Barney - progress
Entry posted by antyeates1983 in barney
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Time for an update on this engine. I've been progressing this build in between other things so it has been quite gradual to develop. This first photo shows me milling out as much clearance for the coupling rods as physically possible. Part of the problem was that the phosphor-bronze footplate is quite thick and extends further down than the real footplate, so I removed the worst offending sections, identified by trial and error with the chassis. For future locos I suppose I will design in these cut-outs to begin with!
Next up, I decided to tackle the loco brakes. I thought this would be a pleasant task, as I had designed a similar etched jig to that used for the tender brakes, which had worked nicely. This held the brakes and was designed to bend them up into the correct position for attaching the pull rods etc. However, I hadn't accounted for the fact that I had drawn the half-etched fold lines on the wrong side of the loco jig. I initially bent these folds up on the inside as expected, then discovered that the brakes were back-to-front. Needless to say, trying to bend them back the other way broke them off the jig and I had to go freestyle. Well, in fact I gave up on it for a week or more before I had another go. Then ensued an extremely fiddly business of trying to use the pull rods as a jig while soldering everything up. After a few more weeks of trying on and off I finally ended up with a reasonable set of brakes. One set are illustrated in the photos below - there is another mirror image set for the other side.
As you can see, each set of brakes is located in the upper holes in the corresponding loco frame, and spaced out from it by short lengths of brass tube soldered on to the back of the brake shoes. Incidentally, I had made life extra hard for myself by making the shoes/hangers themselves from two etched pieces. This would have been OK when they were on the jig... The theory is that they will be retained on the final chassis by connecting the lower cross rods to the opposite side with lengths of insulated sleeving. I've chemically blackened them.
Next up, time for the dome and chimney. I reasoned that I needed to attach these sizeable lumps of brass before any of the finer details on the loco body. For the dome, I opted for the method where you first file a round rebate in the end of a length of brass rod, before putting it in the lathe. In this picture you can see me turning the main body of the dome to diameter with a semi-circular ended cutter (so as to make a first approximation of the flange). I had first drilled a hole in the bottom to hold the mounting spigot later. The semi-circular cutter just has a rake back underneath and was ground from a tool blank with my cheap (Lidl) mini bench grinder.
Here's the dome after parting off at the top. I then soldered it onto a mounting spigot which I chucked in the lathe to turn the bell shape with a graver.
I didn't take any more constructional photos of the dome or chimney, but below you see them in place on the loco. The dome has has it's bottom shaped with files (a horrible job because of the danger of damaging the vertical sides), and two holes drilled in the top which will take the valves that I've yet to make. Because the chimney has a thin base, I decided to make it instead by the "hollow out the bottom and squash it onto a tube" method. Unlike for the Scrap Tank, this time I annealed it before doing the squashing, with the help of my wife who wields a blowtorch!
By the time of this photo, you can see that I've also soldered on the cab beading and the number and works plates (which I had included on the etch). For the cab side beading, I had made an etched strip with a hole in either end, calculating the radii of the corners. This worked on one side, but on the other I just could not get it to match up (inexplicably!) and had to fit it in two pieces! The vertical rail Is a piece of nickel silver wire (0.33mm I think). The cab roof beading and rainstrip is just made from the same wire, soldered into slots that I'd etched into the roof. In addition, it's quite hard to see here, but I've tried to file away the erroneous vertical sides to the steps - thanks to Alisdair for pointing out that in Highland days these locos just had flat steps. Now I know, it is obvious to see in the prototype photos!
To bring things up to date, the last things I did were to turn the buffer housings and the tender tank fillers. This photo shows a buffer housing being made, just before parting off. I haven't made the actual buffer heads yet, and am thinking of making these from silver steel rod (or at least nickel silver) rather than brass. So as to avoid having to paint them.
Finally, you can see them in place on the tender (those on the front of the loco are identical). The filler caps were an even simpler turning job, although they could do with some tiny representations of the clips and hinges to break the symmetry.
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