Jim's 7mm workbench: Acorn BR Standard 3 Tank

[jim.snowdon]

Until a better kit or rtr is available, don't be put off. At 200 quid, it is what it is, and will never be a Finney kit although Jim is doing his damnest to take it there.

Whilst there are errors to correct, it has captured the basic outline well and will eventually make a good working model. With unlimited funds, I would already be planning 82045.

What I am trying to do is build it at all. There are improvements I am making, or having to make along the way, as a consequence of the shortcomings of the kit's design, but I am living with such things as the whole loco being a foot short. The result will be a likeness, but not a scale replica. Maybe I should number mine as 82046?

 

Jim

[PAD]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the clarification on the artwork. From what I've seen of your work I'm sure it will be an excellent likeness, with the missing 7mm only apparent if the model is placed next to one of the correct scale length.

Cheers,

Peter

[doilum]

I take it that the missing foot is due to cumalative error, otherwise you might have been tempted to cut and splice in the extra mm.

[jim.snowdon]

I take it that the missing foot is due to cumalative error, otherwise you might have been tempted to cut and splice in the extra mm.

I doubt it, although I might be tempted to look more closely once I have the boiler on and all the key dimensions fixed. As it is, with the firebox under construction, I think that is the best part of 6" short, so the other 6" might be in the boiler or smokebox barrels. We'll see.

 

Jim

[doilum]

There are a few thoughts on the 82004 thread

[jim.snowdon]

Here we are, a fortnight or so later, and finally this build is getting to look like a steam locomotive.

 

Having got the bunker sorted out, the next (last) major hurdle is the boiler. The firebox is a bit of a curate's egg; the basic form is provided by two endplates, joined by an inverted fold-up U section to get everything the right distance apart and square. The wrapper, though, is in two halves, joined along the top centreline, with both halves etched to half thickness. Comparing the two end profiles against each other confirmed that not only were they assymetric (typical of a Harris design) but that they were the same size. The assymetry was dealt with by tacking the two plates together and filing the pair to a common profile.

 

A characteristic of Churchward pattern fireboxes is that they taper front to rear, so the first step is to reduce the width of the rear end plate.

 

 

By reference to the drawings, the reduction is the better part of 2mm on each side, the revised profile being generated by using the front plate, offset by the required amount, as a form for the curved section of the firebox side. Once cut to the narrower profile, the basic firebox carcass could be assembled as designed, thereby revealing the next problem to solve.

 

 

Because the rear end of the firebox is now narrower, the top and bottom corners of the central spacer now stick out beyond the profile, necessitating a session with the grinding disc and the minidrill, there being no practical option to get in with the piercing saw. The two top corners were cut out from end to end, and the bottom edge of the skirt removed.

 

Apart from not being enamoured with the etched half wrappers, the now tapered shape of the firebox rendered them unusable. On top of that, the designer had tried to represent the washout plugs by seriously oversized holes, behind which a half etched plate was to be soldered to represent the square ends of the plugs. Filling them was not a realistic option.

 

So, a new wrapper is needed, in one piece this time, cut from a chunk of scrap etch left over from another kit of similar parentage. Plotting the developed shape of a Churchward pattern firebox wrapper is quite a task using conventional drafting methods, so the easy way out was applied - cut the brass oversize and trim afterwards. Because of the taper, the legs of the firebox will angle forwards, rather than being straight up and down. The critical part is to get the front top close to the face, with the extra overhang at the rear edge.

 

With the brass wrapper annealed and cleaned, the process of forming it to shape starts by tacking it in the centre, back and front, then rolling it around the firebox carcass and tacking it at intervals. The only tricky bit is forming the reverse curve at the bottom of the sides, for which cunning and a length of broom handle sized dowel helps.

 

 

 

 

The result, as soldered, and then tidied up -

 

 

 

The eagle-eyed will notice that one end of the firebox is now nickel silver, instead of brass. Realising that the front corners are rounded (and before I found a large whitemetal firebox front casting in the box), I thickened up the front plate with a second layer cut from 1mm scrap etch left over from my 7.25" project. I have, in any case discarded the casting as being an inconvenient lump of whitemetal in places where I would want to be soldering.

