The Derby Line, Four Track LNER J6

[dibateg]

Workbench chaos.. with soon to be finished Scot

 

 

Finished Scot

 

 

 

And preparing for the next project, now what bits will I need from Ragstone...?

 

 

[farren]

A 9f should be interesting is this for a customer or your self. the scot looks great I take it the owner is happy with the mechanical lube then

[dibateg]

Thanks Farren - there is some discussion going on regarding the Scot upper works, a paint strip and some enhancement work is still on the cards...

 

One maybe 2 9Fs for me, one for a customer, followed by a Crostie for a customer. It will be like Crewe works here...

[farren]

2 9F's and corstie

 

Oh sir you spoil us with such delights.

[dibateg]

So at last I am on the 3 DJH 9Fs. There has been some critism of DJH kits, at one time they were state of the art, and maybe they are lagging behind in the technology stales. For me, generally they go together well, and I've always found the customer support from DJH excellent. The early 7mm kits such as the Fairburn are weak compared with the later ones, I wonder if they were a toe in the water to test the 7mm market at the time.

I'm aware of some of the minor pitfalls with the 9F after chatting to other builders, so I'll tackle them as I get to 'em..

I decided to start with the tenders, and so far the etches fit together with no problem - it would be nice to have twist tabs ( MOK style ) though! The first mod is to slot the tender chassis centre axle to allow a floating bearing, the original design is for an oversize bearing, but I don't like the thought of the axle windmilling around. I've also drilled the box re-enforcing etchings, I don't like sealed boxes.

 

 

[RonnieS]

So at last I am on the 3 DJH 9Fs. 27f

[dibateg]

The back and the sides of the DJH tenders come pre formed and in one piece....... The top fold on the 1G tender was a little high, so some time was spent trying to bring that down a little and to achieve that I had to separate the sides and back. So I had to force a new, bend and then straighten the upper portion. Not easy.

 

 

 

Then the front, back and sides can be assembled to form a box which can be checked for square. Then the fit of the hopper assembly can be made good.

 

 

 

And there we are the almost complete body sat on the chassis, the tabs to fit the body to the chassis were wider than the slot arrangement, so I cut them off. I also removed the fixed cab doors as I prefer ones that move and as this particular loco will mainly be on shed, they will probably be folded back.

 

 

 

So not quite as easy as I would have thought, but mainly, the out of position top fold was the problem.

 

 

[dibateg]

And I don't know why it doesn't put each picture after the piece of text, it used to...

[dibateg]

I've been working on the 1F tenders and I've got into the habit of checking photos for almost every part I fit these days. One thing I spotted, is that the tender 'floor' does not extent forward beyond the tank, so I have cut back the basic rectangular shape as can be seen in the photo. The tender front dragbeam also does not have a flat top surface as supplied, top tops of the outer edges are cut away. There is also an etched rivet strip to go on the underside of the floor, but I felt that would add unnecessary thickness so have left it off. It doesn't seem to be shown in the instructions but I think that is what it is for. Someone mention that the instructions are a bit thin, and they are, which means you have to study the exploded diagrams very carefully as not to miss anything out.

I wasn't quite happy with the folds in the 1G tenders body etch either, so spent an hour or so on them with wood blocks and bars to try and get them to a shape that I was happy with, photos to follow tomorrow. Maybe I'm just picky...

Raymond Whalely documented a 9F build a couple of years ago, so I have that as reference and copied beefing up the threaded holes for screwing the tender chassis to the body with some thick scrap etch.

 

[dibateg]

I realise I need to be using a different set of skills, more akin to scratch building, where it is up to the builder to get parts in the right position and make sure they are square! After a couple of false starts, I tacked all the bits together temporarily, the tenders are well under way. I couldn't work out how to fit the combined bunker and tender top in one piece with the divider already attached and get it all straight, so I separated them and put in the top first with a temporary spacer soldered midway between the tender sides to keep them the correct distance apart. The remaining pieces were then all tacked in bit by bit and checked for square. I also had a little battle to get those top curves right and starting in the right place, using more blocks of wood and brute strength...

 

 

[hobbyhorse]

Re-bending pre formed etches isn't easy, I'm with you on that one. I like the etches in the flat but I suppose it is a help if your not happy doing the bending your self.

Tenders are looking good.

 

Simon

[dibateg]

Thanks Simon, I never seem to be fully satisfied with them, once they have a fold it seems very difficult to correct. They are as good as I can get them!

[dibateg]

A Crewe of tenders? I've had my head down getting these together, I had the hopper crooked in one and I thought I might get away with it, but eventually it comes back to bite you as it means that other components will not fit, and after far too much contemplation, I ended up cutting out the solder along the back and one side, bashing it out and redoing it - fortunately without any damage to the side sheet. A salutary lesson to double check that things are square, how many times have I told myself that? Some of the white metal items are soldered, others fixed with Epoxy, I can never quite make my mind up which is best. I added a mounting plate for the water treatment hatch, I'm not sure if they all had it, but at least one of Annesley's fleet had the patch. I soldered as much from the inside as I could before adding the chassis. I love the 1F tenders, they just look huge. Other items, I added the 2 pipe oilers at the front outside of the frames, stays for the front steps and remembered that the sieve boxes are not hard up against the frames, despite there being a convenient spigot on the back of the casting. The axle box and spring castings lack detail on the spring hangers. I'll live with that for the moment.

