Adventures in kit and scratch-building.

[jazz]

Lovely work. Are we to get a glimpse of the engine through a partially opened panel? That wold be really nice.

[sej]

Hi Ken, I would very much have liked to have had one panel open but I had no idea what was actually in there. You can see that there is something going on inside if you squint through the joins but that's a Machima with a bloody great flywheel! Co-incidently I managed to get the recent Armstrong Whitworth book out of the library on Saturday, (yes, we still have one...) and besides having a beautiful 7mm drawing of one side of the relevent loco it also has a similar 0-4-0 class shunter showing the internal arrangement of the various motors and gubbins. Curses, next time!

[sej]

Ken, I came across these photos. I'd just increased the height of the cab by a couple of centimetres. It had looked slightly out of proportion and when I calculated the height from the original 4mm drawing I found the problem. So, in the future, no more resizing drawings on photocopiers, I had been warned.

Anyway, all here is held together with bluetack and yes, one of the panels is open, to reveal the "diesel-electric" motor and big red wire...

[BernardTPM]

I suppose technically you've got the electric motor at the wrong end, but it's a fine looking model.

[jazz]

That's looking very good. And held together with blue tack, I've never done that trick, impressive. Yes, I had mentioned I had to correct the drawings for my build. I found it was not the photo copier at fault, it was the original drawing. Fortunately I had the measuremnents from, I assume, the blue prints to check the drawing against. I have, in the past enlarged 4mm drawings with little problems. What does not work well is blowing up 4mm etches to 7mm as they will not take into account the material thickness. Fortunately these days that seems to be a thing of the past.

 

I like the bonnet door open, I would suggest making a representation of the diesel motor on a plastikard panel in a 3D stage effect.

 

I wish I coud find a sound chip for these diesel mechanical locos, DE's are 10 a penny but are just not right in a DM. Same thing with my Ford rail car set.

[jazz]

I suppose technically you've got the electric motor at the wrong end, but it's a fine looking model.

 

Hi, It's not a diesel electric, it's diesel mechanical. The small bonnet behind the cab houses the gearbox that drives the jack shaft.

Edited September 27, 2011 by jazz

[BernardTPM]

According to the Armstrong Whitworth book (by Brian Webb, RCTS) it had a Laurence, Scott & Electromotors LS1 traction motor mounted transversely above the jackshaft drive, with the gearbox between. The arrangement is shown in the drawing of the similar, but larger shunter built for Ceylon. AW were firm believers in Electric tansmission, even down to quite small machines, like the 3 foot gauge 60hp loco they built for the quarry at Penmaenmawr, though that used a longitudinal motor with shaft drive..

[jazz]

Hi Bernard. Thanks that info. There was no mention of that in the literature I had on her.

[BernardTPM]

No problem. Two similar locos still survive, though one has a replacement diesel engine. The one at Locomotion, Shildon is completely original so, if it is still in operational condition, it may be possible to record the correct sounds.

[jazz]

I got to thinking why a DE would have a mechanical gearbox. I checked my info and I am emarrased to say I got the locos mixed up. Lady Armstrong, as you correctly say, is a DE and no gearbox. It's my GWR Fowler that has similar looks that is a DE with a gearbox.

 

I believe it is operation, (as of 2008) and was at that time scheduled to move to Beamish. Whether that move came about, I'm don't know. I did visit Shildon earlier this year and did not see her there.

Edited September 28, 2011 by jazz

[sej]

I like the way useful information is coming up as the thread (is that the right word?) goes on. I'll try to post my next build as it happens! I'd love to hear what these locos sound like. The survivers are rather too inconveniently located for a casual visit but I got some excellent photos, including detail shots, from Flickr.

 

Some more photos, I decided to bolt all the components together incase of further mistakes and as I'm always a little impatient to see how things are going. I usually solder everything solid and then discover errors. And also I've discovered BA taps; they're magical, you can make screw threads in stuff!

 

[dajt]

That is coming along really well, you must be happy with it You've done a good job on the engine cover, the top looks nice and even.

 

Regards,

David.

[sej]

Thankyou for your kind comments. I find brass folds nicely and also gives a more "disreputable" air to less well looked after protoypes, if you see what I mean!! I've used more nickel-silver on this build and like the way it bends and brakes crisply and holds its shape more firmly than brass. Also, I think the mix of the two metals looks rather good in the raw!

 

The next photos show up my slightly obsessive streak...I'd noticed that the style of radiator grill on the "Lady" seemed to be built up of a series of longitudinal "cassettes(?)" that appeared to have been slotted and bolted in individually. Later photos showed a degree of wonkiness as time and wear wore on? So I soldered up the cassettes individually, using 0.5mm flattened brass wire fastened to strips of square grilling, to help me keep things straight and partly see-through. These were then soldered together into the rear of the bonnet front after it had been drilled to accept lots of brass rod to represent the bolts. I did say obsessive. I was very pleased with the result, I think I particularly captured the "wonk"!

