Scorpio 7mm 51XX by PAD

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Nice work on the steam pipe bases Peter, but looking at the prototype picture in post #54, I'd say the steam pipes are too short and thus at too shallow an angle, compared to the cylinders. What do you reckon?

 

Maybe they were made that way to suit the original (incorrect), inclination of the cylinders that you've already rectified? I hope there's a suitable diameter of tubing that would enable you to fashion some replacements before it's too late!

 

 

Regards

 

Dan

 

Hi Dan,

I have  checked the  parts against the  drawing in the  GW Journal and  yes  you  are correct. The pipes are too narrow and the angle is too shallow. I've got  some  suitable  brass tube so I will make  some from scratch.  Many thanks for  pointing that out as I did not spot it.  Now that you have, the more I look at them, the  worse they look.  If you  spot anything else, please let me  know.

Cheers,

Peter

[Dan Randall]

Hi Dan,

I have checked the parts against the drawing in the GW Journal and yes you are correct. The pipes are too narrow and the angle is too shallow. I've got some suitable brass tube so I will make some from scratch. Many thanks for pointing that out as I did not spot it. Now that you have, the more I look at them, the worse they look. If you spot anything else, please let me know.

Cheers,

Peter

Glad to be of help Peter and that you hadn't yet reached the painting stage!

 

 

Regards

 

Dan

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I've put the steampipes on hold for now and moved on to other areas. Got some of the details on the tank tops, added the valve rocker covers, the operating rods on the front sandboxes, the lubricator pot on the right hand tank front, the lifting rings inside the bunker and the access plate to the tank inside the bunker.

 

[Scale7JB]

Really nice!

 

JB.

[Horsetan]

Stunning.

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Back to the steampipes. Ordered some from Springside which arrived today. Unfortunately they don't come with the base, only the pipes which are in two parts! So first I had unsolder the Scorpio pipes from the brass base I made.Then I had to solder the two part pipes together and then cut to length at the required angle. A real pig to get straight and then I lost the bands filing and cleaning up. I made replacements from shim brass cut into strips and soldered into a ring. These were then slid onto the pipes and fixed with cyano. I then "tacked" the base plates to the running plate and lined up and soldered pipes to base with Carrs 70 degree. The left one was no problem but on the right side I was a fraction too long with the iron, and the previously soldered joint moved. AAAAAAAAAAGH!

Took 20 mins of fiddling to repair it.

Here's the results.

You can see the snifting valve behind the pipe. On this side it is slightly to the rear and on the left slightly to the front of the steampipes.

 

Not perfect but much better than the Scorpio ones.

 

The steampipes were removed from the running plate by prising underneath with a scalpel blade and the cleaned up. They are only placed for the photos. I'll epoxy them to the running plate only so that the boiler may still be removed to aid painting and lining.

Cheers,

Peter

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Been adding more castings since  my  last  post and  now  have all the  tank top, bolier and  front end end detail in place (apart from the braken pipe, steam pipe  and coupling on the  buffer beam).

 

I have  also made  some  items  not  covered in the kit, namely the oil pots at the  front of  the  running plate, in front of  the  front splashers and on top of  the valve rocker covers, plus the  footsteps on the  boiler support bracket in front of  the  tanks.  I have  replaced the  front plate support struts with brass in place of  white  metal, and they are only soldered on the  running place  to allow  the  boiler to be  removed.

 

The steps were made from waste etch. I cut a slot in the  end of  a  length firtst, then solded another pices into the  slotand  cut  and  filed it  to shape  to make the  "webbing" under the  step. A bit  fiddly and tricky to get in place but  worth the  effort.  The oil pots were simply made  from lenths of brass rod soldered into holes drilled in the  running plate and  valve rocker covers. 

 

The operating lever for  the  front sanboxes has to be cut where it passes the  edg of  the  running plate to allow removal of  the  chassis, but  is  hardly noticable.  I soldered a tiny piece of  waste etch to support the  end on the  running plate to make  it  more robust, but  again not  noticeable.

 

On the  tank tops, the  lifting rings and vents are from the  PRC range, and  the  tank fillers are spares from the  JLTRT 57XX, suitably modified to fit  on the  slooping tank front sections. Also got  the  mud hole covers on the  firebox shoulders.  These are the  nickel silver castings from the  kit.  The safety valves casing and top feed are from Hobbyhorse. Two of  the lifting rings supplied in the  kit have  been used inside the  bunker.  The bases were the  wrong shape but  I filed them to more  or  less the  right  shape but  they are  not  so visible.  For  those  of  you  who didn't know,  The three rivets set in a triangle on the outside  of  the  bunker under the  grab rails are to secure the lifting rings inside the  bunker. I suspected as much and  was able  to sneak into the  cab of  the  61 XX at Didcot and  take  some photos of  the  inside  of  the  bunker, which confirmed what the  rivets are for.  As mentioned earlier there is also and  inspection plate on the  upper sloping coal plate, which I assume was to allow  access into the  tanks.  Imagine having to crawl in there!

