Lancaster Green Ayre - The Barn Owls have returned.

[lezz01]

Hi Jamie. I have had some success with both toothpaste and liquid metal polish but remember to wash it all off and lubricate afterwards. 

Regards Lez.

Edited November 16, 2018 by lezz01

[jamie92208]

Thanks for that Lez.   I did find the article that I was looking for last night and will have a go along with some metal polish.   

 

 

Jamie

[lezz01]

Apply the polish sparingly and run in each direction for a couple of mins max then wash off with thinners re-lube and see how it goes then do it again if necessary Jamie. Don't try to do it all in one go as you can't put metal back.

Regards Lez.  

[jamie92208]

I've ad an hour over in the shed tonight and have got the loco running a lot better.   I took the rods off and all three wheels were running free and true.   The pick ups do drag a little.   I had found the article I wanted in the Guild gazette online and managed to dig out the actual copy.   I then worked through the procedure the article outlined for sorting out binding coupling rods.  As expected it was binding at the same point of revolution each time.  Gentle tickling with a round needle file then took place and I kept checking things.   By the end it is crawling along nicely going forward but is still a little hesitant in reverse.   That seems like a success to me.

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

A bit more progress today but not as much as I hoped.   It turned out to be a cool but sunny day so we went to the market this morning and for a walk this afternoon however I did make it over to the shed before and after tea.

 

The first job was to glue the smokebox door on.   I did this first 3 days ago but the thing must have moved as the araldite was curing and it ended up skew wiff.  It was gently prised off before the glue set really hard.   Today I cleaned the casting and smokebox up then measured the diameter of each and set the depth gauge on my verniers to measure the gap that I had to leave at the top and sides to get it central. (5.3mm) glue was mixed and the door centred then I came back to the house for it to cure in the warmth.  Centring was not helped by the bottom securing dog being about 1mm off centre.  This was the result.

 

After tea the plan was to assemble the loco and tender then give it a test run.  However it had another surprise up it's sleeve.   When I tried to get the chassis properly paced under the running plate I found that it was rocking on the reversing shaft brackets.   10 minutes with a soldering iron to loosen the reversing lever then it's slot had to be widened with Dremel and square file.   Chassis tried again and now it was rocking on the base of the smokebox that came down too far.   The Dremel made short work of that and it was then secured.   The tender was attached and this was the result.

 

However by then it was 9pm (here in France) and time to watch David Attenborough's Dynasties. We don't have recording facilities at the moment and can't gt iPlayer.)

Hopefully it will get it's test run tomorrow,

 

Jamie

Edited November 18, 2018 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Evening all.   It's nearly freezing outside so the shed is a tad cool.   However I did manage to get the paraffin heater in the workshop to work so was able to put the coupling rods back on the loco tonight.   Then I took it through to the layout for a test run.   It seemed to run reasonably well in the loco shed area and I managed to run it through to the main line.  I ran it right round through the fiddle yard then up and down a stretch of the up main between the station and Skerton Bridge. I went OK except that going forwards it always stopped on the same 6" length of track for no discernible reason.   In reverse there wasn't a problem.  I did manage to get a couple of photos but it was too dark to get usable video.  However it was great to see it running.  I need to connect up the tender pick ups though before I test it again.

 

Du to the server problems I can't upload the photos but will try again tomorrow.   A tot of whisky is being consumed to celebrate it's first run on the layout.

 

Jamie

 

Edit Wednesday morning.  Photo's now uploaded.

 

Here's the new 3182 running along the down main.  311waits in the bay platform with a portion for Wennington.

 

 

Even though the video wouldn't work this does give some impression of movement.

 

Jamie

 

Edited November 21, 2018 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Evening all from a slightly warmer Charente.   I wasn't happy with the running of 3182 last night.  It was a bit reluctant to start at times and stuttered in places no matter how many times I cleaned the rails.    So this afternoon I went over and fitted the plug and socket to link the tender pick us to the loco.   Result, still hesitant at times but I noticed some sparks in odd places.  A check with a meter revealed a dead short between the body and the rails.   Some simple things were tried with no success.    

 

I went back this evening and did half an hour's careful checking.   When I separated the tender there was no short on it.  I then took the loco body off and the chassis ran smoothly, it also ran smoothly with the tender attached.   

