F class tank livery query

[roythebus1]

I'm using the High Level gearbox driving the rear axle IIRC, the motor sits nicely in the boiler top. I've also tried a Kean Portescap that I have lying around but that's about 2mm too high. When I can get my phone to take jpeg photos again I'll take some pics and post them.

 

Harry Varley was a motorman at Ricky when I was there. 1973/74. I think Blossom was a nickname in the Byrne family, ISTR Bill Byrne's father having that nickname as well!

[Jeff Smith]

Ok, have ordered a High Level Road Runner Compact g/b and 10/20 motor as I cannot make contact with Branchlines my usual source.....

 

Getting back to the air reservoirs; only when I was looking at fitting them did I realize that they sit across the tank fillers!  Anyone know how that worked?  Were additional fillers installed?

[Jeremy Cumberland]

59 minutes ago, Jeff Smith said:

Getting back to the air reservoirs; only when I was looking at fitting them did I realize that they sit across the tank fillers!  Anyone know how that worked?  Were additional fillers installed?

Here you are - photo on page 2: https://www.lurs.org.uk/articles14_htm_files/02 the saving of l44.pdf

 

Photographs of the right hand side suggest an air pipe going along the tank top between the compressor and the reservoir, so I wonder if only the left hand tank had a filler. The balance pipe should fill the right hand tank reasonably quickly - not brilliant if you were filling up during a station stop, but probably quick enough for anything these locomotives were doing in the 1950s.

 

Incidentally, while looking online just now, I found a set of photos of L51 on ebay (https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=l51+london+transport&_sacat=0&rt=nc&LH_Complete=1). They were all taken between May and September 1955 at Lillie Bridge, and are all from the rear, showing either some drastic surgery being done or else the locomtive in the process of being scrapped/stripped for spares. However what caught my eye was the air reservoir clearly visible on the right hand tank (and less clearly on the left hand tank too), while the SEF kit instructions you mentioned earlier said that only L49 and L52 had air brakes. I've now seen photograps of all four locos with reservoirs.

[Fair Oak Junction]

7 minutes ago, Jeremy Cumberland said:

Incidentally, while looking online just now, I found a set of photos of L51 on ebay (https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=l51+london+transport&_sacat=0&rt=nc&LH_Complete=1). They were all taken between May and September 1955 at Lillie Bridge, and are all from the rear, showing either some drastic surgery being done or else the locomtive in the process of being scrapped/stripped for spares. However what caught my eye was the air reservoir clearly visible on the right hand tank (and less clearly on the left hand tank too), while the SEF kit instructions you mentioned earlier said that only L49 and L52 had air brakes. I've now seen photograps of all four locos with reservoirs.

 

You have inadvertently helped me out on something unrelated to the F Class. I was searching for AGES online to find photos of the rear of the MET/LT Peckett X Classes to confirm what the lining would have been. And there is L.54, right in front of L.51, clearly showing the cab rear lining! Fantastic!! 🙂👍

[Jeremy Cumberland]

23 minutes ago, Fair Oak Junction said:

 

You have inadvertently helped me out on something unrelated to the F Class. I was searching for AGES online to find photos of the rear of the MET/LT Peckett X Classes to confirm what the lining would have been. And there is L.54, right in front of L.51, clearly showing the cab rear lining! Fantastic!! 🙂👍

I was going to ask what your guess was for whether or not there was a number on the bunker, but I see the top of the 4 is just in view in the earlier photo.

[Fair Oak Junction]

1 minute ago, Jeremy Cumberland said:

I was going to ask what your guess was for whether or not there was a number on the bunker, but I see the top of the 4 is just in view in the earlier photo.

 

Indeed, it's marvellous to finally have confirmation! 👌

[Jeff Smith]

Thanks for all the reference material.  I will move the fillers both sides if I decide to fit the reservoirs.

 

I cheated with my L54 and did not fully line, just gold London Transport and the numbers on the cab sides and large one on the rear.  I read that initially they were not fully lined - that's my excuse.......

[Jeff Smith]

As I'm building L52 which definitely had two tanks at scrapping in 1962/3 I have repositioned both fillers, added the tanks and some pipework.  Reference photos indicate pipes at the rear of the L/H tank and both front and back of the R/H one.  I assume the tanks were in series and the rears were connected across the boiler.

 

 

 

L54 from an etched brass Mercian kit.  One day I might get round to lining it!

 

[Fair Oak Junction]

Excellent progress on the F, and the Peckett is looking marvellous so far!

I bought a Mercian X class kit just before they went out of stock for the final time, but then sold it when I left the hobby for a while. One of my biggest mistakes! 😄

If I ever get my hands on a P Class, then I'll buy one of the fantastic 3d printed X Class bodies from Oak Hill Works.

[Jeff Smith]

Progress on the F Class.  The High Level g/b will drive the rigid rear drivers, the middle and front will have a central beam.  I have elongated the bearing holes so the bearings can slide up and down about a mm each.  This is much simpler than the old Perseverance Flexichass system of soldered hornblocks.  The trailing wheels will have similar up and down freedom but be sprung downward.

 

 

 

[Fair Oak Junction]

Great progress! I love all the former Met steam locos, but alongside the A class I've always had a particular soft spot for the F.

I find their proportions a bit more aesthetically pleasing compared to the Es. Such a shame the one that was going to be preserved was in too bad condition.