Modbury

[John Brenchley]

Hi Ian

 

A quick question regarding your small tank engines please.

 

I'm sure you have probably mentioned it somewhere in your writings but is there a 2mm source for the loco number plates?

 

Thanks

 

John

[DuncanFogg]

John,

 

I used 247 Developments a year ago (247developments.co.uk) for some GWR plates. They were happy to etch numbers to order and there were no issues with posting overseas.

 

Duncan

 

 

[Ian Smith]

17 hours ago, John Brenchley said:

Hi Ian

 

A quick question regarding your small tank engines please.

 

I'm sure you have probably mentioned it somewhere in your writings but is there a 2mm source for the loco number plates?

 

Thanks

 

John

John,

My first 3 engines (1854 class, Metro and Buffalo) all have number plates from my own artwork and etched by PPD in 0.005” brass.  The 517 and Dean Goods both sport number plates etched for me by “Narrow Planet”.

 

Very satisfied with the NP ones, but as they are bespoke the delivery time can be a couple of months (not that I found that an issue!)

 

Hope that helps

Ian

[John Brenchley]

Thanks Ian and Duncan

 

I've looked at both web sites and the Narrow Planet (Lightrailwaystores) one looks to be ideal for ordering any number that one wants.

 

Best wishes

 

John

[Ian Smith]

No modelling to report (as I have completely lost my mojo since the end of summer).

However, yesterday saw myself and Modbury out and about at the North Mercia Area Group (NMAG) - some weeks ago Laurie had invited me to come along to show Modbury off and provide a presentation to the members there of what, how and why my modelling had taken the course it had.

From my perspective I think the day went very well, Modbury certainly seemed to generate a lot of interest.  I hope that the audience went away inspired and eager to progress their own projects.

 

I’d like to use this forum to publicly thank Laurie for inviting me and my train set along for the day, and hope that all those present took something away from the day (apart from full bellies from the wonderful buffet😆)

Ian

[Ian Smeeton]

I really enjoyed your talk, and being able to get up close and personal with the layout.

 

My colleague from Whissendine Signal Box was suitably impressed, being more used to 5 inch and larger gauges

 

Regards

 

Ian

[t-b-g]

It was a great pleasure to see Modbury close up and personal and to be able to say a face to face thank you for the inspiration your writing and photos of your Dean Goods provided to me as I battled with the one for Yeovil.

 

Many thanks. I hope the "mojo" returns soon. Skills like yours should be used!

 

Tony Gee 

[Laurie2mil]

I think the day did go very well, Ian, from all the comments that came back to me (and my own enjoyment of it), and it was Modbury and your talk that was the main draw (why we had our best turnout so far).  It is you to whom the thanks are due.

It is just such a beautiful layout, with wonderful workmanship.  As well as its USP's such as baulk road and scale point rodding, one of the things that makes it is its consistent scale and period.  This is another of those features which is not immediately obvious but just contributes, along with all the other details, to making it all just "look right": so you start to look more closely, and then analyse just why that is.  It is a rare pleasure, even in the finescales, to see a layout where everything is built to  the same scale and period - and I speak as a staunch defender of the "Rule 1" philosophy who will be using a mix of scratch-built 2FS and proprietary N conversions, and running anything from Adams (no relation, sadly!) and Dean to Riddles.  There is no doubt that your adherence to a consistent scale and period in Modbury makes for an utterly convincing, coherent and special historic model. 

We were priviliged to be able to see it up close for a full day and hear how you conceived and built it, and our sincere thanks to you for taking a long day out of your weekend to bring it up to Clayworth for our benefit.  That you achieved Modbury from a standing start re your knowledge and skills, and when faced with a problem just learnt the new skill for the new technique you needed, is a lesson to all of us to just make a start and get on with it, and not be "frightened".  One thing about our Association is the wealth of experience and support that is out there, and the willingness of our members to share it.

Thank you for sharing Modbury with us on Sunday, it certainly was/is inspirational and I hope you get your mojo back soon (I'm with Tony G on that).  Maybe Kath's cake (a scrumptious red velvet  this time) will prove some encouragement!

