Messing about with loads of brass: Cobbling together a whimsical 4-4-0 in 2 inch gauge.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Hello all,

 

 

This is my latest of to many projects. To scratchbuild myself an engine. 

 

 

A wee bit of context.

 

 

This engine does have a thread elsewhere, but I don't think it really fit that area of the forum. So here we are, and you probably have a fair few questions.

 

The project began in may of this year.

 

Basically, this engine is made in the style of the early model engineers, the ones who built models for Stephenson and Gooch etc. It is built to a gauge of 2 inches, a scale now almost extinct in the modern world but very popular from 1890 to about 1917. It was originally going to be live steam, and indeed the boiler is still capable of boiling water but the steam generation to consumption equation was done wrong, so it ended up being electric.

 

The drive train is very crude by modern standards, and is made form what I had. Meccano gears and motor. And surprisingly, it works extremely well. Not the quietest though.

 

The engine has an interesting story. It started off as an LNWR style 4-4-0, but one day I got a burst of inspiration and decided to model a Paris Lyon & Med Railway "coupe vent" engine instead. These were the first ever streamlined engines, also called windcutters. But then I decided that, as the NER is my preferred railway, it should have been bought by the NER for testing purposes, much like the GWR did with their De Glehn compound. So it will be painted in NER livery

 

The engine is constructed in the standard model engineering way pioneered by LBSC (Curley Lawrence), in that the frames are cut from 3mm steel with a hack saw and just about everything else is brass plate or sheet. The boiler barrel is copper though. The wheels will be very interesting. The bogie and tender wheels have yet to be designed, but I designed the driving wheels and am working with @AndyID to produce them. More to come on that soon.

 

A few notes.

 

Yes, it can move under its own power and will have batteries in the tender, but it can't run on rails yet.

 

It is named "Brunel" after Isembard Kingdom Brunel.

 

 

Here is a timeline in photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last one is of the engine as it stands today., and here's pic of its basis. It has been anglicized somewhat.

 

credit

 

 

 

Douglas

 

[Florence Locomotive Works]

A lot more progress has been made.

 

This mostly consists of the front bogie being almost entirely remade so that now it has suspension, in the same way the full size bogies are sprung.

 

I also decided on a livery, in that the engine won’t have one. I elected to simply keep it in its polished brass and copper finish, however the frames (as they are steel) have been painted and lined in NER colors to an extant. 
 

 

You can see in the above photo how the boiler is now copper and that the front bogie is now double framed, with the outer set pivoting on the bolt pictured between the wheels. It is not sprung with a spring physically mounted to the internal frames though, as the scale won’t allow this. However the whole assemblies is pressed into  the track by a spring on the engine proper.

 

The first wheel has also been produced courtesy of Andy. Here it is, and they will be arriving soon. Then work on the motion will commence.

 

Wood paneling has also been added to the side of the cab. 

 

Douglas