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30368's Workbench SR Loco's with a bit of LNER


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Dave/John,

 

Yes, they replace the crankpin on the centre wheel. The returncrank angle is adjustable and is then secured in place with a 14BA set screw. As mentioned, my main concern it the diameter of the coupling/connecting rod journal which will require redrilling the clearance holes in these two components significantly. If this is a problem, I may have to strengthen them with a washer. We shall see!

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

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2 minutes ago, 30368 said:

Dave/John,

Yes, they replace the crankpin on the centre wheel. The returncrank angle is adjustable and is then secured in place with a 14BA set screw. As mentioned, my main concern it the diameter of the coupling/connecting rod journal which will require redrilling the clearance holes in these two components significantly. If this is a problem, I may have to strengthen them with a washer. We shall see!

Kind regards,

Richard B

 

That was one of my reservations when I first saw this product.  Its a beautifully machined/engineered unit, but it looks a bit large to me.  Hence my interest in how you get on with it.

All the best, Dave.

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I have now completed the modifications to the coupling and connecting rods to accomodate the Markits ER style return cranks. I share David's concern about the slightly oversize return crank but decided to proceed, not least because a) I already had the cranks having bought them some time ago and b) I am not a fan of soldering the etched return crank to a standard crank pin, it works but I'm not convinced about longevity.

Please let me know about other approaches, I am always ready to learn from fellow modellers.

 

First stage involves Poppy again, soldering the coupling rods together having first tinned them. Hair clip clamps in position.

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Rods all soldered together but not cleaned up.

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The final image shows the rods with the centre coupling rod journal and connecting rod big end opened out for the Markits return crank/crank pin journal. My approach was to drill out close to the journal diameter carefully clamping the rods to reduce the risk of damage. I then used a broach to slowly open out the hole using the broach on both sides of the rod (given that the broach is tapered) and then filing away the raised lip around the hole, which tends to snag the broach, and then using the broach again. Take it slowly! It is true that the coupling rods are weaker but there should be no real load on the rods if I get everything aligned and with the correct clearances. Few tricky moments with this job!

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Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by 30368
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We had a very pleasant Bank Holiday with family which included our latest grandson who is nearly 9 months old. He is a lovely little chap! Oldest grandson is 23 so a wide spread.

 

I have ordered a coreless motor and high flyer gearbox from Chris - same set up as the A2/3 - I was so impressed.

All of the valvegear is now riveted were necessary and ready for assembly so I focused on the cylinders, slide bars and crossheads.

The slidebars in particular need careful fettling and removal from the casting tree. I made up cylinder end covers (including pressure relief valves) and piston end covers from thin aluminium to enhance appearance. The kit includes a brass overlay for the cylinder sheet steel cover. This includes bolt detail which looks very good. I particularly like the way the cylinders are located in the frames with spigots of which more later.

 

R/H cylinder assembly complete, L/H still to do, you can just see how distorted the slide bar for this cylinder is prior to fettling.

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The completed cylinders, R/H cylinder has a temporary handrail knob inserted to secure the overlay! L/H was formed more accurately.

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Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

 

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Hi Richard when you were assembling the body of the A2/3 I noticed that you did not sand the castings before detailing/painting. Does this not affect the finish? I have usually seen the opposite done but I always worry about accidentally removing detail in the process. What's your view on all this? Thanks.

 

Regards,

 

Matti

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Hi Matti,

 

Great to hear from a new member of the website!

 

I would not use sandpaper anyway - I did use a very fine "wet and dry" paper, that has been well used, to clean up the larger areas of the boiler. I agree that it all too easy to remove detail such as boiler wash outs and rivet detail. I also use an etching primer coat prior to the top coat and this tends to highlight any areas that require further cleaning up.

 

It is also true that steam locomotives, after years of use and many repaints, do have a fairly worn appearance for example, smokeboxes can have a very rough surface! I am not suggesting we ignore cleaning up prior to painting, just don't overdo it and look at as many photographs of the prototype as possible, you may find that it's finish is not as perfect as you first thought!

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

 

 

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Hi,

 

Valve gear all complete and ready for erecting on the loco chassis. Coupling rods now fitted and required very little tweeking before they ran very smoothly.

