A Peckett from the Black Country: The Marshal

[Adam]

This project may be a slow burner, or not, we'll see how things go. It's a Wychbury Loco Works (latterly, Mercian - hand-drawn by Pete Stamper, I think) X Class Peckett. This came from a club member's estate and is built, in part, in memory of him: John wasn't really a modeller, but he was full of good intentions and, as a Bristolian, had a fondness for Pecketts, Avonsides and other products of Bristol's engineering companies.

 

It's not bad, but is of its time and requires a bit of fettling to get a reasonable drive train inside and some additional detailing, though in the main, what's there is pretty good. The instructions must have vanished somewhere along the line but that's not a concern: it's obvious what almost all the bits are and for the few areas of doubt, photographs fill the gaps. I've seen a few of these built up and, while it's not really my favourite type of Peckett - I like the chunkier 0-4-0s and outside cylinder 0-6-0s - that's not the point.

 

 

Stage 1 - basic assembly of the footplate  and cab side sheets. So far, so good. Stage 2 follows (and goodness, what a lot of solder...): 

 

 

 

The first changes come into play here: the buffer beams supplied were brass etches over rather shrunken whitemetal castings. I replaced these with chunks of copperclad which is rather easier to solder. From here, the next step is to sort out the other sub-assemblies, the chassis and the boiler/saddle tank. The latter will be made up in one piece to allow the mounting of a decent-size motor, flywheel and proper gearing in the boiler.

 

Adam

Edited November 18, 2018 by Adam

[Guius]

Coming together nicely Adam, have you got the motor/flywheel/gearing/wheels at hand?

 

Guy

[Adam]

Hello Guy - yes, all in hand. The usual combination of a small Mashima driving through a High Level gearbox, a 54:1 Roadrunner +. The gearbox goes in the firebox driving the rear axle while the motor will sit in the boiler with a flywheel on the other end. The basic principle was used on my Impetus Bagnall detailed here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/30496-preston-docks-bagnalls-impetus-kit-and-prototype/ 

 

 

Note that this means that the chassis has been modified slightly and instead of a pair of flat spacers at the top, in addition to L-shaped ones at the ends. The compensation pivot will perform that function at the top and there's a large flat spacer at the bottom.

 

My feeling is that much more than 54:1 for small steam locos destroys the impression of sharp acceleration you can get with small tank engines. Wheels are another matter - I'm using 3' 8" 11 spoke wheels from Gibson (intended for an Isle of Man Beyer Peacock). The pattern of the spokes isn't quite right for a Peckett, but you have to take what you can get.

 

Adam

Edited June 6, 2017 by Adam

[Guius]

If it goes together as well as your Bagnall did you should be a happy lad!  I enjoyed following that build (though retrospectively) Keep us informed. 

 

Best

Guy

[Captain Kernow]

That's a clever work-around with the copper clad for the buffer beam, Adam. Best of luck with the build. I quite like them myself, although on balance I do like a pair of cylinders as well!

[Adam]

That's a clever work-around with the copper clad for the buffer beam, Adam. Best of luck with the build. I quite like them myself, although on balance I do like a pair of cylinders as well!

 

Cleverer would have been *double-sided* copperclad - I could have soldered the overlay on rather than relying on glue. Next time... I can't see anything too problematic on the horizon as yet, though the multipart brakeshoe/hanger assemblies look like they might be fun.

 

I'm very much of the view that all Pecketts are a Good Thing, though some are more enticing, aesthetically, than others. I especially like their adherence to the rivet right until the end despite it making modelling more difficult.

 

Adam

[Adam]

News from the miniature Altlas Locomotive works residing, not in Bristol, as nature intended, but in west London. Like many kits for smaller locos of a certain vintage, this kit is intended to have a body in one lump with a tiny motor mouthed vertically in the firebox: in 7mm that approach is more sustainable in 4mm so I've embarked on a touch of redesign in order to mount the motor in the boiler, possibly with a flywheel.

 

The basics are well-established: the boiler/saddletank make one assembly, while the cab/footplate make another. As, deigned, there's no positive location at the front - hence the elongated hole in the footplate to accommodate the securing screw in the base of the smokebox. The bits of L section served to mount the boiler on the real thing but serve as location on the model, as will the piano front for the cylinders later.

 

 

The saddle tank is more problematic, but not really through fault in the design of the kit. The way it was supplied is an issue, however, since the pre-rolled wrapper would have to be flattened in order to rivet it before being re-rolled. I wasn't even going to try to do that and will, when the time comes, apply rivet transfers. Before that comes, though, I'll need to add a layer of shim to form the centre ring of the tank - this a characteristic Peckett feature. Note the somewhat battered bottom edge: this will be disguised...

