Battledown's Workshop Ramblings

[Ian Rathbone]

I don’t think there is a vermilion border to the black edging. The inner lining has black on the outside so it would be logical for the outer lining to be plain black. There is only one photo that I know of where this can be seen (Locomotives Illustrated 136).

Here is an 0-4-4T, built by Mike Edge in 7mm. For Madder Lake I used Precision Paints SECR Indian Red.

 

Ian R

[Battledown]

I was going by what is in Nigel Digby's chapter on the North Stafford in Volume 3 of his Liveries of the Pre-Grouping Railways. Assuming he is right, I suspect vermilion would not show up on orthochromatic photo plates used in the pre-grouping era. That said, it would hardly show up against the 'Madder Lake' main colour, especially in 4mm.

 

Your superb work on Mike Edge's loco looks right to me, so I shall forget the vermilion. As ever, thanks for the advice.

 

 

[Ian Rathbone]

11 minutes ago, Battledown said:

I was going by what is in Nigel Digby's chapter on the North Stafford in Volume 3 of his Liveries of the Pre-Grouping Railways. Assuming he is right, I suspect vermilion would not show up on orthochromatic photo plates used in the pre-grouping era. That said, it would hardly show up against the 'Madder Lake' main colour, especially in 4mm.

 

Your superb work on Mike Edge's loco looks right to me, so I shall forget the vermilion. As ever, thanks for the advice.

 

 

I’m afraid Nigel Digby’s books are very sketchy - no rear views and no real detail. The photo I was referring to is actually a photo of a ‘New L’ in Stoke Works but in the corner of the photo is part of a cab side of another loco, freshly painted, and the four colours can clearly be seen. The photo also shows the lining marking out on the cab rear of the New L - many companies used plain black or unlined colour for this area.

 

Ian R

[Battledown]

I have a copy of the Loco Illustrated 136 but have never actually looked closely at that photo until just now. As you say it is very clear - as is my mind now!

[Battledown]

So, a lot of time has passed since I last posted, mostly due to family illness, then Christmas, then I had my own health issue.

 

The NSR Class B tank loco is almost complete - just awaiting transfers for the buffer beam numbers, then I can varnish and reassemble it. Photos to follow.

 

In the meantime I have been getting on with another loco; a North British R Class 4-4-0T. This is another former Riceworks kit from London Road Models. It was his second loco kit and whilst it is an improvement on the GER E22/J65, it still retains some of its awkward idiosyncracies. That said, it all fitted and went together but could have done with more tabs and slots for the cab and tank assemblies to make life a bit easier.

 

I strayed from the kit design and instructions in a couple of areas. It is designed to have a fixed rear axle with compensation between the leading driving axle and bogie. I changed this to twin beam compensation for both driving axles with a fixed mounting for the bogie. This has worked well for me on 4-4-0s in the past.

I also made the dummy springs and brakes removable to enable me to drop the driving axles out - once fitted to the axles and quartered there is no need to separate them.

 

Bogie assembly - this has a rocking axle but the bogie itself is on a fixed mounting

 

 Frame assembly showing scratch-built compensation beams between driving axles

 

The coupling rods in the kit are a single laminate. I added bushes to the front to make them look more prototypical.

 

Dummy springs cut from frames and fitted to removable spacer

 

 

 

[Jol Wilkinson]

Neat work.

 

Some fore and aft rock on the bogie might be a good idea. A short piece .45mm wire laterally on either side of the bogie bolt hole would provide this.

[Battledown]

20 hours ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

Some fore and aft rock on the bogie might be a good idea. A short piece .45mm wire laterally on either side of the bogie bolt hole would provide this.

Thanks for the heads up Jol. I'll try it, although it seems to run ok at the moment.

 

[Battledown]

Removable brake assembly

 

Rolling chassis - the driving wheels are temporary ones with EM profile.

 

I also made up dummy inside motion plate, slide bars and cylinder faces. They will hardly be noticeable on the completed model but I still think it better than a void between the frames under the boiler.

 

Chassis with motor/gearbox fitted - it needs tidying up but is basically complete apart from pick-ups. It's going to be tight fit for my favoured top wipers with the compensation beams but I have a plan!

 

[Battledown]

Next up is the 'body', starting with the running plate.

 

This comprises a lower plate with fold-down valences and endplates to form a frame and a top plate that is sweated onto the lower frame. Buffer beam overlays complete the assembly. 

 

The cab is a separate subassembly - relatively straightforward but mainly butted together, so care is needed to ensure all is square and level.

 

Certain parts and details are added before assembly, such as the strengthening ribs on the rear spectacle plate, inner toolboxes on the cab rear, rear toolboxes on the bunker backplate and inner splashers on the cab sides.  The cab spectacles in the kit were over etched so I fabricated new ones from 0.3mm brass wire then filed flat.

 

All is then assembled ready for mounting on the running plate. Digital photos can be very cruel but it all looks fine in in the flesh!

 

[Battledown]

Next up are the side tanks. These have curved tops for which half-etched lines are provided. 

 

They are fitted to the footplate, slots and tabs providing accurate positioning, then the cab assembly is fitted.

