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Building a North British/MAN 330hp 0-4-0DH - JOB DONE


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Excellent, nice to see that some had the wheels painted in body colour and not just the NB ones. I particularly like the Mersey Hunslet.

The whole area of Industrial diesels seems a fascinating subject and not as well covered by photos.

Mike Edge has a lot to answer for, as having previously had little interest in these I have now bought a NB 0-4-0 kit which is in progress ( I posted a few pictures earlier in this thread) and am looking to buy more (the NB 0-6-0 looks a real beast!)

Adam, any chance of posting some photos of your loco on a layout?

 

David.

 

A layout? It may be a while David - I have about 2' of track to my name and what with commuting joining a local club keeps slipping down the list of things to do... In about a month's time, however, I should have running rights somewhere so watch this space.

 

Different manufacturers did different things with liveries and, of course, the way in which users repainted their locos was seldom as the builder intended...

 

Adam

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Adam, any chance of posting some photos of your loco on a layout?

 

David.

 

Here you go David. Dad and I went playing trains this afternoon on Yeovil MRG's 'South Junction' (it'll be in Model Rail in the New Year some time) and the NBL got commissioned. It did quite well, taking 24 wagons plus brake round quite a challenging circuit:

 

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The challenging bit is shown below - flyunder/over and 4' curves:

 

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Adam

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post-20690-0-37182100-1420305935_thumb.jpg

 

Thought I would add a couple of new photos, these little blighters have got right under my skin! The first one is at Parkside Colliery.

 

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 The second on is at the Shelton Works, the loco originally being Grimesthorpe works then River Don before Shelton.

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I am sorry to hijack another of your threads. Inspired by your build of the industrial version, I have been working on a P4 model of one of the second batch of North British 330 hp shunters for British Railways. Once finished, it will be D2913, which spent a few weeks on trial at Nuneaton in January 1960 and had an extended exhaust pipe.

 

The kit has gone together beautifully. The photo shows progress so far. Like you, I opted to compensate the front axle. I didn’t initially understand the compensation designed into the kit, preferring to fix the rear axle to preserve the distance to the jack shaft. But ... the jack shaft axle isn’t quite in line with the two main axles. The difference means that the rods bind slightly. How did you accommodate this in your build? Did you just open out the holes on the rear rod and rely on a bit of slop?

 

Best wishes

David

 

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Hello David,

 

Nice job of a fine kit.

 

I don’t remember having that problem: and after the trials of encountering the problem with an Impetus Fowler, I think I probably would. Assuming that is that you mean the ‘wheelbase’ of the jackshaft rod doesn’t match the rod?

 

Certainly I’ve never come across a similar problem with any of Mike’s other kits and with a CAD-designed kit it really shouldn’t happen. With the Fowler, the eventual solution was to make the crankpin hole a slot which the pin just runs back and forth in. Opening out the hole should achieve the same result, I’d think.

 

Adam

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Ah! I thought that you would have mentioned it if you had encountered a problem.

 

The problem is that the centre of the jack shaft axle lies a fraction higher than the line between the centres of the two main axles. It is certainly meant to; although it isn’t noticeable in any photographs, Mike’s drawing that comes with the instructions shows it this way. I first noticed it when I tried to set up the frames in my Avonside jig and realised that the three axles are not quite colinear. That means that the rod will be very slightly shorter than necessary.

 

Looking back at some of the photos of your build, it does look like your rod to the jack shaft is not quite in line with the main rod. That gives me the confidence to open out the holes just slightly to allow for the difference. I feel happier doing that with a jack shaft than with a driving wheel.

 

Thanks for your advice and support!

David

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Ah! I thought that you would have mentioned it if you had encountered a problem.

 

The problem is that the centre of the jack shaft axle lies a fraction higher than the line between the centres of the two main axles. It is certainly meant to; although it isn’t noticeable in any photographs, Mike’s drawing that comes with the instructions shows it this way. I first noticed it when I tried to set up the frames in my Avonside jig and realised that the three axles are not quite colinear. That means that the rod will be very slightly shorter than necessary.

 

Looking back at some of the photos of your build, it does look like your rod to the jack shaft is not quite in line with the main rod. That gives me the confidence to open out the holes just slightly to allow for the difference. I feel happier doing that with a jack shaft than with a driving wheel.

 

Thanks for your advice and support!

David

The jackshaft rod should be jointed-and the difference in height should not matter.  I suggest measuring the jackshaft rods with an LED vernier caliper and also the rear axle and jackshaft axle holes, as there may be a discrepancy.

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Ah! I thought that you would have mentioned it if you had encountered a problem.

 

The problem is that the centre of the jack shaft axle lies a fraction higher than the line between the centres of the two main axles. It is certainly meant to; although it isn’t noticeable in any photographs, Mike’s drawing that comes with the instructions shows it this way. I first noticed it when I tried to set up the frames in my Avonside jig and realised that the three axles are not quite colinear. That means that the rod will be very slightly shorter than necessary.

