Little Didcot

[Castle]

Hi Kev,

 

I just thought it would be nice to share these pictures with my fellow RMWEB types. It is a scene that was once common but is all but vanished from everywhere but Didcot now.

 

I have been looking into the OTMR / TPWS set up for No. 4079 and I was given a tour of the electronics that were on board by the person that fitted it all and believe me, it's more than DCC ready.

 

It's sound fitted too!

 

All the best,

 

Castle

[Kev_Lewis]

It's fantastic that you give us a sneak peak inside the Didcot workshop. You spoil us!

 

I remember reading about the building of Tornado and that nowadays there's a lot of electrical gubbins required to allow steam loco's to run on the national rail network. They must give you some headaches.

 

It's sound fitted too!

 

Brilliant! That just made my day.

[Derek Russan]

I really wish the folks at Eileen's would do away with the disappearing green glowing cursor.

We did not notice it was there, within an hour of the first report from a custimer it had gone.

 

We cannot fix what we do not know about.

 

Derek

[M.I.B]

Great posts. TY

[Castle]

Hi All,

 

Thanks for all the kind comments! Progress in certain areas has been slow. The LMS vans are awaiting their wheels, my fitted Toad and the 41XX needs a few detail bits which are on the way and the auto coach is down to painting passenger figures (a job I loathe) so, rather than waste valuable workbench time, I decided to move on to other things...

 

Didcot's oldest Wiltshire lady.

 

No. 1363 holds many special records in the Didcot fleet. Firstly, she is a genuine Churchward era locomotive, she is now a centenarian - having been built in 1910, and so on. Her biggest claim to fame however is that she is the sole survivor of all the many hundreds of saddle tank locomotives that were designed and built at Swindon. Think about it, there were quite a few saddle tank machines throughout the years and this one is the only survivor. That's it - the only one! It is a similar situation to the broad gauge machines except unlike Tiny, this is a very representative example of the saddle tank breed. Although being classified as a Churchward machine, it was actually designed by the then Chief Draughtsman, Harrold Holcroft. In his book 'An Outline of GWR Locomotive Practice 1837 - 1947' he remembers a musty smelling roll of old drawings landing on his desk for the 1392 Class locomotives which were originally designed for the Cornwall Mineral Railway in 1874. The instruction was to replace these by now life expired machines with something that fitted more closely to Churchward's standardisation policy.

 

 

The resulting 5 machines were something of an enigma in that they retained features of the 1392s such as the roll top firebox, saddle tank, and Allen valve gear but gained a larger cab and several other 'modern' Swindon features. It is one of very few standard Swindon designs with inclined cylinders. The short wheelbase (11') and light axle loading over 6 driving wheels made them the ideal dockyard shunters and had an almost limitless route availability, being able to traverse most places that a wagon could get to down to 2 chains. They spent the majority of their long service lives in this role at Plymouth and Weymouth. They also remained largely unaltered throughout their service careers, the most obvious modification to the class was the fitting of a larger chimney so that the top of the chimney was 4½ inches higher so that the smoke cleared the cab roof. They remained in service until 1961/2 as almost perfectly preserved examples of early 20th Century GWR locomotive practice.

 

 

The story goes that when the order to scrap the last survivor, No. 1363, came through the shed master (being rather fond of her and realising the machine's historical importance) squirrelled her away. A cat and mouse game with authority began and scrapping orders were lost, diverted or just plain ignored! This came to a head when the order came through to get rid of it or else. Being an inventive sort, the shed master put her in a train of scrap locos and then promptly hit it around the bunker region with another loco, just hard enough so he could declare it unfit to travel and promptly took it out of the train again... A background of preservation effort that finally succeeded mirrored this elaborate charade and eventually she became a very worthy part of the GWS fleet, still sporting the war wound that saved her! She was used until repairs became required in 1975 and then she fell silent. Time moved around her but No. 1363 remained quiet. This was until a few years ago when, with her historic importance remembered, a few GWS volunteers vowed to bring back one of the most significant machines in the shed. This quest continues today - the lack of modifications has preserved a genuinely important GWR relic in a very original condition but time had not been kind. Although mechanically fairly sound, the rear 3' of her frames had thinned to the point where they were considered beyond safe use, her tanks and bunker were very rusted and a great deal of restoration work is required. This continues today but you can be assured that when that fire is lit again and life returns, she will become a very unique and highly charming attraction and a genuine traveller in time.

