DLT's SR Locos - Lord Nelson Craftsman Kit

[pete_mcfarlane]

I think scratchbuilding is the only way to get an I1X at the moment (although it might be possible to use the SEF D1 chassis as the base for the batch that had recycled D1 running gear). I'm plan to do one eventually, once I've finished my I4. The one that's been on the go for 5 years....

[DLT]

I think scratchbuilding is the only way to get an I1X at the moment (although it might be possible to use the SEF D1 chassis as the base for the batch that had recycled D1 running gear). I'm plan to do one eventually, once I've finished my I4. The one that's been on the go for 5 years....

 

Initial thoughts were about doing a "cut & shut" job on an I3 kit, but haven't looked at it closely yet.

 

New safety valves and tank filler castings have arrived today from SEFinecast, and very nice they look.

 

Cheers, Dave.

[Dunsignalling]

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

Possibly more a case of joining the tanks to one another across the top of the boiler, rather than using the boiler as a structural member?

 

The height of the boiler might require them to be mounted on spacers to spread the load.

 

John

Edited April 20, 2017 by Dunsignalling

[Nick Holliday]

The Stroudley tanks as described by Bradley - "Although appearing to rest on the running plate and the upper edge of the frames, they were in fact suspended by a massive iron cleading plate passing over the boiler top and might more correctly be called wing-tanks.  This meant there was little distortion of the running plate and no heavy bracketing was necessary."  I believe Billinton continued this with his tanks.  It looks as if the E4X could use a similar support, but this wouldn't work with the higher pitched E5X and E6X boilers.  Presumably these chunky brackets were the connection between the boiler and the tank tops, to restrain them from moving outwards.

[number6]

Thanks Nick. Very interesting.

 

There is a photo of a very nice E5X in Ian Rathbone's gallery http://www.ianrathbonemodelpainting.co.uk/gallery-2---4mm-scale.php and that shows three rivets along the top of these brackets. At the risk of using another model as a guide this does suggest they were attached to the boiler and doing some sort of structural job. 

 

Have been looking for works images as I'm sure I've seen a Radial with the tanks removed and brackets like this visible.

[DLT]

Its been a while since the last update on this project, due tio the intervention of quite a few family requirements AND a weekend at the Helston Exhibition with Bridport.

Anyway I have not been idle, the current job is boiler washout plugs.  I thought I had some in the spares box; yes I did, but only two of them, so it was scratchbuilding.

The method is to file a square on the end of a length of 1.6mm brass rod, and then with it rotating in a drill-chuck, turning down the shaft section to 1mm diameter using needle files.

Takes a bit of trial and error to get it right, and I've made eight to cover the six needed (drop one of these on the carpet and you've got no chance...)

 

 

I hope that's clear!

 

Dave.

Edited September 5, 2022 by DLT

[Buckingham]

Dave

 

They look very neat for hand turned, do you use a micrometer to check the size or is it all by eye?

 

Dave

[DLT]

Dave

They look very neat for hand turned, do you use a micrometer to check the size or is it all by eye?

Dave

 

Hi Dave,

 

I measure using a digital caliper, probably the most versatile tool I possess.  I haven't felt the need to get a micrometer, the caliper does everything I need.

 

To file the square on the end I held the rod in a pin-chuck horizontally on the bench, made four horizontal passes with a needle file, rotated the chuck 90 degrees (ish) did another four passes and so on until I had a square end.  The chuck being four-jawed helped with gauging the rotation.  Once this was done I squinted at it end-on to see how accurate my square was (or wasn't) and finished it by eye.

 

Cheers, Dave.

Edited May 7, 2017 by DLT

[DLT]

Rest of the boiler fittings are coming along nicely.

Clack-valves are modified Gibson castings (from the Highland "Yankee" tank) ejector pipe from 1mm brass rod with a couple of flanges soldered on, followed by the handrails with a delicate double return bend in them, as they have to curve around the clack-valves.  

See:  http://www.semgonline.com/steam/e5class_01.html  I'm going to have another go at the handrails, as I've got the bends quite a bit overscale at the mo.

Photos later,

Dave.

[DLT]

Here's a few of the boiler fittings; clack valves, curly handrails and ejector pipe.

 

 

And how the loco looks at the moment, still various fittings to come.  If the pipes look a bit wonky, its because they are all just perched there for the photos.

 

 

And a detail shot showing how the handrails curve around the clack-valves.  Curvature was achieved by trial and error.

 

 

Cheers, Dave.

Edited September 5, 2022 by DLT

[Daddyman]

Nice!

It looks like the vacuum pipe should have some sort of fittings along its length. I can't work out their shape from the photos in your links above, but it looks like instead of going into the boiler at right angles, they point downwards vertically. 

[DLT]

Nice!

It looks like the vacuum pipe should have some sort of fittings along its length. I can't work out their shape from the photos in your links above, but it looks like instead of going into the boiler at right angles, they point downwards vertically. 