 

Onwards to the boiler barrel. This comes in two parts, one wrapper for the smokebox barrel and the front, parallel section of the boiler, the other for the tapered section. Other than a thick whitemetal disc that I think was intended for the front of the smokebox, nothing else is provided to assist in getting the two wrappers circular. Two discs of the correct diameter were cut from 1mm nickel silver to fit inside the wrapper. That, in a way, is the easy bit; the tricky part is how to hold them inside the wrapper without them going out of square.

 

For the front end, which I wanted flush with the face of the smokebox, I hit upon the idea of using two wooden coffee stirrers, held in place with clamps at the other end and with their ends nominally 1mm back from the front end of the barrel so as to provide a sort of ledge that would support the end disc. That could then be tacked in place at two points, the stirrers removed and the barrel rolled round the former, tacking it as you go.

 

 

 

The rear end is trickier, as the former needs to be set back inside the barrel, which is now closed off at the other end requiring a different technique to be used. Th ereason for it being set inside the barrel is essentially due to the need to fit a flat ring inside the back end of the barrel onto which the taper section of the boiler can fit. Going back to a technique I had devised for the LNW Coal Engine, I soldered a length of 3mm brass rod to the centre of the disc as a handle. That allowed me to place the disc squarely inside the barrel and then, squeezing the wrapper gently to hold it in place, to get it tacked in place.

 

 

Removing the brass rod afterwards is a matter of heating the free end with the gas torch, letting the heat travel down the rod and then, as the solder melts, lifting it out with pliers (not fingers!).

 

The tapered section of the boiler had been provided as a pre-rolled etch, but with the overlap seam joint at the top, according to the instructions intentionally so in order to replicate the joint in the boiler clothing plates. Nice try, but with the overlap, the actual joint was well off centre. The wrapper was consigned to the scrap bin and a new one, this time with the join at the bottom, rolled from more scrap nickel-silver (0.5mm thick this time!)

 

 

With the basic elements of the boiler now complete, attention could finally be turned to the task of getting them to fit between the tanks. As had been found by another builder, and confirmed by measurement from the original drawings, these were roundly 2mm too wide, and would need to be trimmed if the boiler was to sit between them. Because of the dimensional uncertainties in a Harris design, it had decided against simply trimming them to the drawing dimensions whilst they had still been in the flat, although that would have been easier. The risk would have been that the boiler and firebox weren't scale width.

 

As it is, they were trimmed in situ using a grinding disc, starting with the firebox and finishing with the front sections.

 

 

 

This also provided the opportunity to trim the front ends of the tanks to the correct profile - they don't tuck round under the boiler as so many kit designers imagine, although they are shaped to make best use of the space available without being too difficult to fabricate.

 

 

With the boiler components now assembled, the whole lot can at last be dropped in between the tanks -

 

 

providing the first impression of what the finished locomotive will look llike.

 

There is a lot to be done before the boiler can be fitted permanently, mostly soldering up all the body joints properly. One particular task, though, will be making up and fitting the inside faces of the tanks. Unlike on many older locomitoves, the gap between the tops of the tanks and the boiler is not hidden behind a cover plate but left open and with the relatively large gap, it is possible to look down past the boiler into the inside of the tanks.

 

That's it for the moment.

 

Jim

 

 

 

 

[N15class]

Looks good Jim. I've just gone through a similar process with an Oakville Jubilee. Which I do believe is also from the pen of Mr Harris.

[JeffP]

Incredible work, Jim. Inspiring.

[doilum]

Here we are, a fortnight or so later, and finally this build is getting to look like a steam locomotive.

 

Having got the bunker sorted out, the next (last) major hurdle is the boiler. The firebox is a bit of a curate's egg; the basic form is provided by two endplates, joined by an inverted fold-up U section to get everything the right distance apart and square. The wrapper, though, is in two halves, joined along the top centreline, with both halves etched to half thickness. Comparing the two end profiles against each other confirmed that not only were they assymetric (typical of a Harris design) but that they were the same size. The assymetry was dealt with by tacking the two plates together and filing the pair to a common profile.

 

A characteristic of Churchward pattern fireboxes is that they taper front to rear, so the first step is to reduce the width of the rear end plate.

 

IMG_3553.JPG

 

By reference to the drawings, the reduction is the better part of 2mm on each side, the revised profile being generated by using the front plate, offset by the required amount, as a form for the curved section of the firebox side. Once cut to the narrower profile, the basic firebox carcass could be assembled as designed, thereby revealing the next problem to solve.

