5&9Models

A little progress today, trying to keep out of the heat! Having now milled out the copper firebox to make space for the gearbox, at least nearly, (I still need to take a bit more out before it fits properly), I cut and soldered in place the boiler bands. These were cut from thin brass sheet, bent to shape and tacked in place. The little turned brass lock-up safety valve cover was then soldered on after drilling an appropriate hole towards the front of the boiler. These little covered valves supplemented the spring balance on the firebox and provided a back up should the driver be tempted to screw down the spring balance to prevent any irritating hissing! A recent commission was a set of etched brass number plates. I had a set made for this (79) and also some made for the passenger versions to come. With the numbers in place and a trial fit of the chimney (which is too tall at the moment) it’s actually beginning to look like an engine.

Wonderful! Super painting and excellent story telling to go with it. I firmly believe that a model railway is always a great opportunity for a little theatre and you do it so well. A masterclass!

Thanks Northroader, I will check that out, sounds intriguing.

A two week break has given me time to ponder a couple of tricky areas regarding the Bury goods and this weekend has seen some progress, the most obvious being the smokebox and boiler. I toyed with the idea of producing the smokebox as one cast lump to provide a bit of tractive weight and to balance the weight of the turned copper firebox. However, since this is a one-off scratch build I felt that might be a waste of mould space and also I was too impatient to go through that process when I only need one. Therefore, I cut a front from 12thou brass sheet and then soldered one length around it from one flat side, around the circular top half and down the other side. This was then laminated with a sheet of thin brass foil with rivet detail pushed out from behind. To do this I use a natty little homemade tool made from an old plastic scalpel handle and a cog from an old mantle clock. This cog was clamped in a nut and bolt through the centre, secured in the lathe (a drill chuck will do), and sharpened with a file. Once fitted to the handle in makes a sort of pin roller. Run along a straight edge it’s ideal for creating long lines of evenly spaced rivets in styrene or thin brass foil. Once this laminate was soldered in place I formed the distinctive Bury smokebox door surround (which were originally polished brass) and a couple of brass washers were conveniently exactly the right size for the cylinder covers so they got soldered on as well. The boiler with its lagging strips was rolled from flat sheet first scored with lots of evenly spaced lines to represent the gaps between the strips. It was a bit of a pain keeping this round as I rolled it as it kept wanting to kink along the scored lines but we got there in the end. A quick test assembly and photo before calling it a day.

Here’s a photo of some hi-tech Corsican track taken on holiday in 2019. Bear in mind this was a fully operational line and it was all like this. Perfectly effective but I was grateful high speed expresses are not ‘a thing’ on Corsica!

Thanks George. I now have an image of me modelling with one hand whist swiping away tiny biplanes with the other…! 😄

Thanks Camperdown, that’s very helpful and will provide me with another distraction. I did hear of someone tinkering with copper plating white metal with mixed success.

Thanks. I think that’s a very good idea. I’ve never done any copper plating so it would be an interesting experiment (and I’m all for those)!

Having tackled the frames and being happy with those, I turned my attention to the guts that are hopefully going to make this wee beestie move. A rummage through the ‘tray of delights’ resulted in a selection of gears as follows: one 38:1 worm and pinion (Ultrascale), one 10t spur and two 20t spurs (Branchlines). The first of these is just an idler, the second will be the fixed drive gear on the axle. Today’s job was to drill and cut two gearbox sides ensuring everything was in the right place and meshing perfectly. Sounds like a nightmare but I actually enjoy scratch building gearboxes oddball that I am! The other task this week was to form some copper tubing into something representing a round top firebox so distinctive of these Bury engines. I turned a dome on the end of a length of brass rod to use as a former, heated the copper tube and gently beat it over gradually forming the dome, albeit with a hole in the top which would br covered by the brass safety valve bonnet. All went well until I put it back in the lathe to clean it up. One tiny snag and in a split second the hand crafted copper dome was chewed up now resembling a piece of shrapnel. Disappointing to say the least. A second one was started, went well and then exactly the same thing happened. After the third time I gave up. Thankfully, I had some copper rod in stock and was able to turn a solid firebox that now needs boring out hollow to accommodate the gearbox. A few other brass fittings were turned up including a small batch of the tiny lock-up safety valves, one for this loco and a couple for passenger versions in the future.

The Jenny is definitely a great choice. Best wishes with that project and please share progress, I'd love to see how you get on.

Thanks kitpw, even 1845 is a bit modern for this one, it’s an 1838 model. I do seem to make life difficult for myself…!

