Agenoria RSH 0-6-0 in 4mm

[jukebox]

There are times I sit at the workbench, and everything falls into place. Solder runs, parts bend, square bits stay square... the job just goes along swimmingly. And then there are those days it's one bad decision after another. You're getting the warts and all version at this build!

 

The punchlist is looking good (!):

Front lamp iron

Smokebox door

Chimney

Dome

Water filling cap

Safety valve bonnet

Cab door

Cut out for couplings

Hooks on bufferbeams (I didn't fit these, just the main coupling hook)

 

I needed to wheel up the chassis, so I could figure out how high to make cut-outs for the Kadees. But the wheels needed painting. Last weekend, it was finally nice and sunny. I airbrushed the wheels and cylinders in Ochre on Saturday morning, and the coupling rods red, and left them to dry overnight. I thought I could brush paint the rims black, and then *rush, rush* if I got that done *rush, rush* I could sort out the cutouts early on Monday *rush, rush* as I had a meeting at my daughter's school so was not going into work in the morning *rush, rush*.

 

It went pear shaped pretty quickly. I had the 6 wheels and two rods in a small container to bring them inside from the shed where I was spraying... by the time I got inside, somehow the rods had clashed, and two shiny nicks of brass were visible. I may be able to touch them out, but it set the tone for the next step. I thinned out some black, and set up with a small brush and a bright light, and started to fill in the rims. Maybe it was too much coffee, maybe it was the paint, but I could not get a tidy demarcation. And when the black dried, it looked like rubbish. Too thick, too messy: got too go. (later in the week, I took to it with a burnishing brush and improved things marginally, but I will probably strip them back and start from scratch).

 

While the paint dried, it was detail time. Out with the two part epoxy, and on with the smokebox door, handle, and front lamp iron. This last one came as a micro-fold up that would not behave, and because it is in such a vulnerable position above the smokebox, I used a staple, bent up to suit. It's just sitting there, waiting to take a chunk out of an unsuspecting finger, I'm sure... With the handle on, her "face" really started to like like the real deal.

 

With the paint (just) dry enough, I wheeled up and checked the height of the bufferbeam against the Kadee coupler gauge. I marked up a line about 5mm off the bottom of each bufferbeam, and tried to stitch drill a straight line, but after three 0.5mm holes, was worried about how much I was going to open up because of my ham-fisted inability to get them in a straight line. Out with the cutting disc, then. Nice idea, except the heat from the minidrill raised the temp. of the buffer above 70C. How do I know this? Because one of the whitemetal buffers separated from the beam.

 

Soldiering on, once I had a slot the Kadee tail could pass through, I used some blu-tack to hold a coupler in place and see how it lined up. Not my lucky day. I was still about 3mm too high - the knuckles meshed, but the loco coupler sat a half-knuckle above the test rig coupler. I beavered away for an hour at the inside of slot with strips of 240 grade wet and dry (it was too narrow for my narrowest file), but could see it was a loosing battle, getting just 1mm more clearance for my trouble - and opening up a Guatemalan sized hole in the bufferbeam in the process.

 

Back to the Kadee website, and I found out I could order a coupler with the knuckle mounted low on the pivot - as opposed to centered on the samples I had at hand. A spin over to eBay and I found three pairs on offer for less than what one pair would cost me locally, ending in a little over a day. No one else bid, so I won them at "minimum chips" price and they are now winging their way from a seller in Canada, all the way to the other side of the globe. Could my luck be turning?

 

But what about the slots in the bufferbeam? Easy. Plug with lowmelt. I tinned the area, and started on the rear bufferbeam (less obvious if I mess it up). Plenty of flux, and Zap! a nice puddle of whitemetal reduced the hole to the right size (about 10mm wide). I upended the loco and started to do the same up front...

 

Not sure if it was because I didn't tin it well enough, or because there was too much flux, or because there was an excess of lowmelt behind the front buffers, but instead of nipping in and partially filling the coupler hole, the lowmelt up front just ran through and puddled behind the buffers. Try as I could, no matter how I fluxed or heated, all I ended up doing was rolling a wave of molten metal all over the shop. Out with the desolder wick and onto plan B.

 

By this stage, my level of vexation was bordering on extreme! To bring things back to an even keel, I thought I'd fit the coupling hooks. The rear one went in like a dream, so I laminated the front one, and pushed it through the strengthening plate etch, set it in place an applied a touch of heat. It was the next morning before I noticed the plate was not square, and because it sits near the edge of the buffer beam, the error is too obvious... A man ought to know when to quit.