 

 

Little 1363 posed something of a problem. A new chassis in the form of the little 0-6-0 (or should that be 0-3-0!) industrial from Electrotren seemed to be a fairly close fit and indeed, when I got my paws on one after following the advice on RMWEB as to wheel sizes and spacings, it was pretty much spot on. The wheels are a little small (could be explained by the tires being on their last turning before scrapping) and the spoke and balance pattern is different (could be ignored considering the fact that this was an RTR chassis for £50 - I could see myself easily spending close to that on wheels, gearbox and motor and not have a working chassis!). Anyway, a little light weathering will soon hide any sins...

 

 

For the body, there had been a number of kits over the years including a white metal offering that I didn't fancy much and an etched version by Peter K. These were out of production - or so I thought - until I found the Kemilway website and being a devil may care type, gave the good man a call. He told me all about the kit and it sounded great. "But", I said "what about the castings?" "Hang on - I think I may be able scrounge together enough bits to get you close to a complete kit..." Eureka - the list of bits were rattled off and it equalled a complete body! He did say that this was pretty much it for the castings so anyone following my footsteps will need to get inventive here although the etchings are still available and I dare say that it is far from impossible to do. The instructions make mention of the fact that the masters for the castings were made by none other than Guy Williams of Pendon fame - we are treading on hallowed ground here aren't we?! Here are a few pictures of the bits and pieces as received.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, the first move was to dismantle my perfectly good and serviceable Electrotren product and make off with its chassis!

 

 

The one bit I knew wouldn't fit into the far more svelte lines of a 1361 class machine were the two traction weights that were either side of the motor. Figuring that this would mean a total strip down and a lot of action with a Dremel and grindstone I closely examined the chassis for alternatives. I gave them a gent little tug and thought that I felt movement. It turns out that the weights are just stuck to the sides of the motor with a sort of stick foam pad. The only note of caution to be said here is that there are some very fine wires that run from the pick ups and motor to the DCC Ready circuit board thingy. These looked well embedded in a sort of resin until lightly tugged and this revealed it to be some sort of tackifier type material (like the stuff used for putting carpet tiles down of increasingly used to stick free CDs and the like to the outside of glossy magazines). A gentle peel and that was gone too! With very little effort they were coaxed off and the sides of the motor were carefully cleaned. Castle 1 - Loco 0! Now we are cooking...

 

 

The first job in my book was to make the chassis fit and after folding it up, the only tricky area seemed to be the sides of the motor. Out with the vernier gauge, the Dremel and the slitting discs me thinks.

 

 

The 'firebox' sides were removed as were the springing holes and a few other bits. Two strips of material were shaved off until the motor fitted through. This also required a notch out of the back to allow the DCC wires to travel up and around the motor. This will require further cleverness with the cab and back head when we get there it seems. There is a detail overlay that goes on top of the chassis and this was soldered in place too.

 

 

Several trial fits later got us here. The idea is that the motor & chassis slots through the hole and is then pushed forward to lock it into place and get the wheels in the right place. The 'firebox' sides were then reattached.

 

 

This remarkably resulted in a chassis that when fitted to the HO chassis, but the buffer height EXACTLY the same as my OO stock. Realising that this was going too easily, I decided to call it a night on the basis that it couldn't possibly continue to go so well!

 

 

Well, more from Little Didcot in the future when more work has been done and more fingertips burnt...

 

All the best,

 

Castle

[Castle]

Hi All,

 

It’s big, it's painted blue, it's at Didcot but it’s not what you think…

 

Another foreign visitor to GWR HQ came by so, in the finest tradition of Little Didcot, here is a special edition post to share it with you all. Due to a positioning move that needed to avoid a potential strike by railway staff, a certain big blue machine made 81E its temporary home for a few days a couple of weeks back. For the benefit of those who like to see the visitors, here are a few pictures of A4 Class No. 4464 Bittern.

 

Here is a shot of her outside the shed with the GWS ‘Bus’.

 

 

Here she is on the ash road.

 

 

An ‘arty’ shot!

 

 

And this is where I was invited into the support coach for a brew so that is where I will leave it…

 

 

They are a lovely bunch of lads all round on the support crew of Mr Hoskins’ machines – especially considering that I got a doughnut with my tea!

 

All the best,

 

Castle

[M.I.B]

Stunning photos - you are indeed a lucky bloke.