 

IMG_3555.JPG

 

Because the rear end of the firebox is now narrower, the top and bottom corners of the central spacer now stick out beyond the profile, necessitating a session with the grinding disc and the minidrill, there being no practical option to get in with the piercing saw. The two top corners were cut out from end to end, and the bottom edge of the skirt removed.

 

Apart from not being enamoured with the etched half wrappers, the now tapered shape of the firebox rendered them unusable. On top of that, the designer had tried to represent the washout plugs by seriously oversized holes, behind which a half etched plate was to be soldered to represent the square ends of the plugs. Filling them was not a realistic option.

 

So, a new wrapper is needed, in one piece this time, cut from a chunk of scrap etch left over from another kit of similar parentage. Plotting the developed shape of a Churchward pattern firebox wrapper is quite a task using conventional drafting methods, so the easy way out was applied - cut the brass oversize and trim afterwards. Because of the taper, the legs of the firebox will angle forwards, rather than being straight up and down. The critical part is to get the front top close to the face, with the extra overhang at the rear edge.

 

With the brass wrapper annealed and cleaned, the process of forming it to shape starts by tacking it in the centre, back and front, then rolling it around the firebox carcass and tacking it at intervals. The only tricky bit is forming the reverse curve at the bottom of the sides, for which cunning and a length of broom handle sized dowel helps.

 

IMG_3556.JPG

 

IMG_3557.JPG

 

IMG_3558.JPG

 

The result, as soldered, and then tidied up -

 

IMG_3559.JPG

 

IMG_3561.JPG

 

The eagle-eyed will notice that one end of the firebox is now nickel silver, instead of brass. Realising that the front corners are rounded (and before I found a large whitemetal firebox front casting in the box), I thickened up the front plate with a second layer cut from 1mm scrap etch left over from my 7.25" project. I have, in any case discarded the casting as being an inconvenient lump of whitemetal in places where I would want to be soldering.

 

Onwards to the boiler barrel. This comes in two parts, one wrapper for the smokebox barrel and the front, parallel section of the boiler, the other for the tapered section. Other than a thick whitemetal disc that I think was intended for the front of the smokebox, nothing else is provided to assist in getting the two wrappers circular. Two discs of the correct diameter were cut from 1mm nickel silver to fit inside the wrapper. That, in a way, is the easy bit; the tricky part is how to hold them inside the wrapper without them going out of square.

 

For the front end, which I wanted flush with the face of the smokebox, I hit upon the idea of using two wooden coffee stirrers, held in place with clamps at the other end and with their ends nominally 1mm back from the front end of the barrel so as to provide a sort of ledge that would support the end disc. That could then be tacked in place at two points, the stirrers removed and the barrel rolled round the former, tacking it as you go.

 

IMG_3562.JPG

 

IMG_3564.JPG

 

The rear end is trickier, as the former needs to be set back inside the barrel, which is now closed off at the other end requiring a different technique to be used. Th ereason for it being set inside the barrel is essentially due to the need to fit a flat ring inside the back end of the barrel onto which the taper section of the boiler can fit. Going back to a technique I had devised for the LNW Coal Engine, I soldered a length of 3mm brass rod to the centre of the disc as a handle. That allowed me to place the disc squarely inside the barrel and then, squeezing the wrapper gently to hold it in place, to get it tacked in place.

 

IMG_3563.JPG

 

Removing the brass rod afterwards is a matter of heating the free end with the gas torch, letting the heat travel down the rod and then, as the solder melts, lifting it out with pliers (not fingers!).

 

The tapered section of the boiler had been provided as a pre-rolled etch, but with the overlap seam joint at the top, according to the instructions intentionally so in order to replicate the joint in the boiler clothing plates. Nice try, but with the overlap, the actual joint was well off centre. The wrapper was consigned to the scrap bin and a new one, this time with the join at the bottom, rolled from more scrap nickel-silver (0.5mm thick this time!)

 

IMG_3565.JPG

 

With the basic elements of the boiler now complete, attention could finally be turned to the task of getting them to fit between the tanks. As had been found by another builder, and confirmed by measurement from the original drawings, these were roundly 2mm too wide, and would need to be trimmed if the boiler was to sit between them. Because of the dimensional uncertainties in a Harris design, it had decided against simply trimming them to the drawing dimensions whilst they had still been in the flat, although that would have been easier. The risk would have been that the boiler and firebox weren't scale width.

