Manning Wardle L Class 0-6-0 (Agenoria Kit)

[jdb82]

Rear buffer beam and valances soldered on and cleaned up.

 

 

And underneath...

 

 

May go back to the chassis next and have a play with creating the air reservoir for the Westinghouse system. I found some copper pipe. Shame they only sold it by the meter - I need approximately 2.5cm. Plenty of spare if I mess up the first one or two. In fact I have enough to make 40 of them!

[jdb82]

I was browsing through the photos of Bamburgh after I posted yesterday, and noticed that unlike the valances provided with the kit, they have a curved 'L' shape at each end. As you can see from the photos in my previous post, the valances provided with the kit are just straight. Manning Wardle produced so many variations of their locos, not to mention all the modifications made by owners, that there's no way each one can be covered in a single kit. This is good for a modeller such as myself, as it forces a bit of scratch building!

 

 

I began by finding a suitable strip of scrap etch. I soldered 4 pieces together with the intention of making sure all were the same shape and size. 

 

 

Next, I marked out the the shape to form the brass to.

 

 

I did contemplate using the piercing saw, but decided to go for a grinding disc in the mini drill instead to shape the profile. 

 

 

Not quite the exact shape of the prototype, but better than the flat valance ends that were provided.

Here they are with the layers unsoldered and cleaned up

 

And attached to the valances/buffer beams

 

 

[jdb82]

So to the Westinghouse air reservoir.

A lathe would have made this job a whole lot easier! Having cut the required length from the length of copper pipe, I then wanted to try and thin the pipe wall as it was about 1.5mm thick - way too much to be a scale thickness. The pipe was too wide to fit the chuck of my drill, so I needed to find an alternative way of holding the workpiece.

My solution was a bit Heath Robinson, but did the trick. 3 rubber bands wound round the handle of my craft knife was enough to hold it. I held the drill between my legs whilst holding a file against the spinning tube, and finished it off with some fairly coarse we and dry. I reckon I took about half the thickness of the wall off.

 

 

 

Next, I soldered 2 sheets of brass together and cut the circular ends of the reservoir with a piercing saw, before finishing off with files. These were soldered into the ends of the pipe; the thickness of a coffee stirrer indented one end from the edge, and a piece of scrap etch folded to the correct length and inserted into the tube held the other end in the correct position whilst it was soldered. 

 

 

 

Retaining bands were formed again from strips of waste etch that just happened to be the correct width. These were then marked and punched for rivets, although I didn't half drill them first, and so they are not as defined as I would have liked. 

They were then soldered on to the copper tube, which turned out to be harder work than originally thought as the tube still has relatively thick walls, and being copper was quite a heat sink. These turned out to be a little chunkier than I would have liked - half etch would have been better, but I don't have and metal sheet, or scrap, that thin unfortunately. I decided to keep it, as most of it will be hidden under the loco anyway. 

 

 

 

The outlet pipe (or is it an inlet?) from the right hand side of the cylinder was made with a 16ba nut and nickel silver wire, bent to the appropriate shape just with pliers.

 

The mounting brackets to attach it all to the chassis were made by simply soldering a 14ba nut onto the top of the retaining bands. Slots were cut into the frame spacer above and 12ba bolts inserted through this, and screwed into the corresponding nut. Loctite and solder should prevent them from going anywhere! 

Here's the finished thing, and installed onto the loco. It is a little oversized from the prototype's dimensions, but unless anyone looks at the loco with a photo in their hand to compare it to, I'm not sure anyone would know. 

 

 

 

 

Thoroughly enjoying this holiday - modelling and badminton in the background. What better combination could you ask for?!

 

[doilum]

So to the Westinghouse air reservoir.

A lathe would have made this job a whole lot easier! Having cut the required length from the length of copper pipe, I then wanted to try and thin the pipe wall as it was about 1.5mm thick - way too much to be a scale thickness. The pipe was too wide to fit the chuck of my drill, so I needed to find an alternative way of holding the workpiece.

My solution was a bit Heath Robinson, but did the trick. 3 rubber bands wound round the handle of my craft knife was enough to hold it. I held the drill between my legs whilst holding a file against the spinning tube, and finished it off with some fairly coarse we and dry. I reckon I took about half the thickness of the wall off.

