DLT's SR Locos - Lord Nelson Craftsman Kit

[number6]

Garden railings actually, Hammerite is impossible to clean off....

That's a job I have to do too! I had oil paint (linseed oil based) on my hands for weeks recently and I seemed to be in all kinds of places where people were commenting on them. I also managed to get that green gap filling foam on my fingers and that never shifts either. Now I know what those gloves in the little bag in the lid are for.

 

More superb brass forming skills from you. For which I'm very much in awe.

 

I'm building 3 SECR 'continental' carriages from Worsley brass parts at the moment and trying to keep my soldering and forming quality of a reasonable standard.

 

I'm sorry now I was rude about the E6. But one Brighton peculiarity is the complete lack of regularity in height of cabs or boilers almost as if locos were built to different scales. The reasonably generous loading gauge probably led to that. So you had locos towering over each other and then when coupled to those ridiculously tall Balloon roofed carriage stock no harmony there either...

[DLT]

When assembling the coal plates, the two sidepeices are fixed to the inside of the bunker with Araldite, wedged in place to keep them vertical.

 

 

 

 

 

Once all was solid, the rear section was carefully filed to an exact fit (width AND height, it had to meet the inside of the flare) and then fixed in place with low-melt solder (145 degree) from inside at the ends, and then along the base.

Lastly the overlong sides were filed back to match the rear. (only one side done in the photo)

 

 

 

The intended method has worked well, quite amazing in itself.  I know the rails should be half-round (they could always be filed down a little) but I didn't have any and it might too easily lose definition.  I have on occasions found that some details may need to be slightly exaggerated to get the right effect.

Sorry if the account is getting over-detailed, but it just occurred to me that a few years ago I would not have attempted these details in brass, I would have fabricated them from plasticard.

 

Cheers, Dave.

Edited September 5, 2022 by DLT

[DLT]

Right, I think the cab is done.  Handrails have been fitted, a slightly ticklish job but my earlier bending of the beading to form the loops at the top was pretty accurate!  The first three went well, but I broke off the curved portion of the wire on the last one!  So I had the even more ticklish task of splicing in a new piece, so the fourth handrail took longer than the other three put together.

Haven't done the cab interior yet, and still the doors to fit.

 

 

 

 

 

Time to move on to some detailing.

 

Cheers, Dave.

Edited September 5, 2022 by DLT

[N15class]

I think that's standard practice is it not get 3 out of 4 done become over confident and screw up the last one. Always happening to me anyway.

 

Can looks good. You may of well scratch built the hole thing the amount of effort you have put in.

[Dunsignalling]

I think that's standard practice is it not get 3 out of 4 done become over confident and screw up the last one. Always happening to me anyway.

 

Can looks good. You may of well scratch built the hole thing the amount of effort you have put in.

I think he pretty much has.............

[Daddyman]

Right, I think the cab is done.  Handrails have been fitted, a slightly ticklish job but my earlier bending of the beading to form the loops at the top was pretty accurate!  The first three went well, but I broke off the curved portion of the wire on the last one!  So I had the even more ticklish task of splicing in a new piece, so the fourth handrail took longer than the other three put together.

Haven't done the cab interior yet, and still the doors to fit.

 

IMG_1016 small.jpg

 

IMG_1017 small.jpg

 

Time to move on to some detailing.

 

Cheers, Dave.

Sorry to clog up the thread, but sometimes "like" is not enough. 

[DLT]

Thanks for the comment Gents.

 

I don't know if it was over-confidence or clumsiness with the handrails; but at any rate, I broke it off at the most awkward location possible.  

 

Cab interior parts in the kit consist of a backhead and handbrake castings.  The backhead is pretty generic, being identical to the part supplied with both the E1/R and O2 kits.  My feeling it that with an enclosed cab you can't see it in detail, as long as you can see something is there its ok.   

 

Moving on, now the bodywork is generally done I can sort out the motor position and fit some pickups so I can get it working.  I reckon its going to be Backscratcher pickups, in order to keep clear of lower frame details like brakegear and springs.