 

All that's left  on the  body to do is  the inside  of  the  cab and  the remaining bits  on the  buffer beam.  Still some work to do on the  chassis and  front pony truck and  of  course I need to put in the  motor/gearbox and  fit  the pick ups. the chassis is  very smooth running as  it  is,so fingers crossed it  will run well when motorised.

 

The steps before fixing.

   

 

And in place.

 

Tank top detail.

 

I aslo added the plates on the underside of  the  boiler which I noted on the  pair of  large prairies at Didcot.

 

This  shows the ferrules added to the  ends of  the  handrails.

 

And the  loco with the  boiler removed. It just slots into place and  is  then secured with a  bolt up through the  running plate into a  captive nut inside the  smokebox.  Should  make  painting and lining a lot  easier.

 

And a front end view.

 

And fianally a close up of  the added step and  sanding gear operating rod.

[Horsetan]

Phwoarrrr.....

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Steady Horse, that's not a Filly!

[Dan Randall]

Nice work Peter and the new steam pipes make a huge difference.

 

 

Regards

 

Dan

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Thanks again Dan for pointing out the error with the steampipes.

 

There were also a couple of other areas of the build that I was not happy with, so I decided to re-do them.

These were the front and rear beading on the cab roof and the lower slidebar on the right side.

 

Here's the beading on the prototype.

 

The roof beading should run the whole length of the roof from side to side. I used the beading in the kit which was about 1 mm or so to short on each side, leaving a gap. I unsoldered the beadings and replaced them with filed down waste etch.

 

To assist in fitting the beading to the roof egde I cobbled up a jig from the ubiquitous coffer stirrers.

The holes are to allow the peg on the shutter to fall into so that the roof sits down flat against the wood. In the background you can see the roof with one beading already soldered in place.

 

Here's the jig being used to hold the second bead in line with the bottom of the roof and vertical, for the first tack solder to be made. You get your fingers burnt a bit but "one has to suffer for ones art".

Once the first tack is done the stirrer is taken out of the vice and then just held by hand as you move out to the edge on one side and then the other. The beading was annealed first to allow for easy curving to match the roof profile. After that it was cleaned up and fettled at the ends until it fit OK.

 

And the finished article. I also took the oportunity to fit the grab rail in the right place after wrongly fitting it to the front right side in error! that happened as I had the roof on back to front when I marked out the position to drill the holes. DUUURGH!!

 

And the front and rear views with the roof clipped back in place.

 

The slidebars on the prototype.

 

As can be seen, the lower slide bars have a chamfer in the middle of the bars to give clearance to the con rod when the cranks are at the bottom of the stroke. On my original attempt, I filed a chamfer accros the width of the bar to get the clearance on the model, but this meant that the chamfer shortened the lenght of the bar and was unsightly. It's not possible to replicate the prototype as the con rods don't run in the middle of the slide bars, being nearer to the inside. So on the left side, I only chamfered the inner edge of the slidebar where the conrod was touching, leaving the outer profile intact.

 

To correct the right side, I filed a groove in the outer edge and then solded some waste nickel silver etch into it. After filing away the excess metal and cleaning up, it now passes muster. There's a slight gap at the joint but I daren't risk a melt down by adding more 145. When I get a minute I'll add a blob of 70 degree low melt to fill it. the joint should then be almost invisible after cleaning up.

 

Cheers,

Peter

[Kenton]

The attention to detail here is well and truly above and beyond a mere kit build. Frankly a staggering number of additions and improvements. I certainly wouldn't go there but I can but merely sit back and admire the work you are doing on this. The quality of workmanship is also outstanding. It is going to be real shame to paint it.

[Horsetan]

The attention to detail here is well and truly above and beyond a mere kit build. Frankly a staggering number of additions and improvements. I certainly wouldn't go there ....

See, with 7mm, there's just so much more to be seen, so you can't really omit it. That's one of the (many) reasons why you won't ever catch me doing anything in that scale.

 

....I can but merely sit back and admire the work you are doing on this.....

That's what the vast majority will also be doing.

 

It is going to be real shame to paint it.

Absolutely. I really do like to see models in the raw.

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Thanks Kenton. Hopefully the paint job will enhance it further.

 

As Horse said, in this scale you can see much more and from my point of view, if something can be seen from normal viewing distances and angles, then I like to add it.

 

On that note here's a first for me. I added the safety chains to the cross beams on the brake rigging. Been wanting to do that on a build since I saw it on one of OzzieO's threads. Bit fiddly but makes a change.

 

The operating rods for the front sanding gear is included in the kit, but not for the rear. I had three linkages spare from my recent 57xx build so cobbled up the operating mechanism with those plus some waste etch and 0.7mm rod.

