Austin 7, Alan Gibson kit

[PenrithBeacon]

Michael,

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blue-diesels/5669347098/in/set-72157626406560965/

 

There is a photo here which shows the steam lance fitting reasonably well and it appears to be standard with those fitted to the Stanier locos. I wonder if anybody does a casting?

 

Regards

[Michael Delamar]

thats a great shot, its so tiny i was thinking on just a tiny piece of brass wire sticking out of the boiler.

[Dave Holt]

I use a length of 0.33 wire, bent to an L shape, with a bit of 5 amp fuse wire wrapped round and twisted together, soldered onto the exposed leg of the L, to represent the shape of the body and operating spindle.

 

Dave.

[Michael Delamar]

thanks Dave I will give it a try.

 

I picked up a few bits of brass at the weekend but still need to get the injectors etc.

 

Ive recentley noticed that ive scribbled on the box 9668. last year at the Liverpool model railway show I was demoing and had the loco with me and got talking to an ex Aintree fireman, we had a chat about them and he said they where a good loco, nice to fire, good steamers but the best one at Aintree and his favourite was 9668, so I think it will be 49668. I like how ex LMS men always refer to the LMS numbers without the 4.

[ozzyo]

All of them did.

 

OzzyO.

[Michael Delamar]

I havent forgotten about this, its been sitting on the shelf looking at me waiting to finish it off, I do that with a lot of my projects, keep them on show somewhere so I can be reminded to finish them.

 

I was waiting until I got to a show to get some bits, 

 

I got the Brassmasters lost wax casting and very nice it is, just need to get my head round which bit is which, where they go etc.

 

I also got Gibson lost wax mechanical lubricators, still need to source some fuse wire and itll be fun drilling through them

 

I also got talked into buying Gibson plastic brake shoes, Im not sure what ive done with the ones that should be in the kit, although im not too enthusiastic about the replacements.

 

 

 

[Horsetan]

.... I like how ex LMS men always refer to the LMS numbers without the 4.

For some, Nationalisation was just something that happened to other people.

[Castle]

For some, Nationalisation was just something that happened to other people.

That is true for us on the Western... We can't go adding numbers here there and everywhere now can we? It will spoil our nice shiny brass plates!

 

All the best,

 

Castle

[Michael Delamar]

I want to finish this off, its been so long since I last looked at it and want to get it finished, 

 

im stuck, the brassmasters parts, in post 181.

 

members have been helpful in telling me which parts go where, but I cant identify them on the sprue, could someone tell me on the pic in post 181 what is what and which way up they go. I really cant get my head round it.

 

cheers

Mike

[brossard]

I've just been through this thread from the beginning.  Fascinating stuff and some great pictures and tips.  I have a second hand brass 7F but I'm not sure whose kit it is.  It is horribly light, 00 and has flangeless wheels on the 2nd and 3rd axles.  Happily it does run.  My plan is to rebuild it to EM, but not for a while.

 

John

[Michael Edge]

I want to finish this off, its been so long since I last looked at it and want to get it finished, 

 

im stuck, the brassmasters parts, in post 181.

 

members have been helpful in telling me which parts go where, but I cant identify them on the sprue, could someone tell me on the pic in post 181 what is what and which way up they go. I really cant get my head round it.

 

cheers

Mike

At the top of the sprue is the exhaust injector, goes behind RH cab step. To the right of this is the live steam injector, fits on frame at the other side, overflow pipe to the bottom of the LH cab step. To the left is a vacuum ejector - don't use this, 7F 0-8-0 were steam brake only. I don't know what the other parts are.

[ozzyo]

Could you post a photo showing the other side of the castings. I'm with Michael on the I.D. of the parts. Looks like you may need a grease separator? IIRC some had them, or was that 4Fs.

 

OzzyO.

[dibateg]

I don't know if it is fine enough for 4mm Mike- but I use B&Q brass picture wire for some of my 7mm pipe feeds. ( Instead of fuse wire )  It works out at about 0.3mm dia. Basically it comes mutlistranded and it can be unwound and stretch straightened.

 

Best regards

 

Tony

[Dave Holt]

The two upper items are two different configurations of exhaust steam injector. Below them on the left are the vacuum brake ejector (not needed, as stated above) and the live steam injector at bottom left. The rectangular object on the right is the mounting bracket for the chosen exhaust steam injector.

As advised by OzzyO, you will need a grease separator in the large (4.5" O/D) pipe which runs from the smoke-box saddle to the exhaust injector under the RH running board.

 

Dave.

[philbax]

I also always find problems identifying what it is, where it goes and which way up

Can some kind person attach some pictures showing the answer, real or model would be helpful

 

PHILBAX

[Michael Delamar]

thanks for the help gents, I havent had a chance to look at it since I posted.

 

very helpful replies, still need to work out which way up they go and the way they face etc..

[Dave Holt]

Looking at the photo of the Brassmasters parts:

1) For the exhaust injector you need the item on the right with the straight large steam supply pipe, which faces towards the front of the loco. The connection at the end further from the sprue points upwards. The injector runs parallel to the loco centre line.

2) Unfortunately, the live steam injector (bottom left) is the opposite hand to the one you should really have. If you want to use that casting, it stands vertical with the end further from the sprue at the top and with the two connections facing in towards the middle of the loco. The connection with the elbow in the middle of the casting is the overflow, but should really face towards the front of the loco whereas with this casting it will face backwards. Perhaps you can live with that?

