5050 Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 A couple of weeks ago Ruston offered to finish/improve the weathering on my Impetus Bagnall so I went to see him - and his new Nant-y-Mynydd OO layout. On his windowsill, looking very sorry for itself was a small Barclay saddle tank, of DJH Starter Kit origin, desperatly in need of some TLC. Ruston told me it didn't work and, after running his Hornby Pecketts, couldn't really be bothered to tackle it. Was I interested in it? Needless to say, always up for a 'challenge', I said 'Yes' and after a bit of bartering, he ended up with some wagons (which he immediately devalued by weathering!) and I got the loco. The very next morning after receiving it (Monday) i decided that, as I was still fresh from finishing my Kingdom Barclay, I would have a look and see what was wrong. For a start it had Romford wheels (no good for P4!) and I couldn't persuade the motor to galvanise into action with the application of numerous volts. Stripping it down was the obvious course of action. The wheels were very anxious to remain in contact with the chassis, so much so that the brass handle on my venerable Romford screwdriver actually twisted on the shaft!. A bit of brute force (hammer) eventually got one wheel of an axle off so they were removed and the bearings and final drive gear put to one side. I had some Gibson 3'6" wheels in stock and a replacement DS10 motor if required. These are the 'frames' which actually comprise a fold-up NS etch, only suitable for OO so, for P4, they had to be widened cosmetically at least. This was done with a 40thou Evergreen strip framework (attached with Evostick) and 30thou black plasticard dummy outer faces. Cutouts were made for the axle bearings, cylinder casting location and slide bar support bracket attachment holes. A thick brass spacer was soldered on the underside to attach a pick-up/keeper plate, tapped 8BA. Another hole with a captive 8BA nut was drilled above the front axle to fit a pivot for the front compensated axle. The gear train is interesting, it looks very 'High Level'ish' and I'm wondering if Chris Gibbons had a hand in the kit design. How the pick-up plate fits - The connecting and coupling rods were very thin, only 20thou, so I beefed them up with some spare 20thou etch waste, soldered and filed to shape and drilled out for crank pins. I decided to keep and use the existing main bearings after a good clean but, as the metal frames are only OO width, I needed to pack out the wheels for P4 back-to-back so cut down some top-hat bearings, fitting them reverse to normal on the outside of the main bearings. No side play was allowed on the front wheel to avoid conflict with the crossheads. To fit the front wheel coupling rod bearings I turned some 1.6mm diameter threaded bushes tapped 14BA with very thin 'heads' With the lathe in action I also made some longer ones for the rear wheels to accomodate the coupling and connecting rods. The grey item is some wire covering stripped off and used to hold rods before final fixing. The kit slidebars came as a fragile NS etching, folded up with the support brackets and a 'circular' part that fits around the cylinder end (see the first photo). The original builder had not done a very good job of this (Not Ruston - he bought it ready built!) and hadn't even filed off the remnants of the attaching tags! Two of the folds were fractured so I saved only the support brackets and made some new slide bars from 1mm x 0.5mm NS strip. Using the lathe, holes were drilled into the face of the cylinders, the slide bars filed down for 3mm to 0.5 x 0.5mm section, and then Araldited into the holes. The crossheads are lost wax castings, very hard and for some godforsaken reason, the builder had cut off the piston rods! I had to drill new holes into the crosshead 'ends', again on the lathe VERY carefully, so that new wire ones could be fitted in due course. The sliding grooves were also poor, filled with excess brass that the builder hadn't bothered to clean out but eventually, after careful work with my new set of mini-files, I had them sliding satisfactorily. I needed to fit a small piece of 20thou brass packing under the front of the cylinder casting to angle them correctly so that the slide bars lined up with the rear wheel centres. I could then solder the slide bars to the correct alignment on the support brackets. The motor was cleaned up and tested again - and it worked! No need therefore at this stage to fit a replacement. Rods were fitted along with crossheads and new piston rods, clearances fettled, wires soldered to pick-up plate and the motor attached and wired. A quick run on the test track showed that it worked! All bearings were lubed (and it ran even better!) and the body temporarily fitted to check clearances. It actually seems to run very well (I always thought the DS10 was a nice little motor) and will hopefully become a really useful engine on 'Enigma Engineering'. I'm not sure what to do with the body at this stage. There is a buffer missing (is it on your bench Ruston?) and the handrails are a bit 'iffy' but the overall appearance isn't to bad, giving a well-weathered and slightly run-down feel. Brake shoes need attaching and some crew to hide the motor (which isn't all that visible given the small cab) and a coat of 'dirty paint' on the shiny plastic chassis cladding will help too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruston Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 You've cracked on with that! I'll have to give you my Impetus Fowler to fettle for me All four buffers were on when it left the shed. I haven't seen a stray buffer anywhere but if it fell off in my van then it's disappeared into a black hole, never to be seen again. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Michael Edge Posted February 9, 2017 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 9, 2017 The DS10 is still available from Branchlines - it's the Hanozono 10x24 and yes it's a very good motor. Nice job with the dead Barclay. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