 

IMG_8648.JPG

 

IMG_8595.JPG

 

Next, I soldered 2 sheets of brass together and cut the circular ends of the reservoir with a piercing saw, before finishing off with files. These were soldered into the ends of the pipe; the thickness of a coffee stirrer indented one end from the edge, and a piece of scrap etch folded to the correct length and inserted into the tube held the other end in the correct position whilst it was soldered. 

 

IMG_8649.JPG

 

IMG_8604.JPG

 

Retaining bands were formed again from strips of waste etch that just happened to be the correct width. These were then marked and punched for rivets, although I didn't half drill them first, and so they are not as defined as I would have liked. 

They were then soldered on to the copper tube, which turned out to be harder work than originally thought as the tube still has relatively thick walls, and being copper was quite a heat sink. These turned out to be a little chunkier than I would have liked - half etch would have been better, but I don't have and metal sheet, or scrap, that thin unfortunately. I decided to keep it, as most of it will be hidden under the loco anyway. 

 

IMG_8605.JPG

 

IMG_8650.JPG

 

The outlet pipe (or is it an inlet?) from the right hand side of the cylinder was made with a 16ba nut and nickel silver wire, bent to the appropriate shape just with pliers.

 

The mounting brackets to attach it all to the chassis were made by simply soldering a 14ba nut onto the top of the retaining bands. Slots were cut into the frame spacer above and 12ba bolts inserted through this, and screwed into the corresponding nut. Loctite and solder should prevent them from going anywhere! 

Here's the finished thing, and installed onto the loco. It is a little oversized from the prototype's dimensions, but unless anyone looks at the loco with a photo in their hand to compare it to, I'm not sure anyone would know. 

 

westinghouse collage.jpg

 

westinghouse installed.jpg

 

 

Thoroughly enjoying this holiday - modelling and badminton in the background. What better combination could you ask for?!

IMG_8657.JPG

A work of art in it's own right

[jdb82]

Laminating is not always my favourite part of the process, but today it's gone rather well. All 6 springs have been soldered and cleaned up. The sprung clip has rapidly become an essential part of my toolbox, and often acts as my 'third hand'. The orange paper is used to prevent the plastic covering from melting on to the metal and making a mess.

 

 

 

[jdb82]

Buffers and coupling hooks were the order of today. The coupling hooks were straightforwards, although the screw link couplings are not sprung as they are intended to be as there is not enough space behind the buffer beam; it's only a dinky little loco.

 

The buffers should have been straightforwards too, but I discovered a snag before I got very far. The buffers I am using are sprung, and therefore need a nut to retain everything behind the buffer beam. Part of the buffer is designed to go through the hole in the beam, however, the hole is too small for the buffer unit by almost 2mm. As you can see from the photo below the hole is tight up against the footplate, so enlarging the hole wasn't an option.

 

 

Undeterred, I thought of simply reducing the diameter of this part of the buffer as it would be unseen under the footplate. Out came the drill and the file once more (see previous post) to 'file' off the 2mm required. I hadn't taken into account that the bore of the buffer maybe more than the hole in the end at the back..... it soon sheered off.

 

 

The solution seemed simple: cut off the back of each of the buffer units, cut the top off them, and then solder them onto the back of the buffer beam. Then the unit can be used as intended. All 4 were prepared, and then soldered onto the beams. A bit more cleaning up is required, as I couldn't solder these from behind.

 

Before surgery and after

 

All 4 prepared - the one on the right is smaller as I'd already reduced this with the drill/file. It will be underneath, so it won't be seen.

 

 

The rear of the buffer unit that was cut off was soldered onto the back of the buffer beam. 

 

Then I realised that there's no room for the retaining nut on the back of the buffer as it's too close to the running plate, so a pin will be used instead. I have seen a design for a 'self-contained' sprung buffer unit, which would have made all the modifications described above unneeded, but I just don't have the kit to make one. 

 

 

And just for the record, Barnsley are top of the league after a thumping 4-0 opening day win. Thought I'd mention it, as I'm unlikely to be able to say this again for quite a while.