[Kev_Lewis]

Crikey. Didcot overload! .............Only kidding.

 

You've made a nice start on little 1361. The HO chassis has saved you a lot of work. I'm looking forward to seeing your progress with the body.

 

Dispite being a GWR man I do have a soft spot for the A4s. I missed Bittern when she went through Chippenham a few weeks ago. Despite the loading bay at work backing on to the station I know from past experience that I can't run from the front of the shop in the time between hearing an approaching loco and it going through the station!

[Castle]

Hi All,

 

M.I.B. - I never cease to be reminded of how lucky I am to get to be involved with all these beautiful and historic machines. As a kid I lived too far away from any steam preservation sites to get involved so when the opportunity to join up at Didcot came up, I jumped at it and haven't looked back. That is also why I like to share stuff like this with my fellow RMWEB types.

 

Kev - I aim to please! Like you, despite the GWR addiction, there is just something about that shape isn't there? I guess it is that it is so reminiscent of its 1930s art deco era. Lovely to see a live one with her skirts on too!

 

Agreed about the chassis! I have done a bit on the 1361 tonight and will post again later in the week.

 

All the best,

 

Castle

Edited September 30, 2012 by Castle

[Kev_Lewis]

Kev - I aim to please! Like you, despite the GWR addiction, there is just something about that shape isn't there? I guess it is that it is so reminiscent of its 1930s art deco era. Lovely to see a live one with her skirts on too!

 

Oh yes! The shape is magnificent. They certainly encapsulate the railways at thier peak.

 

The Mallard 75 celebrations next year look very exciting. The prospect of being able to see all six surviving A4s will probably be the boot up the ass to finally get me up to the NRM. I was lucky enough to get to see Mallard and others when the NRM On Tour visited Swindon Works before it became a shopping centre. But that was a long time ago!

[Collett2251]

Hi Castle,

 

Good luck with 1363, looking at your pics of the etchings and castings rung a bell, thats one of my unfinished projects! found the box and yes etchings and castings are identical to yours including the Peter Kay design logo. Mine was supplied by CSP Agenoria about 5 years ago, looked at their website and it dos'nt seem to listed currently, there is also a pic of 1340 but no kit listed, what they do have is a 1331 and 2 other absorbed saddle tanks. Will post some pics of my progress on my Saint thread when I get time and maybe get inspired to complete it having seen yours.

 

Chris

[Castle]

Hi All,

 

Kev: The NRM is well worth a look as there are things there you simply will never see elsewhere. I think it is just Nos. 6000 & 2818 flying the GWR flag at the moment but if you don't mind the foreign stuff like me then well worth a go. The North Yorkshire Moors Railway is also well worth a go too. Try and make it up there when they are going out to Whitby as Pickering to Whitby, fish 'n' Chris and a mooch round Dracula's gaff before heading home is a great way to spend a day! The scenery throughout the journey is breathtaking and the noise of the exhaust beat of a hard working loco echoing round the glacial valley has to be heard to be believed. Highly recommended and a lovely bunch of people running it all too.

 

Chris: that is good to hear - a fellow 1361 class builder! I look forward to seeing another little saddle tank on the rails. I have been in touch with Roger Slade at CSP and he is going to reissue the 1361 kit but he wants to spend a bit of time refining the body etches first. He does do No. 1340, 'Trojan' (left the GWR too early for my collection sadly but I might be tempted one day...) and the 1331class. I am informed by him that the next priority for release in 4mm scale is the Cardiff Dock Railway Kitson 0-4-0 No. 1338 (another hole in the Little Didcot Fleet!). That Kitson-Hawthorn valve gear will be interesting in OO though...

 

http://www.didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/locos/1338/1338.html

 

I also have some lovely etches and castings from him to do the 4 GWS GWR breakdown train vehicles (2 tool and 2 mess vans) to do when I have got through the current crop of projects. They look to my eye to be very nice indeed. Stay tuned!

 

All the best,

 

Castle

[Darwinian]

Castle I'll be watching this one with interest too. My first kit built loco was a K's 1361 back in my teenage years, so I have a soft spot for them. Mine is still around, at some point she gained a replacement scratchbuilt plasticard saddle tank (cannot remember why i thought that was a good idea) and has a scratchbuilt compensated chassis running on romford wheels. Remarkably she still runs (although not especially smoothly) and is my daughter's favourite of my locos. Not quite as refined as I might aim for these days.

