Fedor Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 Hi, I picked up an interest in modelling in an African theme. And when modelling in an African theme you can not escape the omnipresent Garratt engines. Unfortunately the well known manufacterers do not offer Garratts, and a few smaller manufacterers only offer Garratts that are either very expensive or are modelled after a british prototype. My conclusion therefore was that I had no other alternative then to scratchbuild my own Garratt. And when I'm at it I thought I'd go for the biggest of them all: the EAR Class 59 First I messed with existing TT scale engines but it was too hard to find two similar engines that looked like the chassis of the Class 59. So after hunting ebay and other second hand markets for a few months I gave up and decided to design and build my own chassis and body parts. The chassis is an etched brass chassis, the well known book of Iain Rice helped me a lot. The hardes part of the design is the Walschaerts gear. But it also was great fun learning step by step how it actually works The body part is designed in 3D using SketchUp. When done I will send it to Shapeways to have it printed. Currently I'm concentrating on the body parts. The chassis is not fully assembled jet, but my local reseller has trouble getting the necessary parts and tools. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armchair Modeller Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 Very brave and very resourceful approach to modelling. It is great to see someone attempt something out of the ordinary like this. Good luck! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold PaulRhB Posted April 30, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 30, 2013 Excellent start, have you started modelling the centre section yet? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold PhilH Posted April 30, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 30, 2013 Very brave and very resourceful approach to modelling. It is great to see someone attempt something out of the ordinary like this. Good luck! Seconded! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grovenor Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 Have a look here as well http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/28552-3d-modelling-irish-narrow-gauge-and-zrr-15th-class-garratt/ Keith. And a couple of 59 class photos here http://www.norgrove.me.uk/garratts.htm Keith Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fedor Posted May 5, 2013 Author Share Posted May 5, 2013 @Paul: Yes I have. It's not going too fast due to technical problems I had this week with my Ubuntu-Wine-Sketchup-setup but the maior outlines are there: I checked out native linux 3D programs but I either found them too complex for my use so I'm glad I've got sketchup running again. I hope the good people at Trimble will put out a linux version soon. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben racey Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 Hi Fedor, Great to see this, and it looks like you've made some great progress! I'll be watching the thread to see how you get on. Might even be interested in a set of parts if you're interested in selling any! The 59 is a suberb prototype to do, very best of luck with it. As you'll have seen from the thread posted by Grovenor, I've had a crack at a RR 15th class garratt. Currently not much happening on it as family is taking priority at present. Regards Richard. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium t-b-g Posted May 5, 2013 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 5, 2013 Very good to see somebody having a crack at one of these great beasts. They are one of the few steam loco classes I saw in "real" service, or at least that I remember seeing. I was 6 years old when we went on holiday to Kenya in 1966 and dad took me to Nairobi and Mombassa. I was too young to remember which place it was but I remember standing next to a wonderful red loco, with two sets of wheels. There are some photos in the family archives somewhere but I have no idea where they are. The other loco I recall seeing was a German built tank loco as station pilot. It was something like an 0-10-4 built by Henschel but it was a long time ago and I was very young, so the details are a bit hazy now. Good luck with the build and I hope to revive some memories from it when I get to see it on a layout! Tony Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fedor Posted May 8, 2013 Author Share Posted May 8, 2013 @Ben: Thanks. I'm considdering selling it as a kit. Since the components are reproducable it would be a waste just to make a single loco. It might also help me funding the next project. I have now developped a love for Garrats and would like very much too make many of them available to other enthousiasts. And hopefully I make some money that will get me to Nairobi to see Mount Gelai in real I think the next model will be a South African GMAM... and there are many more to build. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stadman Posted May 9, 2013 Share Posted May 9, 2013 Didn't DJH produce some kits many years ago? Kev S www.exemrs.co.uk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben racey Posted May 9, 2013 Share Posted May 9, 2013 I think they still do, though it is eyewateringly expensive..... Regards Richard. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fedor Posted May 10, 2013 Author Share Posted May 10, 2013 @Stadman: They did, but they are very expensive. I think it should be possible to make a kit available for half that price. (which imo is still quite a lot of money) The new parts and tools are in! Now I can pick up working on the chassis. Currently the cylinders are giving me a headache, the plating was designed a bit to narrow for the cylinder length. It takes a lot of extra solder to fixate it: The mid segment is coming along quite nice: the chimney and the dome are there, and the cabin now has windows. I also corrected some minor flaws. The bad thing is I have no drawings of this particular engine so I do a lot of modelling by estimating and measuring from old photo's. The dramatic and artistic perspectives and framing do not always help to get the right measurements. The remedy I rely on to get it as accurate as possible is to measure from as many photo's as possible to eliminate errors. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fedor Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 Hi all, it has been allmost two years since my last post on this topic and I want to let you all know I did not give up - I just could find enough time to write updates in English and working on my project while not neglecting my kids, wife, job as an IT Manager and comedy writer. So I went for building... I left you with some updates on my progress on my first etched chassis. In the meantime I have been experimenting with a 3D-printed chassis. This was not a very great succes: 3D printing makes it possible to add a few more details to the chassis but the result weighs far to little and did not have the right mechanical qualities to assure a good functioning chassis. So I went on improving my etched chassis. The first version had some errors in it and lacked details. I also had not thought through the construction for the motor as well. Having only 7.5mm inside the frame using commercial motorframes was not an option. So I developed my own frame: This worked out quite well and I now have a running chassis that I can build on! I've made a short film that demonstrates the chassis in some test runs. http://youtu.be/BXgZqgsCTbc Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grovenor Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 If it helps here is the class photo from the EAR diagram book and the diagram page Regards Keith Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fedor Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 Wow, Keith, this one truly is great! This EAR Diagram book, where can I find it? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grovenor Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Wow, Keith, this one truly is great! This EAR Diagram book, where can I find it? You had to visit the HQ in Nairobi in the 1960s/1970s to buy it from them! 1970 in my case, here's a pic of the other side so you can see where the compressors were hung on. Regards Keith Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieB Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Since the diagram book is not readily available*, there are redrawn GA drawings of East African Railways locos and rolling stock are included in Ramaer's "Gari la Moshi" (an expansion of the author's earlier work "Steam Locomotives of the East African Railways"). *Some societies (e.g. The Stephenson Locomotive Society) have library copies available to their members for browsing/borrowing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fedor Posted January 31, 2015 Author Share Posted January 31, 2015 Well, the upper parts are almost ready to sent to the printer. I am realy looking forward to see this project nearing completion though I sure had a lot of fun designing and building. I just calculated that with printing, parts and etching - and all the stuf I messed up in the process - the costs are nearing a €700... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fedor Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 So, this project is nearing it's completion. I was very pleased with the level of detail 3D printers can handle nowadays. Below is the result of printing in Shapeways Frosted Ultra Detail. FUD however is not very strong. The cabs and cylinders therefore are printed in Strong & Flexibel Plastic. I am quite proud I got the walschaerts valve gear working. This version I call my 0.9 version. I made a few improvements and will build a final version. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lyonesse Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Well done with the class 59, although could you tell me what HOm standards are? Having built a couple of BG Indian locos I would very much like to try some EAR MG in 4mm P4 (13.12mm gauge). Lack of information is my main excuse, but you've shown what can be done with determination. The only EAR model I can recall seeing was a 7mm model of one of the 2-8-2s, built for a clerical gentleman and described in the old Model Railways, sometime in the early 70s. So, this project is nearing it's completion. I was very pleased with the level of detail 3D printers can handle nowadays. Below is the result of printing in Shapeways Frosted Ultra Detail. FUD however is not very strong. The cabs and cylinders therefore are printed in Strong & Flexibel Plastic. IMG_20150406_080139.jpg I am quite proud I got the walschaerts valve gear working. IMG_20150406_075349.jpg This version I call my 0.9 version. I made a few improvements and will build a final version. IMG_20150406_075249.jpg Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fedor Posted November 24, 2015 Author Share Posted November 24, 2015 @Lyonesse: H0m is Cape- or meter gauge at scale 1:87 - which comes down to 12mm gauge. Did you get started with your project? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockershovel Posted November 24, 2015 Share Posted November 24, 2015 I do find these model engineering threads fascinating Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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