Nile's kitbuilding bench - Midland 1377

[Brassey]

Is it my eyes but is there a spacer that is in the way and prevents the beams from doing their job?

[Izzy]

I’ve often used twin beams, usually combined with allowing the other axle to drop down a bit - but not rise. But giving the third axle any movement does require a floating gearbox of some kind, HL etc. The advantage of double beams in my view is the increased stability, the single centre type being very balance sensitive. 
 

Bob

[Jol Wilkinson]

2 hours ago, Izzy said:

I’ve often used twin beams, usually combined with allowing the other axle to drop down a bit - but not rise. But giving the third axle any movement does require a floating gearbox of some kind, HL etc. The advantage of double beams in my view is the increased stability, the single centre type being very balance sensitive. 
 

Bob

 

The idea behind compensation is based on the three legged stool or table, the sort that doesn't rock on an uneven pub floor. With twin beams the pivot "shaft" acts as two of the legs as they have no vertical movement in the frames, so a third leg/pivot point is needed. Twin beams and a third axle mounted rigidly in the frames doesn't achieve this.

 

 If the motor/gearbox is mounted on one of the twin beam axles, then the third axle can be supported on a single pivot. Mounting the motor in this way is common on 0-4-4T locos, with a compensated bogie acting as the third pivot point.

Edited January 12, 2022 by Jol Wilkinson
Spelling

[Nile]

10 hours ago, Brassey said:

Is it my eyes but is there a spacer that is in the way and prevents the beams from doing their job?

There is a spacer under the pivot, but there is enough room for the beam to move. It has about +/- 1mm movement at its ends.

[Jack P]

On 12/01/2022 at 11:41, Nile said:

The etch includes both rigid and jointed rods. If you scroll back a bit you'll see which ones I've used.

 

A very polite way of telling this idiot to READ PROPERLY!

 

Your work looks really excellent (as per usual), and i'm excited to see the end result. 

[Nile]

To power it I've used the suggested High Level gearbox combined with a cheapo Mitsumi motor off ebay. To test this setup before fitting pickups, which will be much later, I've used the truck that comes with the Hornby 48DS as it is fitted with pickups. This strange combination did actually run.

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Nile

[AlfaZagato]

Congratulations, you've built your own Hurricane.  Almost.

[Nile]

In the last photo the motor mount is a temporary arrangement, to work out its final position I would need to build the body, so here goes...

Dave has already covered the build in detail in his own topic, so I'll just show some of what I've done.

How to solder things together at right angles accurately? I came up with this, finding another use for a magnet, which leaves both hands free.

 

 

Some time later most of the body was together.

 

 

As it's visible I made up the reversing lever linkage from various parts on the etch.

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Nile

[hayfield]

The loco is coming along nicely, and the quality of your workmanship looks to be very high

[Nile]

Thanks for the praise, still plenty of opportunities to mess things up though.

Offering up the chassis to the body revealed a problem with clearances for the rear drivers in the cab front cut-outs. Might be ok with Gibsons but these Romfords were touching the body. A bit of filing solved the problem, a bit awkward as it's inside the body, which is why it looks a bit messy. I also filed away the lip where the cab front meets the cab floor, to make more room for the gearbox. [looking down into the body at the front of the cab] -

 

 

Onto the boiler, this is the original saturated one.

 

 

I wanted to be able to see the bottom of the boiler through the tank cut-out, so I made that up out of the part that is intended for the superheated boiler. The cut away section at the rear is for the motor.

 

Note the rods at the rear of the boiler that locate into the cab front.

When fitted (temporarily) to the body the boiler underside is just about visible through the cut-out.

 

The downside is this is going to make painting more complicated.

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

Next the brake gear, and more complication.

To make the brake gear removable I've used the method others have employed of attaching short lengths of tube to the chassis. The tops of the brake hangers can then locate into these. Then I decided I wanted to be able to remove or refit the wheels without removing the brake shoes, by allowing them to move out of the way. This involved using rods and tubes rather than just rods for the assembly.

