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7mm L&Y Donkey Lizzie- custom pickups


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a big thank you to Richard who very kindly sent me a smokebox door, door handle, and some brake pullrod parts. I was worried that the assembled smokebox may have been too big or small going by other areas of the kit, but it looks spot on, the smokebox door is a very nice casting.

 

I also managed to find among the many bits and pieces in the parts drawers my local O gauge club, the west lancs O gauge group, the correct safety valve assembly. cast whitemetal, aswel as a vacuum pipe. one of the chaps there is making me up some of his own pickups too, theyre along the lines of plungers.

 

and at Wigan I stocked up on carrs fluxes and solders, itll be my first go with them, I went by the recomendations of Jazz in his workbench thread. along with strips of brass to do the boiler bands and other areas, but as it happens I should have got some more sizes.

 

a friend is also going to turn the centre wheels on his lathe.

 

 

still quite a few bits to get, Id like some nice buffers for it, but its progressing even though no work has actually been started on it yet.

 

 

 

Mike

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... Ill be doing the baffle, again the problem with more detail in 7mm is Id like to try and copy the original in more detail, but cant really see the real one100%, ...

You may well have the problem that this was a fitting added by the shed, (presumably specifically to minimise the number of hot cinders blown into the underside of wooden sections of the Docker's umbrella) so there is no drawing and it was made by 'custom and practise'. From a photo of 51535, the bracket at the top of the smokebox looks very similar in form to the smokebox door hinge, the post the same diameter as handrail, the stay to the chimney top about half the diameter of handrail, and the bar on which the disc is mounted looks to be about 3" deep. Of course the fitting may not have been consistent from loco to loco.

 

... I'd like some nice buffers for it, ...

But will you have one of them sitting 'cocked' as in the illustration in your opening post? Nice detail that.

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As far as I can make out the LOR blast deflectors were all the same size. They were fitted to all locos working under the overhead railway, not as a spark arrestor (as frequently quoted), there was no wood in the structure anyway. Of course they were not always used when they should have been - they can hardly have improved the performance. Many stayed in place long after the LOR had gone.

The purpose was to prevent the blast from the locos damaging the underside of the deck plates and the bitumen seal between them. All rather academic in the end, it was the waterproof design of the deck which killed it in the end, rusting from above with rainwater which was not alllowed to fall through. US overhead railways never had this waterproof deck, even with steam locos operating on them, as a result they survive to this day.

Michael Edge

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may not be able to find a clear pic of one on these, but a good quality shot of a pug or MDHB tank might reveal how to go about it, I dont think it was controlled from the cab???

as Mike said which Is a good point, the Overhead railway had been gone for about 3 years when that shot was taken, Ive heard the blast defectors where used when in certain areas of the docks.

another thing these Locos had was a bell which all locos working on the dockboard mainline had to have, fitted to the crank on theses I think , been looking at some DCC sound equipped american locos smile.gif but the bell on them is only a consistent ring, people have said when they heard this loco running back to Aintree shed, the bell was ringing very fast!

 

 

Im looking for some advice on how to go about doing the lips on the top of the water tanks, and around the cab openings, these shots should show what I mean,

theres also the rectangular opening on the bufferbeam for the coupling to work out to do also.

 

 

donkeylizzies.jpg

 

Mike

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The blast deflector was controlled from the cab on MDHB locos, on these the spindle was at the LH side of the smokebox, there was a lever on this and a wire to the cab.

The L&Y 0-6-0Ts had the spindle on the front centre of the smokebox with no control from the cab.

All locos on the Dock road had to have bells fitted but these were often between the frames, driven off the valve gear. This applies to all L&Y locos as far as I know. The only locos i have built with visible bells so far are the two Hunslet diesels (driven off a crank on the left leading wheel) and the fireless 0-6-0.

Beading on tanks is easily done with soft brass wire (I mostly use 26swg for 7mm), stretch it to straighten, tack one end, stretch along the tank top and run solder along the top edge. File the top edge smooth and use a scraper to clean up the lower edge.

For cab openings do this on both sides, the ends of the wire can be wrapped round the vertical handrails. With a little care this looks just as good as the etched strips used in many kits.

Michael Edge

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a chap at the west lancs O gauge group makes his own pickups, which he uses for his beautifull pre 30s GWR locos.

 

has very kindly made me a set for this, probably guilding the lilly for this :) but Ive been very impressed with them on his locos.

 

he turns the plastic parts himself.

 

kind of a cross between plungers and phospher bronze wipers. basically you have the plastic (think its plastic) outer part, in that is the brass rod which touches the wheels, that has a slot cut in the other end, through which a phosper bronze wire is placed, the other end goes to a piece of copperclad somewhere on the inside of the chassis, and the phospher bronze wire acts as the spring :) simple

 

IMGP1662.jpg

IMGP1664.jpg

 

 

and another chap has found me a set of l&y buffers :)

 

also got my presfix transfers for this and my other projects tonight too, I was surprised how large the sheet was :) so ill have something to do over christmas, as Im debating whether to have the week off or try and work it in this weather, self employed taxi driver, hmm what to do?

 

Mike

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