It should not happen to a Brassmasters 4F

[Blandford1969]

As some of you may know Hayfield bought the remains of a 4f, which he then sold onto me.

 

My challenge is to now re-build it into a working engine.

 

When it arrived through the post looking at it I quickly realised this was going to require bits of scratch building. First the tender a lovely state of the art kit with so much detail. It looks like it had been thrown in anger after having the middle ground out.

 

So as you can see the tender is a mess. The frames are basically wrecked, the body needs a new front and inside coal space, as well as some of the smaller details like lifting links being missing.

 

I have decided the simplest route is to do a pre 1927 tender with low front, taking advantage of the new Fowler tender front, which I purchased at the weekend. I was also lucky John was willing to sell me an etch for the underframe, so I will start with that tomorrow.

 

The main frames are a bit more of a problem. I know Horsetan was interested in the valve gear, but in truth it is shot with bits in the wrong places and bent or broken.

 

More importantly one of the frames is broken. I have decided to take them to bits solder the good frame onto some nickel and cut myself a new one.

 

The body itself is just badly put together with the cab with an odd add on to the backhead, which will all go.

 

I'm not bothered with the interior being missing as I will want to build a new one for the engine. The sandbox covers will go along with the remains of the ejector and 'sprung' buffers that are soldered tight in the compressed position.

 

So to now get dismantling the tender, or what's left. of it

 

This is going to be 44096 a Bath engine and right hand drive, which of course will need a few more alterations.

 

 

 

[Talltim]

Wouldn't it be easier to start from scratch? Who did Hayfield buy it from, the binman?

[Blandford1969]

I know what you mean. I've got a boiler, cab sides and running plate that are all right and I would have paid a lot more from Brassmasters for. Anyway I like a challenge, lol

[Bucoops]

[Reorte]

Wouldn't it be easier to start from scratch? Who did Hayfield buy it from, the binman?

Ex-Barry condition by the looks of things!

[Horsetan]

Cost him 26 quid. Would have been less if I hadn't been interested.....

 

Still, judging by the photos, think I escaped this one.

 

Wouldn't it be easier to start from scratch? ....

 

He'll have to ask Brassmasters for all of the new frets to repair it, never mind the castings. Not going to be cheap, but probably cheaper than a fresh kit.

Edited December 1, 2017 by Horsetan

[wagonman]

What's that old saying? "The Impossible we can do at once, Miracles take a little longer"?

[rovex]

I think someone's sold an insurance write off

[Horsetan]

I think someone's sold an insurance write off

Category B, I'd have thought. At least the resin boiler hasn't been damaged.

[polybear]

Cost him 26 quid. Would have been less if I hadn't been interested.....

 

 

Just to be clear on this, Hayfield had to pay Blandford 26 notes to take it off his hands?  He should've asked for more.....

[Blandford1969]

Well I have spent some time unsoldering this evening. Next comes cleaning up parts and then tomorrow I will make a start on replacing the tender interior with one from brass. The mainframe is better than I expected and I think it will be possible to use as a pattern.

 

As for the cost so far as been £15 for the Fowler detailing etch, 5 for a brass version of the valve gear, It won't work but it will still look the part and a replacement tender frame etch. I've been able to salvage the buffers, tender axleboxes, tender filler, dome, chimney. I don't like the lubricators so would have replaced with others anyway. I will have to replace some of the springs which are missing but I've got some etched ones in a box.

 

It certainly feels like an insurance write off, but as Horsetan says it will still give me a second Brassmasters 4f at a fraction of the cost. I'm still below the cost of the tender at the moment.

[Blandford1969]

I've now drawn myself a pattern to start cutting out tomorrow, along with starting to clean up the parts which can be recovered or used for patterns.

 

More tomorrow

 

 

[Horsetan]

Just to be clear on this, Hayfield had to pay Blandford 26 notes to take it off his hands?  He should've asked for more.....

 

That would have decimated his eBay profit book for a whole month! 

Edited December 2, 2017 by Horsetan

[Blandford1969]

What time I had today continued to be cleaning up and removing parts, often which had been put on the wrong way round or in the wrong place. I've gone through three glass fibre burnishing refills in cleaning off several layers of paint, which were still on despite it being stripped. Best of all I managed to recover the etched plate below the filler that was lost under paint.

 

The fun of rebuilding starts tomorrow. I'll take some photos tomorrow.

[Blandford1969]

In between child-minding, going to the play barn, cooking, etc. I have continued with the rebuild, which does feel much like the real thing in taking it to bits and spending ages cleaning off rubbish.

 

So to that replacement tender top. I dug out a bit of 10 thou from the off cuts from etches I have done. Invariably its not square so I start off by getting it squared off to then be able to mark it up.

 

Now with an right angled end

 

I then mark up the brass from my drawing and use a heavy duty scribe to get a good line for the knife. I have learned this really helps with keeping the knife where I want it and if it starts going off, I then re-scribe.

 

My preference is to start at one end and work my way back in this case from the front

 

The I finished off working my way to the back, before flipping over to mark and then make the line for the fold underneath and use my GW Rivet press to quickly do some rivets round where the dome will go.