 

 

Putting the two together looks a bit like this:

 

 

It does sit properly when screwed down, honest!

 

Adam

 

PS - Still rather a lot of solder...

Edited June 12, 2017 by Adam

[Guius]

All ways a tricky thing forming a compound curve like a saddle tank. Is the cab roof pre-rolled?

 

Best

Guy

[Adam]

All ways a tricky thing forming a compound curve like a saddle tank. Is the cab roof pre-rolled?

 

Best

Guy

 

Hi Guy,

 

It's always the second corner that gives the trouble - the designer has given some help in the form of half etched relieving lines in more or less the right place, for once (the last one I did, from Impetus, was not). Of course, the thrupenny bit/new pound coin effect needed to be eliminated too and that would have wiped out any rivets that had been embossed, had I done so: not the designer's finest hour there.

 

Without the confidence that it was the right size, forming that corner correctly before fitting is tricky and I made a bit of a mess here. Partly this is because the brass used is quite soft, work hardens quickly and became very soft when annealed, and the margin for error is limited, mostly because I simply got it wrong and had to adjust the bottom edge with pliers.

 

The cab roof, and the boiler, for that matter, is flat as supplied, but a simple, shallow curve is easily to form with a rolling pin and whatever resilient material I happen to have to hand (a selection of my wife's teaching notes and some discarded offprints in this case).

 

Adam

Edited June 13, 2017 by Adam

[Adam]

By the by, a couple of pictures of the real thing - at opposite ends of their respective lives - found online. First, a 'special' with external rear bunker in the Somerset coalfield, Lord Salisbury:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/taffytank/33614297090/

 

And another, working for the military at Larkhill on Salisbury Plain.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmyfuller/5848830334/

 

A useful detail picture, here, from the 3' gauge Peckett, Scaldwell, showing injectors:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/fairlightworks/5920019324/

 

The kit provides these as an etch...

 

Adam

Edited June 14, 2017 by Adam

[Ruston]

The weathering on Lord Salisbury would be quite a challenge to replicate.

[Adam]

The weathering on Lord Salisbury would be quite a challenge to replicate.

 

In 4mm, it might be a bridge too far. In 7mm, though, I reckon something appropriate could be done. Not that I'm about to try...

 

Adam

[Adam]

While I've been rolling platework, here's the latest from the workbench. I've knocked up the bottom half of the boiler - I managed to mangle the half-etched original which, in any event, wasn't quite long enough - from nickel silver sheet, and added the centre ring of the tank barrel from shim.

 

 

Obviously, I'll have to re-drill a couple of handrail holes, but the effect is far better than the half-etched grooves that represented the overlap originally. I have now straightened the wingplates. That soft brass striking again.

 

Adam

[Adam]

Bringing things together. I do wonder whether it's easier to do a neat job (and this really isn't one, at this stage) on neat kits? This is certainly true of plastic wagons - my efforts with modern Parkside productions tend to look better before the paint goes on than those from, say, Cambrian. With proper location designed in, I'd probably have splashed a lot less solder around and the result would be tidier and, though progress seems speedy, quicker. I am pleased that it looks properly 'Peckettesque' - the shape of the saddle tank and pattern of handrails are key to this.

 

 

This three-quarter view is pleasing since it demonstrates those features. The side on view is less so, since it shows up the somewhat squashed look of these locos. No matter, at this point it couldn't be the product of any other builder.

 

 

Looking more closely, I have really made a mess of the bottom of the smokebox, even though the assembly is square: mercifully, the loco has very large sandboxes mounted on the footplate...

 

Adam

Edited June 15, 2017 by Adam

[5050]

Very nice Adam.  Did you countersink the middle handrail knob slightly to allow the handrail to stay straight over the raised centre area of the tank?

[Adam]

Very nice Adam. Did you countersink the middle handrail knob slightly to allow the handrail to stay straight over the raised centre area of the tank?

Thank you. Yes, I did - Peckett presumably used washers or two types of stanchion. I'll have to check.

 

Adam

[avonside1563]

Coming on nicely. The only surviving inside cylinder Peckett in the UK is a larger X2 version, 'Ackton Hall' now at Foxfield and in the very early stages of restoration.

 

Soon after arrival

 

in the process of being stripped

 

You think your smokebox is bad!

 

 

[Adam]

Well, it's only platework, I guess? I'm pleased to see that work has started on it though. 

