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Highland Bodgery


uax6
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I'm not sure why I did black first, but I didn't find it any sort of a chore to do the yellow second. I really must find some time to finish the above lot, but at the minute I've been build wee Bens. As this is the ongoing project it will be in fits and starts as I actually do the work. At present I get 9 days in work when I can get some stuff done, depending if work gets in the way.....

 

The Wee Bens are being made from kits. They are effectively the old Sutherland Models kits, and one is actually one of that age. The other is a newly spun one from Dave and South Eastern Finecast. Various bits and bobs aren't actually available from Dave anymore as the kit changed slightly in NuCast days, many when the solid block chassis was replaced by an etched one. On that front Dave doesn't have the Chassis, Brian and Branchlines does, but when I spoke to him he didn't have any expressly marked for the Ben, but the D40 one that I've got in the spares box does appear to fit.

 

Anyway on with the build. The Sutherland castings are quite nice, as are some of the SEF ones, although Dave has expressed that they are the best that can be done with the existing moulds, he's not envisaging enough of a demand to warrant a new set of moulds being made at the minute, are not brilliant, but are usable.

 

The first bits I did was to solder the two halves of the boiler together. Before I did this I spent a bit of time just trying to get the two halve to meet properly and also to make the boiler as round as I could. I didn't take photos of that stage for some daft reason and I also seem to have left out the tubeplate from one boiler too! Not that this really matters as I'm going to solder the s/box door shut, and it also reduces the weight at the front of the the chassis. I then fitted the smokebox:SAM_8297.JPG.d46ee63247924318a61162392ebaad61.JPG

 

SAM_8299.JPG.60ab87d2526365dc951d7e958ab82d77.JPG

With cleaning up they are looking pretty good.

The footplate is the next bit to do work on. The cab floor gets soldered on next (you can see the floor bit in the above picture lying above the boiler):SAM_8301.JPG.9f1ab6337946b2b8c40fdc7871d55c4c.JPG

 

And then an 8BA nut is soldered into the floor. Again make sure that the nut is sparklingly clean and that the flux touches it:

SAM_8302.JPG.2422077009816e48b4a846136e3fd685.JPG

 

And the fount body mounting nut is also soldered in place. I bolted it up tight and then soldered it. The thread on the bolt was left dirty so that it wouldn't take the solder:

SAM_8303.JPG.f3636ff23654651bcc91d94fefe59fe3.JPG

 

At this point we now go to the cab, and the backhead. As you can see below, there is alot of lost brass castings in the original kit, that have been replaced with w/metal castings in NuCast days. These are all soldered in place, and were very fiddly, can you spot the casualty?

SAM_8303.JPG.f3636ff23654651bcc91d94fefe59fe3.JPGSAM_8304.JPG.5aaa06aafb22f85597a7044d4abf51ae.JPG

 

With the backhead done, you can then assemble the splashers and back head onto the footplate. Now be warned here, its a good idea to assemble them dry and then check that the boiler fits into the correct position. I forgot to check the boiler position and ended up soldering the cab and splashers too far forward, and I had seemed them all around before I noticed what I had done. So they had to be placed into boiling water to get them apart again.... Followed by a fair bit of filing to get everything how it should be! (And because I'm making two at once, I had to boil both of them!). Solder the backhead to the splashers first:

SAM_8322.JPG.f36ad7247a7a89b5f0f9c78d285f72fe.JPG

and then to the footplate:

SAM_8321.JPG.e0a98e1077d1dd4b85a3a7a0d6a15562.JPG

 

Now do a bit of cleaning up, while it is still possible to get at stuff easily.

 

Andy G

 

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Hi Andy,

 

It's really good to see these updates coming through, I was missing them.  I hope the service past your box is suitably sparse and you can get something useful done.

 

I take it the Sutherland/NuCast/SEF/Branchlines Bens are the LMS verson with the Caley boiler (eg Ben Alder), is backdating a runner?

 

Happy New Year and lang may your (louvred) lum reek.

 

Alan

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Sadly the service is getting ever more busy. On late turn I get about 3 hours where I can get some modelling done and then it’s just too busy. The weekends tend to be easier mind.

