Building a G.W.R. Castle + more in 7mm OF from a JLTRT kit restarts on P.88 by OzzyO,

[Miss Prism]

Don't know what to say about the rear frame length question: there is an 1885 frame mod drawing in Russell, but I think that's only for the 15'6" wheelbase, so probably isn't much use to you.

 

Good point about the frame width, hope your trailing wheels go in ok. The tightest clearance is likely to be at the round spring shackle cup. With no sideplay on the trailing axle, a bit of sideplay on the middle driver should do the trick, even in S7.

[ozzyo]

The photo of 3574 is not actually one of the 517 class locos. It was one of a later development  of 10 locos ( 3571-3580) called the Dean '3571' class built at Wolverhampton between May 1895 and January 1897. The outside frame and step shape and other details differed from the 517 class.

I am enjoying reading about this  project as I am currently attempting the same job in 4mm. Keep up the good work.!

 

Thanks for pointing that out, but I was only using it to show how the rear of the frames run to the buffer plank. As finding good rear end photos of true 517s are a bit thin on the ground.

 

OzzyO.

[ozzyo]

Hello all,

 

not that much done over the weekend due to the rugby being on. I did use options B&C in the end.The first job was to turn off the wheel bosses,

 

Then it was to countersink the axle ends, to make sure that the countersunk head of the screw didn't catch on the axle end (sorry about the photo quality),

 

This has given me a bit of clearance between the wheels and outer frames.At the moment I'm using 28 thou. spacers between the axleboxs and the wheels.I may increase this to 32 thou. if I can get them in. Why do Slater's only do the spacing washers in the following sizes? 16 thou. 20 thou. and 28 thou. I've mentioned to them about doing them as half etch as well, this would then give the following sizes, 0.008", 0.010", 0.014", 0.016", 0.020" and 0.28". This would give more combination to use,

 

A good while back I was asked to build a loco using Walsall wheels, the wheel centres are tapped 8BA and use a hardened crank-pin. I wanted to use 10BA for the crank-pin screw and brass bearings. This is what I came up with for turning the screws. In use the 8BA screw is screwed into the brass bush and the grub screw tightened down on it to lock it in place. The screw is then turned to 10BA,

 

Tapping the drivers to 10BA

 

Two of the screws partly in place,

 

For locking the screws in place this is what I use, Loctite 290, it's a penetrating adhesive (it's like blue water), it can also be used to fix wheel rims into place,

 

Applying the 290, I do this to all of the drivers and let it run down the screw in to the countersink, before tightening them up. Any that comes out can be wiped off with a tissue,

 

The crank-pin bushes as supplied, the rods are 0.068" thick and the steel bar at the top is 0.073" so this give me 0.005" clearance between the nuts and the rods. Not a lot but enough,

 

The bush still in the steel plate,

 

This is how I tighten the bushes down onto the wheels, a pin vice.

 

The crank-pin screw and bush with some 290 applied. If you have the pin vice nice and tight when you get the bush to the wheel hub just keep tightening and the pin vice will ride up the bush and give it a nice polish as it come off,

 

And finely this photo just because I wanted to see what she looked like with the wheels on after they had been painted.

 

Has anyone used the Markits Ross pop safety valves in 7mm, I'm thinking about using them on another build. But I'd like to see them first, so if someone could put a photo up on here showing them it would be appreciated.

 

OzzyO.

 

[3 link]

Hello Matey,

 

I think you have done a great job there with the photos and explanations, these young modellers do not realise how lucky they are to have these forums to guide them.

 

Managed to lay the carpet today so hopefully I can get the work bench set up at the weekend fingers crossed.

 

ATB,

 

Martyn.

 

P.S.  Did you know that Nick has also put the Princess build up on the GOG site with even more photos for you to drool over.

[ozzyo]

Hello all,

 

at the moment I'm jumping between the body and the frames, one of the reasons is to try and get an idea of the body's weight and balance point. So one of the castings that I've been working on is this, the dome. This is how the casting was supplied, a nice clean casting,

 

The first job was to turn up a mandrill so that I could mount it in the lathe, after that it was some work with the files to remove the casting lines. The next job was to spin it up in the lathe and smooth out the body using some wet'n'dry,

 

This took care of the body but left the rim to do, for this I used some hard rubber wheels that have an abrasive in them, these do a nice job but you still have some work to do as can be seen here,

 

The next job is out with the polishing mops and polish to get it to look like this. Looking at these photos I may redo the body as it looks to have some bad scratches in it,

 

As the body of the dome has quit a large hole in it I decided to make a mounting stub for it. The first job is to make sure that the cutter is on the C/L.This was done by doing a small cut using a slot drill and then turning the D/H 180degs. and seeing if it cuts again, if it does you then move the table in or out until you get no second cut,

 