 

Laurie Adams

[MarshLane]

Great to see Modbury on Sunday at the NMAG meeting. My father attended with me and took some video of the layout that Ian has kindly said he's happy for me to post on here.  Hope people enjoy it, truly inspirational modelling.

 

 

Rich

[Mikkel]

 

Thanks for sharing that video, Rich. It shows off Modbury well.

 

Ian, I like the signs of mucking-out taking place in the cattle siding. Just a very small detail but effective.

 

 

[Ian Smith]

Modelling over the last few months has taken very much of a back seat, indeed very little has been done at all!!

 

However, when I have returned to the workbench I have been progressing the 45xx that I started.  The basis being a Dapol later 4575 sloping tank top version which will be completely inappropriate for Modbury's circa 1906 period but could be pressed into service on St. Ruth.

 

It transpired that Chris Carlson (MinerChris of this parish) had a couple of flat top tanked 45xx bodies in his collection, one of which he was prepared to donate to the cause.  This came as a collection of bits and pieces that he had purchased from DCC Supplies when these things were available as spares from them.  In reality all I needed was the main body element comprising the footplate, tanks and bunker.  I intended to separate the 4575 body I had to salvage the boiler assembly and the cab, and then fabricate any other bits as necessary.

 

With a suitable donor body at my disposal, I set about looking at it to decide what I wanted to do with it - the view now being to build a model of the prototype 45xx (No. 2161).  The body was compared to the drawings and photos I had in my collection to try to establish what I would need to do to back date it to original condition.  The list was quite extensive :

• Remove all of the handrails (to be replaced with wire examples)
• Remove smokebox door handles (to be replaced)
• Remove the lamp irons (to be replaced with finer examples)
• Convert the lower footplate to a straight drop (rather than curve drop) example
• Remove the cab side sliding shutters
• Remove the safety valve casing and top feeds (to be replaced with a turned brass example)
• Remove and replace the whistles
• Replace the tank top furniture with better home-made examples (the tank fillers are of the later tall design anyway)
• Replace the buffers with a "Dean" tapered type rather than the parallel version Dapol have provided
• Shorten the smokebox (in the end I've decided not to do this as I think I stand more chance of making a complete hash of it than a good job) - it only needs about 0.5mm removing anyway
• Shorten and lower the bunker
• Lower the cab roof
• Convert cab roof from steel type to canvas covered wood
• Remove rear cab window grills and open out the windows
• Lower the cab doors - they should be 3'0" tall but the modelled ones are about 3'6" so about 1mm too tall

So, quite a list (which will probably develop as the project progresses)!

 

Firstly, the handrails were all carefully carved and  scraped away, and while at it the cab side sliding shutters were carefully scraped off trying to preserve the raised cab beading around the openings.  While working in the cab area, a fine square file was introduced into the cab openings to file down the cab doors to be 6mm tall too.

 

The boiler assembly was removed from the original 4575 body (Chris didn't have this in his collection of bits and pieces), this involved drilling away the footplate mounting peg from below the footplate under the smokebox.  Once separated, the smokebox door handles and the handrails were removed, and the safety valve/top feed assembly prised out of the huge recess in the top of the boiler.

 

The clip on cab assembly was addressed next, the roof surface detail was simply filed away to leave a  smooth surface.  Then the grills over the rear cab windows were carefully pared away, and finally the cab windows were drilled out and filed to shape and size.  In an effort to lower the cab roof slightly, the tops of the cab sides above the side cut outs were carefully filed down as much as I dared (probably lowering the cab roof by at least 0.5mm).

 

Boiler assembly after handrails, door handles and safety valves and top feeds removed.  Cab assembly showing the attention given to the rear to remove the widow grills and open out the windows.

 

 Then came the fun!!!  Sorting out the bunker.  As originally built, the 45xx had a much smaller bunker, being the same height as the tanks and also being 9" shorter.  Therefore I had to give consideration as to try to modify the Dapol model or simply fabricate a whole new bunker area from scratch.  In the end, I elected to try to modify the Dapol bunker and if I failed then employ the build one from scratch approach!

 

Firstly, lower the bunker.  This was a simple piercing saw exercise of cutting away the raised bunker extension, then making good with fine files.  As can be seen, the buffer housings have been pared off ready to be replaced with some of my own turnings which will represent the tapered version that the first of the class originally sported.