 

 

 

Adrian

[Castle]

Hi All,

 

Burning the candle (or fingers) at both ends.

 

Back to the 'Big 13'. Then I had a go at the basic cab structure that involves a nice planked effect etch for the floor and the front / spectacle plate and side sheet piece.the reverser and drain cock lever are part of the main chassis etch and are simply folded up.

 

 

Once they were soldered in, I then attached the 'firebox' sides. This gave me the front and two sides of the cab.

 

 

The next job was to start on the rear wall and bunker arrangement of the cab structure. The basics (and some bad soldering!) are shown here.

 

 

Then the cosmetic overlay was fitted and the whole lot trialled in place.

 

 

The small half etched bit that forms the recess for the handbrake lever to turn in was next.

 

 

I then soldered it to the chassis after cutting a slot to allow the wires to slide in place.

 

 

the two cosmetic overlays were then fitted. There are a few edging strips to attach to the cab aperture and the rim of the bunker but I suspect they are going to be a pain to do and not wishing to dampen my enthusiasm I figured discretion was the better part of valour here!

 

 

The Smokebox structure was then soldered up, beginning with the rather nicely designed framework and then the overlay. I located it at the top with a kebab skewer (I always have a number of these squirreled away in the tool kit - very useful little beasties!) through the chimney hole and tacked it fore and aft. Once secure there, I carried on round - tacking and clamping as I went with a variety of weapons and coarse grade Anglo - Saxon as the feeling of lightly singed fingertips came about.

 

 

I then cleaned up the chimney and balanced it and the smokebox in place. The chimney has rather cleverly been cast in copper to allow the cap to be polished - it's a shame I have to paint it black really...

 

 

Again, I had had a good run so I decided to sit back and admire my handiwork for the rest of the evening.

 

Adrian: Lovely stuff! nice to see the 1361 class appearing in force. Could this be an RMWEB first - the entirety of a GWR class kit built and on one thread? (single engines such as The Great Bear not included of course - that's cheating!) Mine will be No. 1363, yours is No. 1362. We will have to find out what one Collett2251 is doing over on his thread. That leaves us potentially with just two to find... Anyone out there got the missing links?

 

I can see why your daughter likes it - it is an immensely attractive little machine isn't it? I hope someone takes this idea and runs with it for a production run like the Beattie well tank. The chassis is already available - that must make things easier...

 

All the best,

 

Castle

Edited October 3, 2012 by Castle

[Kev_Lewis]

This is off topic but I can't find anywhere else to post.

 

I just saw the Great Western Society's Steam Railmotor No.93. trundling down the M4 on the back of a low loader. It's rather nice of them to give her a holiday in Cornwall.

[Miss Prism]

Kev - see http://www.rmweb.co....ng-to-cornwall/

[Castle]

Hi All,

 

Correct - No. 93 is off on holiday! She will be visiting various places on tour and the highlight of this is her 'main line' debut on the Looe branch. Have a look at the DRC website for details of these trips:

 

http://www.didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/index.html

 

All the best,

 

Castle

[Kev_Lewis]

Kev - see http://www.rmweb.co....ng-to-cornwall/

 

I was never going to find that.

 

Correct - No. 93 is off on holiday! She will be visiting various places on tour and the highlight of this is her 'main line' debut on the Looe branch. Have a look at the DRC website for details of these trips:

 

http://www.didcotrai...g.uk/index.html

 

Now that I did find.

 

It's amazing that such an old vehicle will be allowed to run on Network Rail metals.

[Miss Prism]

It's amazing that such an old vehicle will be allowed to run on Network Rail metals.

 

Or even the M4...

 

Roadblock!!!

[Castle]

Hi All,

 

Saddle up partner!

 

It doesn't matter how much I don't feel confident about doing this - the engine must have a curvy saddle tank. I will have to get brave and give it a go. So a period of contemplation was embarked upon. Coffee machine on...

 

Rumination over and done with, firstly I did a dry run on the structure as per the instructions. This revealed that it would come into contact with the motor on the inside edge for a distance of about 2/3rds of the tanks length.

 

 

A bit of marking out and liberal application of diamond edged grinding wheel in my Dremel resulted in this...

 

 

...which was then soldered together. These changes unfortunately also removed a bit of its torsional strength in the long axis so a rummage round in the box of brass stock and off cuts revealed some thin strip section.