 

Adam

[Adam]

The Peckett now has a set of boiler fittings. Those supplied were fine, to an extent, but were very tall, showing up the late 19th century origins of the design. Several later X class Pecketts were fitted with chimneys and safety valves rather lower in height - and some locos, presumably reboilered, had Ross pops rather than Salter type safety valves; this was latterly Peckett's normal practice and that's my preference.

 

 

So how to achieve that? The whitemetal chimney was distinctly oval and, though reducing it in height is possible, making a neat job proved impossible without a lot of filing and produced a less than happy end result. I wasn't even going to start doing anything similar with the valves so required a plan B. Plan B came in the form of spare sprues from Heljan, intended for their GWR 1361 available from Howes. This offers a neat plastic moulding in two parts, base and top, representing the composite nature of the real thing. I had to thin the rim a little and the base quite a lot, but the result is better than what it replaced. The safety valve cover was hacked from a dome in a similar way. Both are now epoxied in place, as is the chimney-mounted lubricator (from Branchlines). A suitable tank filer is on order from RT Models and when I'm feeling brave, I'll think about the whitemetal smokebox door...

 

 

This pic' shows that the RH rear cab sheet needs straightening...

 

Adam

Edited June 20, 2017 by Adam

[Adam]

Inching ever onward, and two sub assemblies are complete. One, admittedly, is the cab roof, but that's one less thing on the list. The overall impression, however, is nicely Peckett like, though pictures of progress to date does show up how relatively crude the kit is.

 

 

Having boiler fittings and a roof on does make a difference, however, and the remaining work - pipes for the injectors (supplied as etchings: hmm, but they are the correct size and Peckett injectors are hexagonal in section. No, still not using them!).

 

 

 

The front end shows that there is a little more work needed - one side of the footplate needs a tweak for a start...

 

 

Adam

[Adam]

For the first time in weeks I've picked up the soldering iron and added a few bits to the Peckett. Mostly these are cosmetic things, putting off the point where I reach mechanical fit out (there's a High Level gearbox, too). Starting from the bottom up:

 

 

 

Having made up the rods, I've fitted hornguides and bearings, one set from High Level, another scratched up from scrap brass, L section and what I think are Perseverance square bearings - this part of a batch I did ages ago - and fitted a dummy firebox bottom between the frames. All this does is to serve a view block hiding the gearbox.

 

The body really should be at the final detailing stage and is, more or less, but I wasn't in the mood for pipework so I fitted the steps which are nice bits of design with a supplied triangular bracket located in half etched grooves. Being in thick nickel silver, they are extremely robust!

 

 

Adam

[Adam]

Real progress. I've added sandpipes, the front set mounted on the chassis, the rear on the underside of the footplate, but more to the point, that chassis as a whole has been primed, painted and wheeled. As such, I couldn't resist the opportunity to pop the body on to see how the eventual loco' will appear. Today's bright sunshine emphasises the rather scruffy job I've made of this - even by my standards this is a bit rough...

 

 

 

 

Don't get too excited by the crossover it's sat on, the eventual layout is years away.

 

Adam

[avonside1563]

Looking good, but one little thing, you've put the chimney mounted displacement lubricator upside down!

 

Edit: link to a webpage with plenty of pecketts http://www.martynbane.co.uk/peckett/locos.htm

[Adam]

Looking good, but one little thing, you've put the chimney mounted displacement lubricator upside down!

 

Edit: link to a webpage with plenty of pecketts http://www.martynbane.co.uk/peckett/locos.htm

 

Bother. Easily resolved though, unlike the quartering which is leading me a merry dance...

 

Adam

[Adam]

Bother. Easily resolved though, unlike the quartering which is leading me a merry dance...

 

Adam

Still haven't sorted out the lubricator, the quartering got the better of me and it's entirely my own fault.

 

After a pause (we've moved house), a return, having found tools, re-established the bench and dug out suitable project to provide a break from stripping paint. The Peckett has been troubling me somewhat as, no matter what I tried, I couldn't make the quartering work. The problem, having worked out that the front pair of wheels worked just fine on their own, was to take down the rear wheels and to learn that one of the bearings was on the huh (as they say in Norfolk). I've replaced it and with the aid of some 'Romford' type wheels from Scalelink...

 

 

It works! Well, rolls.

 

 

Once a replacement wheelset appears from Gibson, I can set it up with these and fit motor, pick-ups and so on. In the meantime, I can get on with detailing safe in the knowledge that mechanically, it will behave. Phew!

 

Adam

Edited August 26, 2018 by Adam