 

The pull rods are connected by tubes. The shoe hangers are linked by rods that pass through the tubes and are free to rotate. There are tube spacers between the hangers and pull rods.

Putting it all together here are the brakes in there normal position:

 

 

And here they are clear of the wheels:

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

Back to the body now to add some extra detail - brackets for the fire irons on the tank top. A bit of guesswork here as clear views of the tank top are rare.

 

 

When I finally looked in my big book of Midland locomotives vol.3 I noticed that the reversing lever linkage sits outside the frame, rather than inside where I'd put it. Since this can be seen I set about fixing it. Easiest way was to cut away the original and fit a new one, the remains of the old one won't be visible.

 

 

 

Just as well there are a few spare cranks on the etch.

Edited April 1, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

Over on the chassis I've added the pipes from the sand boxes. This created a problem with the brake gear, limiting its movement and thus negating my previous work. I did two things to fix this - bend one pair of pipes slightly to increase clearance, and remove the outer spacer tubes from the middle set of brake shoes.

 

 

This gives just enough room for the brake shoes to clear the wheels when pushed fully forward.

 

 

And then for the hell of it I added the steam pipes to the rear pair of pipes, using some .3mm NS wire. Only having two hands I used a blob of white-tack to hold them in place while soldering.

 

 

Just about visible. Needs tidying up.

 

I wont bother with the other ones as they would trap the brake gear and be mostly hidden by it anyway.

Edited April 1, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

Putting all the parts so far assembled together gives a preview of the finished model. This gives some confidence that all is going to plan and will work.

 

Next task is to paint the underside of the boiler before fixing it permanently in place.

Edited April 1, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

Boiler underside painted and ready for installation.

 

 

I fitted some paper over the painted area, held in place with masking tape. This will be removed when the body painting is finished.

 

 

Boiler now installed together with associated bits. Note how the blower pipe weaves its way along the boiler, avoiding the tank filler.

 

 

More details added at the front...

 

and rear, including destination board holders.

 

And that concludes the soldering stage for the body. Any more parts will be glued on.

Edited April 1, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

I wanted a way to positively locate the resin dome onto the boiler, which has a hole in the right place. I drilled a hole in its centre for a piece of wooden rod that was a match for the hole.

 

 

Now glued securely in place.

 

 

The etch includes some triangles for the ends of the cylinder cover. I thought these were a bit small so I made replacements from 10thou plastic card. Cut roughly to shape, glued in place and then trimmed to match the curve of the cover.

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

The wheels I've been using, despite having been removed from an old flatiron model, had completely wrong balance weights. That just wouldn't do, so off they came. A compass cutter, some 10thou plastic card and some experimentation resulted in this-

 

Maybe not perfect but much better.

 

The resin smokebox door supplied was a bit too lumpy for my liking. Rather than try to clean it up, and probably make it worse, I took this as the perfect opportunity for some scratch building. More work with the compass cutter produced three different sizes of disc from the 10thou card.

 

The smallest one goes at the back and matches the hole in the front of the smokebox. Onto this is the biggest, then the three for the door itself. The three were glued together first, then the edge was filed for a rounded profile. The hole made in the middle by the cutter provided a convenient means of alignment.

 

 

Various bits of plastic strip and rod were added to detail, plus the handrail.

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

Now fixed in place, along with some other bits.

 

The buffers came from Mainly Trains many many years ago, so it's nice to find a use for them, even if only two of them.

Some extra holes added for things that will be fitted after painting, including this-

 

It's a 3D print of my own design, meant for HO scale models but looks about the right size for this one. Yet more complication as it will need plumbing in.

At the back are some No Nonsense (from Phoenix) plastic buffers. These are bigger than the front ones.

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Nile

[MarkC]

On 10/01/2022 at 10:12, hayfield said:

I then found out that Southeastern Finecast revised their kit with a bespoke chassis and additional etched and cast details allowing a model to be made in one of three versions/alterations through their lives, still in the to build pile as other things have got in the way. I must admit this etched kit does look the business, nothing replicates sheet metal than sheet metal, and I do like the idea of rocking beam suspension   

I built my SEF revised Flatiron kit some 15 years ago, and it really did turn out well. Compensated chassis, the works  . It has seen a lot of running at shows over the years, and still performs nicely.

