Justang's Loco-Building Corner: Poly Cement + Broken Locos

[Justang]

Hi there! This is a new topic where I will be sharing my progress on various projects. I am only 12, so I welcome any criticism or comments which may help me. Be sure to follow this topic to be notified about any posts I upload here.

Edited December 24, 2019 by Justang

[Justang]

Hi Justang

 

Although I personally have never built a kit by soldering I have built an O Gauge Gresley A1/3 mostly by bolts and screws.

 

The 1 main piece od advice I would like to offer is to just take your time, don't rush the build and most of all have fun building the loco knowing that at the end of it all, once the motor is installed and working that your loco will be doing the job for which she was built.

 

There is nothing more satisfying than building a loco, installing the motor and pickups, painting the loco and finally putting it on the rails and applying power then watching it go.

 

Enjoy your build and I look forward to seeing pictures as you go.

 

If you have any questions there are loads of members to ask for help and advice, please don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks for the advice! I will be sure to do so.

[Justang]

Recently, I have been interested in the GWR's locomotives and have decided to build the Great Bear (the first 4-6-2  to be built in Britain, and only to be built by the GWR). Here is a picture of it for those who have not seen it before: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-gwr-loco-the-great-bear-1934-7219559.html

 

The first thing I did was find a picture of its drawings ( http://www.greatwestern.org.uk/drawings/loco/loco151.jpg ), which my dad printed off to 4mm scale. At this point, I measured the boiler diameter at various points and produced a set of templates in paper to show the shape of the boiler.

I then used these templates to cut out the shape of the boiler's segments in plastic, and rolled these pieces into cylinders. I secured them together with polystyrene cement.

I realised, after doing so, that the shape of the tapered boiler was not perfect, so I covered it in Miliput filler, so it could be sanded down to the correct shape. Yes, it is a bodge job, but it worked!

 

My dad obtained a Dapol castle body to modify and make the rest of the loco from. The running plate had to be extended to accommodate for the large boiler and firebox.

Originally, I was going to use a  Dapol castle chassis, however it is inaccurate to the Great Bear as the castle's rear driving wheels were shifted further back to accommodate a firebox above them.

 

My dad made a cab for the loco and the backhead from the castle was secured inside with poly cement.

More posts will be made about the project when I have the time to.

[Justang]

Hi again! I thought I'd update on the Great Bear project.

 

The next thing I had to do was to secure the boiler and cab to the running plate with poly cement. I also attached the firebox from the Dapol castle and made it the right shape using plasticard and Milliput.

Another part to make was the smokebox door, so my dad found a 2p coin (which happened to be the exact right size) and traced around it onto the plastic, sanded it round and added the straps for the hinges.

At this point, the wheel spacing on the Castle chassis (which was different to the Great Bear's) had become quite noticeable, so my dad set out to make one which was more accurate together Great Bear. Originally, he used a tender drive Airfix Chassis, but the fact it was made of plastic meant it was quite flexible. Instead, he bought a Princess chassis for weights and a motor, and cut frames from brass. I was personally very impressed with the result, I think my dad did a great job.

The tender of the locomotive was another important item to make. The Great Bear had a non-standard 8 wheel bogie tender. My dad studied the drawings and cut from plastic the different panels and stuck them together.

He made the bogies from scratch and used wheels from A3 bogies. I drilled a hole in the top and held in a water dome with Araldite. I also used the Araldite to attach the water scoop.

 

On the locomotive, I drilled holes for the chimney, safety valve bonnet and whistle to go on.

This is all for now, so stay tuned for my next post on this topic.

Edited February 8, 2019 by Justang
Changing arrangement of images

[Justang]

Boiler bands go on.

[Martyn T]

I am following this with great interest, it is a project I have been mulling over for a while now. Well done, I look forward to the next instalment.

[Darlington South Junction]

This project has given me motivation to build a L&Y class 8. Can't wait to see the next installments!

[Justang]

On 16/02/2019 at 20:56, Martyn T said:

I am following this with great interest, it is a project I have been mulling over for a while now. Well done, I look forward to the next instalment.

Thanks mate. It means a lot! It's great to hear that people are interested.

 

On 17/02/2019 at 11:34, Trainspotter395 said:

This project has given me motivation to build a L&Y class 8. Can't wait to see the next installments!

That's awesome! Thanks. I really love the Lancashire and Yorkshire locomotives. The class 8 seems quite elegant! I would love to hear how you do on that. If you are interested in purchasing a tender, I bought one a while back and I am not sure whether to keep or sell it. I think it is kitbuilt or scratchbuilt, so let me know if you are interested.

Edited February 19, 2019 by Justang

[Darlington South Junction]

26 minutes ago, Justang said:

Thanks mate. It means a lot! It's great to hear that people are interested.