 

Secondly, shorten the bunker by 1.5mm.  Again the piercing saw was employed to carefully cut away the rear of the bunker (whilst also preserving the chassis mount below the bunker).  Then fine files were used to get rid of the excess length in the bunker whilst also maintaining a good set of mating surfaces so that when reassembled the bunker rear would be vertical and need a minimal amount of filling.  You can see that I had forgotten to complete the removal of the top of the near side cab door at this point - luckily I remembered later!!  I took the opportunity to remove the steps and lamp irons from the bunker rear too.

 

Thirdly, reinstate the bunker rear.  As the Dapol body is plastic, I elected to try DLimonene as a solvent to re-join the parts.  As this solvent is relatively mild compared to some others, it was necessary to hold the parts together while the joint made good.  Placing the boiler assembly in place gave the elastic band somewhere to anchor itself to whilst preventing it from pulling the tank sides inwards.  The twist of fine copper wire ensured that the cab sides and hence the bunker sides were held vertical and in alignment with the bunker rear (they had a slight tendency to splay outwards!).  The curved valance was subsequently made good by gluing in a small noggin of 0.020" black plasticard which was filed to shape once secure.

 

Finally, the beading around the top of the bunker needed to be re-instated.  However, before I did this I tried to re-shape the flare at the top of the rear bunker sheet a little - The bend should be a bit sharper than what I had been left with after removal of the top bunker extension.  It's not prefect but will have to do!  Anyway, back to the beading.  An oversized piece of 0.005" plasticard was welded in place around the top of the bunker sheets.  I've also filled all of the various holes in the footplate, tank top and boiler assembly with milliput.

 

The beading was then carefully pared back to be a little proud of the outside faces of the bunker by using a piece of 0.006" nickel silver sheet as a fence against which a sharp razor blade was run to remove the excess.  The inside was then trimmed flush with the Dapol sides.  Obviously it's over scale but is in keeping with the tank beading of the original model.  I will run a file around the inside edges of the bunker to try to thin them a little before I glue the cab in place though.

 

That's about all for now, hopefully I will start to feel like cracking on with both this and my Duke projects in the new year!

 

Thanks for looking,

Ian

 

 

 

[richbrummitt]

This is another one of those projects where there is little if anything left of the original at the end of which we are so fond. Hope this is the start of the mojo coming back… 

[Ian Smith]

Over the last couple of weeks or so I have made a little more progress on the 45xx build...

 

Firstly, the cylinders have been hacked out of solid brass bar :

One cylinder formed, and a block of brass has been prepared in order that the other can also be filed to shape.  As can be seen, I've also made some cylinder ends from nickel silver bar - these were turned down to the correct diameter, a 0.6mm hole drilled down the bar and some slivers of some 0.010" parted off.  The small piece of phosphor bronze wire is one of the mounting pins used to site the cylinder on the side of the chassis.

 

The formed cylinder temporarily hanging on the chassis from its mounting pins.

 

Same again but with the body resting in place for effect.

 

Over the last few days, attention has been turned to the body :

The tank fillers have been formed.  The main element of these is a piece of brass bar that was filed to the outside shape then a pair of 1mm thick slices taken from the bar.  Once cleaned up, these were soldered onto a scrap of 0.006" nickel silver sheet, which in turn was carefully filed such that it formed the lids by being slightly larger all round than the main body of the filler.  A piercing saw cut was made about halfway along each embryonic filler, and a piece of emery used to widen the slot to accept an "L" shaped piece of 0.008" nickel silver.  Once this little piece had been soldered into the slot and along the top of the filler, it was filed away to leave the central rib of the lid and the locking handle.

 

This view shows the tank filler placed in position on the forward end of the tank.  Also in evidence are the new mushroom vents - these were turned from a piece of brass bar, being 0.6mm diameter for the pipe of the vent, and 1.2mm diameter for the head.  Once parted off the dome of the mushroom was formed with a fine file while spinning the part in a pin chuck mounted in an ER16 collet of the lathe (my mini drill chuck is so badly worn that it would not grip the 0.6mm stem of the vent).  Also apparent in the view are the replacement handrails.  The holes for the handrail stanchions were jig drilled (using 0.3mm holes in a scrap of etch to ensure the holes were consistently positioned on both sides).  The handrail knobs are etched 2mm Association items, with the handrails themselves being 0.008" guitar string.  Normally I would solder these together on the loco body, but with this body being plastic, the handrails were soldered up offsite as it were on a piece of Tufnol (the previously used jig being used to drill holes in the Tufnol to hold the handrail knobs).  The handrail (guitar string) was purposely slightly over-long when soldered in place, but a careful rub on my diamond EZlap sharpening "stone" removed the excess with ease.