I decided to remove a bit of the metal in the centre of the cut using the depth of the dome as a guide, wrong the dome sides are deeper than the mounting stub. The fly cutter was set to the boiler dia. and mounted in the mill,

 

This was when I realised my mistake above, but you can see that the cut is nice and on centre,

 

Trying to take a photo of the fly-cutter running is a bit hard. This is the next to last cut with only a small last cut to do. On the last cut I also turn the D/H 180degs. just to make sure that the cut was as central as I could get it,

 

This was the part of the job that I was not looking forward to.fly-cutting the base of the dome, if you get it wrong its £10 and some hours down the spout . This was the first proving cut. I did know that one side of the base was a bit thicker than the other side and this cut showed me that. The D/H was then turned 180Degs. just to make sure. Then the base was cut to the final size with out braking through the out side. To make sure that the dome was not marked I used some thin card to protect it.

 

 

OzzyO.

 

 

[JeffP]

Fantastic.

Sadly, I have neither DH, nor fly-cutter...although I DO have a half-decent milling machine and a full set of 25mm collets.

 

Will it be polished when on the model?

[ozzyo]

Fantastic.

Sadly, I have neither DH, nor fly-cutter...although I DO have a half-decent milling machine and a full set of 25mm collets.

 

Will it be polished when on the model?

 

Would I have gone to all of the trouble to polish it, if it was going to have a coat of paint on it?

 

OzzyO.

 

PS do you mean a set of ER25 collets?

[JeffP]

Yes ER25. Given to me free when I bought the milling machine, which I bought on a whim when I got the lathe, both for £250....

The guy who sold it me thought it was a joke machine, he had lathes and milling machines bigger than the room I'm sitting in now.

 

I did wonder about polishing that before painting...the paint would fall off.

But maybe you wanted it smooth?

[ozzyo]

Hello all,

 

the first job before fitting the dome was to remove the cladding band that runs beneath it. The marking out was done in two stages, the first the mounting stub and then the dome, this was done by applying pressure and twisting them this left two nice rings on the boiler,

 

Then it was out with the slitting disc to grind away the band,

 

The mounting stub soldered into place,

 

Testing the dome for fit. This will be permanently fixed into place after painting,

 

The next job was the safety valve bonnet, for this I made a mandrill in the lathe that I tapped 6BA. Spinning it up in the lathe, I think that I was using 1350 RPM so if your not competent and confident using a lathe don't do it. I've been around M/C tools all of my working life but I still get bitten every now and then but I still have all of my fingers,

 

After the fist stage of cleaning up in the lathe using files and wet'n'dry, then it was the rubber wheels and polishing mops. After this on both the dome and safety valve bonnet I was a member of the black hand gang. The next job for them will be a coating of clear lacquer to help keep the shine,

 

Then I fitted the chimney in place and popped the dome and bonnet on to see what  it looked like. Then the alarm bells went off,

 

So out came the photos, yes the chimney looked wrong. So out came the drawings ( the Russell books are so good for this kind of thing). The book says 3'3" (22.75mm in 7mm) so I checked the chimney 18.5mm so over 4mm too short, it also looks to fat. So I said oh dear and packed in for the day,

 

For fitting the chimney I used my blow torch so I'm a bit reluctant to start adding the handrails at the moment, but I should be able to keep working on the body until the new chimney arrives.

 

OzzyO.

 

PS. JeffP, Yes if I were painting the dome I would want it smooth wet'n'dry and a grit-blast would do for this, but she is having polished dome and valve bonnet as in keeping with her early date.

[Pete Harvey]

Ozzyo

 

I take it that you have allowed clearance in the dome for any paint that gets on the stub?

[Miss Prism]

Strange chimney - you seem to have got a short fat one. Your 1466 picture has a tall thin one, but these were changed to slightly less tall fat ones a bit later.

[ozzyo]

Ozzyo

 

I take it that you have allowed clearance in the dome for any paint that gets on the stub?

I don't use that much paint! I'll mask the stub up before I throw any paint on her.

 

Strange chimney - you seem to have got a short fat one. Your 1466 picture has a tall thin one, but these were changed to tall fat ones a bit later.

With such a long lived class you will get changes. I've just had a word with Laurie up at JLTRT and he's looking in to it for me. But as I've got this drawing, the lathes and the mill may just be getting a work out today. The first thing to do is convert the drawing sizes in to 7mm so that I can work to them.

 

I don't suppose that any one would want to see me doing this?

I've just had a word back on the chimney so I won't be cutting brass until Monday at the earliest.

 

OzzyO.

[Pete Harvey]

Only 10 mins for a man of your talents Ozzyo

[JeffP]

I'd like to see a blow-by-blow, yes, please.

[Krusty]

I don't suppose that any one would want to see me doing this?

 

Is the Catholic a Pope? Do teddy bears do anything in the woods?

Of course we want to see it.

[JeffP]

Teddy bears? Nooooooooooooo!