 

First try with the loco body, no short, then when I screwed the chassis in the short appeared again.   A bit of looking and a few tickles with the Dremel and a scraper took a few corners off.   The main culprits were the bottom corners of the firebox front   Anyway after the various offending items were removed it was assembled again, connected to the tender and ran smoothly on my rather short length of test track.   Tomorrow it will get a proper run round the layout but I am rather pleased.  There is also no short and the bodywork is not live.

 

Jamie

[Mike Storey]

Evening all from a slightly warmer Charente.   I wasn't happy with the running of 3182 last night.  It was a bit reluctant to start at times and stuttered in places no matter how many times I cleaned the rails.    So this afternoon I went over and fitted the plug and socket to link the tender pick us to the loco.   Result, still hesitant at times but I noticed some sparks in odd places.  A check with a meter revealed a dead short between the body and the rails.   Some simple things were tried with no success.    

 

I went back this evening and did half an hour's careful checking.   When I separated the tender there was no short on it.  I then took the loco body off and the chassis ran smoothly, it also ran smoothly with the tender attached.   

 

First try with the loco body, no short, then when I screwed the chassis in the short appeared again.   A bit of looking and a few tickles with the Dremel and a scraper took a few corners off.   The main culprits were the bottom corners of the firebox front   Anyway after the various offending items were removed it was assembled again, connected to the tender and ran smoothly on my rather short length of test track.   Tomorrow it will get a proper run round the layout but I am rather pleased.  There is also no short and the bodywork is not live.

 

Jamie

 

Must be Ice on the rails Jamie........slightly warmer? F-me. You are still on Yorkshire climate, so it must seem tropical. Just wait til you've spent a couple of years when we normally sit out in the evenings in November and December here (if the weather ever gets back to "normal")! 

[jamie92208]

I've been back to the shed this morning and managed to give 3182 a test run in daylight.   

Sorry for the jerkiness.  That's me using a hand held camera and a controller at the same time.

 

However it does run rather nicely and does got slowly.

 

Jamie

[Andy Hayter]

 Just wait til you've spent a couple of years when we normally sit out in the evenings in November and December here (if the weather ever gets back to "normal")! 

 

 Well I am south of a line from Bordeaux and I am still waiting for a day to sit out in Autumn.  We have already had a foot of snow! - and that is unusual for autumn.

[Mike Storey]

 Well I am south of a line from Bordeaux and I am still waiting for a day to sit out in Autumn.  We have already had a foot of snow! - and that is unusual for autumn.

 

Ah, but that is why we moved to this area specifically. It has a mild micro-climate (historically the second driest part of mainland France, after the Riviera) and, until this year, it has usually lived up to that!

[lezz01]

Nice Jamie. It could do with a bit more running in but it looks fairly smooth already. Good job mate.

Regards Lez.

[jamie92208]

Not a lot to report.  Last night I spent time looking through all the detail castings and trying to make sense of them.  As usual the instructions are worse than useless.  I therefore made a detailed list of what needed to be fitted to both engine and tender, then columns for what type of fitting, whether it existed and the references for photos.   Some were present, a few were duplicated and some were not present.  eg, the backhead has gauge glasses and most detail included but there are two quite nice lost wax brass gauge glasses but there are no sand box filler caps. No mention of where to fit the clack valves or even where the feed pipes come from.   Fortunately, Jenkinson and Essery, plus Sumerson provided the answers.  Sumerson also told me that the loco was not vacuum fitted so there is no need for an ejector assembly.  Most of the tender details seem to be there.   

 

Tonight as it was a bit warmer, a positively balmy 6 degrees, so I went over to the shed to escape Z list celebrities getting bored.  I didn't spend too long there but got the buffers and the small handrails fitted to the tender.  I was quite pleased with being able to attach the buffers with WM solder.

 

Onwards and upwards.

 

Jamie

Edited November 25, 2018 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Two days of adding details and I can actually report some progress.  Yesterday I worked out where the clack valves should go and started to work out how to fit them.  A length of 1.5mm copper was taken from a length of cable in the shed.  I then managed to solder 1 clack onto the boiler and drilled all the holes for the other fittings out to the correct diameter.  Then tried to fit the length of copper to the clack valve and managed to break it off it's mounting.  I then gave up in disgust.

 

This morning it's raining so no gardening so I made another start.  I managed to solder the length of copper into the broken piece of clack valve.  I then drilled a small witness hole where the spigot had broken , put the clack in piece and soldered the other end of the copper into the footplate.   I was quite happy with that.  I then made a start on the other one by soldering the length of copper into the clack before mounting the assembly on the boiler and dribbling a tiny piece of WM solder into it to fix it, I'd tinned the boiler first.   I was quite happy with the result.

