Brassey

Herewith chassis progress for my Finney GWR Duke. As stated before, the twin beams are retained by tabs through the frames. No too convinced of the longevity of this solution but time will tell. There's just enough room in P4 to get a High Level RoadRunner gearbox between now. Next, do they same on my Finney GWR City: The beams sit just below the footplate.

I've seen some of David's rakes in the flesh and excellent his carriages are too. Shame they were running on the OO Dewsbury layout and not LNWR metals.

Just starting but I have all the components

At some stage I concluded to move it to the loft which was always the initial plan. That would require min radius curves of 4ft to make it work as a roundy. For that reason the LNWR Experiment leapfrogged other builds as, being the largest loco I plan to build, it might be the most challenging to get round the corners. For the same reason my C Class 0-8-0 is now also on the workbench. I had planned to add a scenic extension but might, in the end, move the layout into another bedroom as an end to end. Either way, I need to do work that will be a lot easier when it is dismantled rather than shoehorned tight into a corner as now. Such things as cosmetic chairs… I also plan to replace the boundary with hedging rather than fences as per prototype. Don’t hold your breath for any action anytime soon.

I think I soaked mine in Dettol solution to remove the paint and that loosened the glue enough to pull it apart. It then spent another few years pinned to a board to straighten the footplate out

I’ve left things to soak literally for years. This is a long term hobby after all.

Very neat conversion but not too sure the water scoop round the right way?

Very nice. I've built a couple of these Comet chassis; one of them sprung the other compensated as yours. I also use the same HL gearbox but found that by putting the motor at an angle you can get a bigger one in. Mine are 1224. Do you have the High Level tender chassis?

Yes, as I stated previously above, I have used and trialed this method of splitting the pivot. But in 4mm, the nuts and bolts I used were 14ba. After a while the bolts/screws started to rotate in their holes and soon worked loose and the whole thing became slack which inhibited good running. I doubt that I could have used bigger bolts as in 4mm kits there is not much meat in a compensation beam for such a hole. Luckily in that chassis I could just take the nuts and bolts out and run a brass wire straight through right across the chassis without dismantling it. That is because I used a High Level Road Runner plus with a drive stretcher which avoided the shaft. Performance greatly improved. In the Finney City and Duke I am using HL Road Runner without any stretcher and plan to solder the split pivot shaft to the tabs provided as per the pic. I am not convinced of the longevity of this solution but will see. It will be interesting to compare the two City chassis when complete to see how they peform in comparison. The wheels are in the paintshop so it won't be long before they are on.

If you are putting it through rollers, that will replace any curling.

I have arranged the beam so that 2/3rd of the that weight is on the front driving wheel and 1/3rd on the bogie. The rear fixed wheel carries weight too. Other issues with twin beam is that you get a pivot right where the gearbox is. You can either use various drive stretchers on the gearbox to work round this or split the pivot. I have done this but found the pivot ended up too slack so reverted to the previous method. However, on the 2 Finney chassis I have on the go at the mo, there are some clever tabs that fold up into a box that hold the loose end on the pivot wire. You can make them out in the pic between the drivers on these two 4-4-0's. Top is the City and the Duke is below: The other issue with an unfixed axle is torsion and the need to restrain the gearbox in some way. The Finney chassis have this covered but for the Portescaps they were designed for. It's built into High Level chassis using his gearboxes. The wheels for these two are now in the paintshop drying...

I use tin snips. Used the same pair for 45 years. Does it for me.

LNWR Experiment 4-6-0; beginning to look like a loco

I know nothing of the BIWO A Class but I have a C on my workbench. I’ve built a LRM Coal Engine and 3 Coal Tank chassis. Post if you need any pointers.

Do you intend to have a thread for these builds?

Sorry that I've come late to this part of the discussion. The challenge I have with these tenders is that they have an overall floor. This means that once built there is no access to the space within. If you are building this for for the Precedent then I think that might have some workings in the tender. Eitherway, if you want to put a DCC decoder or even sound in the tender you need a solution. My method I have is to mount the decoder etc. on the chassis and cut a hole in the floor big enough to get the thing in when you screw the chassis on. This is a darn sight easier to do before it's built! And a lot harder once the axleboxes are on as per the pic above. How do I know? I have acquired a Coal Tank sound decoder that is destined for my Coal Engine on the basis they sounded the same and am in the process of doing this. On the subject of books, not sure if this ones been mentioned earlier but Bill Finch's "Building a London & North Western Railway Jumbo" has a huge amount of the small detail and not just for the Precedent (AKA Large Jumbo). This was published by the Society and not sure if it's still available or in print though.

Is it my eyes but is there a spacer that is in the way and prevents the beams from doing their job?

Not at all. Much obliged Guv...

I've been away from this thread for a while but it seems have gone quite LNWR?

For further info, the 5.25pm Ex Shrewsbury to Bristol in 1912 (4.30pm ex Crewe) had the following destinations: LNWR Van 3rd (X) Liverpool to Bristol GW Brake Compo Liverpool to Bristol GW Brake Compo Manchester to Bristol LNWR Brake Compo Manchester to Bristol LNWR Brake Van Manchester to Bristol GW Brake Compo (X) Leeds to Bristol GW Brake Compo Leeds to Cardiff 3 of the GW Brake Compos went forward to Plymouth on the 5.06am. The LNWR Brake Van went forward to Exeter on the 6.55am and the LNWR Brake Compo went on to Taunton on the 6.45pm returning on the 7.07am How they managed to organise this was quite a feat. To organise this in 4mm is quite a feat too due to the lack of GW Brake Compo kits.

Thanks. The other 4-4-0’s I am building are Finney kits, for the City and Duke, and I am using a LRM chassis for the Precursor. They all employ the compensation as illustrated above as does the County I have already built. The Finney City has the inside motion too. The other City uses the Dapol chassis and is not supplied with beams and I can’t be bothered to work out and make the beams. Also, on the S4Soc forum, there has been much discussion on pulling power of 4-4-0’s and it will be interesting to compare the 2 cities in this respect. Many claim the Lycett-Smith method pulls best! It has a lot to do with weight distribution. The other issue is that you can use the tender weight to bare down on the rear if using a fixed rear axle. Otherwise the nose lifts off with a moving axle b

No Mikkel it’s standard DCC Concepts rolling road set to 18.83 gauge track. It also fits on the cassettes which are gauged the same. Comes with spacers for all 4mm gauges. I think I bought extra rollers so that I can test tender locos where the pickups and DCC decoders are in the tender.

In 1912 the formation of the 5.25pm ex Shrewsbury Express was: LNWR Brake Third (X), GW Brake Composite, GW Brake Composite, LNWR Brake Compo, LNWR Brake Van, GW Brake Composite, GW Brake Composite (X), GW Brake Composite,

For those interested in mixed formations, here's another image of a 4-6-0 possible taken at the same location. The image came from an acquaintance with the caption ".2941 Easton Court with the 5.25 p.m. Shrewsbury to Bristol Express on 18th July 1914"

See later edit where I corrected myself....