 

 

 

[dibateg]

One thing I could not live with was the wire brake stretchers and white metal brakes in the kit, so I used Ragstone lost wax castings which are actually designed to prototypically hang off the inside of the our frames. I had to make mounting pads from scrap etch to mount them on the inner frames and drilled the ends of the stretchers to take 1mm brass rod. drilled out, 14Ba nuts were then added on the ends. The frame stretchers are 'U' shaped in reality, so strip from scrap etches ( again ) were soldered to the sides of the flat etch in the kit. The rear one is trapped by scoop lifter and to enable the chassis to separate from the main body, the stretchers screw with 14BA screws to 2mm 'L' angle soldered to the insides of the frames in the appropriate locations. I also had to knock up 12 small cranks to join the brake shaft to the pull rods, now that was tedious. Just pick ups to add now. The center bearing has a 1mm brass rod soldered into a drilling which locates into a split pin handrail knob on the inside of the frame. This allows the bearing to float in the slot in the frames and stop the bearing rotating.

Edited October 31, 2014 by dibateg

[ozzyo]

I had the same sort of problem when I was building the Stanier tender for Anne, but rather than using small screws I used 1.5mm (or was it 1mm) square brass and 0.5mm wire to hold them in place, a close up of the front one to show what I mean,

 

A view showing the rear one in place,

 

I'm not sure if the B.R. standard tenders follow the same practice as the L.M.S. ones, but on the L.M.S. tenders they had one cross beam with the channel to the top and one to the bottom, as you can see in this view showing the mountings along with most of the castings in place,

 

It just shows that there is no one way to mount parts in this hobby of ours.

 

OzzyO.

[dibateg]

Thanks Paul -

 

yes - the BR standards have the same arrangement as the LMS with the cross beams in the same orientation, here are my mounting points:-

 

 

Regards

Tony

[Guest Isambarduk]

"It just shows that there is no one way to mount parts in this hobby of ours."

 

Just so! In building a Stanier 3500 gallon tender from a David Andrews kit, I had intended to spring the stretchers in place between the frame but I found that they were so close to the brake hangers that they could be very conveniently soldered to them:

 

 

 

and this subterfuge does not show in the assembled model:

 

David

[dibateg]

I've been on other jobs as well as family stuff, but here are some outside point motor units for a clients project. Tortoises in waterproof boxes, now that is an odd phrase!

 

[dibateg]

And in the background more weathering jobs:-

 

 

 

[N15class]

And in the background more weathering jobs:-

Lovely weathering.

[steve fay]

Great weathering, locos look much better with dirt in them

[richard i]

i really like the weathering you have achieved on those last two pieces. I dead to think how much space the 3 9Fs will take up once completed.

richard

[dibateg]

Thanks Guys - I should add a little more technical detail about the weathering. I cannot claim any originality, most of the techniques have come from Marty Welch's bible and The Hornby Skills guide weathering, which features much work by Tim Shackleton.  I'm always trying to develop techniques, and the Hornby guide introduced me to acrylics and powders ( I'd had a box of powders on the shelf for years untouched). Tom Wright - son of Wright Writes, was producing inspiring results years ago with his diesel weathering. So more recently I am trying new things, however, these model have the same basic mix I have used for all the years I have been weathering ( I'm not going to say how many ) of Humbrol Matt black33/Leather 62 mix in varying proportions. I find the acrylics dry too quickly for most applications myself.

Initial work is to ensure the loco is ready, and a blast with the airbrush without any paint  to remove any dust is the one of the first steps. Then spraying, more sooty on top , more rusty around the running gear and smokebox area. Sometimes I use Precision rust paints depending on the condition of the prototype.

After the loco has dried for a day or so, then I go to the dry brushing, as well as using thinned mixes to add rust/dirt/limescale, consulting photos to get the effects right. This can take days, up to a week or more, with short sessions. I also use fingers to get streaks and scuffs as well as cotton buds and almost anything else to hand!

Then it is wheel cleaning and critical assessment....

 

Regards

Tony

[dibateg]

Like many of us, I am at appoint in my life where aging parents, become a responsibility, so after taking 2 weeks out to move Ma to a retirement apartment I am back at the workbench and its on with those 9Fs

 

The chassis' have all been assembled and the cut outs for the hornblocks made, it actually entailed 60 hole cuts....

 

 

The cabs are a one piece fold up, and BR standard cabs are always difficult, as there are so many sexy angles on them. I'm not entirely sure these can fold up perfectly as designed, I think a cut will be needed...

 

 

[dibateg]

I've spent today, among other things, fitting the hornblocks. I'm rather impressed by the new Slaters brass ones, they are rather neat. This is the first time I have used a chassis jig - and doesn't it help! This one is a Hobby Holidays one and the stub axles can be positioned by using the coupling rods.

Preparing 30 hornblocks was a trial... but it gave me chance to catch up on 'The Men from the ministry' on I-player.