Building a Mike Raithby 4F loco

[Nig H]

So onto the next stage. I decided I'd add the cab and firebox as a single unit. First I soldered the cab sides to the cab front. I found this quite a challenge as I struggled to position the sides in the exact position relative to the front and hold them in place while I did the soldering, but I got there in the end. This is what I finished up with.

 

Next I fixed the cab front to the rear of the firebox using the openings in each as a guide to positioning the two assemblies together.

 

 

I just tack soldered these together and did a trial fit. It was miles out and I realised belatedly that the openings weren't supposed to line up. Of course, when I unsoldered the firebox from the cab front, the cab sides came adrift.

 

Once I'd re-attached the sides to the front I tried soldering the cab unit to the footplate, but I found it very hard to get the cab in the right place, hold it there and tack solder, so I gave up. In the end I soldered the front to the footplate, then checked it was positioned accurately before adding the sides.

 

So here is where I'm up to now. Oh, and a splasher top came adrift though it went back quite easily. Probably didn't want a stern, Basil Fawlty style talking to.

Next step will be adding the firebox to the footplate.

 

 

Nigel Hunt

[Nig H]

I spent an hour or so filing the firebox to fit snugly against the cab front, footplate and slashers tops. One final check on the firebox came to mind and I found that the outer wrapper was slightly off centre. This would mean the safety valves and their base would be off centre too, something which can be quite apparent. So I dismantled the firebox and tried to ease the outer wrapper over to one side so that it was no longer lop-sided. This meant the previous fettling to fit the footplate etc had to be re-done, and the height of sandbox access hole on one side had to be increased to match the other side. Some lessons about checking and re-checking to be learnt or re-learnt here!

 

Now that the firebox was corrected, I tried to hold it in position on the footplate while I tack soldered it in place. This I found quite difficult as it kept on moving when I changed my finger-hold to check the position of the other side of the firebox, mainly whether it was central between the cab front outer windows. Eventually I thought it was in the right place so tack soldered the cab front to the firebox rear. The firebox had moved slightly in this operation so I tried to force it into position while I re-did the tack soldering. This didn't seem to work so I unsoldered the firebox and cleaned away the solder from the firebox and cab front so I could start again. However I noticed the cab front had moved backwards on the right hand side, so I tried to press it back into place with the soldering iron. It sort of worked except the cab side fell off and the adjacent splasher top moved out of position again. I'm starting to feel seriously disgruntled by now!

 

Another battle ensued but finally the splasher top and cab side were re-attached, and in the right positions. I'm now wondering why this loco is proving such a struggle to build. Maybe I'm getting a bit slapdash and careless in my old age and maybe I'm out of touch with working with brass rather than nickel silver.

 

More trials and tribulations to follow soon no doubt.

 

Nigel Hunt

[Nig H]

Things have started to move forward more smoothly again. After fitting the firebox and checking all was square, I dropped the smokebox/ boiler assembly onto the footplate and it lined up accurately with the firebox, and in the right place relative to the front dummy frames, so I tack soldered the boiler to the firebox and left it all overnight. The next day I checked the alignment and everything still seemed OK so I finished off the soldering, starting round the smokebox and frames, then finishing round the boiler and firebox. I also added the raised footplate platform in front of the smokebox. 

I was confused my the instructions concerning the cab floor and found out from Simon Grand that the instructions I have are different to the ones on the 2MM website, though the latter seem to be based on my copy (3MM Society). I decided to ignore the instructions and used an unnumbered rectangular section with smaller fold-up rectangles at each end as cab floor support. This seemed to enable the cab floor to be fixed at the correct height above the footplate. I made my own cab floor/ fall plate part as I couldn't find anything for this on the etch. There is a part that purports to be the cab floor but it doesn't include the fall plate. 

This is after soldering the cab floor support in place.

 

Next I formed the curves in the cab overlay and lower layer. I was dreading this but it turned out to be easier than I thought it would be. Once the two parts were soldered together I soldered the assembly to the cab sides and front, doing this a bit at a time an checking the roof didn't end up sloping down from front to back of the cab. Below is the position after adding the cab roof, with roof hatch and safety valve base now added. You can also see the cab floor and fall plate in place. I've also drilled holes for the handrail knobs. I decided to use the holes in the cab front as the datum, so all the other holes were marked out relative to those. 

 

 

Next the cab opening beading - should be fun.

 

Nigel Hunt

[Caley Jim]

5 hours ago, Nig H said:

Next the cab opening beading - should be fun.

Coming on nicely, Nigel.  Interesting that the fall plate is on the loco.  The Caley always had it on the tender.

 

I do the beading round the cab opening with a single strand of copper wire from mains cable.  I straighten it first by rolling it between two hard surfaces, usually the back of a steel rule on a metal plate.  I then tack one end to the top of the cut-out on the outer face of the side and gently tease it round the outline, soldering a little at a time as I go, until I get to the back edge.  Here I form a 'U' loop to take the vertical handrail and then continue in the same fashion round the inside face back to the top.