 

As it is, they were trimmed in situ using a grinding disc, starting with the firebox and finishing with the front sections.

 

IMG_3566.JPG

 

IMG_3567.JPG

 

This also provided the opportunity to trim the front ends of the tanks to the correct profile - they don't tuck round under the boiler as so many kit designers imagine, although they are shaped to make best use of the space available without being too difficult to fabricate.

 

IMG_3568.JPG

 

With the boiler components now assembled, the whole lot can at last be dropped in between the tanks -

 

IMG_3571.JPG

 

providing the first impression of what the finished locomotive will look llike.

 

There is a lot to be done before the boiler can be fitted permanently, mostly soldering up all the body joints properly. One particular task, though, will be making up and fitting the inside faces of the tanks. Unlike on many older locomitoves, the gap between the tops of the tanks and the boiler is not hidden behind a cover plate but left open and with the relatively large gap, it is possible to look down past the boiler into the inside of the tanks.

 

That's it for the moment.

 

Jim

Just in time to save me. I had originally planned to create inner tank sides to encase some lead ballast but the tank top fit was so neat I decided not to bother. Your comments have made me take a critical look at the real thing.

The kit problem lies in the front top which curves round the smokebox. A couple of passes with the dremel rectifies this but now I need the inner tank sides.

There are a couple of good photos in the RTCS book on the standard tank engines. Also the 82045 website Nov 2017 & Jan 2018. These show the clever shaping of the tanks to maximise capacity.

[doilum]

A quick question Jim.

Are your steam pipe castings anywhere near useable?

If not what would you recommend?

Otherwise it is scratch building.

[jim.snowdon]

I haven't looked yet, but until the boiler is in place I wouldn't like to be at all certain. This is one of those kits where it can be a surprise when things do fit!

 

Jim

[doilum]

I haven't looked yet, but until the boiler is in place I wouldn't like to be at all certain. This is one of those kits where it can be a surprise when things do fit!

 

Jim

Amen to that!!

[jim.snowdon]

Now, for the big step - getting the boiler in place.

 

Building, or rather re-building, the boiler is one thing, the real test is getting it mounted in its rightful place, a process that required a good bit more than just sticking it to the cab front and the saddle. Up until now, the motor had just been sitting in the frames, attached only via its gearbox the driving axle. Putting the body on properly requires that the motor is finally fixed so that clearances can be checked and little details like removing the rear end of the motor shaft dealt with.

 

Securing the motor and gearbox in the frames seems to be one of those things that many builders improvise, given the number of bodges I have seen. My usual approach with the ABC motor/gearbox units, when mounted horizontally, is to wrap a length of 0.8mm brass wire one and a half times round the motor, forming a ring with two vertical legs, the ends of which I solder inside the frames, or a frame stretcher is convenient. For this build, it turned out that the bottom of the motor is nominally level with the top of the frames at that point, so what I did was to insert a length of bullhead rail between the frames to act as the bottom support for the motor. This is cut to be a snug fit between the frames so that it will stay put whilst one end is tacked, delicately, in place. I had already drilled it to receive a U-shaped length of brass wire that fitted, inverted, over the top of the motor.

 

 

That neatly prevents the motor from rotating round the axle, yet allows it freedom to move with the axle as it moves in the hornguides.

 

Meanwhile back at the boiler itself. Where I left off last, it was just a basic shell. Before it can go into the body permanently there is a certain amount of detail that is best done whilst it is still separate, starting with the washout plugs. There are 12 of these, four down either side of the firebox and four on the top of the boiler barrel, two at either end. For these, I use the turned brass ones from Warren Shephard, for which fitting is a simple matter of drilling the right size hole and soldering them in. The tricky part, given that I had fitted a completely new, and therefore blank, firebox wrapper, is working out where they should go.