 

 

This was duly attached either side and the structure restored.

 

 

A test fit got me to here where the saddle tank, body and chassis met together for the first time. It fitted too!

 

 

That got me to the curved bit that I wasn't so sure about. I don't have rollers as I don't do enough of this sort of thing to make their purchase economically viable. I was confident in using the suggested method in the instructions of forming the main, larger radius curve with a rolling pin (a smooth barrelled fat marker pen fell into my hand here!) on a hard piece of rubber (I have just put some carpet tiles down in our home office - handy how these things work out isn't it?) but I was less sure about the tighter curves

 

I figured that putting in a surface over which the curve could be formed would be the best bet. I rummaged around in the bits box again and I came up with a bit of brass tube that was uncannily the right size for the radius I had to bend! Giddy with success, I cut two pieces out slightly over length and then fettled them until they were a push fit in the frame.

 

 

They then got soldered in. The theory was that if I can get the top to line up and stick then the tubes will take care of the tight bend ant the flats on the underside should be child's play. Hmmmmmmm...

 

 

Using the ever helpful kebab skewers to line up the dome and safety valve holes, the top bit was tacked in place.

 

 

Then through several acts of brute force and ignorance, the rest of the tank outer skin was forced to comply and bend to my will!

 

 

This went so well that it was repeated for the two upper detail layers of plate work. Again, I used the kebab skewers to pin it in place.

 

 

As before, I know when to quit (when you are ahead!) so, after the front overlay was fitted, a little bit of component balancing resulted in this picture here which I'm quite pleased with!

 

 

Next I will have to get the chassis in place and provide little No. 1363 with a boiler. That is enough for now though...

 

All the best,

 

Castle

[sej]

That's looking lovely! I too have kebab skewers as an indispensable aid to railway modelling. Have you tried the shorter version as helpfully supplied with roll-mop herrings? Marvellous!

 

Regards

 

Simon

[Castle]

Hi Sej,

 

If only I ate roll mop herrings - my modelling could be vastly improved! I do a lot of impromptu cutting and whittling of kebab and cocktail sticks in order to skewer my models together as I solder. It looks like some weird anti railway voodoo ceremony on my workbench at times...

 

Thanks for the kind comments.

 

All the best,

 

Castle

[southern42]

This is great stuff, Castle.

 

Having just bought the High Level 14xx chassis and Alan Gibson wheels etc for 1466, your thread takes on a new meaning.

Ray has been mulling over the diagram today and me diagrams for the Ratio loco lift kit and rolling underframe for Great West Road repair shop. The power of a day out at Didcot. Yes, I can't say enough how great that visit was. [Mmmm, and my GWS membership form went in the post this week]

 

Re the A4 Bittern at Didcot

In the summer (a few days here and there between weather systems, if I remember rightly), we saw the Mallard half hidden between two other locos at the NRM York - not ideal - so imagine our delight when we saw the North Wales Coast Express (19 August) coming into our local station through one tunnel headed by 60009 Union of south Africa and away deep into the other, the 'Egyptian tomb,' swallowed up in a cloud of smoke. To have an A4 on your home territory at Didcot was indeed something special.

 

Keep your comments and photos coming

[Castle]

Thanks Polly!

 

I have seen two of the four UK based A4s at Didcot and the other (Gresley) has been in the past. The only one that hasn't been in preservation is the great speedy duck herself... No. 4464 now lives on Western territory of course being based at your project shed of Southall with a few of Mr Hoskins other machines.

 

The LNER loco visit I am looking forward to of course is when we can repeat the Nos. 4079 & 4472 front buffer 'high five' as per the Australian tour in 1988! Hopefully it won't be too long before we can see that, the two engines should be out and about and in ticket at the same time together. It will be inevitable that the two will meet up.

 

Nice to hear that you have joined the club! As you can see from the thread, I have done No. 1466 but I may have to do the chassis kit thing as I am definitely not happy with the performance of her at the moment. The trouble is with a visit to Didcot that inspiration will occur if you are of a GWR persuasion!

 

All the best,

 

Castle

[7013]

Castle, rarely have I seen such excellent modelling, the photographs, description and general helpful hints make this one of the best threads on RMweb. I am in awe of your skills, but they are inspirational at the same time and I am about to embark on my own project which I hope will turn out half as good as your efforts.