 

Were I still looking for one of these big Deeley tanks then this new kit might well be heading my way - as you say, sheet metal replicates sheet metal  - but, in fairness, with this loco being so 'chunky', for want of a better word, SEF's mix of whitemetal, brass & nickel silver worked well.

 

I'm following this build with interest 

 

Mark

[Compound2632]

On 04/02/2022 at 20:14, Nile said:

A compass cutter, some 10thou plastic card and some experimentation resulted in this-

 

I'm interested to see what sort of compass cutter you are using, for disks / curves of these sizes?

[hayfield]

42 minutes ago, MarkC said:

I built my SEF revised Flatiron kit some 15 years ago, and it really did turn out well. Compensated chassis, the works  . It has seen a lot of running at shows over the years, and still performs nicely.

 

Were I still looking for one of these big Deeley tanks then this new kit might well be heading my way - as you say, sheet metal replicates sheet metal  - but, in fairness, with this loco being so 'chunky', for want of a better word, SEF's mix of whitemetal, brass & nickel silver worked well.

 

I'm following this build with interest 

 

Mark

 

Mark

 

The First one I built was a Wills kit and I built an early Wills FC100 etched chassis which had no brake gear. As you have said it is a hefty lump and I think you can fit a big Mashima with an equally big flywheel. The bespoke Southeastern Finecast chassis takes the loco that step further, plus the SEF kit has many revised details including etched overlays.

 

This kit seems to take it even further with an etched body and footplate, which looks much more slender than whitemetal

[Nile]

3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

I'm interested to see what sort of compass cutter you are using, for disks / curves of these sizes?

 

This sort:

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fm.media-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FI%2F41EZcW%2BLpeL._AC_.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.co.uk%2FATPWONZ-Compass-Precision-Diameter-10mm-150mm%2Fdp%2FB0721PWQPN&tbnid=ycz7WS6p4MH9_M&vet=12ahUKEwiIxJjwhuz1AhXMBXcKHWMADp8QMygVegUIARCxAw..i&docid=aRiBW_DnqgGzpM&w=477&h=340&q=compass cutter&client=firefox-b-lm&ved=2ahUKEwiIxJjwhuz1AhXMBXcKHWMADp8QMygVegUIARCxAw

 

ok for 10thou plastic, I find the blade tends to wander with anything thicker.

[Compound2632]

1 minute ago, Nile said:

This sort:

 

ok for 10thou plastic, I find the blade tends to wander with anything thicker.

 

Thanks. I had only seen ones suitable for larger diameter, so I had tried using a drafting compass as a scriber. Such a thing is accurately settable and stable once set - I wonder how well this plastic one stands up in that respect? For thicker plasticard, I suppose one can score and snap, though the rear edge may come out a bit raggedy.

[Nile]

On the cutter I found the little wheel needs to be very tight to keep the blade in place. But doing it up tight tends to make the blade move from where you thought it was. So it's a case of set, tighten, check, adjust, check ....... until you are happy with it. It was fairly cheap.

 

On the model some more detail bits made for fitting later.

Take two screws with round heads. Fill in the slots and paint black. Attach to a block of wood that acts as a support stand.

 

 

This will eventually sit in the bunker, covered by coal. It's an approximation of the tank vents as I've not found a clear view of them, and they're mostly hidden.

 

 

As this one has an air pump it will also need air tanks.

 

They may have to be removable as I can see them limiting bogie movement when fitted.

Edited April 1, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

With the body done for now I turned to getting the chassis running, which meant adding pick-ups. Some pieces of PCB sleeper strip have been glued to the underside of two frame spacers. As I've used Romford wheels I've fitted wipers to one side only using 0.35mm Phosphor Bronze wire.

 

 

Now complete. The rods have been chemically darkened by dipping in Carr's metal black, I wanted to avoid a fully black look.

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Nile