 

Clearly, they have to be above the level of the tanks, so a first task is to work out where the boiler actually sits  relative to the tanks and the front of the cab. The designer having not thought about putting any positive locating marks on anything, the only guide of any sort is the smokebox saddle, such as it is. Setting the boiler on that produced the not unsurprising result that the whole assembly was too low, the giveaway being the position of the top of the firebox relative to the cab front spectacles. Recourse was had to the drawings, combined with Mark 1 eyeball assessment against photographs, to work out where the top edge should be and mark that on the cab front. From that, with the firebox held in the right place, the top edge of the tanks could be marked and the positions of the plugs worked out by eyeball. Similarly, the positions for the mudhole door covers that are on the top corners of the firebox; on the model, these are castings from Laurie Griffin's range and needed no adjustment to fit them in place. Holding them there whilst soldering is another matter, as there is no means for positive location, so it becomes a matter of perching everything at the right angle, holding them down lightly with the tweezers and getting a little solder to flow in under one end sifficiently to hold it until the other end can be secured.

 

 

The two washout plugs at the front end are a bit more of a probem, due to the over large holes in the smokebox wrapper, which also forms the front, parallel, ring of the boiler. They were dealt with by turning up two suitably sized recesses, into which I shall fit a piece of brass wire later on to represent the end of the actual plug.

 

 

Another endearing characteristic of the BR Standard locomotives is that the steam manifold is mounted on top of the firbox outside the cab, with all the plumbing very much on view. Fortunately, the kit came with brass castings for both the manifold and the steam heating regulator valve, which locates on the right hand side of the firebox, as well as the whitemetal castings that had obviously been an original part of the kit. Nice as it is, the manifold casting was designed to simply sit on top of the firebox, whereas in reality, it stands clear. Back to the lathe again to turn up a short spigot that I could fit into the top of the firebox and into a hole that I drilled right through the manifold casting.

 

Like most of these brass castings, the patternmaker had given little thought as to how the builder has to drill the casting for the various pipes. This is one of those jobs where (a) it is often easier to leave the casting on the sprue, in order to give something to hold onto it by, and (b) the Eclipse instrument vice comes in handy. I didn't know about these at all until one popped up in an MRJ article. They are long out of production, but examples turn up on that well known online auction site, and whilst not cheap, they are one of those tools that, once acquired, you can't understand how you got one with one.

 

I have, in the past, found that brass castings can vary considerably in their hardness, and for once, decided they would be better annealed first.

 

 

 

With the boiler bands fitted - as ever, the etch provides four where the real loco had six, but since five are hidden by the side tanks, and one is split either side of the safety valves, there is enough material, just.

 

That leaves a completed boiler -

 

 

ready to fit to the loco body.....

 

You will recall that, earlier on, it had become apparent that, as designed, the boiler was going to sit too low relative to the cab. Not surprisingly, the consequence of getting the back end of the boiler right is that the smokebox saddle is too short. The sides of the sadlle had been designed as fold up extensions to the running plate, 2.5mm deep. Measurement with the boiler in situ revealed that these needed to be 4mm, so it was a case of back to the trusty supply of scrap etch to make up new sides that could be overlaid on the existing ones.

 

 

Real smokebox saddles are chunky great castings that fit across the width of the frames, not two simple fold up sides with a great space in between, which meant cutting a new infill piece for the front of the saddle. I didn't bother with fitting a similar infill at the back, as this is so close to the front of the tanks as to be out of sight anyway.

 

 

And so to the great moment.

 

Test fitting revealed that I hadn't allowed enough width in the cutout in the firebox front to accommodate the width of the gearbox over its mounting screws, necessitating a session with the grinding disc in the minidrill.    But, with that sorted, it fits -

 

 

Jim

[Dave Holt]

Jim.

Looking at photos of the prototype, it looks as if the bottom of the smokebox was slightly below the level of the foot plate, roughly level with the top steps at the front. It might just be the angle of your photos, but it looks like the smokebox is well above the foot plate?

The weight diagram shows the centre-line of the smokebox as 8' - 7.5" above rail level. Not sure how easy this is to check on the model.

Dave.

Edited September 30, 2018 by Dave Holt

[jim.snowdon]

Jim.

Looking at photos of the prototype, it looks as if the bottom of the smokebox was slightly below the level of the foot plate, roughly level with the top steps at the front. It might just be the angle of your photos, but it looks like the smokebox is well above the foot plate?

The weight diagram shows the centre-line of the smokebox as 8' - 7.5" above rail level. Not sure how easy this is to check on the model.

Dave.

I know. I'm still trying to reconcile the dimensional issues with this kit, in this instance getting the front end right whilst not having the top of the firebox too low relative to the cab front. The boiler is currently only tacked in place, so there is still room to manoeuvre.

