Mikemeg's Workbench - Building locos of the North Eastern & LNER

[Worsdell forever]

I found mine had, as I see yours does, lots of prominent mould lines, I found the best way to remove these is by eating them.

[mikemeg]

LONDON ROAD MODELS LNER B16/1

 

Having eaten the 0-6-0 tank, then back to the B16/1.

 

In a remarkably short time, Dave Bradwell supplied the various castings for the North Eastern 4125 gallon tender. The tender castings included three sets of tender springs/axleboxes, two of which had no spring hangars attached.

 

The spring hangars are available as separate brass castings representing either the short or long spring hangars. By this means, Dave is able to cover the various permutations of axlebox types and spring hangar lengths found on North Eastern tenders during the last twenty or so years of the North Eastern's existence.

 

So fitting the tender axlebox/spring/long spring hangar castings to the tender frames and the later style toolboxes, the tender is pretty well complete. So now just the final detalis (brakes, backhead details and a few other bits and pieces) to add.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

Edited January 13, 2018 by mikemeg

[Pebbles]

I may be wrong, but have alterations been made to the 7mm kit? Rather than giving advice to that build maybe the reciprocal is appropriate.

[mikemeg]

I may be wrong, but have alterations been made to the 7mm kit? Rather than giving advice to that build maybe the reciprocal is appropriate.

 

I don't know if alterations have been made to the 7 mm kit but there are some inconsistencies on the 4 mm kit which may be present on the 7 mm kit :-

 

The front step, on the valve cover, is too small on the 4mm version.

 

The boiler washout plugs are wrongly located, on one side only, on the 4 mm version.

 

The additional washout plugs fitted by the LNER, located at the bottom of the firebox, are not provided for on the 4 mm version.

 

The lifting holes in the front mainframes above the footplate, which were added by the LNER, are not present on the 4 mm version.

 

The cylinder wrappers, which are a single piece on the 4 mm version, cannot be formed to produce the crisp transition from the circular to the straight portion of the cyinder. This needs to be done in two pieces, one curved around the cyinder formers; the other flat and slightly tapered butting up, precisely, against the circular portion.

 

The firebox wrapper, as provided and when formed, fouls the centre and rear sets of driving wheels; especially in EM and OO gauges. To cure this problem, arcs must be removed from the bottom of the firebox profiled from the assembled splashers, to accommodate the driving wheels.

 

The castings for the cylinder rear are too thin and really need augmenting to increase their thickess. This then necessitates some work on the piston gland, to reduce its thickness and on the piston rod collar, again to reduce its depth. If this is not done then the crossheads will not successfuly travel the full length of the piston stroke; the piston rod collar will collide with the piston gland!!!

 

If you have built this kit, then I would imagine that you may have encountered some or all of these problems?

 

Cheers

 

Mike

Edited April 22, 2017 by mikemeg

[mikemeg]

LONDON ROAD MODELS LNER B16/1

 

Been a few days since I posted anything on the build of this B16/1 so here's a photo of the tender front after completion (well almost) of the detailing. I might add the tap to the lower right hand side, as viewed.

 

If those two standards look to be too thin, this is a function of the colour - grey on grey - as I was assured they were 1.5" (0.5 mm in 4 mm/ft) in diameter. The toolboxes, as with the springs/axleboxes and spring hangars, are all David Bradwell castings and they really are very good.

 

I know this is going beyond 'what's in the box' but I've always believed that the level of detailing, of any kit, is a matter of personal choice. Also, given the background to this kit then it might be useful to take it as far as is possible.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

Edited January 13, 2018 by mikemeg

[mikemeg]

NORTH EASTERN KITS LNER J72 Long Bunker

 

As I was in the 'component shop', assembling the last of the components for the B16/1 - brakes, brake rigging, etc. - I also took the opportunity to do the same for the J72. Mainframes have been cut out and four of the slots for the high level hornguides have been profiled, the articulated coupling rods assembled, along with the brakes, springs and compensating beams.