 

Off for a couple of days away in Miri across the border, so the bench will be lonely until later this week.

 

[jdb82]

Onto the cab next - the thing I'm not so keen about the L class in comparison to some of the other MW classes is the size of the cab. I think it looks rather oversized given the rest of the loco is pretty small really. Anywhoos, the cab front & sides, cab back and bunker plate were cut off from the fret, de-tabbed and cleaned up.

 

 

The cab sides just fold back from the cab front, and locate in the slots provided in the foot plate. I used rubber bands to provide a light inward pressure to retain the back bunker plate. This needed rolling to create a curve to match the profile of the sides, and was done in the time honoured way of using something cylindrical on a soft surface. I envy those with rollers.

 

 

 

Once the curve was correct, it was soldered in place and the bottom was filed off level as there was a little overhang. 

 

 

Next, the cab back was soldered in, being careful to ensure it was square and vertical. The cab is currently just placed on the running plate whilst I work out what parts might be easier to add before fixing it down! I've also left the parts on the fret that were placed inside the cab openings attached for now to provide a bit of extra support. I'll snip them off once everything is soldered together.

 

Edited August 10, 2018 by jdb82

[jdb82]

As you know if you followed my previous build, painting is something that is not top of my confidence, or proficiency, list. Therefore I aim to make it as simple as possible! The cab of small locos such as this make painting and weathering the interior cab a little fiddly, so I’m trying to work out what to attach now, and what to leave out and epoxy in place later on.

 

I thought the best way to do that would be to gather all the cab parts and see what I’ve got.

 

 

The firebox came pre-rolled, but the apex of the curve was nowhere near where it should have been, so I re-did it before soldering to the backhead and roundin off the edges. The rivets were dimpled out after soldering the two pieces to try and prevent quite as much distorting of the blackhead. Must get myself a GW models riveter one day.....

 

 

The inner bunkers, bunker doors and hand break stanchion were made up next. I will probably solder these to the cab before I solder the cab to the running plate (just placed there currently). The cab floor is causing me some concern though. It doesn’t extend all the way to the front of the cab - it stops when it reaches where the firebox will go. Also, the gaps left for the leaf suspension seem overly large to me, however I don’t have any prototype photos of the inner cab to compare them to. If anyone has any to hand, please drop me a line!

 

[Regularity]

Not all L class locos had such a big cab: look at Sir Berkeley, for example.

[jdb82]

Not all L class locos had such a big cab: look at Sir Berkeley, for example.

 

Very true - they came in all kinds of different guises. My prototype, Bamburgh, did have the full cab, covering the entire firebox, dome and safety valve. A kind RMWeb member has sent cab interior photos of Matthew Murray on the Middleton Railway in Leeds, and whilst this of course doesn't guarantee the same arrangement of dials, pipes and knobs, it's all I have to go on for recreating the inside. The only thing I know for certain (thanks to Fred Harman's description in his book) is that it had the round type firebox doors - not dissimilar to Sir Berkley - which is what I'm currently knocking up. Luckily the kit provides the correct door type, but it's a rather one-dimensional half-etched affair. I'm attempting to bring it to life a bit :-)

Edited August 22, 2018 by jdb82

[jdb82]

RMweb seems very quiet this weekend - I hope you are all enjoying Telford! I'm not envious. At all. I do however look forwards to seeing what you have all bought and their progress on your workbenches.

 

I've only had short snippets of time over the last couple of weeks and have been concentrating on the little cab details. 

First off was the safety valve. On Bamburgh, this was located on top of the backhead/firebox, inside the cab. The lost wax casting needed quite a lot of fettling, and some parts needed filling with solder and sanding smooth. The closeup shows that there might still be some work to do. 

 

 

Next was the firebox door. This is a rather 1 dimensional, half-etched offering, and frankly it looked a bit half-finished. So I have tried to bring a bit of life to it. First job was to cut the door from the frame with the piercing saw. The intension was to have the door partly open, to give the 'picture' a bit of texture if nothing else. The hinge of the door was created by soldering 4 16BA nuts to the door & frame, and threaded a 0.5mm nickel silver wire through them, and soldered it all together. I was quite pleased with the result! How people do this kind of thing in 4mm scale though, is completely beyond me.....