 

 

This final view shows that I have also made and fitted the lamp irons (although I still have to fit some little slips of 0.005" plasticard to represent the fixing plates for these.  The lamp irons themselves were formed from 0.31mm nickel silver wire, which was bent to an "L" shape then squashed in my vice.  One leg of the flattened L was then bent up to represent the lamp iron, and the unflattened bit sited in a 0.3mm hole in the body (being secured with cyano on the inside of the body).

 

That's all for now.  Hopefully over the new couple of weeks I'll get it into a state where it can be used at Modbury's next outing at Abrail (Abingdon & District MRC's exhibition) on the 4th March.

 

Thanks for looking.

Ian

[CF MRC]

I do like the way you have made a really tricky component (the tank fillers) simple by clever design. 
 

Tim

Edited February 12, 2023 by CF MRC

[MrSimon]

Hi Ian,

 

Great work on the 262 so far - I would have never thought to do the bunker flare/beading like that (it’s bookmarked now for when I need to do some).  What thickness of phosphor-bronze are you using for the chassis sides?  
 

Many thanks

Simon

[Ian Smith]

On 12/02/2023 at 09:46, CF MRC said:

I do like the way you have made a really tricky component (the tank fillers) simple by clever design. 
 

Tim

Tim,

Thank you.  A couple of locos ago I decided that this was a far easier and more robust method than trying to solder a piece of wire onto an upstand to represent the handle.  Normally, with round tank fillers I have turned the body and lid as a single piece so a slot all the way across the lid element worked well, however in this case having a separate lid I felt that the risk of things moving when reapplying heat was too great so elected for a half slot which meant that the new part being soldered in place acted as a "key" to hold everything together.

 

12 hours ago, MrSimon said:

Hi Ian,

 

Great work on the 262 so far - I would have never thought to do the bunker flare/beading like that (it’s bookmarked now for when I need to do some).  What thickness of phosphor-bronze are you using for the chassis sides?  
 

Many thanks

Simon

Simon,

Normally, I work in metal so the beading is soldered in place using fine wire (or in the case of cab side cut outs requiring an extension for the top of a handrail from a strip of 0.004" N/S - see my Duke build a little further back in the thread).  However, for this plastic build (with much thicker sides) it seemed sensible to do it the way that I did.  My chassis frames are from some 0.5mm phosphor bronze - I bought a small sheet several years ago and is more than enough for every loco I am ever likely to build, especially as most of my locos have solid brass chassis!!

 

Ian

[Ian Smith]

A little more progress on the 45xx ...

 

Firstly, the slide bars have been fettled and fixed to the cylinders.  The slide bars were fabricated from a short piece of Association plain nickel silver rail, the rail was trapped in the vice jaws and filed to reduce its height to about 0.5mm - giving me a roughly 2" piece of 0.5mm square(ish) rod for the slide bars.  A couple of the cylinder ends that I had already made were double sided taped to my vertical slide (actually a sacrificial piece of Tufnol bolted to the VS), the 0.6mm centre hole in each was located and the VS moved 0.062" vertically above and below that hole to drill 0.7mm holes through which I could solder the slide bars.  The ends of the cylinders also received a short 0.7mm hole (using the end caps to site the drill) to give a more secure location for the ends of the slide bars.  It was then a reasonably simple operation to solder the slide bars through the end caps into the cylinders.

 

A quick aside - when filing the rail down to the correct height, it helps to have a micrometer or Vernier Calliper locked off at the size required and try to slide the piece between the jaws, if it doesn't quite fit file a bit more off until it does.  Doing this helps to identify any high spots along the length which can be filed or sanded appropriately.

 

The cylinder blocks with then "end cap" and slide bars in place.