 

I regrouped the next night. Some blu-tack to form a dam, and I used cyano in place of lowmelt to fill in the sides of the front coupling cavity. Out with the epoxy, and the vagerant buffer was also put back into place. Then another overnight with the loco propped end-up for that lot to dry.

 

And so to tonight. The blu-tack peeled away and I was able to sand the hardened cyano flat, leaving a suitably sized slot for the Kadee arm to swivel in. A touch of the soldering iron nudged the coupling hook surround plate back into square, and it felt like I had things under control again.

 

I decided that adding a plate around the Kadee opening would make it seem deliberate, and less like a hole in the bufferbeam. So I swapped a new blade into my craft knifle and sliced out two plates from thin plasticard. These then had the insides slotted out, and as a finishing touch, I used a compass to prick the suggestion of rivets/bolts around the perimiter of each. I really don't think you will see much under normal conditions, but at least this way, what you do see, looks "right".

 

And amazingly, that is almost it for construction for this kit. I have safety valves and whistles to glue on, and a backhead to install once the cab is painted, but the real building is done. So now it's off to the paintshop...

[jukebox]

Now the weekend has arrived, I have a few moments to illustrate some of last week's hits and misses...

 

How not to do it (1). The cutting disc aftermath. At this point, I'd plugged the edges with cyano and sanded the front of the bufferbeam flat, ready to glue a plasticard "strengthening plate". Hadn't done any clean up at this point, so excuse the grotty smokebox.

 

Better. Here's the rear, lowmelt having plugged most of the slot, and sanded back smooth. That left hand buffer looks high and skewed - but the remnants from when it was soldered are what forms the top left corner of the shank. It'll be something for me to keep an eye on once the undercoat goes on.

 



 

The plasticard strengthening plates. The rivetting has given them a bow. I sanded the down to about half thickness, and that sat a lot better when the epoxy gripped. Once the knuckle is in place, it turns out you can't see much anyway.

 



 

How not to do things (2). This was one of the wheels, after I had a go at cleaning up the black rim using a burnishing brush. By the cold light of day this morning, I decided I couldn't live with them, and as I speak they are pickleing under a layer of "Polly-S Easy-Lift-Off". This is one of those items where I can't get Precision SuperStrip airmailed to Australia any more, so have to take what is sold locally. In this case it's an American product. No complaints though, it makes short work of most paints. Supposedly you can remove decals with it, however I've never been game to try - it seems way too strong to stop it before it gets to the paint!

 

How not to do things (3). Just to give you an idea of where I am headed, I sat the coupling rod on the chassis (those crank pins have Maskol on them or I would have hung it properly). The cursed chip is ahead of the middle Romford nut.

 

A Ferrero moment! Here she is, in a bath of neat vinegar, as a final prep before undercoat. I read the etch primer thread that has been running here recently, I was guided to the vinegar process by that. She'll come out this evening, and dry overnight before (hopefully) going under the first coat tommorrow.

The issue of numberplates sorted itself out this week, too. One RMWebber who does some beautiful LB&SCR plates contacted me - and if I was modelling one of their prototypes, I'd use them in a flash. However, I also found a website for a mob taking orders for custom nameplates in a variety of styles. They forwarded me the artwork for the name I had in mind, and I was sold. So she's now getting a name instead.

[jukebox]

Another solid weekend moving forward - not bad considering I spent half of Sunday at the Perth Model Railway Exhibition at Claremont. I wasn't overly keen to attned, truth be known. I took my lads a few years back, and many of the exhibits were the same as those I saw the first time I attended in 1995. But the organizers did really well this year - plenty of trade stands, and new layouts - of a respectable quality, too. If you are a local here and haven't been for awhile, I can recommend re-acquainting yourself with it.

 

But on the homefront, it was stripping of wheels back to bare metal, and priming the body. A short word on the vinegar etching - it did not react well with the two-part Araldite I used (not the 5-min version, the full strength one), and I was left with a gelatenous mass coming off around each wheel counterweight. The firebox door also had a jellied rim. I spotted them soon enough, and flushed everything with water to stop the reaction continuing, but the lesson is that the vinegar etch is best done before any glued on fittings are added. I have the wheels sitting with the counterweights re-glued, so they will go for a re-prime next weekend, weather permitting.