I have deliberately left this stage till now so that I could suss out a location for the decoder before committing anything.  There is room in either of the sidetanks, or even stuck on top of the motor with Blue-Tac.  The flats on the motor are horizontal.

 

That's all for tonight,

Dave.

Edited April 8, 2017 by DLT

[number6]

The Ticklish job. There's a new thread title for you. You aren't going to notice a generic blackhead while marvelling at those handrails. Better not put a fireman hanging out the side hitting the Westinghouse pump with a coal hammer you won't notice the handrails!

 

Superb work Dave - very much appreciated - I do think that this is definitely a scratch build rather than a 'tickling up' of an old kit.

 

Moral of the story is a bit like that story of asking an Irish farmer for directions and he says 'Well, I would start from here if I were you.'

[DLT]

Time to report some chassis progress.

 

Motor and pickups are now fully installed and the whole thing is running very nicely.

Pickups are a mixture, with Backscratchers on two wheels and a conventional Wiper on the third.  I will post some photos later to explain the situation.

 

Cheers, Dave.

[DLT]

As promised, some photos of the pickup arrangements.  Firstly the position of the motor within the loco body, with room for a decoder in the tanks, or on top of the motor inside the high-pitched boiler.

 

 

The front driver has a fairly conventional wiper pickup, made from my usual 15thou nickel-silver wire.  

The brass rod pointing backwards provides a jump-lead mounting point, and a location to connect the wire to the rest of the pickups.

 

 

The Backscratchers, made from phosphor-bronze strip, on the middle and rear drivers.

 

 

As this loco will be DCC fitted, I couldnt just run power from the pickups straight to the motor, so I've installed this pcb "Connection Plate".  

As can be seen, the motor is connected to the front two squares of the connection plate, a wire from the pickups comes to the rear right square, while the rear left square is connected straight to the frame.  

Electrically, the decoder will be wired in between the front and rear squares.  These are temporarily shorted together by two brass wires, which will need to be removed before a decoder is installed.

 

 

Finally, with the motor propped up, the pcb "Backscratcher Plate" is visible; showing the mounting of the backscratchers, plus the wire coming from the front pickup, and the wire leading to the connection plate.

 

 

 

I think that all makes sense!

Dave.

Edited September 5, 2022 by DLT

[RAY NORWOOD]

Hi Dave. We're are you getting your mashima motors from as I am getting truble getting them as they are being made any more.

[DLT]

Hi Dave. We're are you getting your mashima motors from as I am getting truble getting them as they are being made any more.

 

Hi Ray,

I think the best thing is to grab them when you see them.  I used to get mine from Highlevel, but his supply is dwindling.

I've got enough to cover my planned locos for now though.

Cheers, Dave.

[RAY NORWOOD]

Hi Ray,

I think the best thing is to grab them when you see them.  I used to get mine from Highlevel, but his supply is dwindling.

I've got enough to cover my planned locos for now though.

Cheers, Dave.

Dave

I also get mine from High levels but he is all sold out, he done know when his next order will come in

[DLT]

Moving on to boiler fittings, chimney, domes etc are ok, and Gibson will supply the clack-valves.  

The only issue is the safety-valve.  The kit supplies the original item but the reboilered version is quite different.  See here:  http://www.semgonline.com/steam/e5class_01.html

This appears to be a standard Brighton item, but please can anyone tell me where I can get a casting?  I am unfamiliar with Brighton loco suppliers.

 

Also, please can anyone tell me what the large solid lumps on top of the sidetanks are?

 

Thanks very much, Dave.

[N15class]

[quote name="DLT" post="2689662" timestamp="1492347322

 

Also, please can anyone tell me what the large solid lumps on top of the sidetanks are?

 

 

Thanks very much, Dave.

 

Are they not tank straps?

[DLT]

Are they not tank straps?

 

That's what I thought at first, but it seems unlikely as they are rather massive three-dimensional blocks.  Anyway, I will fabricate them as they are.

 

I've realised that the safety-valve is the same as that fitted to the E1/R, so I will see if I can get one from SEFinecast.

 

Cheers, Dave.

