Modbury

[Ian Smith]

2 hours ago, richard i said:

I built my first loco with a detachable boiler and just found it an extra complication to paint. However, it was a black loco with no lining, so I stopped making locos that way. Since then I have cursed how difficult it is to line / paint splashed tops when the boiler is fitted on lined green locos. So thinking the extra hassle might be worth the extra effort. 
I presume that is part of your thinking. 
richard

Richard, both my Metro and Buffalo were built with removable boilers (saddle in the case of the Buffalo). I don’t find it any extra effort, but you do have to consider the fixing of sub-assemblies during the design/build.

 In the end I fixed the boiler in place on the Metro but there are times when I’ve regretted that decision - the motor is captive within the boiler and it’s a fiddle to slide it in and out (I had to replace the first one fitted).

Ian

[Ian Smith]

A day spent turning boiler fittings on the lathe with hand gravers ...

Boiler and fittings just plonked on the footplate

 

Still some work to do : the Safety Valve cover could do with it's flare thinned, and will have the hole in the top opened out and a piece of steel with 2 saw cuts across it (at 90 degrees to each other) dropped in to represent the top of the fittings covered by the cover.  The Dome needs a little more fettling around its lower regions to thin it out.  The Chimney will probably be consigned to the bin and a new one made - it looks enormous despite being made to the dimensions for a Dean Goods chimney in Russell's GWR Engines.

 

Ian

[MinerChris]

On 06/04/2020 at 22:01, Ian Smith said:

All of my stock is true 2mm, the only exceptions are a couple of Mathieson  wagons

 

Personally I'd like to see some of these on your layout Ian, caption in 'Edwardian Devon' says 1906 so should be spot on for your timeframe.

 

 

Best wishes,

 

Chris.

[richard i]

1 hour ago, MinerChris said:

 

Personally I'd like to see some of these on your layout Ian, caption in 'Edwardian Devon' says 1906 so should be spot on for your timeframe.

 

 

Best wishes,

 

Chris.

Might be too far south as if I remember correctly, a lot of coal landed at kings ridge did not go far. It just went up the branch to a power station(?) coal gas plant(?)

happy to be proved wrong as it is not really my area of expertise.

richard 

[Regularity]

42 minutes ago, richard i said:

Might be too far south as if I remember correctly, a lot of coal landed at kings ridge did not go far. It just went up the branch to a power station(?) coal gas plant(?)

Torquay gasworks was a noted user.

[Siberian Snooper]

Mostly likely to be Renick and Wilton in the South Hams.

 

 

[Argos]

Love the telephone number! I would if they got many calls?

[D869]

5 hours ago, Regularity said:

Torquay gasworks was a noted user.

 

I think you are getting mixed up with Kingswear, just along the coast on the river Dart. Here there was a lot of coal coming in by coaster and being sent by rail to Torquay gasworks.

 

Coal comes in many varieties so I guess that 'Beer' had some sent by sea and some by rail, depending on the most suitable way to get it from the pit to Kingsbridge.

 

'Telegrams: Beer Merchant, Kingsbridge' may have caused some confusion.

 

Regards, Andy

[Regularity]

Thanks: I was!

[Donw]

On 26/04/2020 at 18:40, D869 said:

 

I think you are getting mixed up with Kingswear, just along the coast on the river Dart. Here there was a lot of coal coming in by coaster and being sent by rail to Torquay gasworks.

 

Coal comes in many varieties so I guess that 'Beer' had some sent by sea and some by rail, depending on the most suitable way to get it from the pit to Kingsbridge.

 

'Telegrams: Beer Merchant, Kingsbridge' may have caused some confusion.

 

Regards, Andy

 

Torquay Gasworks would order a whole ship load. Trevor whose Churston layout has featured in magazines said it would take three train loads to deliver a consignment. 

 

Don

[Ian Smith]

A little more progress on the Dean Goods...

 

Firstly, I was not altogether happy with my original Worm mount.  In the original design I felt that it needed to be fixed to the chassis at both ends and I was hoping that the forward fixing would be mostly hidden by the boiler, but unfortunately that wasn't to be.  A rethink led to a new design that has two fixing bolts at the cab end, with the bearing at the smokebox end cantilevered from the cab end fixings.  A few hours milling and drilling produced the new design.  The original shaft, worm and flywheel were reused, but the flywheel has been mounted outside the worm mount this time.  The flywheel has been retained at its original size because when mounted on the worm shaft its lower surface is roughly flush with the bottom of the boiler, so I will eventually paint it green and hopefully no-one will notice that the bottom portion of the boiler between and marginally ahead of the middle drivers is spinning around like a mad thing!