 

And speaking of primer... The body is quite a hard shape to paint - the undersides of the tank in particular are not easily "hit" with a spray of paint. I primed the body in three sessions - an "all over", then a left underside, then right underside dession. Even then I can see an area behind the tank at the front of the cab where I only have about 80% coverage.

 

 

I'm giving the primer all week to set hard, then I'll have a look and see what cosmetic improvments I need to make. I can see some areas on the smokebox door and dome that aren't up to scratch, plus a few seams that need a touch of body putty (that pinhole in the lubricator front is a start!)

 

 

Hmmm. There's a bit too much cant on those buffers! I'll touch up the shanks with some wet and dry to get them closer to parallel to the footplate to make it less obvious. You can also see the plate around the Kadee slot in this shot.

 

 

A couple of spots at the front of the footplate need looking at, but what I was struck by is how different she looks once she is in undercoat - really all one solid piece now. The grey is too dark for me - especially when I am painting reds, yellows and ochres over the top. Once the filling is done, I'll give her a coat of White Mr Surfacer 1200. It's supposed to emulate 1200 grade wet and dry, filling small scratches, but not obliterating detail. The white colour will be perfect for getting the red bufferbeam to look rich.

 

 

The roof is not fixed on. I'll glue that one the backhead is in, and she's up and running smoothly. Don't look too hard at that last shot - it's her bad side: my eye ends up being drawn to all the not-so-good angles I know are there...

 

(isn't this the spot where someone is supposed to chime in and say "I don't know what you are talkng about ~ it looks fine to me", and we all sit back and sagely go "Hmmmmmmm..."?)

[jukebox]

With the primer on, I touched up a few spots that were out of spec, and then gave her coat of Mr Surfacer 1000:

 

 

It's quite a contrast to the dark grey...

 

You can see in these next few shots the areas I've worked on and in the process sanded back to brass/whitemetal. The main sites were on of the cab doors where I had a solder splash I was going to call "dirt" but ended up feeling guilty about, and around the tank fittings.

 

 

On the right hand side, there was a small area of solder under a handrail knob; I had sanded it smooth - I thought - but it was visible under the Surfacer, so would no doubt have annoyed me by catching my eye under the colour coat.

 

 

Off stage, the wheels have had the counterweights re-attached and have been primed, so they too just need a hit of Mr Surfacer and they will be at the same stage as the body.

 

That's it for painting prep. Next stop is the spraybooth. Er, cardboard box in the back garden...

[James]

That's looking rather good now - looking forward to seeing it finished!

[jukebox]

Slowly, slowly catchee monkey.

 

Last weekend the warning panel yellow went on. I left it a week to dry, and yesterday masked out for the red:

 

The flash does wash the colours out a lot - the yellow is a lot less lemon in real life, and the red not so orange.

 

 

It looks like an escapee from the Isle of Sodor right now... but next weekend (weather permitting) the golden ochre goes on, and then we'll see what the overall effect is.

 

No real issues with the painting so far - getting coverage of the yellow in the area behind the chimney was the only tricky part. I was happy with the way the masking held up (and had been debating whether to paint the red or the ochre after the yellow) - roll on next weekend!

[Adam]

It looks like an escapee from the Isle of Sodor right now...

 

Or possibly the Keighley and Worth Valley, c. 1968

 

It looks like you have managed pretty effective coverage of the 'difficult' colours.

 

Adam

[boogaloo]

Hi Jukebox,

 

although I haven't posted since my suggestions re livery of this beast, I've been keeping abreast of your thread and I have to say it's coming on an absolute treat. I hadn't realised you were doing the wasp stripes as well until now. I'm very much looking forward to seeing it in all its splendour now.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Boogy

[jukebox]

While I was watching the paint dry this week, I had two important deliveries.

 

The first was my #49 Kadees that will align the knuckle at the correct height, but the real star was a small envelope from Narrow Planet, that contained custom nameplates for the RSH, plus another set for a possible kitbash of an 0-6-0 switcher I picked up cheaply from the Bachmann store in Shanghai a few years back.

 

I was originally looking for numberplates, and anyone modelling the LB&SCR should run, not walk, to Ian MacCormac in Blackpool. He does some brilliantly sharp work:

 

 

But in my trawlling I stumbled upon Narrow Planet's website and the idea of being able to name the loco after Mrs Jukebox was too good to pass up. Little Miss Jukebox (3) will also hopefully one day appreciate my foresight at deciding to name these freelance locos after the ladies of the house...