 

The Bens are the original HR version as they come in the kit. I’ve got a built up one that is staying as built, but these two are going as rebuilt ones. Ok they won’t be spot on as the smokebox should be a bit longer on the rebuilt ones, but the noticeable things are that the wings go and the boiler fittings get changed. The N34 Caley boiler is noticeable for enormous bases to the safety valves and big domes, which l’m hoping I’ve found a suitable source for...

 

Andy g

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On with the build:

As the kit is for the original HR boiler, the smokebox front is cast as wings.

SAM_8330.JPG.e211f8f7d23d3c91b62cd65617c4af4a.JPG

 

The N34 boilers didn't have wings, so I needed to remove them. To get the profile correct I put the smokebox front in place and then using a scalpel blade I drew around the profile of the smokebox:

SAM_8331.JPG.24cf687500bf5cf394bdce01c37dc11c.JPG

 

This left the profile mark on the wingplates:

SAM_8332.JPG.d6d738074d32dc4137d26aec42063237.JPG

Before I soldered the front in position, I fitted the door handles to the smokebox door. Again there are variations in doors on the rebuilt Bens. Some kept their HR doors, and other got Caley ones. In real terms the only difference is that the Caley doors had shorter hinge straps. The handles varied, some kept levers, some got wheels, but both of my rebuilds are keeping levers. After soldering the handle in position, I then soldered the door shut. The piano front also needs a bit of work, as when you have removed the wings, the front needs to be extended out to be the same width as the dummy frames either side of the s/box. I did this by building up with blobs of solder and then filing back. The front was then soldered into position and dressed back. To show the difference between the two, the as built Ben is on the right:

SAM_8333.JPG.52ee76a9a7702e665e09dec4b4dc77bd.JPG

All three together, the one minus front was because I hadn't got a s/box door in the box. I found one at home that night.

SAM_8335.JPG.c5e482ec9dbe7bdb79a663309048e87a.JPG

 

To solder the fronts on make sure both surfaces are clean (with the fibre-glass pencil) and then flux all over the join, and then solder. This is the mess after soldering, before dressing back:

SAM_8336.JPG.e952015c73de7ef904290038bbf46472.JPG

 

Here is all three again... Note I was short of a door handle. The new kit has this as a w/metal casting, which wasn't very good compared with the brass ones. I've ordered some lost brass ones from Caley Coaches and will have to solder in later... Hopefully you will be able to see that this loco is keeping its HR door on rebuild:

SAM_8337.JPG.c756cb32151e83e2e0145ba8e2560396.JPG

 

The next job was the fitting of the cab details. The cab splashers were first. The left hand one needed the lever reverser fitting. Again originally this was a brass casting, it is now w/metal:SAM_8338.JPG.726d41a0196d3b4abdf54865cc17e6a6.JPG

The the right hand one:

SAM_8339.JPG.929e03c7872ce98e1355f96e5d2728d2.JPG

 

Now as I was batch building, you run the risk of forgetting to do something, and then having to correct that error twice. In this case I forgot to add the vacuum brake valve when I did the cab fittings. This was a real pain to fit in situ. The w/metal one got a little distorted while soldering, but with a crew it won't be seen:

SAM_8340.JPG.8883b99c658490407c884e3c823d22b9.JPG

 

Again note that I have chosen two differing ways of applying the solder. The right hand cab was a lot harder to clean up!

 

Andy G

 

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Next job was the bufferbeams. I dream about using sprung buffers, but the capital outlay for all the vehicles I need to build is eye-watering, so for these the cast buffers were used. The castings are pretty good, needing not much more than a fly round with a file to get the mould marks off. Here they are soldered to the beams:

SAM_8366.JPG.23124cc2a92665dc40ac324570a522c1.JPG

 

The footplate edges at the front of the Sutherland kit were a bit beaten up, so before I put the beams on, I filled the front edge with solder:

SAM_8367.JPG.b48baadf36a0aa3785b6414f3c7c7cfd.JPG

 

And then dressed back with files:

SAM_8368.JPG.6341d403c5f59e38a78c2450674d8d6f.JPG

 

Then the beams was added:

SAM_8369.JPG.3fda0c7d3e30edf778f2b01d4297c37c.JPG

 

Next were the footsteps. I discovered that I was sort of a pair of the footplate ones, so I left them off until I had found some (I was sure I had some spares at home). So I put the cab ones on. These were tricky to get on and i found that they melted easily! But in the end I won:

SAM_8371.JPG.16cc4223f9c4efb467804e0cc7a769c8.JPG

 