 

And temporarily fitted ono the chassis by their mounting pegs.  The next stage will be to fabricate the motion brackets - the plan is to file these from some 0.020" NS and solder them in place on the slide bars (a mounting peg being used to locate them to the chassis side)

 

Yesterday was spent lining out the body (the body having received its coat of GWR green a couple of days previously) ...

 

Once again I have used Fox transfers for the lining.  As can be seen in the following photos I have also turned up a new Safety Valve cover.

 

 

I don't know how whether the bunker rear was lined as the only photo I could find of an early engine (in works grey) is a 3/4 frontal shot in Russell's Engines book).  I have therefore assumed a rectangular panel.  I think that the boiler and firebox bands should also be lined but I have elected not to do this as I think it will look  a bit too "busy".  I may revisit that opinion though - thoughts?

 

A final view of the loco with body plonked on top of the chassis (the mounting pegs on the cylinder this side are a little loose in their respective holes)

 

I was hoping to have completed this little engine ready for Abrail next Saturday (4th March), but I have a busy week next week so may just try to get the body finished and pop the pony trucks back on and complete the motion after the show.

 

Thanks for looking

Ian

Edited February 23, 2023 by Ian Smith

[Mikkel]

Looking very good, Ian. With that and the Duke your roster is going to be significantly enhanced.

 

I think your lining decisions make good sense.

[CF MRC]

I think it will look odd without the boiler lined out, Ian. 
 

Tim

[Compound2632]

Perhaps the lining could be toned down with a gentle wash of the base colour?

[t-b-g]

As somebody who has never painted and lined a 2mm loco, I was wondering if it worth trying to remove the moulded on boiler bands on the firebox and boiler. Trying to get transfers onto raised boiler bands which appear to have a slightly rounded top surface might be a bit of a nightmare, especially if the moulded bands and the transfers are not the same width.

 

They are well overscale anyway, so my thoughts would be to consider removing the moulded bands then adding transfers.

 

I have no idea how easy or difficult that might be in 2mm but it is something I have done on 4mm models and it works well so I would certainly be giving it a coat of thinking about.

 

I think it would show up a bit if most locos have lined boilers and one doesn't.

[Ian Smith]

12 hours ago, t-b-g said:

As somebody who has never painted and lined a 2mm loco, I was wondering if it worth trying to remove the moulded on boiler bands on the firebox and boiler. Trying to get transfers onto raised boiler bands which appear to have a slightly rounded top surface might be a bit of a nightmare, especially if the moulded bands and the transfers are not the same width.

 

They are well overscale anyway, so my thoughts would be to consider removing the moulded bands then adding transfers.

 

I have no idea how easy or difficult that might be in 2mm but it is something I have done on 4mm models and it works well so I would certainly be giving it a coat of thinking about.

 

I think it would show up a bit if most locos have lined boilers and one doesn't.

Tony,

Normally I would just have the transfers to represent the boiler bands (indeed on my unlined boiler band locos I still use decal film for the bands before painting), however I decided to leave the moulded boiler bands in place (and now almost wish I’d filed the off 🤣).

However with Tim and guilt getting the better of me I have started to add the transfers to the moulded bands and must admit I think it looks better for it.

Ian

[Ian Smith]

More progress on the 45xx ...

 

Following the gentle persuasion by friends on here (and my own guilt), I have applied the lining to the boiler bands.  As I suspected, the transfers did not sit particularly well on the moulded boiler bands (the main reason for my originally electing not to line the boiler bands) - the bands were slightly domed and slightly narrower than the Fox transfer lining.  However, with a little persuasion and a swift waft of satin varnish after they'd had time to dry off the lining is now all in place and secure.

 

The original light springs I'd soldered to the chassis to allow pick up from the pony trucks had been quite badly damaged during the handing of the chassis so they have been replaced with new pieces of phosphor bronze wire - the wires at the front bear on the pony truck axle, while the rear pony truck has the wires bearing on the PCB spacer (obviously gapped, and having a short strip of plasticard glued over the gap to ensure that the wires only bear on the side of the PCB that they should do).

 

DG couplings have been added as has some coal in the bunker.  The safety valve cover was given a coat of gloss varnish after polishing, and a couple of representative whistles turned up in the mini drill.  The brass surrounds of the porthole windows have also been turned up and fixed with canopy glue.