 

Dave.

Edited December 13, 2013 by Dave Holt

[Michael Delamar]

I havent had a chance to work on this yet but im still aware of it, once back to normal in the coming weeks im hoping to be on it.

 

Mike Edge sent me a nice shot of the rear of a loco without its tender and ive just found this shot which should be useful.

Ive never noticed the reinforcing arch under the cab roof before..

 

http://www.railpictorial.com/piwigo/picture.php?/2438/category/9

[Michael Delamar]

some other useful detail shots, luckily this is the loco I plan to model 49668.

 

http://www.railpictorial.com/piwigo/picture.php?/2440/category/9

 

http://www.railpictorial.com/piwigo/picture.php?/2436/category/9

 

http://www.railpictorial.com/piwigo/picture.php?/2437/category/9

 

http://www.railpictorial.com/piwigo/picture.php?/2439/category/9

[Michael Delamar]

thought id get on with it after seeing those recent shots, soldered up the step first then attached that, then a lot of head scratching and finally sussed how it should go, then got it as close as I can as its tricky soldering it all together without bits already soldered dropping off, some was done with a conventional iron and the casting was done with my RSU.

 

[Michael Delamar]

Its been a while since I did anything to this loco but Ive done a bit over the last few days, some jobs required tools and parts which ive recently got.

 

Its not as shiny as it was last time, itll be getting a going over with a sand blaster before its painted.

 

First the gearbox, this High level type can be folded back round on itself, but there was a problem with what I wanted it to do, I wanted it to fold back as far as it could go, this looked ok when I tried the gearbox in first time, but when I come to put on the final gear on the axle the brass gear would touch another one and lock together. I never put the final gear on before as it isnt a grub screw one.

 

So what I did with my piercing saw is cut one of the nylon gears in half, Im not sure if I was given the right cog here in the first place as sometimes they are narrow but never mind, its worked and now the body can sit on the chassis properly, A fraction of a mm and it wouldnt have needed to be done. Ive also done the captive nuts inside the smokebox and cab, something that really should have been done earlier.

The brass final gear is soldered to the axle, I needed to be quick and use my Resistance soldering Iron for this and it took a few goes, I also had to file back any blob so it didnt touch one of the cogs.

 

 

 

 

Ive also done the brakegear and the coupling rods are now on and have had the crankpins soldered on, not before I noticed the coupling rods had a unprototypical bulge around where the knuckle of the real thing, I dont know why it was meant to represent it like that but I managed to get them off with a pair of pliers and ive filed them down to match the thickness of the rest of the rods, they went back on without having to resolder any crankpin nuts but it wouldnt have bothered me if I had needed to.

 

 

Bulging knuckles on rods before I filed them down...

 

 

 

And Ive finally got round to doing the cab handrails and beading, something I was putting off for a while, I also needed some small handrail knobs which ive only recently got,  but when I got into it it wasnt that bad to do using soft brass wire for the beading which bends around the vertical handrail, Ive recently done this on my Judith Edge N5 so knew a bit of what to expect, this was a little more involved as I first had to make the plate which holds the small gibson knob and solder that to the cab sides, I had to solder it to the outside of the plate as I couldnt get the iron in,  the cab is of very thin brass, the roof has also been trimmed and curved to better match the prototype.

 

 

As I say it looks greasy and tarnished at the minute with some solder to clean up but its finally getting there. The plan is to paint this and my N5 at the same time which is why Im working on this now.

[Dave Holt]

Michael,

 

You're right that the knuckles on the Gibson rods are too deep. The GA drawing scales off at about 1.872 mm whereas the etched rods are about 2.67 mm (same as the outer rod ends - which should only be about 2.4 mm). You haven't illustrated the finished versions, but hopefully you've ended up with something like the right size.

 

Dave.

[Michael Delamar]

can just see them in the last photo Dave, I didnt notice until I sat down and looked at some photos, Ive got some good close up shots of the rods on the real thing.

[N15class]

Looks good, it is coming on nicely.

 

Dont worry about the tarnishing the paint will stick better, I try to use metal blackening fluid on all the bits the paint may wear off. One to help the paint stick and two not to show btight metal if accidents happen.

[Michael Delamar]

Ive had a go with the sandblaster on the loco body,even though its still not quite yet ready for painting, I cleaned up a lot of the solderpaste residue particularly round the front end around the cylinder cover. the loco is very nearly ready for painting, a few little details to add around the front end and the chassis needs its sandboxes fitting, one or 2 I need to make again as they melted first time round, Gibson dont supply spares of these but they shouldnt be too easy to copy from scratch.

 

 

A lot of the work ive done recently has been on the tender. Steps, handrails, coalrails, vents and brake handles. I rebuilt the chassis from 00 to EM width and got new axles from the EM society.

I dont have any brake shoes for it although the brake rodding is included in the kit, so need to source some brake shoes.

 

The tender Im not 100% happy with, its very thin brass and a few little creases hence the evergreen putty filler visible on its side, Ill see how it comes out after painting, can always try and find a plastic RTR one if im not happy but I think itll be ok. I got a few singed fingers when soldering the steps up with it being such thin brass.

 

Im also annoyed with myself for spending 2 days at the EM show and forgot to get material to do the boiler bands on the 2 locos below. One day I will do a shopping list. I dont like sending off for something thats a few quid.

Edited May 22, 2014 by Michael Delamar