The original worm/flywheel mount

 

The new worm/flywheel mount

 

A 3/4 view of the new worm/flywheel mount.  It is also possible to see the insulation tape trapped between the main chassis block and the 1mm thick strip used for the far side of the chassis.

 

Additionally, the elements of the boiler (firebox/boiler, smokebox wrapper, and smokebox saddle) have been united.  The footplate below the smokebox saddle has been drilled 14BA clearance, and the corresponding area above said hole in the smokebox saddle has been drilled and tapped 14BA for the bolt that allows the boiler sub-assembly to be united with the footplate assembly - a corresponding hole slightly larger than the head of the 14BA bolt has been drilled through the chassis, as the model assembly is intended to be "hook the front of the footplate/cab assembly over the end of the front of the chassis, secure footplate/cab assembly to chassis with under-cab bolt (which will also provide the engine-to-tender connection), then slide boiler assembly in place and secure with under-smokebox bolt".

 

A smokebox front/door has been turned from 0.028" nickel silver (temporarily soldered to a suitable mandrel), the hinge fabricated from guitar string and 0.004" nickel silver strips and soldered in place, and the smokebox door dart has been turned from nickel silver with guitar string handles.  The smokebox door assembly was then epoxied into place in the end of the boiler/smokebox tube.  The little steps on the side of the smokebox are more tiny strips of 0.004" (a short piece was bent down at the end of the strip to be soldered to the smokebox side, a triangular file was used to partially cut through the strip so that once secure the excess could be bent back and forth until it snapped off leaving a small step that could be tidied with a fine file).  The previously made chimney has been soldered onto the smokebox (when I originally made it, I had thought that it looked to big, but in the end I decided that it was the right height - it fits under the loading gauge with plenty of room to spare).  The flares of both Dome and Safety Valve Cover have been slightly remodelled with fine files and emery paper, and 12BA fixing holes drilled in the top of the boiler/firebox to allow them to be semi-permanently attached.

 

The Smokebox door assembly in place - it looks like the handles have moved from the slot that I'd filed for them to sit in, so this will have to be addressed!

 

A side on view of the model in its current state - hopefully she is starting to look a bit like a Dean Goods now!  The forward fixing hole for the original worm/flywheel mount can clearly be seen ahead of the middle drivers giving an indication of how visible the original unit was.

 

Thanks for looking

Ian

 

 

[A Murphy]

Looking really impressive Ian.

 

Best wishes,

 

Alastair M

[Donw]

A little beauty Ian.

 

Don

[Mikkel]

It looks fantastic already Ian. And very Dean. I know you did the splashers earlier but they caught my eye again now. Full width front splashers, not all DG models have that!

[Ian Smith]

Over the last day or so I've been doing a little to the tender for the Dean Goods.  The frames were the first part of the Dean Goods build , but I thought it was about time I started to progress the tender so that I could actually "test" the engine - during the build of the engine chassis I had ensured that it rolled freely, and once the original worm housing had been bolted on I had tested that everything worked by attaching a mini drill to a temporary half cardan shaft attached to the worm shaft, but it had never been run with the actual motor.

 

So, what I have I done?  The tender wheels have been painted and temporarily fitted into the chassis, the leading two pairs of wheels have had their axle holes opened out and "Simpson springs" fitted which bear on the tops of the axles between the frames and the muffs.  For those not familiar with "Simpson springs", they are just light weight phosphor bronze wires that are soldered to the chassis frames so that they bear on the tops of the axles to aid pick up by exerting a little downward pressure to keep the wheels in contact with the track.  They do not provide any springing to the wheel sets as such, and do not support the weight of the engine or tender.

