CXW's NER & H&BR (and Industrial) Workbench

[micklner]

8 hours ago, CXW1 said:

 

Thanks Mick - looking at the prototype in the photo I don't think you will see the pipes modelled in 4mm scale by me either!!

 

The dome is one of Arthur's and I think it looks OK to the naked eye. I'm not changing it.

 

Cheers 

 

Chris

 

 

 

 

Easy cheat , drill one hole, glue four bits of fuse wire therin and spread them out afterwards and glue/solder behind the footplate !!.

I agree re the Dome about not changing it , still looks strange (to me) in the photo , hopefully it will change with some paint.

 

I am on the last stages of a Geo Norton J25 , horrid old kit with a lot of replacement parts and swearing needed !.

[Jol Wilkinson]

4 hours ago, micklner said:

Easy cheat , drill one hole, glue four bits of fuse wire therin and spread them out afterwards and glue/solder behind the footplate !!.

I agree re the Dome about not changing it , still looks strange (to me) in the photo , hopefully it will change with some paint.

 

I am on the last stages of a Geo Norton J25 , horrid old kit with a lot of replacement parts and swearing needed !.

Living in Essex, you'll probably have learned how to do the swearing expertly.

[micklner]

19 minutes ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

Living in Essex, you'll probably have learned how to do the swearing expertly.

In this case yes !! I have a Norton N8 to do yet !!    B$$££££&^&^&&^& d thing !!

[Axlebox]

On 26/10/2020 at 23:18, CXW1 said:

 

 

The scenic area will have a depot manager's house as a view blocker (idea completely nicked from the Croft Depot P4 layout - sorry) but I have based it on the station house at Whittingham in Northumberland.

 

 

 

 

Chris

No need to apologize, Croft Depot was built partly as a test piece and partly to inspire folks to 'have a go' at something simple...and weirdly, Croft lives just the other side of Alnwick moor from Whittingham...

Cheers

Duncan

[CXW1]

1 hour ago, Axlebox said:

Chris

No need to apologize, Croft Depot was built partly as a test piece and partly to inspire folks to 'have a go' at something simple...and weirdly, Croft lives just the other side of Alnwick moor from Whittingham...

Cheers

Duncan

Hi Duncan

 

As someone who falls into the 'I haven't got enough room for a layout' category, I have always been drawn to layouts like Croft Depot because they prove that you don't necessarily needs loads of space to achieve something that is both realistic and believable. It certainly inspired me to have a go. I'm currently kicking some ideas around for a small EM layout, but whether the ideas result in something getting built remains to be seen. 

 

Thanks

 

Chris 

[ArthurK]

No it wasn't a Wakefield lubricator. It was the design used on all NER superheated locos. I have  these in my range of castings on a sprue of six.

 

ArthurK

Edited January 6, 2021 by ArthurK
punctuation

[CXW1]

4 minutes ago, ArthurK said:

No it wasn't a Wakefield lubricator. It was the design used on all NER superheated locos. I have  these in my range of castings on a sprue of six.

 

ArthurK

 

Ah, that looks a lot different to my home-made bodge.

 

I'll be in touch Arthur....

 

 

 

[Worsdell forever]

Reading about lubricators on here earlier I realised I hadn't removed the one on the footplate of my J27/P3 rebuild as it was superheated and now is not, luckily it came off ok. It looked a lot like Arthur's photo.

[Paul Cram]

8 hours ago, micklner said:

In this case yes !! I have a Norton N8 to do yet !!    B$$££££&^&^&&^& d thing !!

I have just completed one and  it's now ready for the paint shop. Quite a straight forward build.

[Worsdell forever]

20 minutes ago, Paul Cram said:

I have just completed one and  it's now ready for the paint shop. Quite a straight forward build.

 

I have one 3/4 built, got stopped for other reasons, but a very good straight forward build.

[CXW1]

Chapman & Furneaux Lintz No. 2

 

I was in two minds whether or not to post this build on here as it is really just more of the same thing. 

 

It also isn’t anything to do with the North Eastern or Hull & Barnsley Railways, but it is still a locomotive that was built and worked in the North East, and it has a personal connection.

 

Chapman & Furneaux took over the better-known Black Hawthorn & Co of Gateshead at the end of the 19th Century and built around 70 locomotives before being taken over by Hawthorn & Leslie of Newcastle in 1902. One of the locomotives built by Chapman & Furneaux was ‘Lintz No. 2’ of 1900.

 

My grandfather worked as an engineer at several pits in the North East. He started off at Lintz Colliery (near Burnopfield) before moving on to other local collieries after the Lintz pit closed some time in the 1920s. I’m not sure if he was the regular loco driver but he did drive the engine on occasion including a well-documented (at least by him) daredevil trip down the rope incline when it was transferred to South Garesfield pit. 

