My Little Engines A8 build

[MarkC]

I had had the good fortune to acquire a Little Engines A8 kit for a sensible price, a year or so ago. It's time to build it.

 

 

It came with a set of Romfords, but no motor or gears. The temptation to use a High Level gearbox & a big motor was considered, but after a chat with Tony W during a recent visit to Little Bytham, he was supportive of my other option; to build it as it was designed, with a D13 motor and Romford 40:1 gears. He kindly sorted out some gears & a couple of motors for me - thanks, Tony.

 

I will, however, use the correct Gibson wheels for the bogie & trailing trucks, and may yet use Gibson drivers, once the construction/setting up of the chassis is complete.

 

I also intend using an alternative method of mounting the bogie, to hopefully overcome the well known issue of bogie wheels fouling the cylinders on NER outside cylinder locomotives.

 

The kit has a 63B boiler; as I wanted one in BR condition for my layout (Scalby), this is ideal.

 

So, on with the build 😎

 

Mark

Edited January 14, 2023 by MarkC

[Mrkirtley800]

Hello Mark

      Here is my build from a Little Engines Kit.

I think it is an A7, Iam not very knowledgeable about locos NER or LNER butI built it under the watchful eye of my late friend Fred Rowntree of the Whitby club.

The front bogie is pivoted ahead of the bogie pin so that as the loco runs in a curve it draws the bogie forward and doesn’t foul the cylinders.

Derek

 

[MarkC]

Hi Derek

 

That is indeed an A7 - a real bruiser of a locomotive! Nice job done there.

 

Yes, that's the solution I'll be going for - sadly the photos elsewhere on here that others kindly posted in the past may have been lost in last year's troubles, but I think that I can recall the gist of the necessary modification.

 

I have to say that the supplied etches & castings are very clean - but I suspect that the kit is some 35-40 years old? Better whitemetal was used back then, I think?

 

Cheers,

Mark

[Mrkirtley800]

Yes, this loco is of that age.  Bought from the late lamented C&G models at the Newcastle Show.  Nice kit to build if my memory serves me correctly.

Good luck with the build.

Derek

 

[MarkC]

1 hour ago, Mrkirtley800 said:

Yes, this loco is of that age.  Bought from the late lamented C&G models at the Newcastle Show.  Nice kit to build if my memory serves me correctly.

Good luck with the build.

Derek

 

Ah yes - good old George. Sadly missed. I used to regularly frequent his emporium in Darlington.

 

I'll only be able to progress the build weather permitting - I'm on board my ship at present and weather's not exactly like a millpond in the Bay of Biscay/English Channel/North Sea at the moment...

 

Cheers

Mark

 

[MarkC]

An afternoon's work has produced a rolling chassis. Still some tidying up to do, but am pleased with progress so far.

 

Now to stow everything away before departure, with another rough weather voyage to look forward to. .

[Bucoops]

At least the paint will be well mixed?

[rowanj]

Little Engines are another in the list of late lamented kits. I fought with a DJH version, and may tackle a 52F version one day. Interested to see how the leading bogie dodge works to get round curves, Mark..The curse of ex NER kits. What minimum radius are you building for?

Edited January 17, 2023 by rowanj

[MarkC]

1 hour ago, rowanj said:

Little Engines are another in the list of late lamented kits. I fought with a DJH version, and may tackle a 52F version one day. Interested to see how he leading bogie dodge works to gut round curves, Mark..The curse of ex NER kits. What minimum radius are you building for?

Hi John

 

Yes, I am surprised that nobody took on the LE range, especially the NER tanks.

 

At least the Little Engines model has the slim boiler, as opposed to the DJH "Fattie"

 

The 52F A8 looks superb - I built one of Peter's A8 chassis kits for my DJH A8. Really good, as is his Class D/H1 chassis. To my chagrin, the box containing the model refused to allow itself to be found, last time home ☹️

 

I'm looking for 3' minimum radius operation, if only so that I can let her loose on Little Bytham, should I be fortunate enough to pay another visit. Oh, and the present fiddle yard arrangements on Scalby use 3' radius points...

 

Sadly no modelling is possible at present - have just rounded Ushant & entered the Bay of Biscay en route to southern Spain, and the sea is a tad rough!