 

 

The regulator valve, gauge glasses, shelf, pipe work and safety valve were all added. The flare on the bottom of the safety valve didn't quite match that of the top of the firebox - filing the middle would have left the dome a little thin, so the gaps were filled with Araldite and sanded to match the profile. In theory, once it's painted up you won't know it's there. All needs a good clean up as it's now a bit grubby.

 

 

The bunkers were soldered up with a couple of handles added. The handbrake stanchion was cleaned up, and the reverser lever laminated and folded up ready to be soldered into the cab. I think I will leave the backhead out of the cab for now for painting, and then epoxy in place once painted, but solder everything else in.

 

 

Attention now turns to the cab floor, which is currently undergoing some modifications. More on that later this week.....

 

 

[jdb82]

Turns out later in the week has become this evening :-)

The cab floor has been bugging me. It's not a very good fit either around the bunkers, the cab sides and especially the springs, where the gap left seems ridiculously wide.

 

 

The fact that it folds up only serves too accentuate these deficiencies, and also seems to obstruct the bottom of the firebox door, and the bunker openings. After checking the photos I have, there is no evidence the cab floor was raised by the 6 or 7 inches the kit would suggest, and so I decided therefore it would be better to have it flat to the running plate. This meant moving the nut used to secure the body to the chassis from on top on the running plate, to underneath. It had to fit in the small gap between the bottom of the running plate and the top of the frame spacer, and so the thickness needed to be decided by half before soldering.

 

 

 

Next, the folded sides of the floor were removed, and and insert made to narrow the gap for the springs.

 

 

 

Not perfect and still needs tidying, but much better than before. I'll solder this, the reversing lever and the hand brake in place next.

 

 

 

 

 

[Simond]

Nice work on the fire door. I’m guessing from your description that you soldered each nut individually?

 

Solder won’t stick to metal that’s greasy or coated in certain things, one of which is marking blue. Felt tip pen is nearly as good.

 

Saw the frame around the top, (but not all the way round) where the nuts will go, and coat a piece of wire with something that will act as a solder resist. Thread the nuts on the wire, align on the etch and solder to door and frame. Then finish sawing.

 

I’d guess this works in 4mm, if your eyesight is up to it!

 

Best

Simon

[jdb82]

Nice work on the fire door. I’m guessing from your description that you soldered each nut individually?

 

Solder won’t stick to metal that’s greasy or coated in certain things, one of which is marking blue. Felt tip pen is nearly as good.

 

Saw the frame around the top, (but not all the way round) where the nuts will go, and coat a piece of wire with something that will act as a solder resist. Thread the nuts on the wire, align on the etch and solder to door and frame. Then finish sawing.

 

I’d guess this works in 4mm, if your eyesight is up to it!

 

Best

Simon

 

 

Hi Simon,

Didn't think of solder resist! That would have made things easier. Having already cut the door out completely, I just lined everything up on my wooden board, threaded the nuts onto the wire and held everything in place as best I could with clips and fingers. Fiddly is probably an accurate description!

[jdb82]

Just a few pics of the cab interior.... 

 

The floor has been soldered in place, as has the hand brake stanchion. As suggested by Simon, I used a solder resist (in this case a Sharpie pen) to prevent the solder flowing down the half-etched 'wooden' strips. Everything else has just been 'placed', and will be painted first before finally fixing into position. The reversing lever has been made up, but isn't in the photos.

 

 

 

 

 

[jdb82]

Almost 3 weeks since my last post - busy busy!

 

Since then, the cab has been soldered to the running plate. Bamburgh was fitted with 3'6" wheels - slightly larger than the standard size of 3'1" that lots of the L Class's came with. This made them protrude though the running plate, and were covered by small splashers. These are not part of the kit, and so I have made my own:

 

4 strips of brass were soldered together and the curve marked through blue marker. They were then cut out with a piercing saw, and the layers were then unsoldered and cleaned up.