 

In order that the engine and tender can be united, a coupling/draw-bar was fabricated from 0.010" nickel silver attached to the engine and tender by 14BA bolts.  A Universal Joint was made for the motor shaft, this is simply a piece of 4mm brass bar that was drilled 1mm for the motor shaft, then turned down to 2.4mm and a piece about 5mm cut off. A slot was filed across the end of this 5mm piece to a depth of about 3mm (to accommodate the end of the cardan shaft).  This piece was cyano'd onto the motor shaft.  A sleeve for this piece was turned from the 4mm bar by drilling it 2.4mm, then turning it down and cutting it off to leave a short piece of tube that would fit snuggly over the previously made piece, the sleeve being necessary to prevent the cardan shaft coming out of the slot.  A cardan shaft was made from 0.010" guitar string, a loop being made at each end by forming it around some round-nose pliers.  The engine end loop clips into the hole made for it on the worm shaft, and the loop at the other end slips into the slotted UJ on the motor shaft.  The motor wires were temporarily soldered to the chassis frames, and the various sub-assemblies of the loco and tender united for a test run on Modbury...

 

 

Currently, the loco is only picking up from the tender wheels (which still have the odd remnant of paint on them!), so the 7mm End Mill is blu-tacked onto the motor to give a bit of necessary weight over the tender wheels to aid pick up.  It would appear that the engine bumps over the check rails, so clearly at least one set of drivers is not gauged correctly at the minute!!  But at least she moves!

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Ian

[bgman]

Well worth all the time and effort so far Ian, always enjoyable to see it on video too !

 

G

[D869]

Looks good with the end mill. Reminds me of 'The Mole' in Thunderbirds.

 

Paint it all grotty black and you could be branching out into Steampunk/Sci Fi.

[A Murphy]

FAB.

 

Alastair M

[Donw]

runs very well even the hick-ups over the check rails doesn't stop her.  I like the tempoary novel weight for pick-up. Looks like some WWI heavy gun.

Excellent work

 

Don

 

[Caley Jim]

Seeing a new loco run for the first time is always very satisfying, doesn't matter whether it's your first or your 9th!

 

Jim

[Ian Smith]

Dean Goods, and on with the tender...

A rectangle of 0.010" nickel silver sheet was cut out and filed to size for the footplate.  The profiles of the cosmetic frames were drawn in CAD, printed off, cut out and super glued to a double lamination of 0.008" nickel silver before they too were fretted, filed and separated.  The buffer beam is more 0.010" cut, filed and drilled for the eventual buffers.

 

It was then a simple matter of soldering these components together with 188 degree solder.  For the time being I'm leaving off the leading buffer beam, as I want to establish how deep I can get away with making it because of the tender draw bar - I expect that everything will be fine in this respect but until I can mount the tender body on the chassis I won't know (and it will be a lot easier to make a component a suitable size than fitting something over (or worse under) size then having to correct it once it's in place).  With the cosmetic frames and buffer beam in place, I then set about marking and cutting out a hole in the footplate for the motor to fit through (the photo below shows the start of this process - a 1.2mm hole in each corner of the eventual motor space, more fretting and filing resulted in a suitable sized hole for the motor but still leaving plenty of land for the body upper works to be soldered to).

 

The next stage was to form the tender tank.  A 7.25mm wide strip of 0.008" nickel silver was cut, the top edge annealed and the flare formed by trapping the strip between two pieces of steel in the vice. One piece of steel had a rounded edge filed along it (against which the flare could be formed), and the second piece was clamped such that it trapped the lower edge of the nickel silver strip but left the upper edge accessible to be pushed over against the rounded edge of the other piece of steel - I hope that makes sense?!

It was then a matter of gently filing the bottom edge of the strip until I reduced it to the height of the tender sides - in this case 7mm - by locking off a vernier calliper at that distance, the strip could be slid through the jaws enabling easy identification of any high spots, which could then be dealt with (although in actual fact I managed to bring the strip down to size pretty consistently by rubbing the strip back and forth on my big file ensuring that reasonably equal pressure was applied along its length).

The result can be seen in the following pair of photos :

 

To form the tender tank sides and rear, a 1.5mm hole was drilled in a sheet of tufnol truly perpendicular to the surface, then a couple of nicks were made in the flare of the strip where the first bend in the strip was to be made, and the strip carefully bent around a drill shank placed in the hole in the tufnol.  While the bend was made, it was obviously necessary to ensure that the strip was a) held firmly against the vertical drill shank, and b) the bottom edge of the strip was held in contact with the tufnol sheet surface.  Luckily, I ended up with a nice 90 degree bend that was perpendicular to the bottom of the strip.  The second bend was made in the same manner, but its position along the strip had to be carefully measured to ensure that the width of the tank would be 13mm (6'6").  Once the bends were made, the long sides were cut and filed down to length.

