Nick Dunhill's Workshop. Meteor Models Caledonian Railway 439 class.

[nickd]

So here we go on the next commission.  The kit is an original Meteor Models kit now marketed by Alba Railway Models.  It seems to be quite a decent kit, but comes from the era when we had Triang Hornby X04 motors sticking inside the cab of our Wills J39 on a Hornby 0-6-0 Jinty chassis.  Very old school indeed, all very 1980s.  The chassis frames are designed to be held apart by square bar spacers screwed in place.  I dare say that it would make a running chassis but I didn't like the look of it and decided it would be more appropriate to make a new one.....with the consent of the client of course.

 

 

The model will be built to S7 gauge so I sent the wheels off to that nice Mr Dowling for an encounter with his wheel tyre S7 form tool, and in the meantime set off building the coupling rod and then the footplate.  The first thing I noticed was that there's not much in the way of registration for the valences on the underside of the footplate.  I cut some short bits of brass strip and tacked them to the underside of the footplate etch to butt the valence etch up to in the correct position.  I noticed that the valences were slightly different lengths, and adjusted accordingly.  This of course set an alarm ringing that, as with all old hand drawn etches, its a good idea to check measurements and for squareness.

 

 

 

I moved on to the cab and bunker.  I checked the sides for the above and noticed that one was slightly longer than the other, and that both were too long for the etched registration slots in the top of the footplate.  I adjusted accordingly.  The bunker rear was etched in 0.45 mm sheet and I thought I'd have a better chance of forming a nice flare at the top if I cut a new one from 0.3 mm sheet.  I repurposed the bunker rear etch as a cab floor as there wasn't one in the kit.  I also decided to make a new cab rear as the pre etched holes for the window bars were in the wrong place.  Pictures show that the bars are attached to the beading round the windows and the etched holes in the kit part are above and below the beading.  I just thought that it would be quicker to make a new one than modifying the etch.  I also made the cab front and roof and added all the handrails and lamp irons etc.

 

 

I didn't much like the coal rails etched onto the bunker sides and rear and made some new ones from half round brass rod.

 

 

The model will depict no 452 when new.  If there are any CR buffs out there who could enlighten me as to the positions of lamp irons I'd be grateful.  Some locos appeared to have more than others, particularly in the buffer beam area.  Also I guess the loco had only Westinghouse air brakes when new, and didn't have any carriage heating pipes at that time.  If anyone knows differently please let me know.

 

The next job was cutting out some new chassis frames.

 

 

You can see that I also started making a new bogie as the etched one in the kit is just too old school.  More next week.  Massive thanks to Martin Shaw, Robin McHugh and everyone else that has chipped in to help a Caledonian Railway novice.

[Dave John]

452 was built 1900 to lot Y64. 

 

Lamp irons would be cabside, smokebox top and the rear one was effectively an extension of the centre coal rail bracket rather than the on the bunker rear face. Nothing on the buffer beam till later.  ( Caley cabside lamps  could show a red, white or green aspect via a rotating filter ) 

 

Just the westinghouse pipe on the buffer beam .

 

Front coupling seems to have been the single shackle type. 

 

 

[DOCJACOB]

There is excellent large picture showing exactly the above arrangement in Caledonian Railway Livery book. 
 

Can’t attach here but message me

[nickd]

Work indeed continued on the bogie.  Everything was scratchbuilt as the two side etches and stretcher might have been acceptable in the 1980s but I didn't much care for the simplicity of them.  There is a big gap between the equalising beams that will be filled shortly with some 3D printed springs from the Mickoo stable.

 

 

All the frame stays were hand cut and the chassis assembled.  You can see that the chassis has been soldered up on a couple of parallels standing on a sheet of plate glass.  There is a sheet of graph paper under the parallels to help get everything straight and square.  I assembled an ashpan using the side etches in the kit and added a rear and bottom to add some more rigidity to the structure.

 

 

 

The frame stays are all a bit random as there's no inside motion.  I might well add some cylinder detail as I build the smokebox and work out where all the inside motion would have gone.  I used my tried and tested jury axle method to attach the horn cheeks and a smooth running chassis was the result.