 

 

A simple jig was made with track pins and a few waters of masking tape. The vertical face of the splashers are inset slightly, and so layers of masking tape were used to keep the brass in the correct position whilst soldering.

 

 

 

Now repeat 3 more times! 

 

Edited September 23, 2018 by jdb82

[Sebring115]

Very nice build. I noticed earlier there seem to be some drawings in the kit. I would like to build a 4mm version, but need some drawings, do you know where I could get a copy? Cheers Mark

[jdb82]

Very nice build. I noticed earlier there seem to be some drawings in the kit. I would like to build a 4mm version, but need some drawings, do you know where I could get a copy? Cheers Mark

 

 

Hi Mark,

I got the drawings I've used from the book "The North Sunderland Railway" by Alan Wright. The drawings are specific to the L Class loco they had, Bamburgh. As I'm sure you're aware, the exact specifics of individual locos varied wildly, however the basic dimensions should be the same. Be aware that Bamburg had 3'6" wheels which were larger than most L class's. 

There were also some drawings with the kit instructions, however these did not have any dimensions on them. 

John

[Regularity]

Very nice build. I noticed earlier there seem to be some drawings in the kit. I would like to build a 4mm version, but need some drawings, do you know where I could get a copy? Cheers Mark

Detailed drawings are available in Model Railway Journal issue 8.

[Sebring115]

Some pictures I took outside the black country museum

[jdb82]

Thanks Mark - they are really useful, especially the ones inside the cab, and the pipework just in front of the cab - are they the injectors?.....must make spend more time learning the anatomy of locos.....

[jdb82]

Apologies for the lack of build updates recently - baby #1 arrived a couple of weeks ago and has been occupying a certain amount of my time!

[Regularity]

Apologies for the lack of build updates recently - baby #1 arrived a couple of weeks ago and has been occupying a certain amount of my time!

Congratulations!

My firstborn has just gone off to Uni. I warn you now, the time goes very quickly, so make the very most of it and enjoy every moment.

 

Incidentally, the best tip I was given was to take a few snapshots to capture the moment, rather than videoing everything.

The best tip I can offer from personal serendipity is to go for a short holiday in about 3 months, as the baby will be starting to develop more, and becoming less of an appendage to mother, and you can give your partner a big break from all the work she will gave put in. This is even more important when subsequent babies come along, as it means mother and older siblings can spend quality time together. (This is all a downstream consequence of our brain sizes: human infants are essentially born 3 months prematurely, as otherwise their heads wouldn’t get through the pelvis, so they are even more helpless than other neonates.)

 

By the way, women’s brains do change during pregnancy (slightly softer) but they do return to normality. Unlike you. Your brain has changed irrevocably (thanks to oxytocin and other hormones) and you have joined the unspoken fatherclub. You now view the world subtly differently, as something to nurture and protect.

 

Boy or girl?

Edited October 10, 2018 by Regularity

[doilum]

Thanks Mark - they are really useful, especially the ones inside the cab, and the pipework just in front of the cab - are they the injectors?.....must make spend more time learning the anatomy of locos.....

The plumbing of individual locos seems very idiosyncratic and subject to change over time.

Fortunately Bamborough seems well documented. Not sure if I have previously posted but Model Railways January 1975 had an article on Bamborough. In addition to issue 8, MRJ 12 also had a feature on Manning Wardle. Checking my research I am reminded that I have the drawings and notes to do Ackton Hall#2. Will have to wait until 82004 and Ackton Hall #3 are done.

[jdb82]

Congratulations!

Boy or girl?

 

  

 

A little girl :-) Thanks for all the advice - it certainly is a learning curve!

 

The plumbing of individual locos seems very idiosyncratic and subject to change over time.

Fortunately Bamborough seems well documented. Not sure if I have previously posted but Model Railways January 1975 had an article on Bamborough. In addition to issue 8, MRJ 12 also had a feature on Manning Wardle. Checking my research I am reminded that I have the drawings and notes to do Ackton Hall#2. Will have to wait until 82004 and Ackton Hall #3 are done.

I have a couple f articles, along with a book which I’ve managed to get quite a bit of info from - certainly makes life a lot easier!