5050 Posted February 10, 2017 Author Share Posted February 10, 2017 You've cracked on with that! I'll have to give you my Impetus Fowler to fettle for me All four buffers were on when it left the shed. I haven't seen a stray buffer anywhere but if it fell off in my van then it's disappeared into a black hole, never to be seen again. Thanks for checking, I've fitted a temporary wooden dumb buffer for the time being (the original one broke off in a rough shunt and fell down a big hole ). I'll try and find a suitable one in a bits box at a show sometime. Impetus Fowler eh? You've kept that one quiet. I'll have a look at it for you - but it may not fit your track gauge afterwards............................ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruston Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 Do you want it? I'll swap it for a Ship Canal W4 Peckett. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
5050 Posted February 10, 2017 Author Share Posted February 10, 2017 Do you want it? I'll swap it for a Ship Canal W4 Peckett. And where would I find one of those? i thought they were all sold or at least spoken for? I'd like one myself if not! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rope runner Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 The DJH Andrew Barclay is a nice kit once you carve the nameplate off the tank side. I've built a couple and the performance thanks to reduction gearbox and hefty weight is excellent. It also comes with some nice accurate AB loco buffers, which would also be nice as spares... I've often remarked that It's a shame that nobody makes the correct-pattern 14mm 8-spoke wheels for the DJH kit, which would also suit a couple from the Mercian range. Apologies for the pants photo, It's cropped out of the background of something else Paul A. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold tomparryharry Posted February 11, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 11, 2017 The cab backboard on a Barclay is classed as an accessory. In other words you needed to order it as an extra. Barclay made some beautiful deep oval windows for this, with a standard 'porthole' in the centre. Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon A Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 Hi Paul, Do I see that you have fitted the Barclay with a rocking front axle using a long screw and two nuts? Gordon A Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
5050 Posted February 11, 2017 Author Share Posted February 11, 2017 Hi Paul, Do I see that you have fitted the Barclay with a rocking front axle using a long screw and two nuts? Gordon A Yes. The underside one was soldered in place and the upper one is used as a locknut once the length was determined. I used a length of 8BA studding (actually the excess part of a long bolt that had been cropped off. Never chuck anything away) and sawed a slot in the end to be able to adjust it with a screwdriver and also hold it while tightening the locknut. It is currently a brass one but a steel one would probably be preferable. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
5050 Posted February 12, 2017 Author Share Posted February 12, 2017 Here's a couple of shots of the DJH and the Kingdom Barclays together. The difference in size is quite apparent. Now I've seen them together, the Kingdom one looks a bit oversize, it's as big as the 'Big 0-6-0 Bagnall' in fact., which I'm sure they wouldn't be in real life. The 'Melchett' nameplate just doesn't want to attach properly. I said he was an awkward so-and-so didn't I! One thing about the DJH is that the connecting rods seem a bit short. The crosshead only goes about halfway up the slide bars in full movement and is hard against the slide bar support bracket at the extreme 'bottom' end. I know the crankpin throw has a hand in this but with wheels of this size I can't see that there can be that much of a variation. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barclay Posted February 14, 2017 Share Posted February 14, 2017 Here's a couple of shots of the DJH and the Kingdom Barclays together. The difference in size is quite apparent. Now I've seen them together, the Kingdom one looks a bit oversize, it's as big as the 'Big 0-6-0 Bagnall' in fact., which I'm sure they wouldn't be in real life. DJH Kingdom size compare.1.A.jpg DJH Kingdom size compare.2.A.jpg The 'Melchett' nameplate just doesn't want to attach properly. I said he was an awkward so-and-so didn't I! One thing about the DJH is that the connecting rods seem a bit short. The crosshead only goes about halfway up the slide bars in full movement and is hard against the slide bar support bracket at the extreme 'bottom' end. I know the crankpin throw has a hand in this but with wheels of this size I can't see that there can be that much of a variation. The Kingdom kit was based on a much heftier example than the little DJH. Having said that I've always been unsure about its dimensions. I used the recommended 3' 3" wheels on mine but it does ride very low and I think it would look better on 3' 6" wheels. It really was a pretty poor kit but it's still good to see another one built. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
avonside1563 Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 The Kingdom kit looks like it's based on a 16" Barclay whereas the DJH looks like a 14". The give away between the two versions is the frames where they angle up through the running boards from the front buffer beam to the smokebox saddle. So I would expect the Kingdom kit to be a little bigger but the over tall chimney makes it look even bigger and the tank seems rather deeper than it should be. Here's an example of each. 14" 16" Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandhole Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 The Kingdom Kits beast is modelled on a big Barclay. There is a thread somewhere on building one. As usual, I think there are things off with it but I'm cool running mine! I have a thing about Barclays and have an unbuilt DJH kit. I'll have to drag it out of the 'Loft Insulation!!!!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium wagonbasher Posted March 8, 2017 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 8, 2017 The Kingdom Kits beast is modelled on a big Barclay. There is a thread somewhere on building one. As usual, I think there are things off with it but I'm cool running mine! I have a thing about Barclays and have an unbuilt DJH kit. I'll have to drag it out of the 'Loft Insulation!!!!! I seam to remember the djh kit is a 12 inch? Andy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
avonside1563 Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 I seam to remember the djh kit is a 12 inch? Andy It's a 14" Andy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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