 

She is now ready for this Saturday's outing to the Abingdon & District MRC's exhibition where Modbury will be on show.  Hopefully in the next week or so I will get the outside motion added so that by the next exhibition (RailEx in May) she will be completed!!

 

Anyway, a couple of photos to show the current state of play :

 

 

Thanks for looking

Ian

[Ian Smith]

Just a few photos of the layout at AbRail a couple of weeks ago :

 

An elevated shot taken first thing Saturday morning just after I'd put the stock on the layout.

 

My 45xx (eventually to be numbered 2161) managed to have a reasonably successful running during the day.  It was confined to pulling a short Through Goods though as when I tried to shunt some of the consist into the yard the rear pony truck derailed as the engine reversed.  Since returning to base, I have rectified the problem by adjusting the pick up springs bearing on the truck and also added a small patch of lead to give it a little extra weight.

 

45xx heading a short goods train.  The 3 plank and 4 plank wagons have loads of bricks from the Steer Point brickworks further along the line.

 

Dean Goods (No. 2569) heading another goods train along the embankment in the Plymouth direction.

 

Cattle train hauled by a 517 (No. 551) slows to a halt to exchange single line token at the signal box.

 

A closer view of 517 no. 551 drawing to a halt at the 'box.

 

With the tokens exchanged and the starting signal (at the far end of the platform) released, No. 551 gently accelerates the cattle train away.  The stands of thistles in the adjacent field are in flower or going to seed.

 

Thanks for looking.

Ian

[Ian Smith]

Progress on the 45xx has been positively glacial over the last few months.  However, I feel an update is in order as quite a bit of progress has been made in the last couple of weeks, probably because I've been spurred on by realising that Modbury's next outing to RailEx (Stoke Mandeville) is only now a few weeks away at the end of May!!!

 

The previous instalment of the project showed the state of play prior to Modbury's last outing at AbRail, where the body was essentially complete but the lack of outside cylinders made the loco resemble one of the few 39xx (a Dean Goods tender loco conversion to a Prairie).

 

As may be discerned thoughout this post, my modelling methods can be somewhat organic and evolve as things progress!!!

 

In the interests of getting as much weight into the loco as possible I decided to "carve" the cylinders from solid brass (I think a photo of this may have appeared earlier up thread).  A 0.6mm hole was drilled through the blocks for the piston, and a pair of 0.5mm square (approx) slide rods were filed from a length of Association plain rail.  The cylinder head covers were turned from some  Nickel Silver bar and a corresponding 0.6mm hole drilled for the piston rod.  A couple of 0.7mm holes were drilled at the outside edges of the covers to accommodate the ends of the slide bars (the covers were used as a jig to drill corresponding holes in the cylinder blocks).  Finally, the slide bars, end covers and blocks were united with solder :

Also evident in this view are some short pegs of phosphor bronze wire inserted into the rear faces of the cylinder blocks - these are to locate the blocks onto the side of the chassis (the intention being to eventually araldite the block in position).

 

The next step was to create the cross heads and piston rods.  Luckily, I had a couple of suitable cross head "faces" in my spares box left over from the N Brass cross head kit that I'd used on the Steam Rail Motor.  However, I sill needed to fabricate the actual "slide" part of the cross head ...

 

Therefore, a strip of 0.75mm nickel silver about 3mm wide was carefully filed such that it had a couple of channels along each edge, that allowed it to sit within the slide bars and in profile looked like a squashed top hat :

 

A short piece of this was then cut off to be a little longer than the cross head, and a 0.3mm hole drilled centrally before it was attached to a bit of brass bar (the first one I super glued to the bar but for the second I elected to affix it with solder).  The bit of bar (with the rear of the cross head in place) was held in a vice on my vertical slide on my lathe and a 1.5mm milling cutter deployed to remove a channel from the 0.3mm hole out beyond one end of the bar :

 