 

This is the first one that broke. The photo also shows the buffers.

The next task was the missing sandbox filler caps.  I did find two in a bits bag but needed four.   I tried slitting small discs off two different diameters of brass rod with the Dremel but kept losing the pieces and it didn't look right.   I then started filing flats on the thicker brass rod, then joining the flats to create something that looked like a filler cap.   This was then slit off and promptly lost but I eventually manged to get four made, and by this time was holding the cut piece with pliers while I parted it off.   Here are the four in the back of the tender.  I'm not sure how to create the handles but might have a try with some thin wire.

The other job was to try and fabricate some cab splashers.  These are apparently parts 29a and 29b on the etches but they aren't there, surprise surprise.  The kit contains some spare etches for a belpaire firebox so the wrapper became a donor.  I measured up what was needed and marked the pieces out on the wrapper with the tip of a file.  These were then carefully dremelled out, using the slitting disc gently to create the necessary fold lines. I even remembered to make them mirror images.   The first try was too small so I did two more and this is the result with them held in by blu-tak.   I'm quite pleased and will solder them in the next time I'm working on the loco. This also shows the pre cast backhead. I'm still undecided as to whether or not to try and make it more detailed.

All in all quite a good morning.

By the way there aren't enough hand rail knobs so I will have to raid another kit.   Also having checked the photos there should be collars where the feed pipes for the clacks come through the footplate.  I can't think of a way to retrofit them and don't want to remove the valves again so they might have to stay as is.

Coupler will have to wait until the bodies are painted which may be in the spring when it's warmer.

 

Jamie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jamie92208]

A bit more progress tonight.  The sandboxes and sandpipes are now fitted and the cab splashers are soldered in place.  That's two more ticks on the detailing list.  Last night it seemed a bit cold so I got my next project off the shelf to have  a look at it.  Believe it or not it's another 2F but this time with George Norton etches.  I bought it many years ago on Ebay and I think it was a London Road Models.  I never progressed it and some years later my late friend Tony Bond offered to build it.   He got quite a way with it but unfortunately didn't live long enough to finish it. He has built several of the locos that run on Green Ayre.   All of them are beautiful models and all run very well.  After he died the kit was lost but it turned up in various places in his house when I helped his daughter to clear it.   In Tony's usual way he had taken all the bits out of the box, labelled them and put them on one side.   I think I found most of it and the pieces just got put in a box and brought over here.

 

I opened the box last night and had a look at what was there.   the loco chassis is built and the motor, a Portescap, fitted.  The tender chassis is built and has pick ups on it, the tender body is nearly complete and the loco cab and footplate is built.   The boiler is part assembled but had got a bit squashed.   Most of the parts seem to be there along with several spare etches from the 2F that Tony had built previously.   I even found 6 sandbox fillers.  There are some missing bits but I think that I can finish it OK.   My plan is to get both of them built before the weather gets warmer then paint them both when it's warm enough.  The second one is going to be 3188 of Skipton shed (30).

 

Jamie

[lezz01]

Looking forward to the build Jamie. George Norton did make nice kits that's for sure.

Regards Lez.

[Shez]

Good to see the 2F up and running - well done!

[jamie92208]

Thanks for that Mark.    Now another day and a bit more progress.  The first job was to assemble the loco brake blocks, 3 etches to each 3 of each hand.  Fortunately they were etched in sets so working one set at a time I didn't get them mixed up.  

 

The next task was one I'd been dreading.   The 3130 class were unique in having the brake pull rods outside the driving wheels so they are very visible.  Surprise surprise they looked all wrong.  They were far too thick and if fitted would look horrible.  I measured them and they were 2.7mm high.  George Norton's ones on the other 2F kit are only 1.2mm.   I had all sorts of ideas of how to correct this but when I cut them off the fret an idea popped out of the ether.  I left the tabs attached and folded them over and tack soldered them together.

 

The next stage was to put the assemblage in my mini vice and attempt to file 0.75mm off each side.  I used a 6" file about 3/4" wide and did a section at a time with lots of checking with the Vernier gauges.

Once I'd got the first bit done I just worked along that side, being careful to leave bosses for where the cross wires come through.  After all my self doubt it actually went quite well.  Half an hour and a mug of tea later this was the result.