 

Arthur has now produced a new set of white metal castings for the J71/72's which includes the different smokebox doors (plain and rivetted straps), chimney and dome for these small diameter boilers plus the BR standard sandboxes fitted to the 69xxx range of J72's and a number of other fttings.

 

This one will be 69010 (shedded at Hull Dairycoates in mid 1950), which was one of the ten (69001 - 69010) of the 1949 - 1951 batch which were built without vacuum fitting. This also allows me to use the trumpet housing for the safety valves, which were standard on this later batch and retained on many of the locos from earlier NER and LNER batches.

 

So a very posed photograph of the current state of the long bunker J72.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

Edited January 13, 2018 by mikemeg

[Dave Holt]

Mike,

It looks as though you're going to have a fixed front axle and twin beams for the centre and rear axles, presumably with an axle mounted gearbox on one of the compensated axles? If so, this won't give proper compensation, allowing twist, due to there being four points of support. It might be worth changing the front axle to rock on a central pivot point, thus giving three pint suspension?

Dave.

[mikemeg]

Mike,

It looks as though you're going to have a fixed front axle and twin beams for the centre and rear axles, presumably with an axle mounted gearbox on one of the compensated axles? If so, this won't give proper compensation, allowing twist, due to there being four points of support. It might be worth changing the front axle to rock on a central pivot point, thus giving three pint suspension?

Dave.

 

No, though it's a reasonable presumption. The top hat bearings are used to establish a datum point on the chassis jig.

 

The etched holes in the mainframes are slightly larger than 1/8" and so one of them needs packing down to exactly 1/8" if the driving wheel spacing is to match the coupling rod spacing. This is done by using a 1/8" inside diameter top hat bearing to act as an initial locator over one of the the posts on the chassis jig, this after the spacing of the chassis jig posts has been adjusted to correspond, exactly, to the spacing of the coupling rod.

 

The third slot is reprofiled to accept a high level hornguide/axlebox, on the chassis jig, once the other two have been fitted and the top hat bearing is then recovered.

 

As you comment, the front axle will 'rock' on a central pivot point provided by a longitudinal bar over the front axle.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

Edited May 13, 2017 by mikemeg

[Dave Holt]

Mike.

Thanks for the clarification. Leaving one set of fixed holes to locate the chassis in the jig is a good idea that I'll take on board for future chassis assembly. Thanks.

Dave.

[mikemeg]

Mike.

Thanks for the clarification. Leaving one set of fixed holes to locate the chassis in the jig is a good idea that I'll take on board for future chassis assembly. Thanks.

Dave.

 

Dave,

 

I can't claim any credit for this idea; it is covered in the instruction set for the Avonside Chassis Jig.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[mikemeg]

NORTH EASTERN KITS LNER J72 Long Bunker

 

After another 'stock out' delay (mine, not any supplier) and a replenishment order from High Level Models, I can now proceed with the assembly of the J72 chassis. The following photos show the sequence of fitting the hornguides/axleboxes, with the top hat bearing acting as the datum for the fitting of the other two axleboxes, after which those two axleboxes act as the datum for the third axle, after removing the top hat bearing and profiling the frame for the third hornguide. The coupling rod is not present when all of this is being done!!

 

Second photo shows the final result with all three hornguides/axleboxes fitted. On these small 0-6-0 tanks, I always use a Spacesaver hornguide and axlebox (this has much thinner axlebox and horncheeks than the standard) on the front axle, otherwise the axlebox/hornguides can interfere with the internal slide bar and crosshead as they are quite close to the inside of the mainframe.

 

Now to assemble the mainframes.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

Edited January 13, 2018 by mikemeg

[DougN]

Mike, I will be watching as so far this is one chassis that is absolutely giving me the right royal %&^%*&9 9*^&(&)(* 9^(*^&(&(*&.  I can get it to limp along but I can't seem to locate a bind! It has now sat for a number of years. I too used the chassis jig for the first time on this as well ! I think it is conspiring against me!  

[Horsetan]

....I can get it to limp along but I can't seem to locate a bind! ...