 

 

These ones are "Hunslet" style in the heights recommended on the NP website. When I placed my order, I was sent an enlargement of the etch artwork to check it was as requested, and then all I had to do was wait for the batch to fill up. That took no more than a week, and lo, here we are. I'm all for supporting cottage suppliers who "get it right" and I simply can't fault the way Narrow Planet do business.

 

Highly recommended!

[ianmaccormac]

Hi Jukebox

Many thanks for the plug!

I'm glad to see you found what you were after nearer home!

Here are some more bits I have just etched -

Parts to finish a very old brass etched Ford Railbus and the interior and name for a Ruston 48DS.

The Ruston letter T is 2mm high to give a scale, for 4mm.

Thanks again

Ian in Blackpool

[jukebox]

Hi Jukebox

Many thanks for the plug!

I'm glad to see you found what you were after nearer home!

Here are some more bits I have just etched -

Parts to finish a very old brass etched Ford Railbus and the interior and name for a Ruston 48DS.

The Ruston letter T is 2mm high to give a scale, for 4mm.

Thanks again

Ian in Blackpool

 

I love those louvres on the panels on the right of the top etch, Ian - beautifully done! As I said folks, if this is your game, then that is some artful work.

 

Back home, the ochre is on. All is well, if a little flat. I shall ponder that tonight, and post photos tommorrow.

[jukebox]

Well, with the masking tape off, here's where she's at:

 

 

 

There's not a lot of flash in that photo, and so the tones you see there are a lot closer to what she looks like in real life (although that front bufferbeam is still not that light - what you see at the rear is what the eye sees.

 

I'm reasonably pleased with the masking - no major flubs or spray through - the tiniest of areas like the top left of the right side of the bunker where the masking has been fractionally too close so the ochre hasn't covered. But the one area I had feared would be a mess - the warning panel on the tank front - has come out acceptabley neat. It was hard to mask, as all I could do there was take small strips of tape and press them home hard against the vertical surface, and hope the paint did not bleed down the front. It didn't, so I'm happy.

 

So it's just the black bits left. And it's about now I'm realising I would be mad to try and airbrush the black on. The masking of the footplate and around the smokebox would be asking for trouble. So I'll do some practicing on my hand brushing skills during the week before tackling the final round.

 

I mentioned I thought she looks flat - and I figured why. There is too much ochre that is not relieved. I need to flow a wash of darker brown/black over her to highlight some of the detail, and also need to pick the handrail out in another colour. The buffers and hooks need blackening to remove the toy-like appearance. Even that cab beading needs something - a touch with some fine wet and dry to expose the brass underneath perhaps... and the steps aren't quite right...

 

I'll stop myself now.

[Adam]

I mentioned I thought she looks flat - and I figured why. There is too much ochre that is not relieved. I need to flow a wash of darker brown/black over her to highlight some of the detail, and also need to pick the handrail out in another colour. The buffers and hooks need blackening to remove the toy-like appearance. Even that cab beading needs something - a touch with some fine wet and dry to expose the brass underneath perhaps... and the steps aren't quite right...

 

I wouldn't try too much of that until you've finished picking out the footplate, smokebox, etc. I can't remember whether you said you were going to apply wasp stripes fore and aft, but that'll make a difference too. One last thing, the beading wouldn't have been brass, but steel; this isn't an Edwardian 4-4-0!

 

It is looking good however.

 

Adam

[Gordon A]

How about some simple linining such as that carried by NCB locos and other steam industrials?

 

Gordon A

Bristol

[jukebox]

I wouldn't try too much of that until you've finished picking out the footplate, smokebox, etc. I can't remember whether you said you were going to apply wasp stripes fore and aft, but that'll make a difference too. One last thing, the beading wouldn't have been brass, but steel; this isn't an Edwardian 4-4-0!

 

It is looking good however.

 

Adam

 

Hi Adam. Yes, the wasp stripes are still on the menu. But I certainly won't be doing anything rash until the smokebox and footplate are done and the wasp decals are on. One thing I did notice this weekend was that in my original thoughts on how to paint her, the firebox was going to be black. I'll leave it ochre initially, and see how it looks, but I think that may make a difference, too.

 

I probably don't need to leave her a week between colours, but having gone this far, I like to have time to marshall my thoughts before acting. No point in rushing into something and spoiling the hard work when I'm this far in.