 

My concern for the integrity of the rear frame has led me to stregnthen this assembly with two additional stretchers.

The stretchers fit into the half etch bending locations.

1828691711_001(2).JPG.6b26890bdae6e43f343cab2584f2f686.JPG

 

Sorry not a very good picture even for my low standard! Underside showing clearance slot for rear carrying wheel casting.

1169587942_002(2).JPG.da328973d42acc4f19e0d50ffa62a60a.JPG

 

Motor and gearbox has arrived so I shall fit that and plunger pick-ups before valve gear assembly.

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

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Motor and gearbox assembled and run, just needed to slightly increase the mesh between worm gear and idler - runs, as expected with HL, very well. Plunger pickups fitted and wired - need to be very careful with amount of heat applied to avoid damaging nylon bushes.

 

 

Motor and gearbox assembly with Adams 0395 keeping it company.

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Plunger pickups fitted to all wheels.

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Chassis re-assembled.

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Thats is as far as I want to take it today, erection of valve gear next.

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

 

 

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I have little justification for this but just received my Hornby A4 60026. Puchased firstly to compare with 60700 when my one is delivered but also because they were fabulous locomotives! What a great model !

A1/1 work continues.

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Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

 

 

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I have been very busy house hunting. We are "under offer" so need to find somewhere fast. We are looking in the Derbyshire High Peak. I have lived in Derbyshire around Ashbourne for twenty odd years so know the area and the very friendly people fairly well. Mrs B fancies Buxton and who am I to question her choice? It still has a railway line thank goodness!

 

I have now assembled the valve gear on one side to check clearances etc and I must say it all went together well and runs very smoothly. I needed to thin down the leading crankpin nut, as usual, and fit two 1mm washers behind the connecting rod big end and apply a slight set to the rod to provide clearance. The Markits return crank is, as DLT mentioned earlier, a lovely piece of engineering. I have made it look a ittle smaller by chamfering the sides and it will also look smaller when weathered. It is though a little wide at the crankpin but no worse than the DJH version. I think it is very good and is very robust.

 

Some pictures showing the return crank in various positions.

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573191633_005(2).JPG.57e83d14c40de97a3d06734ba9d9fc6d.JPG

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

 

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PS ... As mentioned above, I really like the Hornby "Miles Beevor" but have spotted a few areas that need improving! Particularly the firebox support members and reversing rod. Thank goodness for that, if it was perfect I would be upset that I couldn't tinker a bit!

 

 

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Many thanks John.

I'm no stranger to Debyshire winters. Back in the 1980s our Derbyshre village was cut off for three days with no power. Huge winds following heavy snow blocked all the roads. Cooking on our open fireplace was a challenge taking so long! The stews were tasty though!

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

PS Jumpers currently on store will be fettled!

 

 

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Not much progress but the chassis is now a 4-6-2 so that is something!

 

723140856_003(2).JPG.eb8b5318045a8e56967f4443366ca3a1.JPG

 

 

Soon I will be dealing with those curves on the running plate! Should be interesting!

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

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Chassis is now complete apart from frame mounted steam pipes from outside cylinders, a Thompson weak point by all accounts, and some additional support brackets for bogie wheel spats.

 

The trailing wheel axlebox/spring casting needed careful cleaning and eith it, or more likely, the cab footsteps are a little too long so I had to remove and fettle the footsteps to suit. I am pleased with the result.

 

House hunting entering its final phase with a trip up to Derbyshire next week, must get it all done before risk of another lockdown.

Drivers side.

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Firemans side.

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I have ordered some 1 thou brass sheet from Eileen's Emporium to provide the firebox wrapper. The wrapper and its securing bolts/rivets (?) is such a feature of the later LNER pacifics so I will try to replicate it relying on the firebox/boiler boiler band to hide the join. That's the theory!

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

 

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I'll be very interested to see how you get on with the body.

 

I have one of these unbuilt and look at it from time to time. Mine has a resin boiler and firebox cast as one, there's also an extension of the resin to fit a brass smokebox wrapper. Thing is, the angle on the firebox/ boiler casting is all wrong, and makes it look like a hump backed whale. The only one of these I've seen done to look right was by Mike Edge, it is pictured in the Wild Swan book by Ian Rathbone about Painting and Lining.  I asked Mr. Edge about this once, apparently he dumped the resin and rolled new brass parts! With the resin supplied I have thought about cutting the firebox part away, then remaking the join to give a better profile, sounds like I could quite easily make a mess.