 

Doug, are your hornblock bearings drilled absolutely square? That is to say, when you pass an axle through, the axle goes 90 degrees to the body of the bearing? If you have one that isn't, that may well be causing a limp. Other suspects include crankpins that aren't at right-angles to the wheel centres, etc.

[mikemeg]

Mike, I will be watching as so far this is one chassis that is absolutely giving me the right royal %&^%*&9 9*^&(&)(* 9^(*^&(&(*&.  I can get it to limp along but I can't seem to locate a bind! It has now sat for a number of years. I too used the chassis jig for the first time on this as well ! I think it is conspiring against me!  

 

On the first one or two chassis', assembled using this jig, then I did encounter some problems with one of the chassis' binding slighty. On close examination, the spacing of the rear set of driving wheels was slightly adrift; perhaps 10 to 15 thou. So how could this happen if the jig was set up correctly? When I checked the wheel spacing against the coupling rod spacing then the error was quite apparent.

 

So what I learned was that the jig posts can move very slightly when they are tightened up with the allen key on both sides. So the coupling rod fit, over the posts, must be checked with all of the posts fully tightened up as the only true indication of correct spacing. I normally do this by keeping the middle post fully tightened and adjusting one of the outer posts, as if for a four coupled loco. Once these two are correctly spaced and fully tightened, the third post can then be adjusted.

 

Spacing is only considered correct when the rod fits on all three posts, fully tightened.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

Edited June 1, 2017 by mikemeg

[mikemeg]

NORTH EASTERN KITS LNER J72 Long Bunker

 

With the driving wheel springs now added to the mainframes, a final check to ensure that the wheel spacing matches the coupling rod spacing by mounting both mainframes on the chassis jig and then checking both coupling rods, in turn, to ensure that they still fit over the small spigots at the ends of the posts. All seems ok.

 

It is essential that these components match on their spacing and it is well worth taking both time and care to ensure that this match is as close as possible. I'm frequently amazed at people rushing through this phase of the construction, only to find, later, that the chassis binds or runs unevenly.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

Edited January 13, 2018 by mikemeg

[mikemeg]

LONDON ROAD MODELS LNER B16/1

 

Meanwhile back in the B16/1 camp, things are still moving forward. The brakes have to be hung on their hangar spindles, suitably close but not touchng their appropriate wheel tyres. After that, the compensated brake linkage needs to be assembled.

 

Now you can call me a sceptic (you probably will) but on a few occasions I have assembled compensated brake linkages only to find that the spacing between the successive brake stretchers is incorrect, though Arthur's tend to be pretty accurate. This would then result in the brakes hanging at differing angles and being either too far or too close to the wheel tyre.

 

So now I draw out the brake linkage on a piece of card, to scale. This is then used to check the lengths of the individual components and as a jig on which to assemble the compensated brake linkage. It is usually possible to make some adjustments to brake linkage by extending slots, or by re-positioning holes, which was the case here where the rear rod positioned the rear stretcher by around 1.25 mm too much.

 

Anyway, no point in doing all of this if the resulting assembly is not, itself, checked for fit. On this linkage I also thinned down the forks, quite considerably, as they were too thick. Once assembled, there are no significant forces acting on the brake linkage, so no compromising of the robustness of the assembly.

 

So a photograph to show the checked compensated linkage in one side of the fitted brakes, prior to fitting the brakes on the other side.

 

The brake hangar housings still have to be made and fitted, which will be done after all of the brake gear has been fitted.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

Edited January 13, 2018 by mikemeg

[mikemeg]

NORTH EASTERN KITS LNER J77 Worsdell Cab

 

Quite a while ago I test built the two versions of Arthur's J77 kit; in fact I built three of them; one with the Worsdell cab and two with the Fletcher cab (one with square cab windows, one with round cab windows). At the time that I built these, a few of the castings were not available - they are all available now - so they were stored on the shelf awaiting the castings.

 

The castings were sent. by Arthur, some months ago, so now time to complete these J77's in between the two J72 builds.