 

Here is a poor quality ‘photo of a photo’ with my grandfather on the footplate of Lintz No.2. We’re not sure who the people standing on the ground are – we have always assumed they were colliery managers. This is also the picture I use in my avatar/name thingy on RMWeb. 

 

 

 

My grandfather was always interested in the railway (especially local colliery railways) and I can remember him having the official works photograph of Lintz No. 2 hanging in a frame on his wall. There is a copy of the works photo and other information on the Industrial Railway Society website – I haven’t posted the picture on here just in case it is covered by copyright.

 

I’ve been thinking about making a model of Lintz No. 2 for some time. Some of the Chapman & Furneaux locos had similarities to those of Black Hawthorn and I figured there were 2 options – use a High Level Black Hawthorn kit as a starting point and adapt/butcher it, or start from scratch. I figured a scratch build would be more fun (and also avoid ruining a perfectly good kit) so here we go…..

 

First picture shows the frames and footplate. As usual (for me) it will drive off a fixed rear axle with the front axle in hornblocks and a pivot beam.

 

 

 

Trial fit of the cab....

 

 

 

Starting (I hope) to look like a Chapman & Furneaux loco.....

 

 

 

The cylinders have been made using the same method as my A7 by soldering the slidebars into a '3-sided box' for strength. The slidebars are 0.8mm square nickel silver and the crossheads are from Markits. A cosmetic cylinder cover will be fabricated in due course. 

 

The next job will be to remove the cylinders and fit the front hornblocks - hopefully a delivery from High Level will turn up this week.

 

The wheels in the picture are slightly too big (not to mention pretty awful) and new ones are required. 

 

 

 

I have cut out the bottom of the boiler to accommodate the motor and gearbox and the hole still might need enlarging further. The gap will either be 'filled' with a false bottom if I can get the motor up into the boiler and tank, or the more likely solution will be to just hide the gap behind various sand boxes, tool boxes, springs and pipework.

 

As usual I'll make it up as I go along. 

 

Finally a question. The loco never carried nameplates and instead had LINTZ No. 2. painted on the side of the tank. I don't fancy farting about with individual letters so does anyone know where I can get custom made transfers from?

 

I think that Narrow Planet do a Chapman & Furneaux works plate which I will need for the cab sides. 

 

Lintz No. 2 ended up being transferred to the Cowpen Coal Company before being taken over by the National Coal Board. I think this is pronounced 'Coupon' but as a Co. Durham lad I'm happy to be corrected by any Northumbrians out there. The loco was long-lived and was scrapped in the early 1960s. A cop-out would therefore be to paint it in black NCB livery, but it will look better in its original lined green livery with LINTZ No. 2 on the tank sides. 

 

Cheers

 

Chris 

 

 

Edited May 31, 2022 by CXW1
Picture added

[micklner]

Precision Labels will print custom made decals , I believe you have to provide the artwork .He is very helpful.

Edited January 10, 2021 by micklner

[CXW1]

A bit more progress with the Chapman & Furneaux. This is the first time I've attempted a small 0-4-0 with outside cylinders so there is a fair amount of making it up as I go along.

 

Despite some careful measuring I really won't know if there is enough clearance between the crossheads and the front crankpins until the hornblocks arrive and the front wheels are fitted. With that in mind I have made the cylinder units removeable by fixing them to the frames with a 10BA nut and bolt (the nuts are soldered to the inside of the frames). The bolt head is just visible at the back of the cylinder box in the picture below. It is accessible (but only just) with a very small jeweler's screwdriver. 

 

A representation of the motion bracket is attached to the slidebars on each side but is not attached to the frames. Therefore the whole cylinder/slidebar/crosshead/motion bracket unit is separate and can be removed on each side - I think this will be useful in the event that there isn't enough clearance as the whole unit can just be removed and packed out. It also means that I can now build the chassis as a basic 0-4-0 and then fit the cylinders and fix them in place after I'm satisfied with how the chassis runs. 

 

I have also started to make up some pipework and I've found some spring castings in my spares box. These are just balanced in place for now but they seem to do the job of making the small gap at the bottom of the boiler less obvious. Sandboxes and a tool box will hide the gap further. The tool box will sit in front of the front spring, so the front spring probably won't be visible. 

 

Here is the current state of play - propped up with blue tac in the absence of a front axle.

 

 

 

I've also knocked up some outer covers for the cylinders. These are springy and can be popped on and off for now. They will be glued or soldered on eventually and I will make some fronts and backs, but not until I'm satisfied that the cylinder units won't need taking off anymore. 