 

[BernardTPM]

These ribbed radiator tubes (I believe that's what they are!) were pretty much the normal AW fittings, though the length and number varied according to the application. They even appeared on the roofs of their railcars. You've captured the look well.

[Rob Pulham]

Lovely job!

 

How did you do the small louvres at the sides?

[Worsdell forever]

Agreeing with Rob and all others, lovely job, a great bit of metal bashing. B)

[jazz]

Now that's an interesting radiator. Quite a bit different from the drawing I had. So looks like mine is wrong

 

Can't wait to see all the gubbins on the righthand footplate. (I did a lot of raiding the spares box and butchering to make mine look a reasonable representation.)

[sej]

Thankyou everybody for your encouragement.

Ken, there are photos with all sorts of different radiators on the front, the style I built seemed definately attached to the "Lady Armstrong" and yours could be equally correct. I installed the small tube in the rectangualr cut-out beneath the radiator in the rather whimsical hope that it was used to hand start the engine with a crank handle! I've no idea if that's the case but it does seem to lurk in the darkness in some photos. Sometimes the hatch is covered with a small panel. I've really seen the importance of having photos of a specific prototype with this build. Thanks Bernard for the information about the radiator tubes, from the book it seemed that AW had some problems with ventilation in the high temperatures of places like India!

And Rob, I made up those little square louvres from some etches/pressings(?) I bought at a Guildex, from a bits box for 50p-I love bits boxes. I cut the longer pieces to the right size and soldered on a top and bottom to complete the outside frame. I was going to try to punch rivets in the framing but happily decided to experiment with Archer's resin rivet transfers. They're great and their customer service is second to none!

 

I'll get back to you Ken on the side gubbins, the bits-box definately came in handy and the toy department of TK Max!

[jazz]

I'm relieved mine could well be right too. That is looking so good in that latest photo. The louvers look very nice.

 

Looking forward to seeing the other side in due course. Junk & Bits boxes are a magnet to me too. Never thought of TK Max and Toys R us etc for bits. I will me in the USA version, TJ Max soon when we visit our daughter so I will have to take a browse with the girls instead of sunning myself outside.

Edited September 30, 2011 by jazz

[sej]

As promised, a photo of the various bits of engine paraphernalia on the other side of the loco. It seems the equipment was to provide power for the coach lighting? I'm not sure what the cylinder did! There are parts from a Triumph motorcycle, white metal scraps soldered together, my bits box and a diesel detail pack from JLTRT, (which is a fantastic source of peculiar lost wax brass shapes.) The photo shows all the parts balanced in place to get an idea of the 'look.' I later added a plasticard plate underneath the stuff at the front before gluing everything together after painting.

[sej]

The buffers are internally sprung as there's no-where for the usual bolt and shaft to go. This was done by pegging the buffer shaft with a length of 0.9mm brass rod, through a horizontal slot. This holds the spring in to the rear of the buffer body. The rod is soldered where it enters the top and bottom of the main buffer shank and in this case is concealed by the chequer plates. This is a great method; detailed and much better explained by Nick Baines in a recent Gauge O guild Gazette.

The original buffer turnings were square based so I filed the top and bottom, lengthened the sides with sheet brass, backed them with copper backed circuit board for the chunky look in photos, drilled and added 4 brass rod bolts each and made the 6 webs by soldering on lengths of brass strip and trimming and filing to shape. All this took ages. And I dropped the last one and it completely dissapeared. I have a wooden floor and shine a torch along it to make large shadows of small objects but to no avail. All I could think of was that I hadn't heard the usual clonk as it hit the floor. After 3 days of occasional searching it turned up in the lining of my sweat shirt as I put it into the washing machine! Grrr! Phew!

[jazz]

Now that does look the business. Very nicely done. Are you painting it in working condition or 'just out the paint shop?'

[sej]

Thanks Ken, always with the good questions! She got pretty delapidated near the end but I didn't want the paint finish to be too rough, as seen in some photos. So I aimed for work-worn but looked after. Here is the body-work in JLTRT Etch Primer; I love the stuff, goes on smoothly and dries very quickly. A few more of the details showing are; the horn, which was a beautiful little turning run up for me by Michael Edge of Judith Edge kits; the bonnet catches which I bent up from strip folded around brass rod; and lamp irons soldered up from strip.

 

 

[Worsdell forever]

This just gets better

[sej]

Thankyou Paul, here she is pre-weathering after spraying with Humbrol satin black. I often use JLTRT satin black straight from the tin but I wanted more control for such a tiny loco. The Humbrol's very good but the downside is that it takes longer to dry than the cellulose(?) of the tin stuff. I want to experiment with Chris Wesson's cellulose paints on my next project.