 

After that comes the boiler. I omitted to take photos of this stage but it basically comprises some brass tube machined to the correct length from which I had to cut away the bottom half under the tank for motor/gearbox axis. The smokebox is formed by two wrappers, the inner going around the full circumference of the boiler tube and the other formed to fit the fold-up smokebox saddle.

 

Underside view showing cutaway for motor.

 

Top view showing the body basically complete and gaps filled in preparation for painting. There was a lot of drilling required all of which required careful measuring and marking.  

 

I am modelling No 225 circa 1901, at which time there was a lot of visible 'plumbing'. The holes on top of the boiler are for injector valves. These  had long actuator arms running back to the cab and pipes running down through the running plate to injectors, which were visible below the running plate. More pipes fed back up through the running plate to clack valves mounted on the boiler sides. The upper hole in the smokebox is for a blower valve with another actuator rod feeding back to the cab through the handrail. The other holes in the smokebox are for lubricators. The other side is just as busy with the exhaust pipe from the Westinghouse pump mounted on the cab side feeding along the top of the tank to the smokebox. So there will be a lot of polished brass and copper on the finished model.

 

 

Another interesting point about these locomotives is that they all seemed to have different lamp-iron arrangements, some had as few as three while others had up to six. No 225 had five and they weren't always mounted in the same positions. Some also had brackets for destination boards on the smokebox and cab rear.

 

 

As is cruelly shown in these phots, there is a lot of cleaning up to do!

 

 

[Battledown]

Now basically ready for painting.

 

[Battledown]

At long last I have finished the North Stafford Class B tank loco - not perfect by any means and there are a couple of things that need attending to, but it's been a long haul and I'm bored of it now.

 

 

 

 

 

[Battledown]

Next up is a Gibson LSWR O2 I picked up second hand. I'm waiting for horn blocks, motor and gearbox to arrive so have started on the body.

 

The running plate goes together pretty easily, although there are no tabs or slots to help. It was all done by eye.

 

There are, however, plenty of tabs and slots for assembling the cab and tanks. For an old kit it is surprisingly well designed for the builder. It has everything you need as the basis of a finescale model although some of the  details in the kit are a bit basic and there is a need for some raiding of the scrapbook or scratch building of some items. Here's everything prepared and formed ready for fitting together.

 

Edited March 14 by Battledown

[Adam]

Ah, the O2 - my second ever loco was one of those. From memory, the tanks and footplate are very much the best bit. The chassis will need additional spacers (the instructions imply a lot of structural 0.45mm wire, i.e., the brake hangers, but that's easy to resolve) and the boiler - and especially the smokebox - are not good at all, though you're not the rookie I was.

 

Things to watch for: the later pattern front has an undersized door (I think the original is fine, but that's not the one I wanted! I built mine up with Milliput); the smokebox wrappers will foul the front drivers, even in P4. Obviously that big bit of tube is a massive heatsink and it's very tricky indeed to build square. 

 

Details: the instructions have a cab layout drawing that turns out to come from an LNER J15 (you can see the upward extension of the roof and where the screw reverser was tippexed out) and on mine, at least, there was no reversing lever. Most of the brass castings are pretty good (though some - the tank fillers, for example - aren't right for at least some O2s, being generic). 

 

Adam

[Battledown]

Thanks for the heads-up Adam. I am building No 232 as originally built for which there is a good photograph in Bradley's book on the Adams classes.

 

I was wondering about the boiler and had read somewhere that the kit tube is too big. Bradley gives the boiler diameter as 4' 2".  The tube in the kit is a scale 4'6" (18mm diameter). Cladding would have made the outer diameter larger so its probably not a lot out. I have some thinner wall brass tubing of 17.5mm o/d which may be better, plus I will make up the smokebox front from sheet brass. Luckily I have an Adams smokebox door from a Martin Finney radial tank I can use. I can cut the 'piano' cylinder cover from the kit smokebox front casting. That's the plan anyway.

 

I only intend building up the cab, tanks, bunker and front splashers for now so I can check the chassis fits, so work on the boiler is some way off. 

 

I can see what you mean about the chassis, though. I reckon the frames are about the only bits I'll use. A lot of scratch building and raiding of the scrap box for this model methinks - I did say it the kit looks like the basis of a good model!

[Battledown]

Basic cab, tanks and bunker built up on the running plate. It's all gone together very well so far.

 

[Battledown]

All stripped down ready for painting ...

 

... and etch-primed.

[Battledown]

And while we're about it, I've also stripped, cleaned and primed a High Level Black Hawthorn that I built many years ago and is long overdue a paint job.

 

 

[Battledown]

Main colours are now painted and ready for lining. The Black Hawthorn is a relatively simple livery so will be completed in fairly short time. The NBR Class R is a much more complicated livery for which I am awaiting specially commissioned lining transfers so will go on the back burner for now. 

 

 

[Battledown]

I have finished the Black Hawthorn, including some weathering. It is built from a High Level kit and is a purely fictitious portrayal with an open cab. I have had, and still have, a notion to build a very small cameo diorama/layout called Alexandria Wharf, hence the loco is named after the Egyptian god of fertility and death (an ancient Jekyll and Hyde). Who knows the idea of Alexandria Wharf may fertilise or die a death.

 

 

 

 

I actually built this about 15 years ago and have only just noticed from this photo that the cab front is out of kilter. Oh well, too late!