 

Very good call on the beading - you're right, that these beasties would not have been a curates egg of random finery, but rather a get-the-job-done workaday machine.

 

How about some simple linining such as that carried by NCB locos and other steam industrials?

 

Gordon A

Bristol

 

I have given some thought to lining out, Gordon. A couple of things bothered me; firstly, on small tank locos, it seems that many of them line out using a thick black border on panel/tank/cab edges, then have an inset coloured line. It looks brilliant, but getting that edge around the saddle tank (neatly), even with masking, would be a nightmare!

 

My other concern was that even simple lining on the tank will be tricky with the long handrails so close to the tank edges as they are. But it's something that I'm certainly thinking of having a go at, using a bow pen on decal film (a process I have had success with in the past reproducing the red roof stripe on a GNER CL89.

 

So watch this space, as they say.

[jukebox]

Despite the chilly days down here in Perth, a couple of nice sunny weekends have meant I've finally turned a corner with this beastie: she is starting to look like a respectable saddletank, not a reject from one of Rev. Awdry's stories:

 

 

Picking out the handrails, steps, and safety valve bonnet helped, as did using black to demarc the cylinder covers. The lubricators and sandboxes on the footplate may get similar treatment

 

I have also worked out I can barely brush paint to save my life - which is why this last post has taken three weeks, instead of one. I had brushed the footplate and smokebox, but was so utterly dismayed by the results, I resigned myself to needing to at least spray the smokebox, so yesterday morning masked her up and did just that. One welcome side effect from this was I ended up with a slightly different shade of black on the smokebox, compared to the footplate, and also compared to the frames. It helps things look "right".

 

 

I have also sprayed the wheel rims black yesterday, using (fresh) blu-tack to mask the spokes and hubs in more of a circle than I was getting trying to paint freehand. Again, a much better result than my earlier efforts!

 

Despite the masking tape only being on for a few hours, it did manage to lift a couple of tiny spots - you can see one on the front of the L/H lubricator, and the R/H sandbox was similarly affected. I'll tidy those up once she is wheeled and running, before the wasp stripe decals go on.

[Gordon A]

Jukebox,

 

Looking good.

 

That is a nice touch painting the smokebox a charcoal black, as on working steam locos the heat changes the black paint to this shade.

I suggest the sides of the sandboxes remain in the body colour, just picking out the tops and base in black.

Lubricator(s) in black.

 

I have never seen safety valves painted, so suggest that they should be a stained brass colour.

 

Also suggest hooks and buffers should be an oily steel as neither of these are normally painted.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Gordon A

Bristol

[jukebox]

Jukebox,

 

Looking good.

 

That is a nice touch painting the smokebox a charcoal black, as on working steam locos the heat changes the black paint to this shade.

I suggest the sides of the sandboxes remain in the body colour, just picking out the tops and base in black.

Lubricator(s) in black.

 

I have never seen safety valves painted, so suggest that they should be a stained brass colour.

 

Also suggest hooks and buffers should be an oily steel as neither of these are normally painted.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Gordon A

Bristol

 

Hi Gordon - thanks for the feedback;

 

Yes, I was deliberately trying for a deep grey rather than black on the smokebox, and am happy how that ended up. A bit of an ash-coloured wash should bring up the hinge straps and dart detail (the casting has nicely reproduced the cloverleaf pattern of four holes in the central handle).

 

The safety valves and whistle were just touched in when I painted the bonnet so I could see how far I was getting away from "toy like" - as you say, some variation on brass will bring them up to scratch. Ditto the buffers and hooks.

 

I think the cab edges would look good picked out in black for 1mm or so (like the cylinder covers), and the straight cab sides make that part very do-able, however I'm not so sure about the cab front: the windows pass very close to the edge of the front sheet, so in real life, any edging would probably follow the window opening around... and it's the sort of thing that if you do it, and don't like it (or mess it up), it's a long way back to the start.

 

I seriously need to get myself a light magnifer on a gooseneck to deal with this last phase. The hands are willing, but the eyes just aren't able any more!

[Ruston]

Is it finished yet? Being an industrial loco nut, I've been following this build and was looking forward to seeing the finished loco, painted and nicely weathered but we've heard nothing for a couple of months now...

[jukebox]

Is it finished yet? Being an industrial loco nut, I've been following this build and was looking forward to seeing the finished loco, painted and nicely weathered but we've heard nothing for a couple of months now...