Dressing back the front faces was quite pleasing after the struggle:

SAM_8370.JPG.fac967438cb8ccd17b448ee5a95c743e.JPG

 

Then it was the turn of the drag beam. The kit includes a huge cast w/metal coupling hoop to link to the tender, I'll replace that with a bit of wire which will allow a closer coupling. After the struggle of the steps the beam was quite easy:

SAM_8373.JPG.72ff2373cd6b46e3cdcbda07e5fc5b0c.JPG

SAM_8372.JPG.b595c27b5c0af6634fd052c3c2891f82.JPG

 

Andy G

 

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The next bits are the undergubbins around the front bogie. So the first thing to do was to clen the underside of the footplates up:

SAM_8375.JPG.718cdbe6ac6eaa0b560770d138080fe9.JPG

 

Then I trial fitted the bits that go under the smokebox, which must represent the cylinders:

SAM_8376.JPG.58fb7a8a87a56c69cc6760b905f3ec6b.JPG

 

These bits were then cleaned up and soldered:

SAM_8377.JPG.34269b4e2d5562b61ba88aa419686ac7.JPG

 

Then the weight bar brackets were tried, I remembered to check the position relative to the motorised frames before soldering in. I also soldered the frount footsteps on as well:

SAM_8379.JPG.d30dab8d4908055bf6907f3a39e64871.JPG

 

The Cab roofs were added. Take note that it appears to be very difficult to get the cab front square, as I think the castings for the splashers/cabsides aren't exactly the same length. I had soldered one roof on to sit correctly against the cab front, but it looked awful from the top, so took it off (more boiling water) and then fitted it so it was square to the footplate. Its not that noticeably off when you look at the front anyway.

SAM_8381.JPG.9a06b7775964fdbff2d515f31f98591c.JPG

 

So the next job is the bogies. These are a kit of bits, and are designed in such a way that you can have the pivot where-ever you want, so allowing for different radius of curves. This now needs me to sit down a work out where the pivot needs to go to get round medium radius peco points (my default min rad.)

 

This is as far as I've got so far, but hopefully next week I'll get a bit more done and get some updates for you.

 

Andy g

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Being slightly distracted by a delivery of boiler fittings has sent me off in a different direction this week, that and various things like a fatality and overheads down has eaten into the time available to model as well.

 

Boiler fittings for the rebuilt Wee Bens are quite distinctive and are therefore a fundamental part of modelling them (and also part of the fascination of most Highland classes, as there were very few locos the same within the same class), so I had to find suitable fittings. To show you what I mean here are some photos from Ambaile which show the class. Here is Ben Nevis (Ben y Gloe) as built, note the safety valves on the dome:

image.png.f505ca9128ddbe0c0d48a3b86c953381.png

 

Now here is good old Ben Alder in the '50s. She is in rebuilt condition with a N34 boiler (which is the Caley Jumbo boiler). Note the shape of the dome and the safety valves are now on a small seat on the firebox:

 

image.png.7927a11423347e527a378b1ac82e4bc9.png

 

Now I want to model Ben Alisky and Ben y'Gloe so lets have a look to see what they looked like. Ben Alisky first:

image.png.9732d45af2aeb7a038541a3192dc54e4.png

Her she is at Wick in 1936. Its a bit outside my time period, but not by much. She has got a N34 boiler, Caley wheel and handle door catch on a HR door, what looks like a Caley chimney, a large dome and a ridiculously large base to the safety valves (ross pops).

Ben y'Gloe:

image.png.b0651590f7acfd866d8893d081f14bdf.png

Here she is again after rebuilding, fitted with Caley s/box door with levers, Caley chimney, fat dome and another fat old s/valve base.

 

Now to find fittings! I had a good look to see what was available and settled on the Met E class from SEF from looking at the photos on their website, so various items where ordered. Caley Coaches do a suitable chimney (T1 in their range) but sadly these are on back order, and I only have one, but I do have a few SEF Caley 0-6-0T ones, which are the same.

 

Andy G

 

 

 

 

Edited by uax6
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Here's what arrived in the post, starting with the dome:

SAM_8406.JPG.7c353c91ae42018a827f84b680a9ae68.JPG

 

It looks about the right size, but its a tad too curvy, Richard (Ben Alder) noted that the Met F dome looks a better shape, so some of them are on their way to compare.