 

So the first one is now completed and primed, ready for painting. The three link couplings are assembled but will not be fitted until the buffer beams are painted.

 

With two T1's, four J72's (two of Arthur's and two Bachmann with the high level chassis), three J77's, two J71's and a J73 then the shunting complement will shortly number twelve; roughly one shunting loco for every nine wagons in the current fleet!! I think I may have remarked before but in 1950 Hull's four locomotive sheds could muster almost forty of these 0-6-0 tanks across the J71's,72's,73's and 77's. So still a few to go at!!

 

Cheers

 

Mike

Edited January 13, 2018 by mikemeg

[mikemeg]

I did wonder whether any of the J77's were ever vacuum fitted i.e. for station pilot work. Anyway, sure enough, a photo turned up to prove that at least one of these locos was indeed vacuum fitted. The photo is inside Hull Botanic Gardens shed in August 1952 and shows a Fletcher cab example, No 68401.

 

As ever, with these old black and white photos, I am indebted to my old mate Mick Nicholson for finding and electronically cleaning up this photo; though he was unable to remove that damn great heap in the foreground!!

 

Cheers

 

Mike

Edited June 29, 2017 by mikemeg

[mikemeg]

Totally off topic, last Saturday was Armed Forces Day here in Scarborough, as in many other towns up and down the country.

 

The highlight of the day was probably the display by the Red Arrows, which quite literally stopped the town. Cars stopped on the road, buses stopped, the whole town stopped to watch this display.

 

Anyway, a couple of photos of that day and the Red Arrows.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

 

[mikemeg]

After the off topic colour photos back to the on topic black and white and colour photos, again courtesy of Mick Nicholson. These photos show two of the last batch of J72's built 1949 - 1951. Note that the rods to the front sandboxes are absent on these locos. Also the very prominent rear sandboxes which were a BR addition to the design and only present on the 69001 - 69029 batch.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

Edited June 29, 2017 by mikemeg

[Daddyman]

Note that the rods to the front sandboxes are absent on these locos. 

None of the BR-built locos had them; they all had Downs' sanding (the drive to which is visible on the splasher side).

 

But maybe by "these locos" you meant the whole BR batch? 

[Tim Lewis]

I did wonder whether any of the J77's were ever vacuum fitted i.e. for station pilot work. Anyway, sure enough, a photo turned up to prove that at least one of these locos was indeed vacuum fitted. The photo is inside Hull Botanic Gardens shed in August 1952 and shows a Fletcher cab example, No 68401.

 

As ever, with these old black and white photos, I am indebted to my old mate Mick Nicholson for finding and electronically cleaning up this photo; though he was unable to remove that damn great heap in the foreground!!

 

Cheers

 

Mike

According to the Green Book/Yeadon, twelve J77s were vacuum fitted, from dates between November 1945 and March 1949.

[ArthurK]

According to the Green Book/Yeadon, twelve J77s were vacuum fitted, from dates between November 1945 and March 1949. 

 

The production kits have al the details contained in the "Green books" reproduced by the kind permission of The  Railway Correspondence and Travel Society. No need to search for your copy when you buy the kit!

 

ArthurK

Edited June 29, 2017 by ArthurK

[mikemeg]

NORTH EASTERN KITS LNER J71

 

Another one now completed (well almost, still needs the sand pipes!!); Arthur's J71. The various external castings, to suit the small diameter of these boilers, Arthur has now done, though there may still be some castings for the 'internals' to be done.

 

Anyway, I think this captures the essence of these long lived locos very well.

 

As an aside, I invested in a daylight lamp, both for illuminating the model building and for lighting the photographs. Now I have no connection with this supplier - Andrew James - but their product - wow!!

 

Cheers

 

Mike

Edited January 13, 2018 by mikemeg

[JaymzHatstand]

That's absolutely gorgeous! I've got my name on the list for one of these when they become available, and my appetite is now well and truly whet! Of course I do still need to decide which loco I'm building it as, which means several trawls through Yeadon!

 

Cheers

 

J