 

That's awesome! Thanks. I really love the Lancashire and Yorkshire locomotives. The class 8 seems quite elegant! I would love to hear how you do on that. If you are interested in purchasing a tender, I bought one a while back and I am not sure whether to keep or sell it. I think it is kitbuilt or scratchbuilt, so let mw know if you are interested.

I'll have to see. It would certainly be better than modifying a triang fowler tender

[Justang]

My grandad is a volunteer for a museum. At the museum, there is a layout with two railways on it in G scale. The bigger railway is G gauge track and is run my my grandad's friend and fellow volunteer. The smaller railway is O gauge (narrow gauge for 16mm G scale) and was made by my grandad. He had recently told me that he is looking to get a new locomotive for it, and with his birthday coming up in May, this has opened up an opportunity for a project.

 

My plan is to make a small 0-4-0 diesel to give to him as a birthday present. The final product will be made primarily from plastikard and it will be battery powered with a simple electric circuit to power the motor.

 

To start the project, I have made a mock up of the final product from cardboard so I can visualise whether the design is suitable and whether further improvements will have to be made.

 

For the mechanism, I have ordered this motor and wormdrive set:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Double-Shaft-Bevel-Angle-Reducer/dp/B07L6FHHJM/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1550771132&sr=8-6&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=worm+drive+motor&dpPl=1&dpID=41jIGcwbP%2BL&ref=plSrch

 

I already have a metal rod for the rear axle. I need to get some poly cement to start building and wheels to be able to make it run. I am not sure whether to give it coupling rods or leave it with only one driven axle. If there is an alternative I am open to suggestions.

[Justang]

Here are the paper templates for the body for me to stick to plasticard and cut out. 

 

I have decided that the chassis will have 6 wheels and a jackshaft driving to the centre pair of wheels.

[Justang]

Recently I have been really interested in Awdry's Railway series. I have seen users on this platform making amazing models based on his characters and have thought it would be fun to also try this. To plan how I would do so, I have worked out what I would make as the basis for each character:

 

Thomas - Freelance design, based on Reverend W Awdry's model

Edward - Sparkshot K2

Henry - Scratchbuilt Raven A2

Gordon - Sparkshot A0

James - Sparkshot class 28 mogul

Percy - 2-A-Rail Avonside Tank

Toby - Scratchbuilt Y6 from Rev W Awdry's drawings

Duck - GWR class 1661 - built from Hornby 2721

Donald and Douglas - Caley 812s - made from LSWR 700 class locos, without superheaters

Oliver - GWR 455 class - made from airfix 14xx

 

For those who don't know, before the North Western Railway, there were 3 major standard gauge steam-operated railways on Sodor: The Sodor & Mainland, Tidmouth Knapford & Elsbridge and the Wellsworth & Suddery. In my continuity, Thomas was a freelance built for the W&S in the 1880s-1890s. My model of him is to be built from a Triang Jinty and he is to be painted in a red livery with gold lettering and lining. Work has already been began on him.

 

 

Sandboxes have been added to the splashers and the cab has had a new front and roof. The smokebox still looked too Fowler, so I removed the handrail on the door, shortened the hinge straps and filed away the numberplate. I made a smoke box door handle with pliers and a soldering iron using the technique explained in this post:

 

Edited May 19, 2019 by Justang

[Justang]

I might not update on The Great Bear for a while as I am lazy and there is so much to do to complete it. However I will probably get around to it at some point.

Edited August 24, 2019 by Justang
Typo

[Justang]

Three of a kind!

 

Edited March 12, 2019 by Justang

[Justang]

I have added window frames and a Ramsbottom safety valve. The window frames were pieces of wire wrapped around the handle of a round file. The safety valve was made by soldering 2 brass rods to a piece of wire.

 

 

I have also painted the running plate, chimney, smokebox and cab roof black.

 

[Justang]

The dome, chimney cap and bufferbeams have now been painted.

 

[Justang]

In my universe, the W&S bought James as a L&YR class 27 in the 1890s - 1900s. He was fitted with a saddle tank and bunker, similar to the L&YR class 23, for various reasons - such as cost efficiency and to fit on smaller turntables. My donor locomotive for this project would be the Triang 3F, as it has similar dimensions to the class 27. I first had to disassemble the 3F.

 

 

Next I constructed the cab and bunker.

 

 

Now I only have to built the rear plate and roof of the cab and make the saddle tank.

Edited April 16, 2019 by Justang

[Corbs]

Now that is a cool idea! Reminds me of some of the Lambton, Hetton and Joicey Colliery Railway locos which were converted to tank locos from old 0-6-0s, including an 0-6-0PT that began life as a 2-4-0 tender loco!