 

There's only one thing that is reasonably certain - if you wanted a model of an 82xxx, this kit isn't the best place to start.

 

Jim

[jim.snowdon]

Spurred by Dave Holt's comments, I went back to the boiler fitting again this evening. Having looked at the pictures of the cab for the new-build loco, 82045, it was apparent that the top of the firebox was lower relative to the cab spectacles than I had worked out from the drawings. Either I can't measure, or I managed to make an error in reading the drawings, probably the latter as trying to calculate where the top was involves taking dimensions off two different drawings and presuming that what appears to be the boiler centreline in each of them is actually that.

 

Either way, the result as I had first assembled did look unarguably wrong, so it was back to the workbench this evening to take the boiler back out and undo the bits I had added to the smokebox saddle. With the smokebox barrel remounted on what is now the kit's original saddle, the boiler is a bit lower, although not quite as low as it should be. 

 

Looking closely at the original loco drawings, it is apparent that the saddle actually sits down into the frame, with the start of the inward taper being below the top edge of the frames, whereas the kit was designed to have the saddle as a fold up from the edge of the running plate. That makes it something of a compromise.

 

By now, I was beginning to question whether the design, with its fold up sides for the saddle was in fact anywhere near right to start with. Casting fate to the winds, I cut the saddle sides off the running plate altogther and simply nestled the boiler down into the gap, with this result -

 

 

 

To a point, where the firebox ends up on the cab front is influenced by how well the front running plate section lines up with the rest of the body. With a little flexing, the firebox end could be placed reasonably well, although there is a small gap across the top that I will have to deal with by fitting a cover strip, but this is also where the rearmost boiler band should be anyway.

 

I has been a struggle, with the boiler on and off the body rather too many times, but I think I have got there in the end.

 

Jim

[doilum]

Just a thought. Is the smokebox the correct diameter? Just a millimetre would make a big visual difference. It is too late for radical change on 82004, but doing it again, I might get the firebox and smoke box correctly level and adjust the boiler to fit.

Whilst most parts have been easily identified on both instructions and fret, I cannot find any cab doors. Likewise, what are part 24 for? (4x small squares with a raised central boss.)

[Dave Holt]

Jim.

I'm sorry if I caused you a lot of extra work, but do I think the end result is well worth it. This model seems to be turning out to be a scratch build with aid(?) of some of the kit components. Probably not what you expected?

Dave.

[jim.snowdon]

Jim.

I'm sorry if I caused you a lot of extra work, but do I think the end result is well worth it. This model seems to be turning out to be a scratch build with aid(?) of some of the kit components. Probably not what you expected?

Dave.

Dave,

 

No need to apologise at all. The kit wasn't right to start with, and I had succeeded in heading off in the wrong direction.

 

That it is turning out as a scratchbuild with some kit components is no surprise. I've built enough kits to know that some designer's kits will never go together without a fight, but then that, maybe in a perverse way, is part of the fun of conquering them. Not that I don't enjoy good kits.

 

Jim

[Sandy Harper]

Jim, I'm sure you have seen PAD's 2-6-4 which he has posted pics of before painting. The smokebox on his model does sit quite a way below the footplate.

 

Sandy

[jim.snowdon]

Jim, I'm sure you have seen PAD's 2-6-4 which he has posted pics of before painting. The smokebox on his model does sit quite a way below the footplate.

 

Sandy

Sandy,

 

The 2-6-4 and the 82xxx 2-6-2 are quite different beasts. As it is, if you look back through the last few posts, I wasn't happy with how it was turning out either and remounted the boiler lower down, abandoning that which had been designed into the kit by way of a smokebox saddle. The bottom of the boiler and smokebox is now nominally where it should be, approximately level with the top step.

 

Jim

[doilum]

That is true for 82004. Look also on August 2018 news update on the 82045 website. Sad picture of 82031 confirms all.

[Sandy Harper]

Sandy,

 

The 2-6-4 and the 82xxx 2-6-2 are quite different beasts. As it is, if you look back through the last few posts, I wasn't happy with how it was turning out either and remounted the boiler lower down, abandoning that which had been designed into the kit by way of a smokebox saddle. The bottom of the boiler and smokebox is now nominally where it should be, approximately level with the top step.

 

Jim

Of course they are Duh!