 

 

 

Cheers

 

Chris

 

 

 

 

Edited May 31, 2022 by CXW1
Correction

[CXW1]

The front axle is now in hornblocks and the motor/gearbox has been test-fitted. The loco has been for a short run along my test track with the motor wired directly to the controller and everything seems to run freely without any tight spots. Next job with the chassis is to paint it and fit slightly smaller Alan Gibson wheels when they arrive. 

 

The picture below also shows the separate cylinder units that I mentioned in the previous post. These can be screwed back onto the frames at a later stage and after the final fitting of the wheels. 

 

 

The footplate is currently sitting about 1mm too high. This is necessary at the moment to accommodate the oversize wheels and their even more-oversize flanges. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 31, 2022 by CXW1
Picture added

[CXW1]

I have spent this evening fitting some Alan Gibson wheels and attaching the cylinder units back onto the frames. It was necessary to pack out the cylinders from the frames ever-so-slightly just to give enough clearance between the front crankpin and the crosshead. 

 

I've mentioned on here before that I don't get on very well with Alan Gibson crankpins, so I have used old-style Romford crankpins in the Gibson wheels. This is easy to do by tapping out the hole in the wheel to 10BA, but you have to be pretty quick in and out with the soldering iron when fitting the retaining washers. I have ended up substituting the clunky Romford washers with some 1mm inside diameter tube and then filing it as thin as possible to get the required clearance behind the crosshead. 

 

The sandboxes, toolbox and the safety valve are just plonked on for now and require a little more work. 

 

 

 

 

 

The main thing is that it works, so in theory it is plain sailing from here.

 

The loco is very light and needs some weight adding. An obvious problem is that there isn't much available space to add weight. A few whitemetal castings plus a driver and fireman will help in that respect. 

 

Cheers

 

Chris 

 

 

 

Edited May 31, 2022 by CXW1
Picture added

[CXW1]

The Chapman & Furneaux is more or less finished and it joins the queue of things that need a clean-up and some paint. The weather forecast doesn't suggest that this will be anytime soon though.

 

I still need to do some work to the pipes below the tank but that's a 5 minute job that I can do after painting. The sandboxes and the larger toolbox aren't stuck down yet and I will leave doing this until I've painted the springs etc behind them.

 

The loco will end up the same green as the wheels and cylinders. This is Railmatch LNER 'Doncaster' green and was chosen because it is the only green paint I have, and I'm not buying anymore!!

 

 

 

I've really enjoyed building this loco. It is something completely different to what I usually do and it presented some new challenges to overcome.

 

I've even started to make another industrial loco out of bits left over from the Chapman & Furneaux, but this time it is a R&W Hawthorn (not a Hawthorn Leslie). This is 'Enterprise' which was built by R&W Hawthorn in 1884. It is currently gently rusting away at the Tanfield Railway. A splendid looking old thing. 

 

 

 

Here is the progress to date - no front hornblocks yet so it is propped up with blue tack. The springs are just balanced in place and ideally need replacing with something of a more prototypical shape, but you get the general idea.... 

 

 

 

 

I have deviated slightly from my usual construction method and made the sides of the saddle tank from 5 or 6 strips of plasticard that were laminated together and filed to shape. The top of the tank is brass and was glued in place. The reason for doing this was to get the sharp edge where the sides of the tank meet the top (i.e. just under the handrails) and I didn't think that I would be able to get the edge to be as sharp and straight by forming a single piece of brass. I suppose it would also work by making individual brass tank sides and soldering them to the brass top, but I figured that the plasticard route would be easier. It looks a bit odd at the moment due to the contrast in the colour of the plastic and the brass, but I reckon it will be OK when it is painted. 

 

Clearly the chimney on the model is wrong. The chimney on the real Enterprise is an odd-looking thing and is really something that would probably need to be made for the model on a lathe. I don't have a lathe and I'm not allowed to visit anyone who might have one, so the casting will have to do for now. I will probably attack it with a file to try and make it look more like the real thing. I think the casting is a spare part from an old J27 kit. 

 

There appears to be a National shortage of Markits double crossheads so I have ended up using some lost wax castings from Wizard/Comet. I think the bottom line is that they aren't as good as the Markits version and took a fair amount of fettling, but they will have to do for now. They had just been dipped in Birchwood Casey when the picture was taken and have been cleaned up a bit since then. The cylinder units are made in the same way as on the Chapman & Furneaux - no point in re-inventing the wheel.

 

Cheers

 

Chris

 

 

 

 

Edited May 31, 2022 by CXW1
Picture added

[CXW1]

I've managed to do some painting over the last couple of days after leaving the heater on in the garage - still needs touching up in places. I'll let the paint harden for a few days and then make a start on the lining. Then again I think it looks OK as it is, so I might not bother. 

 

Or I could paint a big number 6 on the side of the cab and stick a face on the front. It definitely has a look of Percy about it.....