This scratch build is something I have been wanting to do for years but have never quite plucked up the courage. There are several 'sticking points' in modelling a bar framed Bury loco, the obvious one being the distinctive wheels. All Bury locos had them so unless you get those right you might as well not bother with the rest. Thankfully, a friend very kindly drew some up and 3D printed the centres to be fitted into Gibson tyres of the appropriate diameter. However, I found the prints to be exquisitely detailed but not very strong. So I decided the best way forward was to use one of the prints as a master and cast a set in white metal. These came out well and are considerably stronger than the prints. The down side is that they are conductive so once cleaned up on the lathe and fitted with tyres, the centres had to be bored out and a tiny plastic sleeve forced in before being bored out again and secured to the axle. I first made a master for the bar frames out of styrene to use as a master for casting them in white metal but decided that the castings would not be robust enough so instead some brass bar was used to fabricate the frames. They're now plenty strong enough for the job as I made them slightly chunkier than the originals for peace of mind. Springs were made from some very useful etches, bearings added and a buffer beam built up from nickel silver and brass. The buffer beam was soldered in position but a trial fit of the wheels revealed that the buffer centre height was too low by just over 1mm. Rather than unsolder and move the buffer beam higher which would look daft, I decided to unsolder the bearings and fit them lower down in the frames. This sounded like a horrible job, unsoldering the bearings whilst not accidentally disturbing any other soldered joints. However, it went well and before refitting the bearings I cut and fitted the footplate to ensure everything was square and spaced properly. This actually made it easier to get the bearing in exactly the right place. Lesson learned for when I tackle the Bury passenger 2-2-0 later on. The photo shows progress so far. The next job will be to scratch build the gearbox and ensure the motor sits at the right level so it can hide inside the boiler. Something tells me that this won't be particularly straightforward but I feel up for the challenge. Wish me luck...!

That’s kind of you, thank you.

All this replacement of lost images on previous blogs has made me think about gathering some favourite images from my layout project and dumping them in one blog entry, so here it is. A hotch-potch of photos from around the first baseboard which is almost complete. The layout is 4mm scale and track work EM gauge. I initially set it in 1844 when Bricklayers Arms was completed and opened to the public. However, it has now turned into 1845 as this allows for a little weathering and I don't have to leave everything looking too new. Apologies to those who have seen it all before but I thought a summary was due before moving on to the next baseboard which will be the massive goods shed and lots of wagon turntables, (I'm not sure I'm looking forward to that bit)! Thanks for looking. The backs of the houses at Greyhound Place The stables at the back of the cattle yard. The Rat catcher. The Tannery. A dispute over the chaff-cutting. Preparing to lime wash a new cattle wagon. Delivery of a prize bull. Mr Rolls is late for work.

Thanks George, Your idea of a step-by-step guide is a good one, if only to remind myself how I do it...! Sometimes these projects take so long I forget where I'm up to. Lots of job lists is a good tip, at least you can tick them off and it feels like you're making progress even if visually it appears you've done sod all!

Well, having restored the lost images to my blog about the Rennie loco project I now realise that I've done more than I thought and this deserves an update. Croydon is now complete although the above image shows that there are a few final jobs to do before it can enter traffic. There is a large black scar behind the drivers on both sides where i removed too much of the boiler/firebox to allow room for the driving wheels. This has now been filled, smoothed and painted to blend in. A couple of details have been completed on the tender too and it now runs very sweetly so I'm happy to call it a day on this one. The view from an 1840s drone (hot air balloon)! Satellite in OO has also been completed and is now with its new owner in London (where it belongs...?!). Interestingly, the compromises made to squeeze the boiler in between the OO gauge drivers don't seem to be too apparent once the splashers are in place. By request I didn't add the crew to this one but a driver and fireman have been supplied and can always be tacked in place for exhibition use. The sight of it trundling along without crew could be unsettling for those of a nervous disposition! I still have two more to build, my own Satellite in EM and Kentish Man which was similar but not quite the same. Worth doing....I think....!

Visually speaking, work appears to have slowed up on my Rennie loco project. I have reached the stage where all the fiddly little detailing jobs need to be done and this takes time without much obvious progress. The current pair approaching completion are Satellite of the London & Brighton Railway, and Croydon of the London & Croydon Railway. However, the list is reducing as each detail is ticked off and at present I'm awaiting some etches for the reversers. This is unusual for me as I like to build absolutely everything from scratch but I will need at least four reversers of two different types and more in the future. So an opportunity was taken to squeeze some on to the fret for an 1849 SER composite carriage kindly drawn up for me by a fellow Brighton Circle member (more of which anon), so once this arrives I will be able to complete the build and prepare them for painting, as well as make a couple of the composite carriages which I'm quite excited about too. I took the opportunity to compare Croydon with Plumpton, a Stroudley single of the 1880s and my first proper scratch build completed many years ago (and looking a bit rough). The G class singles were not big engines but it's surprising how it almost towers over Croydon. The back-to-back image shows the difference very well. Bearing in mind that Croydon is in the foreground in the image below, it's still very small compared with the G class behind. The difference is size gives an impression of how locomotive technology and of course power increased dramatically over the ensuing 40 years. Stroudley's inside frame tender was twice the size! It would be fascinating to compare Croydon with a small tank engine like a Terrier or even a much larger 20th century locomotive. I suspect the pulling power of the finished model will be fairly small as well, hence my plan for etched coaches! Thanks for looking, more soon...!

