Leaderboard

At the end of part 1, the basic brass body was ready for the various castings and details to be added. I had already used a Gibson cast brass whistle, dome and Salter valves, not because there was anything wrong with the white metal castings in the kit, but I just prefer brass and was a little nervous about the longevity of white metal Salter springs. Again, the rear safety valve cover was quite a good casting but both the Johnson and Deeley chimneys supplied in the kit were terrible. Both were oval in section and the mould halves were very poorly aligned. I decided to order a suitable Deeley chimney from Colin and, while I was doing that, I though I might as well use one of his brass safety valves as well. Various other details can be seen in the above photo. The white metal front splashers and cylinder cover needed very little fettling to give a good fit. Lamp brackets were fabricated from brass strip. According to the instructions, lamp brackets are provided in the kit and there are some short strips on the nickel silver etches that might be intended for this use. However, the material is far too thick to be bent into the characteristic shape of Midland lamp irons. The coal rails were made by cutting down the part provided in the kit. 58047 had only two rails rather than the more normal three. Also on the nickel silver fret were grills for the rear windows but these look far too thick for the window bars shown in photos. Most of these engines appear to have had three bars over each rear window but some, including 58047, had five. So, to represent these I drilled holes around the windows and made the bars from 0.33mm brass wire. Seats or tool boxes have been added inside the cab behind the shortened side tanks, and coupling hooks from a Martin Finney etch have been added to the buffer beams. The buffers will be sprung Gibson units. The prototype has large wooden blocks between the buffers and the beam which I will probably make from plasticard, so these will be fitted after all soldering has been completed. A simple representation of the tank support brackets using short pieces of brass strip has been added to the tank tops, but the tank filler caps remain a problem. The castings in the kit are a rather generic shape that bears no resemblance to the almost flush filler caps seen on most of these engines, including 58047. The other little problem here is that the holes in the tank tops are about 2mm forward of where they should be. This second photo shows the other side with the ejector and control rod in place. The ejector is another Gibson casting and the control rod is supported on short hand rail knobs that have been filed down to a square section to match the prototype drawings. The clack valves are the white metal pieces from the kit, but they have been drilled to take brass wire instead of the flimsy white metal piping. The smokebox cover is only resting in place. So, what remains to be done? Buffers and tank filler caps as mentioned above. Cab interior: I've made a wooden floor from bass wood sheet but much work remains in fabricating all of the details to add to the backhead and elsewhere in the cab. Push-pull gear: the vacuum controlled regulator mechanism is a prominent feature on the left hand side. I've not tracked down a source of suitable castings, so have been poring over drawings and photos with a view to fabricating this. Front sand box covers: many 1Ps appear to have retained the symmetrical pair of sand pipes on either side of the inner driving wheels. 58047 was presumably changed at some time to have sanding on the front wheels, so it has covers just inboard and behind the front lamp irons. There also appears to be some form of lever mechanism visible above the footplate between the covers and the smokebox saddle. There must be something else that I've forgotten... Though I've not yet decided on any details for the chassis, there has been some progress. As I was ordering various bits for this and other projects from Colin (Alan Gibson) I thought I would get a set of his profile milled frames, just to assess their suitability. The next photo shows one side of the Gibson frames compared with one from the kit. The latter has had the sloping motor mount cut down to footplate level. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Gibson frames included bogie frames and are a very good representation of the prototype profile. One of my main worries with the kit frames was that removing material to match the prototype shape might seriously weaken them. As I said, no final decision yet, but I may well use these Gibson frames as the basis of whatever I end up doing. Finally, the sources I've been using may be of interest: Fred James, David Hunt and Bob Essery, Midland Engines: '1833' and '2228' Class Bogie Passenger Tanks, Wild Swan, 1999, ISBN 187410350X R.J. Essery and D. Jenkinson, An Illustrated Review of Midland Locomotives, Vol 3, Wild Swan, 1988, ISBN 0906867665 Ivo Peters, The Somerset and Dorset: An English Cross Country Railway, Oxford Publishing Co, 1974, ISBN 0902888331 Stephen Austin, Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway: A View from the Past, Ian Allan, 1999, ISBN 0711026920 Martin Smith, The Somerset & Dorset Files, No 4, Irwell Press, 2008, ISBN 3781903266915

AFAIK the chains were used to tip the wagon body. The wagon was stopped (and presumably scotched or spragged) and the loco pulled the chain, thus tiping the body.

Hi Andy. Well done tutorial. I had attempted something similar with sleeper spacing albeit without the spacing tool you mention. Did fine for straight track but what happens on curved track? It was a nightmare and I abandoned the idea. Do you think the spacer tool would still be useful on curves or is there some other technique?