[DLT]

The latest "ticklish" job is the handrails on the dome.  From the photos the fixing appear to be at about 45degrees around the circumference; The dome was marked out by eye and drilled to take the handrail knobs (Gibsons, medium length)

 

At first i tried to fit the handrails to a circle of wire and then spring them into place, but that proved impossible; I could get two in but one would always spring out again while trying to fit the third.  So I glued the knobs to the dome first, using short lengths of wire through them to give a visual indication that the holes were horizontal.

 

 

After that I threaded my circle of wire through the knobs and soldered it it.

 

 

Finally I removed the unwanted sections of wire.

 

 

Dave.

 

 

 

Edited September 5, 2022 by DLT

[number6]

Simply excellent! There is a forehead slappingly obvious solution to every ticklish problem here. The levelling wire through the handrail knobs is so good! And earlier posts about the pickups and chassis arrangements equally useful for those of us also contemplating a scratchbuild too-far. Much appreciated.

 

Sorry I missed the request about the safety valve - that is where I would have gone for a part - SE Finecast are very obliging and super fast with any bit from all of their kits. I have every likely looking part from them which probably constitute less than 5% of an I1X. Dave has already told me what he thinks of taking that particular challenge on...!

[DLT]

Thanks Number6,

 

I haven't completely dismissed the idea of the I1X, but I will have to re-familiarise with it and work out how much scratch-building is needed first!

 

I will give SEF a call today about the safety valve, and the tank fillers as well.  They disappeared a while ago, as they were part of the old boiler casting.

 

Can you shed any light on the large chunks on top of the tanks?  I guess I will have to carve them from solid whitemetal or styrene.

 

Cheers, Dave.

 

PS, I will have to take a pause again shortly, while I do a show with Bridport.

[Richard Jones]

This is really excellent model building to an exceptional standard of workmanship, but I can't help thinking that if you wanted an E5X (or E6X) it would have been a lot easier to adapt the Albion etched brass kit rather than throw away most of a cast whitemetal kit, or just buy the odd whitemetal parts from Finecast, though you appear to have scratch built most of the parts anyway!

[number6]

Been looking at all the photos I have again to investigate those parts.

 

I think you are off to Uckfield with Bridport?

 

re using the Albion kit as a basis: There isn't actually much of that etch that can be used or would have needed lots of adaption in the same way that the whitemetal one has gone by the wayside. Perhaps only the footplate is the same and perhaps the bunker - but even then I think it is the LBSCR version not the later filled in raves? When Dave and I discussed this project quite quickly the whitemetal kit was obviously not going to be of much use but you have to start somewhere! I may have looked at how to adapt it to the rebuilt loco while thinking about my skills and perhaps not thinking enough about what Dave is capable of. 

[DLT]

Yes, doing Uckfield in October.  Will we see you there?

 

A better starting point for this loco might be the newer revised SEF kit.  I think its in more separate parts, and will be more dimensionally accurate as its not intended to fit on a late 1960s vintage Hornby chassis.

You may well say "If I wanted to get there I wouldn't start from here" but in this case any starting point is better than none, as its a loco I was totally unfamiliar with.  (Not any more though...)

 

Cheers, Dave.

[BlueLightning]

Yes, doing Uckfield in October.

 

As a committee member of Uckfield MRC, and long time follower of your modelling on RMWeb, let me just say I look forward to seeing you there!!

 

Gary

[number6]

Re the tank top objects. They are tank straps - chunky brackets to hold the tanks to the boiler. Sounds ridiculous until you think about them filled with water and attached only to the cab at the rear and that they are also set wider on the frames? So as the boiler is pitched higher there isn't much to attach to... I am assuming there is something similar on the other radial tanks but hidden behind? Now I'm looking for photos of the locos in works without tanks.

 

Cropped this from an image on Geograph. You can see them on the E5X and how much higher the boiler is to the E4 behind.

 

from Ben brooksbank

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2649681

[Tony Teague]

The I1x is a loco that also interests me - in OO scale.

It is one of a very short list of types for which I cannot find any kit or source (see my thread), so I'd be keen to understand if you ever get to work out how to build one!

 

Tony