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de Winton 0-4-0VBT 'Gelli' from a Slater's 'Chaloner' kit


Quarryscapes
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You may be familiar with my previous re-imagining of a Slater's kit when I took 'Rough Pup' and created 'Red Damsel'. (http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/119294-red-damsel-a-super-detailed-slaters-quarry-hunslet-in-16mm-scale/page-1) This time I'm tackling a much more simple model (theoretically!) - the vertical boilered products of de Winton of Caernarfon. 

 

Whilst at fist glance they all look the same, just as with the Quarry Hunslets of Dinorwig no two de Wintons were exactly alike. The kit is pretty much bang on the money for 'Chaloner' as running at Pen yr Orsedd in the 50s, featuring the replacement tank, patched frames, stiffened buffer beams and unique front buffing gear. All the aforementioned will be swept away (and more) as I create stablemate 'Gelli'.

 

In detail I will chop down the front buffers and install a new angle piece above. The tank and bunker castings will be completely replaced by new 3D prints featuring Gelli's characteristically pronounced leading curve on the bunker and smaller cast weight on the tank. The inside of the tank will also be enlarged to house 6xAAA batteries rather than the PP3 of the castings. To accommodate the new tank the mounting angles will be replaced on the footplate casting, and the bunker will now be home to an on off switch and maybe the receiver, though I'd like to get that into the boiler and put some Lead into the bunker to counterbalance the batteries. 

 

The front frame gusset on Chaloner will be removed, as will the joggle in the frames at the back and a new frame gusset will be fitted at the rear. New rivets will need to be provided at the front. 

 

The boiler will have the lower bands removed and the mudhole door filled up. New  washout plugs will be fitted and a new band correctly positioned to suit.

 

Very little extra detailing is needed, but I hope to add oil cups for the axleboxes and am looking into making the brakes operational with a new handle and fulcrum. 

 

As a final task, I'd like to improve the motor and will look into squeezing the same Faulhaber from the Quarry Hunslet in there. 

 

This is the kit out of the box:

 

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Edited by Quarryscapes
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If I hadn't been faffing around so much filing bits off and such I could have had this thing running in a day, it's so simple! But, I don't do simple, so the Unimat has been out today and I've revised the chassis mounting. Instead of a screw into the tank and bunker retaining the etched chassis in place and a further screw into the firebox from above, I've drilled two new holes all the way through the firebox, up through the footplate and into the main boiler casting, so the whole lot can be unscrewed and separated easily. The tank and bunker will also be screwed on, but I'll need to arrange that once everything else is in place.

 

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Whilst the Unimat was out I also enlarged the pockets in the firebox for the motor retaining screws - better that than the awkwardness of trying to start a cut bolt into a tiny and awkwardly placed hole every time! Word of warning - machining resin castings makes a hell of a mess! 

 

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And finally, a comparison of power sources: PP3, NP-W126 and 6x AAA battery box. The latter was my original intended source, but the Camera battery is smaller and higher mAh capacity for the same voltage (7.2). I've tested the motor and gearbox on 9v and it is as expected, silky smooth, even coasting down to a halt after power is removed. 7.2V will be plenty, 9v is a little too fast!

 

 

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Edited by Quarryscapes
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Thinking about the slidebars, it struck me that they weren't actually that great - de Winton slidebars are cast integral with the cylinder. The running face of the slidebars is actually round, concentric with the cylinder bore as are the crossheads. The kit is not, the kit has the slidebars forming squared U channel around the crossheads. The slidebar portion also lacks the smooth contours of the real thing, so I've decided t have a go at making some new ones rather than replacing like for like. 

 

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I've ordered slidebars in steel and crossheads in bronze from i.Materialise, along with tank and bunker in standard resin, to experiment with. They will require machining, as you can see the crosshead has a large cylindrical boss so I can hold it in my lathe in order to fit a steel piston rod and true up the outside running faces. The slidebar will also be fitted with a bronze stuffing box which is missing entirely from the Slater's original. I might need to do new connecting rods, I can't be sure till it's assembled but I think the Slater's ones are a little over length and will cause the crosshead to strike the stuffing box which extends a little lower on my slidebars than the original - however they are also longer by an equal amount so the stroke remains the same. 

 

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Given in and ordered connecting rods! The Slater's rod is too long compared to the drawings, so I've devised a replacement in 2 parts as per the prototype which will allow shortening or lengthening by machining down or shimming out the bronze big end blocks. 