 

 

 

This is the chassis running round a 5ft 6 ins rad test track.  It's a bit brutal for S7 but if it manages this it'll manage a more forgiving layout.  The kit had no balance weights in the box so I made some.

 

 

Here the body is fitted up and the horn blocks adjusted to achieve the correct ride height.

 

I had high(er) hopes than the ACE Reid Atlantic for this kit but so far it's a bit hit and miss.  The chassis adventure is just because of my choice to ditch the stoneage parts in the kit.  This is the original Meteor version and I expect that the current Alba Models version has had a few updates.  The body so far is sort of OK.  It's very basic and because it's hand drawn it suffers from all the 'thick pencil' issues.  The cab/bunker sides aren't mirror images of each other, one is longer than the other and the cab front back and bunker rear don't fit.  Some are too wide (which is ok) and some to narrow, which is a much bigger problem and nothing is perfectly square.

 

I don't think I'm going to use the tank sides or boiler/smokebox that are supplied.  The tank sides are etched in 0.6 mm brass and its just too stiff to be able to get the curve near the top with any accuracy without a lump hammer.  I'll replace it with thinner material.  Likewise the boiler and smokebox.  The smokebox ends at the top of the sand box in true Western-film-set style, and I never had much success at sweating 3 layers of cylindrical etches together.  They always end up looking like a dog's dinner, so it'll be quicker and much nicer if I scratchbuild my way to the front.  Maybe my expectations are too high, at least it would be possible to build something resembling a 439, but this kit is a bit meh in my view.  The scrap bin will be getting heavier.

[nickd]

Has anyone got any information about how the brake rigging is arranged on this loco?  The whereabouts of the brake cylinder and brake shaft/trunnions?  How many pull rods, one central or two?

Thanks

Nick

[Blandford1969]

The speed you work at is incredible

 

[Neil W]

there is a class 439 loco preserved on the Bo'ness & Kinneil line, pictures below.  Looking at pics in The Caledonian Railway Locomotives - The Classic Years it looks like a rod each side immediately behind the driving wheels. Can scan this or take a pic of this and see how it looks.  There is a Facebook group Caledonian Railway Enthusiast Group that might help or the Caledonian Railway Association may have access to diagrams if asked, see website.  If you need to be a CRA member let me know, or if I can help further

Regards

Neil

[Neil W]

Just had a look at CRA website and they have 2 Cd's of plans, £10 members, £35 non-members. It has got 439 on there, not sure how many/useful the plans are, would need further enquiries.  The Facebook group might be best option, a load of people have built 439's as DJH makes the kit in OO

 

https://www.crassoc.org.uk/web/node/88

 

on the CRA forum someone has requested the instructions for the DJH 439 kit and been PM'd them, again not sure if this or a shout-out on the forum might help?

 

Regards

Neil

[nickd]

Thanks for your help Neil.  The photos will be useful when it comes to building the body.  I think that a GA of 439s doesn't exist anymore or the CRA or SRPS would have one.  Someone sent me a copy of an 879 class GA and I think that had what I need.  There's a GA somewhere of the Pickersgil version of the 0-4-4T, but that has a few differences too.

[nickd]

On 02/02/2023 at 20:10, Blandford1969 said:

The speed you work at is incredible

 

Hi Mr B, it's my full time job and I work 40 hr weeks!  Nick

[nickd]

I was sent some very nice images of 439s and went on to install the brake gear (and pick-ups.)  I later got a drawing of an 879 and saw that the pull rods were slightly different, so I modified what I had made and added some sand pipes.  I may add some dummy inside motion later but for now the chassis is complete.  It ran round a 5' 5'' radius curve, which is brutal for a S7 loco, so I was happy it would run on a more orthodox S7 layout.

 

 

 

 

The boiler etches in the kit are a cylinder for the boiler and two curved overlay etches to represent the smokebox.  Admittedly the lower half of the smokebox is hidden by the sandbox and splasher but I just didn't like the idea of smoke and mirror modelling, so made a new smokebox.  It was actually a fairly quick job to fabricate a new smokebox, and probably not much longer than sweating 3 kit etches together and making good, and it looks MUCH better.