Not realising that restoring the images to some of my blog entries would also shunt them to the front of the queue, I thought I'd best add something new to redress the balance. Having sat to one side for some time patiently waiting for me to get 'other stuff' out of the way, my William Bridges Adams light locomotive has been lifted out of the box and steered towards a state of completion. At least the locomotive is almost there notwithstanding a few finishing jobs. It still lacks the composite tender brake carriage to which it was close coupled and I have yet to even start this, but it has to be said, completing the loco is spurring me on to get it done. The original was built by Adams at his Fairfield Works in Bow in 1849 for the Londonderry & Enniskillen Railway in Ireland. a couple of others to this pattern were constructed but Adams went bust in 1850 so the design was picked up by Stephensons who proceeded to construct further examples with the addition of a footplate, larger cylinders, better valve gear and other improvements. I suppose you could say this model represents the design in its Mk 1 condition. The loco is built entirely from scratch, 4mm scale EM gauge. A tiny open frame motor (possibly from a Tenshodo motor bogie) sits in the well tank under the boiler and power is transferred back to the driving wheels using a couple of nylon spur gears from the odds box to a 38:1 Branchlines worm and pinion combo. Heaven only knows what the reduction ration is a I haven't bothered counting the teeth on the two spurs but it runs very sweetly at a realistic speed so that's good enough for me.

Having recently acquired a discarded dandy horse from a house clearance off the Old Kent Road, Jean Floret de Cauliflower is quite the man about town. At least, his own frisky imagination tells him so. However, this past week he has consistently upset every innocent pedestrian and skittish filly in Bermondsey. Perhaps it is just as well that his wreckless behaviour may soon be brought to a dramatic finale. The work of our tiny but destructive foe Anobium Punctatum - the common furniture beetle - has gone entirely unnoticed by Jean. The relentless efforts of this miniature pest will surely result in his wooden steed disintegrating in a most undignified manner forcing a swift conclusion to his irksome escapades. Rider and Draisienne made from scratch in 4mm scale over three evenings this week

Following a great little video recently produced by Anthony Dawson about the locomotive Jenny Lind of the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway, I felt inspired to give my own 4mm scale model a little break from the monotony of the display cabinet. The original locomotive was the first of a batch designed by David Joy and built by E.B.Wilson of Leeds. Delivered in 1847, it was a very successful class of locomotives which owed much to the design of John Gray who had been Locomotive Superintendent of the LB&SCR. His express engine bears a strong resemblance to Joy's creation but his were built by Hackworth's and construction was so painfully slow that they were still being delivered after the better Jenny Lind class were entering service. I built it many ago from a set of castings loosely resembling a kit. Not an easy build and I ended up motorising the tender using a small transverse motor from an old defunct Apple computer. It works ok but isn't a very helpful example for others to follow and certainly not the sort of thing that's ideal to include in the 'kit'! At some point I should perhaps add some crew but for the purposes of explaining these photos, they have clearly gone off to the pub for swift porter before anyone notices they've gone... Note the similarity between Gray's design and the subsequent Jenny Lind's in the drawing below. The odd looking box in front of the driving wheel is the boiler feed pump. A much better drawing of Gray's engine exists but I am waiting for my copy to arrive soon so this one will have to do for now. Plans are afoot to model this one too. I hope the inclusion of the video link is within RMWeb rules, if not please accept my apologies and delete it. I had no part in the making of the video but I have to say the live steam model (not mine) in the video is really something special. I hope you enjoy it.

What a great job! That’s looking fantastic, really looking forward to seeing it painted too.

What an interesting build, and you're making a great job of it. I think it'll turn out to be a lovely loco.

Fabulous work as always! Informative and interesting with a lovely model to show for it too! I'm curious to know what they mean by 'One Kingdom' or is that a place in Bristol?

Thank you. He’s cobbled together out of bits of figures. The tails of his coat are brass foil which disguises the joints between each leg and the body quite well