 

Another set back - whatever Slater's have tapped the eccentric big ends, it is not the 14BA claimed, and  I don't have any M1s handy to see if that's what they are.  

Edited by Quarryscapes
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Well it looked like a snow storm had hit my lounge after all the filing and scraping it took to chop down the buffers, but it was worth it! 

 

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The coupling rods haven't been plain sailing either, they're 1mm thick steel etched in 3 parts that have a dislike of being soldered together, but one side is now done. The model in the condition above can be pushed along without jamming so I'm confident that very little remedial work will be required to get a free rolling chassis once the other rod is made up and fitted. 

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The incorrect thread fairy has paid another visit, so lets recap on the list so far so anyone else attempting one of these has the ammunition to deal with the problems! 

 

Body retaining screw inserts, 4 off - should be 8BA but are actually badly formed M2 (had to tap them all out as they jammed in the middle). 

 

Eccentric straps - should be 14BA but aren't, possibly M1, possibly just badly formed again. I've drilled through 1mm and will put a locknut on top. 

 

Eccentric to Expansion link joint - stated as 12BA, is actually 14BA.

 

There is also an issue with the valve gear drawing which shows an impossible configuration if the eccentric links - they should be 'back to back' so that the projections at the eccentric ends are outwards and that the forks at the expansion link end are inwards. 

 

That's me done for today! I've just had to build a new Reverser T Crank after the cast one turned out not to be hollow all the way through and too bent to drill through! I ended up taking the flat section and soldering it to some copper tube I found in my buts box that just happened to be the correct diameter and bore, a rare bit of good fortune! Anyway, that is done and test fitted on the reverser cross shaft and between the cylinder where it belongs - all good.

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First 3D printed bits arrived from Shapeways: A steel con rod and a backup bronze con rod in case Steel was pants. Also bronze bearing caps which need separating and machining. 

 

The steel one is OK actually, a little soft cornered but certainly not as lumpy a finish as I was expecting.The slidebars had to be redesigned for i.Materialise to print, they took exception to the geometry of them so I've opted for them to be printed as one big solid lump from which I will bore out the slidebar faces from the middle of the lump. I might see if Shapeways can do them as intended since they both offer the same materials. 

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Right then so the con rod and big ends have been slimmed a little and re ordered. The Slidebars have been tweaked a little and re ordered, along with separate gland/packing boxes. The reverser bracket has been drawn up and ordered (replacing the supplied whitemetal casting). The brake cross shaft has been drawn up and ordered. Not a bad little day, if a little expensive as I've ordered prints in Steel and bronze of the slidebars and con rods, and various plastics for the reverser bracket and the cross shaft in steel and plastic. Guaranteed to have something usable at the end of it that's for sure! 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Lovely job!

Dave.

 

Cheers! 

 

the 3D printed bits have started arriving! I did the reversing lever in a selection of materials as Shapeways have just released a new variant of the strong and flexible labelled Premium which goes through a multi stage polishing process, and they are still trialling the new HP printer. so we have here, WSF, Black SF Premium, HP Grey and BHDA with supports. The latter was so badly oriented that the supports are impossible to remove without breaking the model, so has been junked. A Shame because it was as expected the smoothest of finish. the Premium is the one that will make the loco though. 

 

The support plates for the frames are in HP grey, then there are Bronze and Steel connecting rods - the Steel came out with a very rough finish on these this time. The slidebars are also steel and bronze (the bronze is backup in case the steel was no good!) and in Brass there is a pair of glands printed as one. You can also see how much better the steel rods look when polished up, and finally steel slidebars and reverser bracket fitted to the loco. 

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Wing Plates fitted:

 

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Slidebar cleaned up and blacked. The black seems to have caused the steel to rust up a bit giving a nice patina. A coat of matt varnish over this will be just the ticket. Getting the resin cylinders to match will be tricky though! 

 

 

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Had another look at the valve gear. After faffing around I got one set working. Then realised that not only had I got the screw stuck in one eccentric, but that I had two left hand ones, and therefore could not get a working set. 

 

So true to form thus far I've drawn up some new ones! They're going to have to wait a while as a full set is going to cost £100. 

 

Meanwhile I've also been busy starting on some of the paintwork. The brass chassis is now in etch primer, and the resin chassis has had a base coat of dark grey and brown. 

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