Back to my Box tank. The cylinder castings arrived today so on with the motion.

Sandy

[jim.snowdon]

Getting the boiler on was the last of the major tasks, which means that progress moves into the detailing phase, that stage where much time can get expended for seemingly little progress.

 

First, though, is the small matter of the cab floor, not least because it provides much needed lateral stiffness to the back end of the body. You will recall that when it came to assemble the cab, it turned out that the floor was too narrow, by the best part of 2mm. Since has been redesigned to be removable, so that the cab roof can be permanently fitted, the only solution is to cut it lengthways down the middle, attach each half to its respective cab side and fit a splice plate underneath. Rather than try and fit the splice plate in situ, the floor halves were fitted and tacked together using two splints, in this instance the two lengths of brass channel that I had used when bending the tops of the cab sides, simply because they were handy and already tinned on one face.

 

 

With those secured the cab floor could be removed as one piece and another two straps secured across the joint, this time on the top surface, thus allowing the first set to be removed. If this seems like a case of double handling, it is, but necessary on account of the limited access to the top side of the cab floor whilst in situ. The splice plate is nothing more than a piece of scrap etch, and fitting it in place is so straightforward that I didn't take any pictures.

 

Back to the boiler, and the most characteristic part of any BR Standard is the amount of plumbing in front of the cab, necessitated by the steam manifold being mounted outside the cab. Sensible enough in the full size, but a pain for modellers, compounded by the regulator for the steam heating supply also being stuck on the side of the firebox.

 

 

 

The plumbing is a mix of 1mm and 1.5mm copper wire salvaged from the usual source - electrical cable - and fitting up the various pieces is the usual tale of bend it, make the next bend, try it and find it doesn't fit, cut it off and start again.... Making steam piping is not one of my favourite tasks in any build.

 

An added delight is that the steam heating pipe doesn't conveniently disappear into the depths, or along the top of the tank, but runs along the side of the boiler, to which it is attached by brackets. Working on the principle that if Nick Dunhill can do it, so can I, two little brackets were made up from a length of conveniently narrow scrap etch.

 

 

Making them was one thing, soldering them in place quite another as they point downwards from the pipe, leaving no real access to get a soldering iron to them. The job had to be done by putting the iron on the boiler above the pipe and waiting for the heat to creep through.

 

This pipe disappears down through a vertical tube welded into the tanks, up which the boiler feed pipes are also carried. Another thing that the designer failed to get right, both as regards their size and location. Fitting the feed pipes and clack valves is thankfully easy, as the pipe runs are short and simple.

 

In additin to being supported on brackets from the frames, the tanks are also tied to the boiler by a series of stays along the top. Although the kit provides whitemetal castings for these I decided to substitute brass castings from Laurie Griffin's range. They are actually marked as MR/LMS, but much Derby practice crept through into the Standards, which is quite useful. There is a slight snag in that they are all the same length, and the distance between the attachment points of the tanks and the boiler varies, quite a bit, due its being non-parallel. The front one is fine, but the middle and rear stays need to be shortened.

 

 

Doing this requires a bit of thought, as it is not just a matter of cutting the stay in two and putting the bits back together, essentially because of the practicalities of attaching the boiler end to the boiler. What I did was to hold the stay in position on the tank top with one finger and solder the other end to the boiler. It pays not to dwell too long with the soldering iron... Anyway, with one end attached, the stay was cut through with a grinding disc, trimmed as necessary and then soldered in place at both ends, starting with the boiler end. I had started with the left hand tank and was going to illustrate this procedure when I did the stays on the right hand tank. What I had not allowed for was the plumbing I had installed earlier. (If this kit had had decent instructions, it would have paid to read them, for once! ) The presence of the piping necessitated a completely different approach, so no pictures of Method A.

 

Because the stays are located below the pipework, the only solution was to cut the boiler ends off and attach them only to the tank top. Fortunately, the pipework hides the amputated ends, so the subterfuge is not obvious.

 

 

Last, but not least, for tonight has been the attachment of the tank lifting brackets, another detail not provided in the kit, but available as castings from Mr Griffin.That still leaves the two manhole covers to be made, and the castings for the fillers fitted.

 

Jim

 

 

[doilum]

Nice plumbing. This is another of the jobs where the RSU is invaluable. I have just noticed the smokebox door ring. Was this a casting, or like me the result of some fabrication?