[ozzyo]

Hello all,

 

after I had a word with Laurie on Fri. I've decided to hold back on turning up a chimney, with a bit of luck I'll get it today. Now the Christmas decs. are up I should be able to get on with some work.

 

One of the jobs that I've done is to fit the tank strap that goes over the boiler. I was going to use these bolts for the fixings, but when I came to fit them they just didn't look right (too big) and I didn't have enough smaller ones,

 

So I've used some rivets, I've also fitted the handrail knobs on the smokebox sides and the tank tops,

 

Then it was on to the toolbox's

 

The first parts of the boxes assembled,

 

and completed, I do think that these look better than cast ones.

 

The next job is the backhead, I like to make these removable. The first job was to add a length of L angle to the front of the cab footplate, this is to stop the bottom of the backhead dropping off the edge,

 

The next thing was to reinforce the strip of brass at the rear of the firebox, this will be tapped 12BA later,

 

This job was a bit of fun. Getting it in the right place with the last part and not soldering the two together. When I'm doing a job like this I,

A] use a felt tip pen on the mating faces and

B] drill the hole to the tapping size so that I can spot drill the mating face,

 

Test fitting the two parts together,

 

The three laminations for the backhead soldered together, I've still got some work to do to these before I can start to fit the castings,

 

Talking about the castings for the backhead. I decided to grit-blast them before fitting them. As I had the compressor going I decided to give the body a quick going over,

Before,

 

After, I think that the grit-blasting makes the dome and bonnet stand out even more,

 

OzzyO.

 

[JeffP]

Did you mask off the dome and bonnet?

 

How will the backhead be fixed?

Have you thought of drilling the rear straight through where there would be a gauge, and soldering the gauge to a screw thread? It would need to be one without pipework.

[N15class]

Did you mask off the dome and bonnet?

 

How will the backhead be fixed?

Have you thought of drilling the rear straight through where there would be a gauge, and soldering the gauge to a screw thread? It would need to be one without pipework.

Jeff if you read you will see that OzzyO has made a socket to mount the dome on. 

[ozzyo]

Did you mask off the dome and bonnet?

 

How will the backhead be fixed?

Have you thought of drilling the rear straight through where there would be a gauge, and soldering the gauge to a screw thread? It would need to be one without pipework.

 

Question one, no. The dome and bonnet will be affixed after painting, as I mentioned in a previous post.

 

Question two, I hoped that this photo would show how the backhead is mounted to the body, in the photo it does not have the screw in place yet.

 

Any help?

 

OzzyO.

[JeffP]

Yes, thanks.

 

I keep forgetting the dome and bonnet aren't fixed, they fit so well they l;ook permanent.

[ozzyo]

Hello all,

 

I've started to add the details to the backhead, and this got me thinking about something. As these locos were saturated steam would they have had a hydrostatic lubricator? Looking at the regulator casting there is no jockey valve for the steam supply so with this in mind I would say that there was no hydrostatic lubricator on these locos.

 

As a lot of you know  I don't like the glass-fibre scratch brushes, these are some of the tools that I use instead,

 

Back on to the build, Finishing the three parts of the backhead before their soldered on to the part with the cab front sheets on it. The main job is to form a radius around the edge,

 

and soldered in to place,

 

 

Making sure that I can still get it in to place in the cab,

 

Starting on the details, for some reason I always tend to start with the fire-hole doors,

 

You do get a set of cast doors but these are too small to use as can be seen here,

 

Some of the castings for the backhead, I'm going to use the etched fire hole tray on this build,

 

OzzyO.

[steve fay]

Looking great mate,

I'm about in the morning between 9.15 and 11.15 if you want a catch up. Back to work after that earning castle cash!!

[JeffP]

Looks good and those castings look decent too.

[ozzyo]

Hello all,

 

finding photos of 517 cabs are a bit like pulling hens teeth.The best that I have come up with are these two photos of a Metro tanks cab. It's of the same time span but it has some things that the 517 didn't have like condensing gear! I think that this may be controlled by the two hand wheels on the cab front? I think that  the loco is out of traffic for a number of reasons, the pressure gauge is looking to show an odd reading and no Manson valve.

 

The first parts fitted to the backhead, the regulator gland and the steam feed pipes,

 

Clack valve and water feed pipes fitted. At the bottom of the feed pipes I've added some small split pins to keep the pipes off the backhead face,

 

The back of the backhead before proper cleaning up!

 

Gauge glass and drain pipe fitted,

 

Another test fit in the cab, I think that this will be fun to get in with the cab roof in place, but we'll see later on,

 

Test fitting the brake valve and pipe work, looks like I've still some work to do on this. Like getting it to fit and some of the gauge pipe work. Talking about gauges all of these will fit on the cab front sheet, so I'm going to have to do a bit of thinking about these,

 

OzzyO.