 

Cheers

Mark

Edited January 17, 2023 by MarkC

[MarkC]

An opportunity to do some more work on the loco today. I decided to fit the footplate to the chassis in order to try and keep it straight whilst fitting the tanks, as with such a long overhang at the front, there was a risk of distortion.

 

 

The boiler halves went together nicely, with little filling & filing at the join. There was then a lot of measuring and minor filing to get the boiler, smokebox and saddle correctly positioned before securing it all together.

 

Progress is slow but steady - this is where I'm at now.

 

She's definitely starting to look the part - and better, to my mind, than the DJH offering.

 

Mark

[MarkC]

Made a start on the cylinders - this is likely to be time consuming, as whilst the castings for the cylinder blocks, covers and glands themselves are very good, requiring little tidying up, the glands will require drilling out to take the piston rods, & likewise the blocks require to be drilled for mounting the slide bars. Slow and steady will be the order of the day, methinks 😎

[Chas Levin]

On 22/01/2023 at 14:32, MarkC said:

An opportunity to do some more work on the loco today. I decided to fit the footplate to the chassis in order to try and keep it straight whilst fitting the tanks, as with such a long overhang at the front, there was a risk of distortion.

 

 

The boiler halves went together nicely, with little filling & filing at the join. There was then a lot of measuring and minor filing to get the boiler, smokebox and saddle correctly positioned before securing it all together.

 

Progress is slow but steady - this is where I'm at now.

 

She's definitely starting to look the part - and better, to my mind, than the DJH offering.

 

Mark

Fully agree she's starting to look the part, though I don't know how she compares with the DJH one as I haven't built one of those: nice going though!

[MarkC]

1 hour ago, Chas Levin said:

Fully agree she's starting to look the part, though I don't know how she compares with the DJH one as I haven't built one of those: nice going though!

Thanks, Chas.

 

I don't have any photos of my DJH A8 with me, but hopefully another member of this parish may oblige with one of theirs?

 

The castings on the LE offering are cleaner & thinner than the DJH kit I built, which dates back to about the time that this kit was produced. Ditto the chassis, which was the old 'punched brass strip' style so common in kits of  the  60s-80s - although mine now runs on a lovely 52F chassis.

 

The other big difference is that the DJH model has the original type boiler, which on the real thing appeared fatter, due to the thicker insulation that was applied. This one has a defined 'step' between boiler barrel and smokebox; a consequence of the smaller overall diameter.

 

Mark

[drmditch]

My A8 will shortly go into shops for a major mechanical overhaul using a 52F chassis.

 

The existing arrangements do let it go round a 20" radius curve, but regrettably  a while ago it found the one place in my 'layout-under-construction' where it could fall all the way to the floor. The cosmetic damage was minor and easily repaired but it has never been fully reliable since!

 

I do like these with the Dia. 63 boiler, with it's cladding expanded to the diameter of the smokebox. The actual (effective) boiler diameter of the Dia. 63, 63A, 63B, and 63C was always 4'9".

 

 

Mine is derived from a DJH kit, but that for the H1 4-4-4 which was the original of what became the A8s.

There is a long story, about to get longer!

 

The basic mouldings are DJH, but heavily modified. Part of this shows below.

As far as I can remember added/replaced/altered were:-

Tank fronts

Bunker 

Cab interior

Cab roof (replaced in brass - after both of these photographs - this reduces the 'over-height' problem with the white metal castings.)

Cylinders. These are  part of a major re-construction of the front end framing, and the bogie. 

I also added several missing features

 

 

The DJH cylinders (in my opinion) were/are entirely wrong.

 

Adding the detail tool a long time. (Especially the tank filler caps, which I haven’t managed to take a good picture of yet.) The oil boxes also took some care and attention, and even then I’ve missed out a lot of the pipework. I have also added the angle-irons along the bottom of the tanks and bunker, and the pipe (balance pipe ?) along the bottom of both bunkers below the footplate.

 

If you do not have all your works-of-reference on your floating workbench and I can help you  do ask!

 

(Sorry for the old and poor pictures. and the wrong bogie wheels etc,etc.)

 

Edited January 25, 2023 by drmditch

[Chas Levin]

57 minutes ago, drmditch said:

My A8 will shortly go into shops for a major mechanical overhaul using a 52F chassis.