The final two photos show the current state :

 

The final photo shows that I have also added the "skirt" below the footplate - these are merely 1mm brass angle soldered in place.

 

Before the tank can be fitted, there is a little filing to be done to remove the leading portion of the flare, then a length of fine wire will be soldered around the edge of the flare to represent the beading (I hope that it will assist in filling the slots in the corners of the flare with solder too!)

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Ian

[Caley Jim]

5 minutes ago, Ian Smith said:

........(I hope that it will assist in filling the slots in the corners of the flare with solder too!)

It should do.  It's worked for me in the past.

 

Jim

[queensquare]

Looking lovely Ian, another great post.

The 2mm area of the site has some great loco building threads at the moment. Im still desperately trying to remain disciplined and finish a few projects that have been on the go for ages but the urge to start something new is growing and I will start a thread when I do.

 

Jerry 

[Ian Smith]

The Lockdown Loco (Dean Goods) continues ...

 

Over the last day or so, I have progressed the tender : The front of the tank sides were scalloped with fine files, and a beading added around the top of the flaring with fine (36SWG - 0.193mm) phosphor bronze wire.  I annealed the wire over a lighter flame first so that it would conform more easily to the shape of the scallop and also the flare corners.  I also added a 0.5mm wide strip of 0.003" brass around the base of the tank to represent what I assume is a strengthener at this point.  The tank was then soldered into place on the footplate, and a piece of 0.008" nickel silver sheet fretted and filed to the shape of the tank top.  Unfortunately, when it came to fitting the tank top I realised that the 8mm diameter motor sat a few thou too high which prevented the tank top to sit at the correct level, so a simple dodge was to cut and file away an area of the tank top where the motor is - I will put a slip of thin card over this gap when I add the coal to the tender.

 

The Tender with the tank in place, and showing the slot that I had to cut in the tank top to clear the top of the motor.

 

 The observant will notice that I have also added the steps at the back of the tender - these are simply a strip of 0.008" filed to shape, the bottom bit bent out to represent the bottom step, and a small 0.004" piece bent to an "L" soldered in place for the top step (this was added waaayyyy over size and filed back once soldered in position before the step component was soldered behind the valance).

 

The next element I tackled were the buffers (these are made in the same fashion as I've done on all of my locos) : the buffer head and rams were turned up from 3mm diameter silver steel, the rams being 0.8mm diameter.  The buffer housings were turned from 1/8" brass bar,  a 0.8mm hole was drilled into the end of the bar for the buffer ram, then the collar and parallel section of the housing turned (0.005" collar, 0.035" parallel section), and finally a 20 degree cone turned behind the parallel bit.  The housing was parted off 0.090" long (2.25mm).

The buffer heads/rams and a collection of housings - I made 5 expecting to sacrifice one to the carpet monster  (the buffer heads are so simple to make that I didn't bother with a spare).

 

The housings were soldered onto a piece of 0.006" nickel silver to represent the backing plate of the housings.

 

Each housing was then separated and the backing piece filed (roughly) square.  The housings were then re-drilled to open a hole through the backing plate to allow the housings to be located onto the buffer beams of engine and tender (both of which already had holes drilled in the buffer positions).

 

The buffer beams were tinned, and housings were held in place with a drill passing down the housing into the buffer beam while the soldering took place.  The buffer heads/rams will be fitted after painting.

 

A final photo to show what the current state of play is.  There is an awful long way to go but I'm pretty satisfied so far.  It might be noticed that the motor has a cigarette paper covering - this was super-glued around the motor to prevent shorting as the motor itself is super-glued to both inside frames of the tender.  I've also added the wires to connect engine and tender to the tender frames, but the wires need to be shortened and have little brass plugs soldered on their ends - the connecting wires will plug into holes in the solid engine chassis (allowing engine and tender to be easily separated if I ever need to).  I also need to make a new cardan shaft as I needed to move the motor back a millimetre when I came to fitting the tender tank!

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Ian

[A Murphy]

She looks top class Ian. I can't wait to see the finished loco.

 

Best wishes,

 

Alastair

Edited May 13, 2020 by A Murphy