This evening I went back over and fitted the brake rigging.   It will look a lot better when It's all soldered up in the correct position but until the frames are painted I can't do this.

Not a bad days work and another tick off the list.

 

Jamie

[lezz01]

Almost anyone can throw a good kit together Jamie. It takes skill and talent, not to mention patience, to make a bad or indifferent kit look good never mind work properly. Good job mate.

Regards Lez. 

[jamie92208]

Thanks for the above comments Lez.   I got back to the shed today in between other tasks and got the reversing lever in place.  Again no instructions or even a drawing but a photo from the back cover of J & E vol 4 did the trick.  

I've also put the cast backhead in.   I'm still annoyed about the 6 BA nut and am seriously thinking of putting a wooden floor on to the same height so that it doesn't show quite so much.   I've decided to leave the backhead as it is, just mount the regulator handle and try and make something that looks like a couple of pressure gauges then paint it and call it quits.    By the time the crew are in it will be very difficult to see more. Any thoughts on that approach would be appreciated.

 

I also got the sandbox filler caps soldered on.  I used 145 degree solder for this and it seems to work well.   This is the left hand side of the loco.   They aren't perfect but I'm happy with them.   

 

Not many more details to do now.   The safety valves and whistle, boiler and smokebox handrails plus the crew and cab roof.   I might try and fabricate a fall plate to hide the nut on the tender footplate.  Apart from that I think it's about ready for me to paint the frames and assemble the loco properly.   I don't plan to paint it until the weather gets warmer.

 

Jamie

 

[jamie92208]

Another evening escaping rubbish telly produced some progress.   The first task was to try and make some pressure gauges. There aren't any in the kit and they won't be easy to see but I thought that I better have a go and found some brass tube that just fitted round some 1/8" rod. The Dremel got used again to part off two rings from the tube then these were put over the end of the rod and soldered.   The result was then parted off and the two were then soldered to the spectacle plate,   They need a little cleaning up but do give a sense of what they should look like.   I've just plonked the roof on to se what it looks like.

I then decided to have a go at the handrails.   Tonight's Surprise Surprise a double one, a) there are only 8 handrail knobs but I need 12.  Also when I put one rail on it was obvious that the holes in the smokebox wrapper don't line up and the handrail knobs are too long for the smokebox area.   I'm going to try to trim them off and get them the right length.

As you will be able to see it was raining as I walked back over from the shed.

 

Jamie

Edited July 28, 2022 by jamie92208

[lezz01]

I would go with a scribe'd wooden planking for a floor to hide the nut a bit Jamie. The gauges look good and as you say they will be hard to see when it has a crew fitted.

Regards Lez.  

[jamie92208]

Some more work tonight.  It's a but warmer and wetter than last week so  a bit easier to work.  I spent tonight adding final details to the loco and ###### some cleaning up.   I dremelled the shafts off two handrail knobs and then solder the ball bits in place on the smokebox wrapper.   This left me with the two holes that I'd drilled.   The other side was added using knobs that I've borrowed from the other 2F kit.   Then the smokebox door handrail was added and soldered in place.   I managed to fill the 4 holes by soldering some 1mm brass rod in them, snipping it off as short as I cold then using the Dremel a file and a scraper to hide the repair.   Now it's ready for me to paint the frames.   

I'll leave the cab roof until later.

 

I also got chance to test my Kirtley 0-6-0 which has never been a good runner and discovered the same short circuit between the body and the rails as on the 2F so that's my next little project.

 

I did have another look at the George Norton 2F and this is what I'll be working on next.

 

The boiler had got a little bit squashed.

These are the bits still in the box.   

 

That should be something to keep me busy.

I also spent some time sorting things out in the shed and in the process found that 3 continuous days of driving rain from the west had caused a bit of a leak through the windows behind the fiddle yard.   Fortunately nothing got damaged but once it all dries put I've got some re-puttying to do. Just need to wait for a dry and sunny day.

 

Jamie

 

Edited July 28, 2022 by jamie92208

[lezz01]

Looking good Jamie. Looking forward to seeing it painted. Red or Black? 

Regards Lez.

[jamie92208]

Looking good Jamie. Looking forward to seeing it painted. Red or Black? 

Regards Lez.

 

As the layout is set in 1923 it will be in all black.   I'm hoping that we have a warm enough afternoon to get some primer on it but will probably leave it till the spring to get the top coat done.  However I suspect that there will be some filler needed.

 

Jamie