Keep up the good work  

How have you got on with the Great Bear?

[Justang]

On 02/04/2019 at 23:50, Corbs said:

Now that is a cool idea! Reminds me of some of the Lambton, Hetton and Joicey Colliery Railway locos which were converted to tank locos from old 0-6-0s, including an 0-6-0PT that began life as a 2-4-0 tender loco!

Keep up the good work  

How have you got on with the Great Bear?

 

Thanks! I was actually inspired by your saddle tank projects. Those colliery locomotives do seem quite interesting. Thanks for telling me about them. I think they could be good inspiration for future projects.

 

With the Great Bear, I haven't done much at the moment. It is a long project, and I have recently preferred doing smaller locomotives that are quite freelance. But I will get back to it, because it is my favourite locomotive.

[Justang]

I haven't uploaded on here in a while, so I though I would make an update on progress.

 

I finished the cab.

 

I assembled a saddle tank by cutting out the parts I needed (quite inaccurately) and filling the gaps with miliput. This is a crude method, but it saved time and required less effort.

 

 

I added buffers to the rear bufferbeam (the buffers were from my dad's old City of Truro Airfix kit). One of the buffer housings had the buffer broken off, so I made a new buffer from soldered wire, superglue and miliput.

 

 

I made the footsteps next

 

 

The saddletank was uneven, so i covered it in miliput to be sanded down. I cut away the dome from the donor 3F and put it on the saddletank with miliput and superglue.

 

 

At this point my laziness completely took over me, so I just made sandboxes from miliput and stuck them on the splashers with superglue. I sanded down all of the miliput on the body i didn't want and I stuck on the footsteps with araldit. I also put a handle on the smokebox.

 

 

I made a filler cap for the saddletank and soldered together a safety valve from brass rod and wire.

 

 

This is how it looks so far. Still a bit of work to do

 

[Justang]

I've put more milliput on the saddle tank

 

Here's how the loco looks with all the loose parts attached:

 

 

Now, the Wellsworth & Suddery Railway needs carriages. Because I already have too many projects going on at the moment, I have decided the carriages will be 4-wheel standard Hornby carriages with a ratio GWR brake - all in blue with yellow lining. I have assembled the brake coach and will begin painting when i have the time to.

 

 

Because it is taking me a long to complete the Great Bear, I have taken on another side-project. This time, it's a Star atlantic 4-4-2. My plan is to use a lot of the same parts for the projects as much as I can. I recently purchased the body of a Hornby Saint, but it had been modified quite extensively. One of the modification made by the previous owner was to remove the safety valve bonnet. I hacked off one from a castle body and removed the top feed. The new safety valve bonnet has been stuck on to the saint body with filler and poly cement.

 

 

Now all I need is a castle chassis and City of Truro kit for the buffers and tender.

 

Edited February 2, 2020 by Justang

[Justang]

I have brushed some red paint on the saddle tank. I doesn't look great, but looks alright from a distance.

 

[Justang]

Now, on a bit of a sidetrack, (as it is with most of my posts on this topic), I have discovered some new projects to (never) complete. I have been recently going around various trainfairs and exhibitions with my father and we have found 2 interesting items:

 

The first is a Ratio 4-4-0 kit. It's part-built, but most of the hard work has been done on it, and we picked it up for a tenner. The only problem is the plastic wheels, but we'll sort it out somehow, with batteries or swapping for better wheels. Most of the paintwork is done, and the tender has already had transfers applied.

 

 

The next item is an unassembled Kitmaster Stirling Single from the GNR.

 

 

Most people never see one in their lifetime, and we picked this one up for a fiver. For this reason, my father and I have decided it would be a great opportunity to try and make resin copies. I am not sure if this is against copyright/patent laws, so if it is please let me know. However, the kit has been out of production since the 80's, so I should hope it's ok. Anyway, it just so happened that we found the kit whilst visiting my grandfather who had fortunately had some left-over silicone from making casts for parts of tram models, so we have been attempting to make molds from the silicone.

 

 

We used a box made from lego and a coleslaw tub lid as containers for pouring the silicone into for experimenting. So far, we have tried to make molds for the tender top, smokebox and backhead molds, so we will have to wait for the silicone to dry. I will update on progress in the next post.

[Darlington South Junction]

That's a good idea! I do not believe there are any copyright laws, but I should hope that this idea works!

[Devo63]

18 hours ago, Justang said:

However, the kit has been out of production since the 80's, so I should hope it's ok. 

G'day Justang,

 

That line should be amended to "out of production since 1961" as that was the time that Kitmaster ceased producing their kits. I believe the tooling was passed to Airfix but this kit was one of the many in the range never to be re-introduced.

 

Dave R.