The Derby Line, DMR K1

[dibateg]

It was time for a break from track making, and in the 'to do' queue is a DMR K1 that needs finishing for a friend. The chassis and the basic body have been completed , so the first task was a cleanup, and then on with the detailing. For a modern engine there are lots of outside pipes, it s nice at last to be working on an NE engine.
The washout covers are Finney7 with German studs ( GHW-Modellbauversand ). The positioning is slightly low, but there is not much I can do about that due to the half etches in the boiler. The electric lamps are nice castings, but they do not have the full width backing plate and the lamp iron is too far forward, so all that detail was taken off and a new mounting plate made up from strip. The atomisers were three pipe and had to be modified to two pipe. That also meant taking off the top feed and moving it in to the middle - fiddly work. The cover plate on the top of the boiler was full thickness etch - it looked too chunky, so I made a new one from thinner sheet. Not all K1s had this. I've wound a spiral pattern on to the electric feed, on the prototype, they rarely seemed to be straight. So a straightforward build is turning out not to be. At least the handrail knobs went on without modification.

 

[dibateg]

Generator cable clips and join made, more pipes. I discarded the white metal oilers and used ones from the spares box. I filed everything off the electric light housings and made up new irons. The cast sanders feeds are sort of ok, I've filed them to reduce the chunkyness, some are a little out of shape. I replaced the white metal cab step with a scratch fabricated brass one.

 

The front of the smokebox didn't look quite right and I found in the etchings a spare boiler disk. I wanted to represent the door ring, which is a pressing and it should extend slightly beyond the edge of the wrapper. So I rounded the edge and soldered it to the front disk and it looks a lot better. Scratched up lamp irons. The front part of the handrail is seperate from the sides soldered in to the first handrail knob. It is shaped and reshaped until it goes into place with no applied pressure.

 

The cab step has a nice 'T' shape andit was worth the effort to fabricate that. I've cleaned and cleaned the outside, but the innards are looking tarnished... That bent handrail needs looking at.

[dibateg]

Buzzing along nicely now and a bag of goodies arrived from Ragstone, and the snifter, sand lids and lubricators were fitted within an hour of arriving in the post. Just the AWS box, injectors and pesky cab doors to fit now. Smokebox door just shoved in at the moment. The chassis and basic body had already been built by my friend. The white metal castings are nicely made but boy do they give off some dirt when filed up. All depends on the mix of the constituant materials I guess. I've found that it does vary.

[dibateg]

A few more details added, there was no provision for the support bracket under the cab, that was made up from some scrap etch. I also added the lubricator linkage below the running plate. Some subtefuge will be require to make the continuation into the motion bracket. Injectors added from the spares box, modified Mercian J94 ones I think....

 

Front end detail. As always, the hoses come with no positive means of fixing them. So I drilled them at the back and added 1.1mm copper wire into the sockets. That turns up behind the buffer beam and acts as a sort of clip. The AWS bang plate had no means of support so I added two small strips of brass that dog leg up behind the buffer beam. I don't like butt joined detail, that you know will just get knocked off. Smokebox door still not glued in...

 

The spec on this loco is to have pick up from the tender via split axles. The Slaters axles were made up by a good mate - the late Clive Neale. So I've laid out the development here to make sure verything lines up.

 

I didn't like the tender axlebox and spring castings, so have replaced them with Ragstone ones, but they needed the hornguides cutting out. That does give the gap between the axlebox and the keeper as well. The tender detail and brake gear is a bit basic compared with some other kits I've built. The brake gear looks what youd expect in 4mm scale. Having said that, Mike of DMR was very helpful when I needed castings and etchings for other projects, so this is a kit of a certain era. I can't think of any source for replacements so it will have to do. Hopefully its only me and Richard Lambert that look under a model first!

 

On with the upper works and all quite straight forward really. I replaced the etched beading, which looks too flat with soft 0.81 half round brass wire. The lamp housings were easily drilled for the conduit - and the junctions were made up with segments of brass tube.

 

[dibateg]

Nearly there then, fallplate, coupling, sandpipes, backhead and tidying left to do.

 

AWS pick up and battery box now fitted and that pesky front step on the smokebox door. It's mounted on two spigots of 0.5mm brass wire.

 

I needed a few more bits from Ragstone, and they came the next day and were fitted within an hour of arriving! I wasn't happy with the profile at the ends of the tender frames, so all the bottom steps came off and I made that little cut out with the piercing saw. The step upturns are from some left over rivet strip from a David Andrews 2P kit! Axleboxes and springs, filler and dome, Buffers - all Ragstone. Just need to tidy up some of that excess solder...

[Enterprisingwestern]

13 minutes ago, dibateg said:

Just need to tidy up some of that excess solder...

 

You've posted the wrong picture!

 

Mike.