 

 

The assembly was made in the way I have demonstrated on GOG's YouTube channel;

 

 

 

 

Next week I'll be making the short boiler and the water tanks.  I did run a rule over the water tank front and rear (in the light of my experience with the cab/bunker sides) and discovered that the curve for the top of the boiler is different on both formers and they are different heights.  Surely surely.......etc.

 

 

 

So more of the Meteor kit in the 'Bin of Shame' keeping the ACE Atlantic company.

 

Edited February 5, 2023 by nickd

[jamieb]

Wow,that's some scrap box! Looks like this is turning into some kind of Triggers Broom locomotive,be interesting to see how much of the original kit remains 

I'm contemplating one of the earlier 92 class versions of these tanks as some were in Wharfedale in the late 40s, so will follow this for inspiration although I'm sure there were many differences 

 

 

[nickd]

First up this week was a scratchbuilt boiler.

 

 

Worth the effort I think.  I cut out a thick brass circle and radiused one edge to represent the cover thing that you often find between the boiler and smokebox.

 

 

I soldered everything together with a couple of boiler bands and stuffed it with lead sheet.

 

Further checks on the front and rear bulkheads revealed them to be too narrow and have an uneasy relationship with a right angle.  I cut some more out that were the correct size.  The tank sides were also not long enough!  They were also etched in 0.6 mm brass which makes forming the tight curve an ordeal so I cut some of those out of 0.3 mm N/S too.

 

The painter, bless him, asked if I could supply the boiler as a separate part to aid painting the lining on the front of the tanks and the cab.  I built the front bulkhead with some holes to accept rods sticking out of the boiler rear.  I also added some structures to the front bulkhead such that you can't see the motor and backs of the rear drivers under the boiler.

 

 

Next the tank sides were formed and soldered in place.  There was quite a lot of cleaning up as the etched grooves in the footplate to accept the tanks (and cab) are quite wide and deep and need a lot of solder to fill them.  Big meniscus....scrape, scrape, sand etc.  This job wasn't anywhere near as tricky as the tank/boiler top thing though.

 

 

 

 

Back to the painter Warren.  I obliged, but it did mean building the splashers onto the smokebox.  The assembly slots onto the front footplate and is held firmly by a screw underneath.

 

 

 

Don't think I'll use the dome, as it's a bit oval......well that and other issues.

Edited February 9, 2023 by nickd

[nickd]

Well I have added quite a lot of detail to the model.  This began by making one of those Masonic star thingies that appeared on a lot of pre grouping Scottish locos.

 

 

 

There were no added traumas this week as I had finished all the scratchbuilding (apart from the valve chest cover, and......).  The handrail was fitted round the smokebox with all the accoutrements.

 

 

Some 3D printed springs were added to the chassis and bogie.

 

 

I fitted up the Westinghouse pump and all the pipework.

 

 

All the boiler fittings, both brass castings and 3D prints were fitted and that's where we are now.  Just need to add some handrails and the whole cab interior.

 

 

 

Should be done in a couple or three days.

Edited February 16, 2023 by nickd

[nickd]

I finally got the castings together that I needed to complete the 439.  I have finished the cab and boiler backhead and it will go off to paint on Monday.

 

 

I added the front door to the ashpan.

 

 

 

 

 

I'll post more pics when it's painted and reassembled.

[Camperdown]

Excellent work.  How did you form the thinned section of the frames behind the bogie wheels?

[nickd]

It's a trick of the eye.  It's an overlay on the back of the chassis.

[Camperdown]

15 hours ago, nickd said:

It's a trick of the eye.  It's an overlay on the back of the chassis.

OK, thanks.  Presumably the prototype frames were dished here, which is why you've done it.  Can't really be to get a few thou extra clearance.

[nickd]

Yes the frames were dished like this.  It's common feature on older locos.  If you look at the frames you can see I put a cheeky joggle in them behind the rear driver.  This is to allow the (S7) loco to go round a 6' rad curve without having to cut the frames to clear the bogie wheels.  There's so much flange to railhead slop in FS that I doubt the joggle would be needed.  Then it's just a case of limiting the bogie movement so the wheels don't touch the frames.

Edited March 19, 2023 by nickd

[nickd]

 

 

 

Important that models run smoothly at very slow speed.