 

Safety valve base:

SAM_8407.JPG.c3f1081931b014a167e19f5be5dba33a.JPG

 

Shown here on the dome hole as i haven't drilled any other yet! A nice casting, but I'm not sure its big enough.

The Pops are on a separate sprue:

SAM_8409.JPG.27eba63992d5f49b261510489deabe3d.JPG

 

The Caley Coaches T1 chimney:

SAM_8410.JPG.92048f99276dd96762e072eea726c31e.JPG

 

The first thing I did was to drill out the s/valve base hole in the boiler:

SAM_8415.JPG.cbed72b6a498b43d8d7bb1659db4ef5d.JPG

 

Which allowed the base to be dropped in:

SAM_8416.JPG.6677644f60dd500258c3166e863fc0c0.JPGSAM_8417.JPG.41c57591182975a229fb788b42ddb859.JPGSAM_8418.JPG.f96581347d2d39d3f5e6df98684aa272.JPG

 

And then the pops were added:

SAM_8425.JPG.2d73614aaa330ae108c5b007ad66a179.JPG

SAM_8426.JPG.8230ef8f9245c41e6a0f199954341895.JPG

 

It was at this point that I realised that the base would be ok for Ben Alder, but not for my two. So to allow time for the brain to think I moved onto the dome..... This lead to another issue. If you look at the pictures in the last post you will see that the Bens were built with two ring boilers, but the N34's fitted by the LMS are three ring boilers, with the dome sat on a ring. Humph! I wish I had spotted that earlier! So  the position of the new ones marked up:

SAM_8419.JPG.ea9fcde9ba79e40ac4a11626dc2d13dd.JPG

 

And the cast band filed off and the bands marked out more fully in my wonky pen. I'm not to worried about this, the lines are just a guide to where the bands go:

SAM_8423.JPG.67af9e1e592a32f335f351905890da91.JPG

 

This now shows that the dome needs to move forward, so another hole was drilled:

SAM_8424.JPG.8029c4cedbd699bd68dc5699b0f7c655.JPG

 

Which allowed the dome to be tried out:

SAM_8429.JPG.848c312be7aec14aaaeeb2bc8d3ee7d1.JPG

 

Looking very nice (for Ben Alder)...

 

But that s/valve base was still niggling at me. Then going to bed a couple of nights ago it dawned (!) on me that I could probably make the base out of the original nu-cast Ben dome... So one was got out of the bits box in the morning and was taken to work.

SAM_8430.JPG.bd0f3eaf96bbe4affc4d7b03ae307459.JPG

 

By careful measuring (or guesstimating by trying to scale of a picture) I decided to cut the top off and see where we got. With the help of a coarse file and some time I go to this:

SAM_8431.JPG.fb3a348ef7d4ff1a5827a80d0352aacd.JPG

 

And with a bit of rounding off and some holes for the pops:

SAM_8433.JPG.435bcf094bada6fe46c15150f071bfa5.JPGSAM_8434.JPG.22be8ab50eb44fa906949184b46d8949.JPGSAM_8435.JPG.2b6f090bbed63692bf4146b11e0c1826.JPG

 

I'm now quite happy with the base, it looks suitable ridiculous just like the real things! Just another one to make now....

 

Andy g

 

Edited by uax6
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Hi Kevin, 

 

Sadly l’ve been off the boil for most of the year, not really doing anything modelling wise since then. The good news is that the urge is coming back, l’m in the middle of drawing up some flat sided Jones carriages to cut. I don’t know if l’ve said it before, but l don’t really like doing Locos, but l really enjoy the carriage building.

 

Andy g

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Dave, 

 

l’d much rather build 100 coaches than 1 loco. And that’s with the coaches taking about 60-70 hours a pop to do! Locos, although l like the detailing part, l find so tedious to do, even batch building doesn’t make it any quicker or easier. Although having looked at the bens above, the fact l am getting to the detailed bits, might make me go with them again, but l fear the carriages will have to come first..

 

Andy

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Hi Kevin,

 

Interesting you say that, I have been thinking of a bit of an update, but as I'm a bit of a butterfly I haven't finished any of the above yte, but have something that I have been working on, and has been a hard challenge.

 

Do you want to see it?

 

Andy G

 

Also looks like I migh have to re-load the photos as well, grrr....

 

Edited by uax6
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