 

Works plates are on order from Narrow Planet and I still need to have a think about getting a 'Lintz No. 2' decal made up for the tank sides. 

 

 

 

 

Also been messing around with the picture filters to try and re-create something along the lines of the old photograph that I posted at the start of the build...

 

 

 

Cheers

 

Chris

 

 

 

 

Edited May 31, 2022 by CXW1
Picture added

[CXW1]

Hello All,

 

I'm asking for a bit of help here. I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I had started building a model of 'Enterprise', which is a R&W Hawthorn loco based at the Tanfield Railway. 

 

I am struggling to work out what to do in respect of safety valves and where they would be located.

 

Here is a picture of the loco in its current rather sorry state. On the top of the tank there is a chimney, dome, and the water filler just in front of the cab. 

 

 

 

 

The next picture (which I found openly on Google Images but I can remove if copyright rules suggest I should) shows the loco at the end of its working life - it clearly has a dome where you would expect to see one.

 

 

 

 

So, where are the safety valves located?

 

Here is a picture of the top of the dome. Are the two circular plates in the middle of the dome something to do with safety valves (i.e. do we think the dome and the safety valves were somehow combined like on an Adams Radial etc)? The top of the dome in the above picture looks like it has a flat spot on the top rather than being the usual rounded shape. 

 

 

 

Alternatively, here is a picture of the backhead, which clearly has some studs on the top. Could this be something to do with safety valves mounted in the cab or would this just be for the usual gauges, pipework etc?

 

 

 

Hopefully there are some knowledgeable RMWebbers who can shed some light on the mystery. What is clear is that there are definitely no other obvious fixing points on the top of the tank or anywhere else for safety valves. At the end of the day I'm more than happy to just have an educated guess and make something that looks reasonably plausible. 

 

If nobody can provide a definitive answer at least there are some nice pictures to look at.

 

Thanks

 

Chris 

 

Edited May 31, 2022 by CXW1
typo

[Worsdell forever]

22 minutes ago, CXW1 said:

 

The next picture (which I found openly on Google Images but I can remove if copyright rules suggest I should) shows the loco at the end of its working life - it clearly has a dome where you would expect to see one.

 

 

So, where are the safety valves located?

 

 

I would say on the raised thing just in front of the cab, if it's 'end of life' as you say, they would have been removed for one of two reasons, re-use elsewhere or to keep them safe - half a hunderedweight of very nickable brass... Unless they were on the dome.

[CXW1]

On 03/02/2021 at 14:46, Worsdell forever said:

 

I would say on the raised thing just in front of the cab, if it's 'end of life' as you say, they would have been removed for one of two reasons, re-use elsewhere or to keep them safe - half a hunderedweight of very nickable brass... Unless they were on the dome.

 

I assumed that the raised thing in front of the cab was where you would put water in the tank. To my eyes the dome looks like the obvious place for the safety valves to be located. 

 

 

Edited May 31, 2022 by CXW1
Picture added

[Worsdell forever]

1 minute ago, CXW1 said:

 

I assumed that the raised thing in front of the cab was where you would put water in the tank. To my eyes the dome looks like the obvious place for the safety valves to be located. 

 

 

 

Ah, it is a hole, I would have put that between chimney and dome. 

 

Must be top of dome then. 

[CXW1]

1 minute ago, Worsdell forever said:

 

Ah, it is a hole, I would have put that between chimney and dome. 

 

Must be top of dome then. 

 

I think that's agreed then, unless anyone knows any different. 

[Northroader]

I’d say from your picture of the top of the dome, there’s a figure of eight blanking plate in the middle, and you would have a pair of valves mounted there. Occasionally you come across a loco with a dome and valves arranged like that, and the “helmet” had a hole flush with the top of the valves. What would clinch it is if you find a picture of the engine in traffic, with a wisp of steam coming from the dome.

[Asterix2012]

Fair bit of kit rusting away there

[CXW1]

3 hours ago, Northroader said:

I’d say from your picture of the top of the dome, there’s a figure of eight blanking plate in the middle, and you would have a pair of valves mounted there. Occasionally you come across a loco with a dome and valves arranged like that, and the “helmet” had a hole flush with the top of the valves. What would clinch it is if you find a picture of the engine in traffic, with a wisp of steam coming from the dome.

 

Thanks for the information - I think that accurately describes what we are looking at. The only picture I can find is the one above when it was owned by R Y Pickering and probably out of use judging by the holes in the smokebox door. The other pictures were taken by my Dad who is one of regular volunteers at Tanfield. Looking at the condition of the loco I don't think it will be in traffic anytime soon. The figure of eight blanking plate is in a 'side by side' arrangement rather than the more familiar 'in line' arrangement.