 

Hi Ruston - thanks for the interest (it has indeed been a while between drinks here);

 

The RSH has been on hold for a while: when I went to fit the motor, I found the little Mashima supplied with the kit (some 8 years ago) was siezed almost solid. So I need to sort that out/source a replacement.

 

In parallel, the chassis has a bind that I was not able to cure - tried slightly opening out the holes in rods, checked the crankpins for straightness... nothing seemed obvious, and yet nothing I did helped. At this point, the temptation to lob the lot at the wall at great speed was very real, so I parked the kit up to think about what I'd done wrong.

 

Eventually, about a month ago, I got in touch with a local professional kit builder here in Perth, and it took him about 30 minutes of prodding and musing before he finally identified the problem: the connecting rods are just brushing the underside of the motion bracket at the top of their travel. So I'll need to take it apart to get to those and file them down a few thou to make enough clearence.

 

In the meantime I'm well into another build (a DJH Duke) and want to see that one through to completion - in it's own way it's actually been a little easier to handle because everything's a lot bigger - so when that is done, I'll get back to the RSH (and finish the story here in due course).

 

Keep an eye out later in the summer (or winter, as the case may be) for an update.

 

Regards

 

Jukebox

[jukebox]

The sleeper awakes...

 

Time to get this kit past the finishing post. Sorted out the clearance issues with the rods fouling the motion hanger, re-fitted the wheels and all was good.

 

One small upside to the GFC here down under is the Aussie dollar has shifted almost 20% against the $USD, so I was able to justify buying a smaller decoder - a TCS M1 to replace the planned T1. Rather than pfaff aroud with that in the bunker, it now fits neatly inside the boiler. P/B wipers fitted on the weekend, and it was time to test the progress:

 

[secondman]

Hi Jukebox.

 

For some reason, none of your photos are showing on my screen. Is your RSH the same as the one on the High Level home page?

 

This is at:

 

http://highlevelkits.co.uk

[Gordon A]

Hi Jukebox,

 

Nice to see that the project has woken up again.

As per Secondman I cannot view any of your pictures;"This photo is currnently unavailable." flickr.

I may have missed the topic, but how did you cope withnarrowing the cylinders when widening the chassis?

 

Gordon A

Bristol

[jukebox]

Hi Jukebox.

 

For some reason, none of your photos are showing on my screen. Is your RSH the same as the one on the High Level home page?

 

This is at:

 

http://highlevelkits.co.uk

 

Hi Secondman - no, this one is an Agenoria. I'm very sorry, but most of the original photos were on Flickr, and I reached my storage limit there, so they ended up being casualties.

 

Ironically, I see Arthur, another RMWebber, has recently built a couple of them same locos on his thread here. Nice job, too!

 

I will see what I can do about posting a few shots in the RMWeb gallery to bring you up to speed - if there's anything in particular from the text you wanted to see, let me know.

 

This is where I got to last year, before I stopped to build 71000:

 

 

 

Hi Jukebox,

 

Nice to see that the project has woken up again.

As per Secondman I cannot view any of your pictures;"This photo is currnently unavailable." flickr.

I may have missed the topic, but how did you cope withnarrowing the cylinders when widening the chassis?

 

Gordon A

Bristol

 

Hi Gordon - nice to see you back, too!

No widening of chassis on this kit - it's 4mm and built straight from the box. - just some clashing connecting rods that meant the slidebar hanger needed about 0.5mm filed away for clearance. Took a while to figure out why the chassis felt like it was binding - it was only when a fellow modeller noticed bare metal on the panted rods where they were chaffing against the hanger that we put 2 and 2 together. Then the motor supplied with the kit didn't want to work. Solved that by unfolding the tabs on the sleeve of the motor, pulling the armature out, and re-inserting this time not quite so far into the "can".

[jukebox]

Test fitted the cylinders and motion this week:

 

 

 

Followed by a session running in on the rolling road. There were some minor clearance issues behind the crosshead, but filing down the front boss and the head of the screw on the crosshead left it all tickety boo.

 

 

 

The chassis is free of any binding and runs smoothly when the main gear grub screw is released, and the motor runs freely in this state, but there is some sporadic hesitation once the main gear is locked down: I'm watching it revolve at 60 rpm right now, and it will run for 3-4 minutes quite happily... then just stop. So I have some investigating to do to get things bedded in, but it doesn't seem insurmountable.

 

I see from some of the Warley photos posted on here that the crew from Teeside Steel have a 7mm version of this loco in crimson. Nice job, lads!