Hi Daddyman,

I think two are support brackets, attached to the tanks.  Additionally there is a tube at the smokebox end of the pipe, that disappears behind the splasher; and another union at the cab end.

Thanks, Dave.

[gz3xzf]

Hi Daddyman,

I think two are support brackets, attached to the tanks.  Additionally there is a tube at the smokebox end of the pipe, that disappears behind the splasher; and another union at the cab end.

Thanks, Dave.

Hi Dave

Agree with you on the possibility of support brackets, although the pipe running behind the spasher will probably be a condensation drain, wonder if the designer fitted more than one? I found one photo on the web that didn't appear to have as many of these fittings: -

 

From the photos the handrails look fine, I don't think the the loop round the clack looks too big.

 

Excellent build, I do like reading your updates.

[DLT]

Hi Bryan,

 

Thanks for the advice, that drain tube is going to be VERY small in diameter.

There were a surprising number of detail variations for a class of only four locos, two types of smokebox door, two patterns of handrail etc.

Its a bit like one of those "spot the difference" drawings in quiz books!

 

Cheers, Dave.

[jwealleans]

Probably teaching my grandmother to suck eggs here, but for pipe runs like that I use offcuts of mains flex, stripped back and separated into individual strands.  They're a very fine copper wire and fairly easy to shape and stick.

[DLT]

Probably teaching my grandmother to suck eggs here, but for pipe runs like that I use offcuts of mains flex, stripped back and separated into individual strands.  They're a very fine copper wire and fairly easy to shape and stick.

 

Not at all, I hadn't thought of that!

 

Thanks very much.

[gz3xzf]

Hi Bryan,

 

Thanks for the advice, that drain tube is going to be VERY small in diameter.

There were a surprising number of detail variations for a class of only four locos, two types of smokebox door, two patterns of handrail etc.

Its a bit like one of those "spot the difference" drawings in quiz books!

 

Cheers, Dave.

Yes, as I discovered with the SECR R1, 8 variations over 13 locos! You'll probably find they changed during overhaul as well, so the same loco will have different details later in its life!

[number6]

Definitely be very careful using images of any of the other [3] locos in this class for details – as Dave says they are all different. The route of some pipes and the bends in them probably depended on how close it was to knocking off time at works rather than any drawn plan. And a small drain pipe like that is verging on insanity! I feel that some of those very small details end up slightly over scale and then draw attention to themselves for all the wrong reasons.

 

The work on these details is really superb. Cheers.

[DLT]

Yes, I think I might omit the drainpipe, you wouldn't notice it from normal viewing distance anyway.

 

Moving on, the smokebox door assembly is an amalgam of bits:

Whitemetal casting by S.E.Finecast (from the "H" kit)

Cast-brass dart by Branchlines,

etched numberplate by Narrow-Planet,

handrail by me (with Gibson knobs)

 

 

 

Cheers, Dave.

Edited September 5, 2022 by DLT

[Horsetan]

.....And how the loco looks at the moment, still various fittings to come.  ...

 

Given the work put into it, it strikes me as though it might have been easier for you to scratchbuild the thing from the start, and just buy the odd detail casting from SEF!

[DLT]

Given the work put into it, it strikes me as though it might have been easier for you to scratchbuild the thing from the start, and just buy the odd detail casting from SEF!

 

Yes, we've been through that one!  

The brief was to use anything from the (very) old Wills kit that could be used.  In the end it was less than we thought, but it still gave a starting point.

I would have been less likely to take on a complete scratch-build of a loco that I was totally unfamiliar with.

All the best,

Dave.

Edited May 9, 2017 by DLT

[number6]

Think of the Wills kit as the artists maquette.

[Daddyman]

Not at all, I hadn't thought of that!

 

Thanks very much.

Yes, but please remember the thicker part at the top. I'd drill the blower pipe 0.5mm (nick it with a file first so that the drill bit doesn't slip around), insert a length of 0.5mm capillary tube, and then insert 0.2mm copper wire from Eileen's or Jonathan's source into that for the drain pipe proper. You can see it here on my scratchbuilt D20 (glad I revisited that gap under the cylinder access hatch!): 

 

[DLT]

Thanks for the suggestions Daddyman.  

That's a super looking loco, does it have its own forum topic?

Cheers, Dave.

[Daddyman]

Thanks for the suggestions Daddyman.  

That's a super looking loco, does it have its own forum topic?

Cheers, Dave.

Very kind of you to say so - and it means a lot coming from you!

 

It's not bad I suppose as my first scratchbuild. 

 

No, it doesn't have its own thread: partly because I built it as a favour to my dad, who's president of the North Eastern Railway Association, for their members' journal, so I don't want members sitting down in their favourite armchair with the cat to read their latest journal only to see something that they've already seen on the web; and partly because one can end up spending too much time posting and not enough time modelling.

 

Best, 

David.