`nt finally fixed it down just yet...............

 

 

No 76 is in the 1929 simple livery with extra coal rails for increased capacity.

 

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Edited by ROSSPOP
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  • RMweb Premium

That  really is a superb model Rosspop. It does seem to be a well designed kit, but even so you have made an outstanding job of it. 

 

I have always been interested in Railmotors, that is very tempting. The Caledonian produced a drawing for one in 1907, but unfortunately never got round to building it 

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  • RMweb Gold

That really is a lovely piece of work!  Beautifully painted and well worth all the work that's gone into building it!  Having seen how yours has turned out I think I can feel a purchase coming on for Sherton:)

 

I've used South Western Digital sound decoders in my locos, what sound chip have you used?  I rather like that whistle!

 

This is in no way meant as a criticism, but it looks to me as if the front vertical bar of the valve gear is catching on the rear of the cylinders and forcing it sideways.  It maybe that a minor "tweak" could rectify this. 

 

BW

 

Dave

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  • RMweb Gold

Hi Dave and Dave,

 

Many thanks for your kind comments.

 

Yes, the Walschaerts valve gear,  I`m afraid, is possibly  one of the kits idiosyncrasies. The combination lever has a tendency to `waggle` outwards but it is nothing to do with catching  on anything and is ( my theory) probably to do with the Radius rod being etched too short. 

 

The other cause maybe due to my attempt at getting the expansion link to work in conjunction with the radius rod to which it is connected through the expansion link and this caused a slight `binding` in the valve gear. Although  it all operates well the result is the `waggle` outwards.

 

I also ignored the instructions telling me to drill all link holes 0.7mm whereas I drilled them 0.6mm to avoid `sloppy` linkages and this may be to0 tight a tolerance.

 

Any how, the other side is just the same, so unfortunately me and the modelling world at large will have to live with it as I was`nt prepared to take it all apart again.

 

It pays not to be too clever..... but next time...:cray_mini:

 

As for the sound chip Dave, I prefer to use Zimo MX645 as they have a superior motor control over the ESU chips which I have only used once. I use either Digitrain sound files or as in this case Youchoos who have recorded from preserved NO 93.

 

Overall this is a good,  (but not perfect)  baring in mind it was designed in the 1990`s,  kit which I have enjoyed building very much. There a an abundance of lost wax parts including all the  many handrails.  Unfortunately, where lost wax parts are really needed as in the underframe brake gear and autogear parts these remain in whitemetal. The vertical boiler is a work of art. Some of the coach sides and roof etching is not up to todays standard, but after a decent coat of paint is not noticeable.

 

Overall, with all the errors  of which are my own, I`m pleased with having her built.

 

Verdict:  Would I build another?..... Yes I `bleedin `would.... but not this year....

 

I propose that you `go for it` Dave as I`m sure you`ll get that valve gear spot on......

 

Cheers

JOhn

Edited by ROSSPOP
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