 

Jim

[Nig H]

Here are some more pics of the loco and tender. I think the tender is just about finished now, and the loco is finished as regards the etched parts, apart from the steps, which I will add after the difficult handrail and ejector have been added.

 

 

 

 

Nig H

[Nig H]

More progress on the 4F. I had been putting off tackling the Dreadnought ejector, but as you can see below, I finally got round to it. Nowadays with various diameter microtube its easier to represent the different size pipework on the prototype, so thanks Albion alloys.

 

 

I need to re-position the little square on the smokebox. Its supposed to be a flange where pipework from the ejector enters the smokebox, I think. The front handrail know needs straightening too.

 

I front of the splasher you can see the end of some tube. It goes right through to the other side and is part of the support for the air relief valves. The plan is to mount the valves on some 0.4mm rod that goes through the tube, and hopefully makes it easier to keep the valves in position as they are soldered to the supports.

 

This shows the air relief valves, one soldered to the 0.4mm rod. You can see the valve housing are quite small, and I lost three while trying to file the chamfer round the edges. As these were so small I decided I couldn't turn them on my lathe. Instead I cut some c. 1.3mm rod to about 1.5mm lengths. I drilled a 1.3mm hole in some plasticard (about 1.3mm thick), inserted the rod in the hole and filed the end of the rod flat against the surface of the plasticard. I then did the same to the other end of the rod with some c1.1mm thick plasticard so I ended up with the length of rod with two square ends. I think the pics show I achieved the desired result. I soldered the two bits of rod on their sides to some scrap nickel silver before drilling holes for the 0.4mm rod.

 

I haven't got a pic of air relief valves in place, but I managed to solder all the bits in the right place, so I'm happy with the result.

 

Nig H

[Nig H]

Here are some pics of the 4F, the build just about finished, I think. Maybe I'll realise I've missed something, hopefully before painting the loco.

 

 

Having just read Nick M's description of his Dreadnought ejector, I realise I've missed some pipework off- oh well.

 

 

I've had to give up my work bench for Xmas, hence the seasonal table cloth.

 

 

Not a great pic of the smokebox front, but the only other one I got was worse. Doing the smokebox door and the details was quite hard, I found. This was mainly because the door had to be soldered in place onto the smokebox front, then the position of the hinges, numberplate, holes for the door dogs, hand rail and lamp iron marked out on the door or smokebox front. I struggled to keep my steel rule in place over the front of the loco as I marked everything, but I can't see that there are any huge errors in the position of the parts.

 

 

 

 

Best wishes to all for Xmas and the New Year.

 

Nigel Hunt

Edited December 24, 2022 by Nig H
Dreadnought ejector, not injector. Knew it was one or the other.

[Nig H]

Here is my latest progress report. I've now painted the loco, added cab numbers and tender emblems, and coaled the tender. I should have done this after weathering, but got carried away. The paint finish I achieved finally got to an acceptable standard. I got moisture in my airbrush while spraying the black on, and so sprayed the loco with black paint and water. Usually you can blow the water off and it doesn't affect the paint, but this time some water got under the paint (I think), and produced an uneven surface when the paint dried. I had to remove the affected areas and re-prime before spraying the black on again.

 

Applying the cab numbers proved to be unusually difficult too. I used some number sets from Modelmasters, as they include complete 4F sample numbers. The 4s of the first '44' I separated floated apart and the power classification 4F disintegrated, but eventually I managed to complete the numbers on both cab sides, though as can be seen the surround on most the numerals is visible. I hope some weathering will hide this.

 

 

 

 

As is often the case, pics can be quite brutal, and these are no exception. Next time I'll try to get them more out of focus for the whole loco. I just noticed the driving wheels could have doe with a bit more black paint on them too.

 

Regards,

 

Nigel Hunt

[Matt.S.]

Looks like a neat job despite the quirks or an older etch 

[Ian Morgan]

23 hours ago, Nig H said:

 though as can be seen the surround on most the numerals is visible. I hope some weathering will hide this.

 

 

 

Waterslide transfers (decals) really need to be applied to a gloss finish, and then matt varnish can be applied.

 

[yaxxbarl]

Nigel that looks grand that - ready for a good day's hard work on trip workings!

 

Also, I'll bet it easily out-hauls my converted Farish 4F...

[Nig H]

16 hours ago, yaxxbarl said:

Nigel that looks grand that - ready for a good day's hard work on trip workings!

 

Also, I'll bet it easily out-hauls my converted Farish 4F...

Thanks John, we'll have to meet up and give our 4Fs a run together.

 

Regards,

 

Nigel Hunt

[yaxxbarl]

On 18/02/2023 at 09:26, Nig H said:

Thanks John, we'll have to meet up and give our 4Fs a run together.

 

Regards,

 

Nigel Hunt

Yes indeed - I'll be demoing at the Chapel en le Frith show this weekend and I should have my new circiular test track - mostly an Easitrac version of Chris Arthur's old one, where soldered there's none of that nasty powerflow flux been used!