Once the rear of the slide was removed from the bar and cleaned up the face of the cross head was soldered on the front.  A 0.45mm hole was drilled into the solid end (i.e. the end that had not been milled away), a bit of careful sawing and filing around the hole gave a reasonable impression of the cross head, so a piece of 0.45mm steel handrail wire soldered in place.  A suitable piece of Association etched coupling rod was sourced, filed to a taper and a 0.35mm hole drilled for the little end.  The etched face of the cross head had an absolutely huge pivot hole etched in it, so I made a couple of pivot pins from some roughly 1mm nickel silver rod/wire with files in my mini drill.  The pins had a head of about 0.6mm and a shank of roughly 0.3 to 0.35mm.  It was then a "simple" matter of popping the pin through the face of the cross head, through the little end and finally though the rear of the cross head and soldering the pin in place.  Obviously, before the soldering was attempted, the holes in the little end and rear of the cross head had to be opened out a little to ensure that the little end pivoted freely in the cross head, and of course a couple of extra pins had to be made after the originals pinged out of the tweezers and into oblivion!!  As an aside, I tend to chemically blacken bits that I don't want to solder together, and this can be seen in the following (rather blurred) photo :

 

The motion brackets were filed from some 0.018" nickel silver.  I first made one, and once happy with the fit around the slide bars it was soldered onto a further piece of 0.018" and used as a template to form the other :

 

As can be seen, I left quite a hefty "handle" on the insides of the motion brackets, originally intending to cut that off as the position of the brackets is quite close to the leading drivers.

 

The two brackets were then separated and cleaned up an tweaked so that they fitted their respective side bars.  The original intention was to just have the brackets hanging in mid air supported solely by the slide bars, but in the end I elected to make use of the "handles" that I'd formed them with (albeit thinned down considerably) to allow the brackets to be securely attached to the chassis.  Of course this fixing had to be joggled to clear the leading drivers, but now engages in a slot filed into the top of the chassis frame giving a much more robust fixing (this joggle can be seen in the photo above of the cross head and connecting rod).  The fixing can also be seen more clearly in the following pair of photos with the cylinders araldited in position on the chassis :

The cylinders in position, the motion on the left hand side is complete, and has had the cylinder end cap super glued in place.  The end cap for the RHS is also evident and shows a piece of 0.7mm nickel silver wire soldered in place through the end cap - the the piston rod hole at the leading end of the cylinders was opened out to accommodate the stub of wire projecting at the rear of the end cap.

 

The completed right hand side motion.  As can be seen a representation of the valve has been fitted - this is just a piece of 0.3mm NS wire with a copper wire double twist (i.e wrapped around twice) soldered in place.  Also evident in these photos is the leading pony truck spring wires - these are soldered to the edge of the framing and bear on the stub axles of the pony truck.

 

The motion on the right hand side of the loco has the added complication (well complicated for my little brain) of the vacuum brake pump on that side.  This needed a pivot from the cross head, a thin piston rod then leading back to the pump itself.  With clearances being a bit tight, I decided that a strip of 0.006" nickel silver soldered to the rear face of the cross head was the way to go, and a 0.3mm hole was drilled at the top of that and an L shaped piece of 0.3mm NS wire soldered in said hole.  Obviously, all of this extra paraphernalia on the top of the cross head meant that it would no longer pass through the motion bracket!!  Remedial action with fine files excavated enough clearance in the motion bracket support so all was good!!

 

The vacuum brake pump is a simple little turning with a 0.45mm hole down its middle to accommodate the 0.3mm piston from the cross head.  Looking at photos, this had a square casting at the rear end, so my little tube was soldered vertically onto a piece of 0.5mm phosphor bronze (didn't have to be PB, just happened to have a suitable bit of material the right sort of size on the workbench).  Once I was happy that the tube was perpendicular to the PB, files were deployed to create the square end, and provide a fixing peg.  Once again, the fixing had to be joggled to avoid wheels but the advantage was that I had a few thou available by adjusting the angles of the joggle to get the vacuum pump in the right place :

 

The photo below shows the RHS motion (including the vacuum brake pump) temporarily in place :

 

And finally, with the body plonked on top :

 

That concludes this particular episode, there is still quite a bit to do especially to make the vacuum brake pump look like it's actually fixed in place rather than just hanging there like it looks at the moment.  And I might see what other pipework I can add around the cylinders.  Although at the end of the day this (like everything else I make) is to run on a layout and not made for a showcase.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Ian