 

Earlier this week I finished a DJH A2, resplendent as "Hornets Beauty", which to my amazement runs both silently and smoothly. Done on and off, it has taken me as long in years as your A2/3 took in weeks, and now I've gone back to the Millholme Merchant Navy for which you kindly sent me the instructions - at least this doesn't have valve gear!

 

Best wishes,

 

John.

Edited by John Tomlinson
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1 hour ago, John Tomlinson said:

I'll be very interested to see how you get on with the body.

 

I have one of these unbuilt and look at it from time to time. Mine has a resin boiler and firebox cast as one, there's also an extension of the resin to fit a brass smokebox wrapper. Thing is, the angle on the firebox/ boiler casting is all wrong, and makes it look like a hump backed whale. The only one of these I've seen done to look right was by Mike Edge, it is pictured in the Wild Swan book by Ian Rathbone about Painting and Lining.  I asked Mr. Edge about this once, apparently he dumped the resin and rolled new brass parts! With the resin supplied I have thought about cutting the firebox part away, then remaking the join to give a better profile, sounds like I could quite easily make a mess.

 

Earlier this week I finished a DJH A2, resplendent as "Hornets Beauty", which to my amazement runs both silently and smoothly. Done on and off, it has taken me as long in years as your A2/3 took in weeks, and now I've gone back to the Millholme Merchant Navy for which you kindly sent me the instructions - at least this doesn't have valve gear!

 

Best wishes,

 

John.

The resin moulded boiler in that kit was particularly bad, I think I replaced all of it in brass.

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John/Michael,

 

Thanks for the advice regarding the boiler, not sure I'm ready to make a brass taper boiler! If needed I will give it a go. My kit has the resin casting, a brass overlay for the smokebox and a cast whitemetal section for filling in the underside of the boiler. It looks ok but will check all with the drawing and pictures. Getting a representative view of a boiler form is a bit difficult since most pictures were taken at rail level.

 

John, Do you have a thread for your loco builds? Would like to have a look at them if you don't mind.

 

Running plate bent to shape using tool ends (Box spanner, Xacto knife) and my trusty wooden dowell. Looks fine.

 

1220583533_005(2).JPG.f9fa479c72581850284c5ee0045586d2.JPG

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

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17 hours ago, 30368 said:

John/Michael,

 

Thanks for the advice regarding the boiler, not sure I'm ready to make a brass taper boiler! If needed I will give it a go. My kit has the resin casting, a brass overlay for the smokebox and a cast whitemetal section for filling in the underside of the boiler. It looks ok but will check all with the drawing and pictures. Getting a representative view of a boiler form is a bit difficult since most pictures were taken at rail level.

 

John, Do you have a thread for your loco builds? Would like to have a look at them if you don't mind.

 

Running plate bent to shape using tool ends (Box spanner, Xacto knife) and my trusty wooden dowell. Looks fine.

 

1220583533_005(2).JPG.f9fa479c72581850284c5ee0045586d2.JPG

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

More good progress Richard, with having formed the running plate convincingly with its quite subtle bends and curves.

 

I don't have a workbench, or indeed any other thread, although I have photographed my efforts from time to time for illustration on here. Perhaps this is something I should do. To stay alive it would need to include modified RTR, but then I think I wouldn't be the first to combine the two.

 

John.

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Guest Jack Benson

Richard,

 

Another ‘well done’ as an accolade for the A2/3,  they are mighty beasts but I am selfish in looking forward to another Southern locomotive on the stocks? 
 

I hope that the move to Derbyshire is progressing well, good luck.

 

Best Wishes
 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hello Jack,

 

Many thanks for your kind comments. How is you layout going?

 

My next build is very likely to be a Urie S15 (DJH). I have built one from the DJH kit at the begining of my loco building "career" so it will be interesting to see what I have learnt!

 

Best wishes to you and stay safe,

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard

 

PS Have located a house in Buxton so move planning into top gear - loco building a relaxing escape!

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