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Scratchbuilding Boulton's Hercules No.2


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Some people are on the pitch; they think it's all over...

 

attachicon.gifHerculesBuild-029.jpg

Despite what I said about not wanting to dimple out all those rivets, and getting etches done, I put a brand new cutter in the miller and cut out a tank side sheet from 5 thou. brass shim. Using nothing more than a steel rule and a piece of gound mild steel bar,  dimpled out the rivets. There aren't exactly the same amount as on the drawing but who's counting? It looks right enough. The beading along the top is 0.5 mm half-round brass, soldered on. I made a third tank side piece to experiment with and to solder to a test piece of thicker material. I drew the conclusion that soldering this to the bodywork would have resulted in distortion, so the actual pieces are glued on using 2-part epoxy as it just wasn't worth the risk of attempting to solder them on.

 

The beading need to be soldered to the front panel and despite the drawing showing no rivets on the bunker sides, rivets can just be made out in the photo, so I will have to make shim overlays for the bunker sides.

 

In other news, the backhead has been painted and weathered. The circle of 20 thou. brass is for a cylinder end cover at the piston rod end. The holes therein will be filled with lengths of brass rod to represent the studs, You'll have to use your imagination for the nuts.

attachicon.gifHerculesBuild-032.jpg

That is lovely!!

Couldn't do Foxfield, at the BlueDot music and science festival.

Can you post some shots please? You will have taken some!!

                                       Chris.

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Superb - that black and white photo is so believable it'll be confusing the historians in years to come. I wonder if any of the magazines is brave enough to publish a whole layout feature using photo's like that?

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I wanted to wait until it was fully finished, but what an absolute stunner!! I have loved following this fantastic build, top job! Cant wait to see it completed. :)

 

There is something about boxy steam locos that I really like. ;)

 

- Alex

 

Neilson box tank next?

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Superb - that black and white photo is so believable it'll be confusing the historians in years to come. I wonder if any of the magazines is brave enough to publish a whole layout feature using photo's like that?

 

For quite a long time, everything in MRJ was published in monochrome...

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Neilson box tank next?

A Neilson box tank is something I would like to build and I have drawings for one. I have many engines on my list of those I would like to build, and have drawings for several of them but the next thing to do is to build a railway for those that I have to run on.

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Given your prodigious output I look forward to seeing it in September's Railway Modeller?!

 

With reference to the Neilson Box tank I attach a picture of Iain Rice's, together with his Hercules, that I took at Scaleforum a couple of years ago:

 

post-30882-0-79573300-1532590287_thumb.jpg

 

I'm also planning to build one at some stage so I took this old style works plate drawing off the interweb and Narrow Planet are making one for me so I'll report back in due course.

 

post-30882-0-25258100-1532590338_thumb.jpg

 

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  • 1 month later...

Hercules is run up and down the yard at Boulton's Siding in readiness for hire to conractors building the Calder Valley Mineral Railway.

Hercules_web1.jpg.d5c402087804a0bd460cf6f07c401161.jpg

I painted the contrasting colour panels by freehand on the curves and masking tape on the straights, which shows as I'm not very good at that sort of thing. Mr. Knowles, if you are looking down upon us, I am very sorry; please don't judge me too harshly.

 

Hercules_web2.jpg.30e1d6601d952e8c9d4d5a0f595337c2.jpg

The fire irons are lengths of brass wire bent to shape and in the case of the shovel-type one, with a small piece of shaped brass shim soldered on.

I have lightly weathered the loco by using Humbrol Meralcote "polished steel" on the steps, brake handle, regulator etc. There is also metalcote and a dusting of soot and rust weathering powders around the lip of the bunker. The top of the boiler also has a light dusting of soot to show that it is a working engine and not a museum piece.

 

Hercules_web3.jpg.8cb6a66ad223503deb3c521285999119.jpg

The name plates are from Narrow Planet as are the custom-made I.W. Boulton owner's plates. This engine will face the opposite way round to everything else on the layout as I want to keep the crosshead-driven feed pump visible. It was a lot of trouble to make so I want to be able to see it!

Edited by Ruston
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Given your prodigious output I look forward to seeing it in September's Railway Modeller?!

 

With reference to the Neilson Box tank I attach a picture of Iain Rice's, together with his Hercules, that I took at Scaleforum a couple of years ago:

 

attachicon.gifTregarrick locos.jpg

 

I'm also planning to build one at some stage so I took this old style works plate drawing off the interweb and Narrow Planet are making one for me so I'll report back in due course.

 

attachicon.gifNeilson.jpg

Not a Neilson box tank but one from Hawthorns of Leith. My model was inspired by David Smiths Dalmellington Iron Company and is built to depict the condition after her 1903 rebuild at Dunaskin.

 

Ian.

 

post-6089-0-92079300-1535980302_thumb.jpeg

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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...

A little late but heres a clear pic of the smokebox frontattachicon.gifIMG_20181222_191525.png

I have seen that photo before but the front end of Hercules was too dark to make out the smokebox door. Well, all I can say is that it acquired a different smokebox door before going on hire to the Calder Vale Mineral Railway.

 

Interesting to note that there appears to have been a crosshead-driven feed pump on both sides, which I guess means it didn't have injectors at all.

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  • 3 months later...
On 18/11/2018 at 20:41, Ruston said:

If anyone doubts the power of the N20 motor/gearbox then doubt no more.

 

I took Hercules to Scaleforum and ran it on the OO test track there, where it spent a few hours going round and round light engine. So, I had proved that it runs but would it pull? I don't yet have a layout suitable for it and those that I do have will allow no more than half a dozen wagons to fit on at a time, which is no challenge at all.

 

This morning I was allowed to run Hercules on the Southampton club's layout at Wakefield Exhibition, before opening time. 60  mineral wagons, plus van were hooked on and away went Hercules as if it wasn't there; round and round. This includes a curve and through an S in the fiddleyard. So another 20 were hung on and the train started on the curve. Just a litle slip starting off and then the 80 wagons were hauled round the layout with no problem. This is all from a loco that is smaller than a Jinty and has a motor the same dimensions of a Mashima 10/15.

 

post-494-0-69398700-1542573326.jpg

The labours of Hercules.

 Very impressive! How much does Hercules weigh?

DrDuncan

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5 minutes ago, drduncan said:

 Very impressive! How much does Hercules weigh?

DrDuncan

323g IIRC. I'm contemplating a rebuild to give it the proper smokebox door and although the N20 is very powerful the faults in the chassis have left it a less than smooth runner, so it may receive an ordinary motor and gearbox.

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22 hours ago, drduncan said:

What’s the date/provenance of the photo? The 060 tender loco is very interesting too!

DrDuncan

The 0-6-0 is a Wolverton Goods,  designed by McConnell, this example also belonging to Boulton, its taken at the siding in Ashton under Lyne,  and may possibly be an extract from a long lost photo of the siding showing some nine locos,  Im not sure of the date but based on when he owned these specific locos we can put it between 1872-75

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  • 2 weeks later...
On ‎03‎/‎09‎/‎2018 at 14:12, ian@stenochs said:

Not a Neilson box tank but one from Hawthorns of Leith. My model was inspired by David Smiths Dalmellington Iron Company and is built to depict the condition after her 1903 rebuild at Dunaskin.

 

Ian.

 

post-6089-0-92079300-1535980302_thumb.jpeg

Hawthorns made some lovely engines of this class, the Edenham railway had two, Havillah and Columbia and the LCDR had one called Magnus later renamed magnet which is a 3d printing project of mine

havillah.png

magnet.jpg

magnus side.png

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  • 3 years later...

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