 

That's it for tonight apart from looking at drawings for tomorrows work. Next will come the bases for the lifting links and supports at the back of the coal space and I have an idea how to make it. I also need to mark up and drill for where the air vents will go. As this is 44096 with a pre 1927 tender the vents are in the coal space. The finally rebuilding properly can begin, as has been said miracles take longer than the simple. I also now know new buffers and tender axleboxes will be needed as the old ones are just too far gone.

  

 

 

[hayfield]

Just to be clear on this, Hayfield had to pay Blandford 26 notes to take it off his hands?  He should've asked for more.....

 

I bought the kit for the wheels and motor (as I noted on another thread), The person I bought it from said they tried to restore it, how the parts got broken I have no idea

 

As I had no interest in the body I relisted the parts showing what was left and whilst certain parts are missing/damaged and knowing chassis were available elsewhere thought someone may like a challenge, as Horestan stated both of them wanted the item. Had it been either a GWR or SR loco I would have kept it and used the best parts in a kit bash project

 

I think this is a contender for that restoration program on the TV, No doubt Blandford will make a good job of bringing the item back to life, and certainly will provide some challenges during the long winter building period, but there are some of us that like making things out of items others think are past it. Blue Peter has a lot to answer for

[polybear]

I think this is a contender for that restoration program on the TV,

 

Songs of Praise may be more appropriate.....

[Blandford1969]

Songs of Praise may be more appropriate.....

Well at least its not Mission Impossible. lol

[Stentor]

Well the EBay listing did say “in dire need of help” so it is living up to expectations.

 

Keep up the good work and power to your elbow.

 

Simon

[Blandford1969]

So I've made more progress today. Firstly here is the body after all the cleaning up which has had a good amount of time on it.

 

 

It shows up that for OO a new front platform is going to need to be built as well as the frames altered, but more of that later on. The tender sides too have been cleaned up with most of the remainder thrown away.

 

As you know I have already cut a new interior and today I finally got on with making more bits and starting to put it together. I started with the lifting links for the back of the tender. I cut some scrap brass and filed it to the right width. The scribed down the middle to get my centre line.

 

Its then a simple case of drilling the centre hole and then filing the shape. I also file underneath to form the lug for soldering it in.

 

Next to start putting this together there is often a beading strip round the edge of the inside of the tender. To make this I took some thin scrap etches out of my stock of such scrap which is very useful. Having found some that was the right width I used my GW Rivet press to rivet up as you can see below. I would not be without this for such scratch building as you can get rivets at equal spacing.

 

Having riveted up the strip it was time to start soldering. This was not without incident as my first soldering iron failed and my soldering gun then started to smoke a lot so had to go. You can see the one part saved from the original tender in the form of the etched part below the tank filler.

 

Having got all these parts on, you can see I have still to mark up and drill the locations for the lifting links and the pads which go round them. I will probably use some 5 thou brass, but I will post if once I have decided. Also still to make is a new rear partition, which I have drawn out this evening to cut out and make tomorrow.

 

Even though those last details are not on I have decided to fold up the inner to see how it looks at fits. I'm fairly happy, but the one side needs some tweaking.

 

Finally for a break from that I decided to start looking at what I can do about the frames. Again scrap etch material is my friend, and using some I have soldered the frame onto a bit of nickel as you can see below.

 

Then the final part was to start using my fret saw to carefully cut away the nickel around. I'm only do a bit at a time and still have to work out what to do with the really weak frame at the back, again an idea is germinating.

 

I'll carry on with this as well tomorrow, together with continuing my scratch building of tender parts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MarkC]

Wow! I've done several eBay 'rescue' projects, but nothing like this one. Great work.

[Blandford1969]

Thanks, its certainly an epic, but is good for practicing my scratch-building skills. I'm working on the rear coal plate in between playing with the children and getting my skis out. Hopefully some more later.

[Blandford1969]

I've only made a little bit of progress today with 'important' duties of playing with the children in the snow and demonstrating my ski's which they have never seen in use before.

 

Anyway back to the build. Today has consisted of cutting a new rear coal plate for the tender

 

I did this in my usual way of squaring some brass and then using my ellipse tool and scribing a line in the brass till there was a deep enough line to use the knife. Having done that it was time to rivet the inner face. You can see I mark it up with pencil lines and then use my rivet press to keep the lines uniform (or that's the idea)

 

 

 

Then it was time to use 5 thou brass to cut out and then rivet the additional strengthening parts

 

Finally it is all ready for soldering on, apart from the beading for the top of the rear partition, which again will come from scrap etch.

[Blandford1969]

Carrying on from yesterday I needed to make the supports for the rear coal space. Again scrap etch (you can never have enough) has been a help.

 

Having got that sorted before going further I soldered together the bits already made although I left the pads off for the lifting links as I decided they were not good enough. The shot below is before being cleaned up.

 

Now I could go back to getting the supports filed to shape with the bottom edges done first.

The cut with the tops also shaped

 

Finally for today I soldered them all on, including the lifting links and this is what it looks like after cleaning up, which in fairness I do after each set of parts is added. I'm happy with the pads not being on.

 

Tomorrow is time to start rebuilding the parts which are left and which are laid out on the workbench (tip) before making a start on the new Brassmasters low front, which hopefully will also come tomorrow.