 

Here's the right side.

 

And the left.

 

And with body on.

 

There are no piston tail rod covers on the valve covers on the cylinders so knocked these up by modifying some spare tank vents from the PRC castings.

 

Here's one already done with the other vent still to do.

 

And attached to the valve covers.

 

I also attached the front and rear guard irons and the whistles but didn't take any pics.

Cheers,

Peter

[Deano747]

Truly awesome!!!

 

Regards, Deano.

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Truly awesome!!!

 

Regards, Deano.

Many thanks Deano.

 

I just realised you can see one of the rear guard irons in the second picture. I have put them on the conventional way, that is with the curve towards the front. This is how they are show in the GWR drawing. Interestingly, both large prairies at Didcot have them the opposite way. Can anybody throw any light as to why?

Cheers,

Peter

[Horsetan]

.... Can anybody throw any light as to why?

Somebody didn't read the drawing?

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Somebody didn't read the drawing?

Possibly. As we know, Crewe Works screwed up the dampers on the ash pan of 71000 which coupled with the poorly proportioned blast pipe and chimney, resulted in poor performance during BR service.

 

However, for Didcot to do it on two separate restorations makes me wonder if they did it for a reason and what it was. No matter I'm confidant that they are correct on my model.

 

Here's another querie. If you look at this clip from a photo of the Lee Marsh large prairie, it's clear that there is an extra angular locker at the rear of the cab between the ones with curved tops. The second clip from the GWR drawing suggests the same. Neither of the two at Didcot have them, and I can find no prototype photos of the locos in service that shows it. Does anybody know anything about this extra locker?

Cheers,

Peter

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Here's how I held the whistles while soldering them to the etched bracket. Just drilled a couple of hole into the edge of a piece wood and then pushed the whistles pipes into the wood through the bracket.

 

Here's one in place.

 

And after soldering.

 

And on the firebox.

 

 

Next the bogie. As it comes in the kit it's simplified and lacks detail.

However from normal viewing angles you can't see much. Here's a shot from rail level.

 

This is the real thing.

 

Not much point in scratch building all that gubbins on top of the truck when it won't be seen, so this is my compromise.

All I've done is add some spare etchings of a similar shape to the cross members, plus a couple of slabs of lead to add weight. I will add another layer and also a thick brass washer to the pivot hole, to make it easier the make a shouldered 8BA bolt to fix it.

 

And a close up from the side with the bogie in place.

 

And the rear guard irons.

 

On the rails on my brother's layout.

 

By the way somebody mentioned not painting it. Looks great after you clean it, but a day later it's tarnished already.

Cheers,

Peter

[mswjr]

Pad,Iam certain the guard irons are right,I have seen them fitted wrong on other preserved railways,They have just fitted them the wrong way round,May i suggest asking Malcolm mitchell ,He will be able to help with the toolbox info,He helped me alot with my Manor loco,He knows everything GWR,find him on Malcolm mitchells A shop malc@swindonworks.co.uk

[Kenton]

 

By the way somebody mentioned not painting it. Looks great after you clean it, but a day later it's tarnished already.

 

 

that's what matt varnish is for isn't it?

[Dave Holt]

I'm thoroughly enjoying this superb build even though GW stuff isn't really my scene. Can I just observe that in the rear end view, the guard irons look too narrow at the bottom? It may be the angle of the photo, but I would expect them to be in line with the rail heads whereas they look to be well withing the gauge width. In the photo before, of the truck on its own, the irons look to be in line with the wheel treads, as I would expect.

Regards,

Dave.

[3 link]

Hi Peter,

 

In one of your pictures above there is a glimpse of your brothers layout, any chance of a more expanded look? The p/way part of his layout looks spot on.

 

Martyn.

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   that's what matt varnish is for isn't it?

Yeh but can you get clear acid primer for varnish?

 

Only joking. I've seen one or two brass locos varnished and they do look good as mantlepiece exhibits. I was just making the point of what filthy stuff brass is compared to nickel silver.

 

I collect old drawing instrument sets but fortunately the manufacturers I like all used nickel silver. You clean them up and they stay clean for a long time, which is why NS replaced brass. It came back into use after WW2 but was chrome plated.

Cheers,

Peter

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I'm thoroughly enjoying this superb build even though GW stuff isn't really my scene. Can I just observe that in the rear end view, the guard irons look too narrow at the bottom? It may be the angle of the photo, but I would expect them to be in line with the rail heads whereas they look to be well withing the gauge width. In the photo before, of the truck on its own, the irons look to be in line with the wheel treads, as I would expect.

Regards,

Dave.

Morning Dave,

Absolutely right about the rear guard irons and they will be adjusted. Thanks for pointing it out.

Cheers,

Peter