 

The existing arrangements do let it go round a 20" radius curve, but regrettably  a while ago it found the one place in my 'layout-under-construction' where it could fall all the way to the floor. The cosmetic damage was minor and easily repaired but it has never been fully reliable since!

 

I do like these with the Dia. 63 boiler, with it's cladding expanded to the diameter of the smokebox. The actual (effective) boiler diameter of the Dia. 63, 63A, 63B, and 63C was always 4'9".

 

 

Mine is derived from a DJH kit, but that for the H1 4-4-4 which was the original of what became the A8s.

There is a long story, about to get longer!

 

The basic mouldings are DJH, but heavily modified. Part of this shows below.

As far as I can remember added/replaced/altered were:-

Tank fronts

Bunker 

Cab interior

Cab roof (replaced in brass - after both of these photographs - this reduces the 'over-height' problem with the white metal castings.)

Cylinders. These are  part of a major re-construction of the front end framing, and the bogie. 

I also added several missing features

 

 

The DJH cylinders (in my opinion) were/are entirely wrong.

 

Adding the detail tool a long time. (Especially the tank filler caps, which I haven’t managed to take a good picture of yet.) The oil boxes also took some care and attention, and even then I’ve missed out a lot of the pipework. I have also added the angle-irons along the bottom of the tanks and bunker, and the pipe (balance pipe ?) along the bottom of both bunkers below the footplate.

 

If you do not have all your works-of-reference on your floating workbench and I can help you  do ask!

 

(Sorry for the old and poor pictures. and the wrong bogie wheels etc,etc.)

 

Hello, is this the one where you posted how to do the mods for tighter curves, quite a long time ago now? I recognise the pictures (I think) and if so, I saved those pictures and some notes on how you did it, because I have a DJH to build as the 4-4-4 H1 in due course and I'll need to make those mods... Sorry to hear it had a fall.

[drmditch]

1 hour ago, Chas Levin said:

Hello, is this the one where you posted how to do the mods for tighter curves, quite a long time ago now? I recognise the pictures (I think) and if so, I saved those pictures and some notes on how you did it, because I have a DJH to build as the 4-4-4 H1 in due course and I'll need to make those mods... Sorry to hear it had a fall.

 

Indeed it is! The details are on Page 3 of my 'Make do and Mend' thread on the LNER Forum.

I'm not quite sure how much of that will need repeating on the 52F frames.

I'm sure the main thing is not to rush!

[MarkC]

14 hours ago, drmditch said:

 

Indeed it is! The details are on Page 3 of my 'Make do and Mend' thread on the LNER Forum.

I'm not quite sure how much of that will need repeating on the 52F frames.

I'm sure the main thing is not to rush!

The 52F frames sort the issue out for you by design. They are a joy to assemble too - and the result is a fully compensated chassis which works well.

 

Mark

[MarkC]

Slow but steady indeed - connecting rods & crossheads drilled out & loosely assembled; just started on rounding off the slidebar ends, per the instructions, to fit into holes drilled in the cylinder casting

[MarkC]

The cylinders are in place now, and the first piston/crosshead/connecting rod assembly, plus slidebars, is completed & moving nicely where it all should do so.

[MarkC]

Yesterday saw the other side's piston/crosshead/conn rod assembly put together - both sides are moving well, so it's now time to start adding the detailing. Again, slow and steady is the name of the game.

 

Thank goodness for th'interweb for plenty of photos showing pipe runs etc...

 

Mark

[MarkC]

Definitely making progress now.

[MarkC]

Brake gear and some more fittings attached tonight

[drmditch]

Wow! Brakes!

 

What is the provenance (and dimensions) of the wheels please.

[MarkC]

7 minutes ago, drmditch said:

Wow! Brakes!

 

What is the provenance (and dimensions) of the wheels please.

Hi there.

 

Yes, brakes - they do make a difference, visually.

 

The wheels were supplied with the kit, and are 23mm Romfords. Fortunately pre-drilled & tapped - I remember my early modelling days, when they weren't...

 

Mark

[MarkC]

A few more parts added to the body

 

It's just as well that I'm going to use Gibson bogie & pony truck wheels - this was the supplied trailing wheelset. I think it's a bit late to complain to the supplier!

 

It's getting close to addressing the bogie issue too - that will be interesting...