 

Looking back at some of the photos of your build, it does look like your rod to the jack shaft is not quite in line with the main rod. That gives me the confidence to open out the holes just slightly to allow for the difference. I feel happier doing that with a jack shaft than with a driving wheel.

 

Thanks for your advice and support!

David

 

There is no option in this kit for one piece coupling rods, they have to be built in two parts overlapping on the trailing crankpin. The compensation system is very simple and preserves all the axle centres exactly, photo below shows an NB/Paxman D2745 but the frame arrangement is much the same in the 330hp loco.

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The trailing axle runs in a swinging arm, pivoted as far back as possible to reduce any change in length. This passes round the gearbox axle without touching it. 

As you observed the gearbox centre line is slightly above the normal axle centre but with the rods in two parts this is irrelevant, photo of one below shows this clearly. I can't remember whether I built this one rigid or compensated though.

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Your model looks very nice though, thanks for posting the photo.

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There is no option in this kit for one piece coupling rods, they have to be built in two parts overlapping on the trailing crankpin. The compensation system is very simple and preserves all the axle centres exactly, photo below shows an NB/Paxman D2745 but the frame arrangement is much the same in the 330hp loco.

attachicon.gifP8102563.JPG

The trailing axle runs in a swinging arm, pivoted as far back as possible to reduce any change in length. This passes round the gearbox axle without touching it. 

As you observed the gearbox centre line is slightly above the normal axle centre but with the rods in two parts this is irrelevant, photo of one below shows this clearly. I can't remember whether I built this one rigid or compensated though.

attachicon.gif14-03 NBL 330hp fl painted.JPG

Your model looks very nice though, thanks for posting the photo.

Thank you Mike and jrg1.  I regret not using the compensation method designed into the kit and will undoubtedly do so in the next Judith Edge kit that I build.  I had misunderstood quite how it works, but your photograph makes it wonderfully clear.  I should have had more confidence in my ability and not been so cautious as to rely on conventional three-point suspension. I am certainly really pleased with the way that the kit has gone together. The body now has a coat of primer, which hides the deficiencies in my soldering.

 

I suspect that I may be worrying unnecessarily and that all I need to do is to check the quartering of the jack shaft.  I'll check the distances with my calipers this evening, although knowing the quality of Mike's design work, I am very confident that the distance between centres on the rear rod will match perfectly the diagonal distance between the rear axle and jackshaft centres. It shouldn't matter that the jack shaft is slightly higher than the main axle as long as the length is correct.  I haven't opened up the holes in the rods at all beyond the diameter of the crankpins, so maybe it is not surprising that I have a slight bind.

 

Thank you!

David

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If you think about it the distance between the gearbox and the trailing axle varies slightly in a full size loco as it moves on the springs. My arrangement actually reduces this with the wheelset moving in an arc and our model clearances are much bigger than scaled down full size. Another important difference with my system is that vertical movement is very restricted compared with most model systems, locomotive springs don't really move all that far. The frame shown above, being purely a display model, didn't have the bearings added to the swinging arms. For a working loco they would have been soldered to the inside face of the arms, although I do have two working locos which have been running for many years with the axles just running in the etched brass arms, they still seem to run perfectly well.

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I wish I could build a four-wheel shunter that walks away with 24 wagons and a brake van.  Bravo!

 

There's no reason yours won't; there's plenty of space for lead inside; I could add more, and probably up the maximum load, but what's the point? The motor is bigger than it really needs to be and you can only get 22 wagons in the loop on South Junction and only 6-8 fit in the headshunt. To put this in some sort of context, on most industrial systems, Austerity tanks were limited to under 20 wagons and BR rated them 4F, admittedly on better track and easier gradients. Mine, with Mashima 1220s in them will take about 35 wagons.

 

On any layout I'm likely to build any time soon the about 8 is more than sufficient.

 

Adam

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I don't know about 4F but I remember watching the Austerities at Bickershaw in the late 70s, taking half MGR trains up a fearsome gradient out of the pit yard. Two coupled together could pull a whole set up there - with a volcanic exhaust display. Most industrial diesels are rated to haul at least 1000 tons on the level, albeit slowly, they'll probably do a lot more than this if pushed. The NB 330hp was BR's most powerful 0-4-0 so it needs plenty of weight.

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Thank you all for your encouragement. I stole a few moments this evening to strip down the rods and check the quartering. Nothing seemed amiss, but when I put it back together, it ran very sweetly. I hadn’t opened up the holes in the rods at all, so there wasn’t the slightest room for the quartering to be out, so that was presumably the problem. Next step is to put the motor and gearbox in ...

 

Best wishes

David

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