Hudswell Clarke "Italia"

[Ruston]

I don't usually post my kit builds for reasons outlined in another thread in this section of the forum but as I've currently got one on the go, here goes...

 

It's an Agenoria Models kit of what the blurb describes as an Italia class Hudswell Clarke, although I can find no loco so named in the works list contained in Ron Redman's book The Railway Foundry Leeds 1839-1969.

 

The kit is meant to build into the WC&P's Walton Park and is provided with name plates, but I'm not modelling the WC&P so my loco will be an anonymous version and, possibly, with a few alterations to suit other locos of the type that I have seen in photos in various books.

 

Rivets dimpled out, buffer beams soldered on, overlays for springs soldered on and springs bent up.

 

Cab assembled. I'm using resistance soldering for the first time and I'm impressed with how little cleaning up is neccessary. This picture is as put together - no cleaning has been done at all in this pic.

 

Screws to fix frames to bodywork soldered in and cab fitted to running plate.

Edited January 5, 2013 by Ruston

[Kenton]

 

It's an Agenoria Models kit

Is this the 7mm kit?

[Ruston]

Yes. I should have said as much but I sometimes forget that lesser scales are available.

 

 

Firebox added, smokebox built up (but not fitted - I can't until the saddletank is fitted and the wrapper is missing so I can't build that yet) and valances sorted out.

 

I'd misunderstood the instructions and fitted these centrally, thinking the gaps at either end would be filled with a thick buffer beam timber (as on the loco shown in the background photo of pic 1 in the last post). I was wrong and they should have been right up to the front bufferbeam and the bunker should overhang the rear bufferbeam.

 

To remove both valances would be a right PITA and, most likely, unsoldering would cause other bits to drop off, so I cut into the valances using a slitting disc and unsoldered just the ends. These were then fitted into the correct position and re-soldered. Of course this left an unsightly gap, which I have covered by offcuts of brass that have been dimpled to form rivets. The loco in the background in the pic below has exactly the same repairs so it's still prototypical.

 

 

On to the frames...

 

This is the first loco that I have built with more than 4 wheels so compensating it is a bit daunting. I've decided just to spring the centre axle. The pic below shows the lining up and soldering of the hornguides, for which I am using lengths of brass bar.

 

The frames assembled and ready for the next stage.

Edited January 5, 2013 by Ruston

[Arthur]

Nice prototype Dave.

 

 

I'm impressed with how clean the build is. What make of resistance soldering unit are you using and are you using solder paint with it?

[Ruston]

Hi, Arthur. The RSU is from London Road Models. The solder paste comes in a syringe with a shortened and blunted hypodermic needle. It's totally different to the solder paint, such as Carrs, that I've used before and it leaves virtually no residue.

 

Edited January 5, 2013 by Ruston

[Arthur]

Thanks Dave, I have considered getting one in the past, I think that I might be convinced! I'll be following the build with interest.

[TimC]

Looking good Dave!

 

I love my RSU too - I use the C&L solder cream but even though its 'no clean' I always find that it leaves a greasy residue so the etches need a rinse afterwards. The creams are expensive but you use very little and there is very little wastage (ie more solder around the joint than necessary).

[Ruston]

I was a bit sceptical about them until I watched one of the demonstrators at the GOG thing at Halifax, last year. It makes lots of jobs much easier because you can hold parts in place, or together, with the probe and the foot pedal allows you to hold them whilst the joint cools, which it does rapidly as all the work is done on a steel plate that acts as a very effective heatsink.

 

In fact whilst I was watching and talking to the fellow doing the demo he soldered some parts together and had me hold out my hand and dropped them in. If it'd have been done by ordinary soldering I'd have got burnt but as it was they were perfectly cool to the touch.

 

Anyway, I may as well post another few pics. I don't really work as fast as this thread shows - I started this on Boxing Day and did most of it whilst off work. The following pictures will take us up to where I am now and progress will be somewhat slower from now on as the holidays are over and I'm still waiting on a couple of parts that were missing from the kit...

 

Wheels fitted to frames and the rods were laminated and fitted. The Slaters wheelsets come only with the short crank pin bushes so I turned a pair of bushes for the centre axle, where the con-rods go. I then made up the cylinders/crossheads/slidebars and fitted them. After that I must have had them on and off more than a dozen times whilst I pushed the rolling chassis up and down, attempting to find the source of the binding.

 

I then took it apart again and fitted the brake hangers and blocks, and also the springs and hornblock keeper plates. The plates are simply thin scraps of brass that are soldered across the gap at the bottom of the frame plates. The bottom spring plates are scraps of brass, soldered to the hornblocks and the springs glued to them. The top spring mounts are scraps of brass, folded over at the top to retain the spring and soldered to the frames.

 

Today I finished the brake gear and added the rear sand boxes and pipes. The whole was cleaned, dried and given a coat of etch primer.

I also undercoated the wheels and am considering what colour to finish the loco in. Current favourite is Prussian Blue.

 

You never know, I may get some more done tomorrow...

Edited January 5, 2013 by Ruston

[Debs.]

..........I have considered getting one in the past, I think that I might be convinced! I'll be following the build with interest.

 

Me too, Arthur........Dave`s work always inspires; and having seen those neat RSU results; I`ll be saving-up hard to make a purchase.

[46444]

Beautiful modelling and as others have said very tidy soldering as well.

 

Prussian blue will sit nicely on this loco I would imagine too

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

[Ruston]

I think so, Mark. I've already used this colour on my Peckett but I may line this one. I'm thinking yellow and black. Opinions welcome...

 

Last night I painted the frames and today I fitted the motor. It's a Mashima somethingorother and drives through a one-stage 40:1 worm drive. The frames have been given a dusting of weathering powders as a start as I want to weather them before the wheels, motion and pickups are fitted. I don't want to take it all apart again.

 

 

[N15class]

I think many people  will learn from your methods. I like the way you spring your centre axle.

It is a lovely build. I look forward to following the construction.

[Ruston]

Buffers.

The kit comes with two sets of these. One are solid cast brass and the others are cast brass with a steel head and shank. Neither are brilliant.

The solid ones have a casting mark along their length and across the head and it's not easy to get rid of on this cast brass as it's very hard, so I have thrown them in the spares box (God knows what use they'll ever be though). Apparently all the Agenoria range have had the whitemetal castings replaced with brass but it's a bad idea IHMO.

The other set of buffers are not great castings and the shanks would not fit inside them due to little bits of stray casting. This wouldn't be a problem with whitemetal as a bit of work with a file, or holding a drill bit between fingers would have sorted it. But with brass I've had to drill them out  on the lathe. The supposedly square bases aren't perfectly square so it's rather difficult to line them up in the chuck.

The shanks/heads are of a large diameter so I'm keeping those for another project and have substituted some from a set of LMS heavy duty wagon buffers, from Slaters. I drilled them through the centre of the heads to look like those in the prototype pictures that I'm working with.

[N15class]

The buffers look good, I agree with you that these brass casting can be more trouble than benifit.

[Ruston]

A bit of a long post this one...

 

First off - the tank.

 

The missing brake column and tank wrapper arrived in the post yesterday so I made a start soldering the tank together.

That doesn't look very good, does it?

 

That's because the tank wrapper is either the wrong one, or badly designed. The half-etched lines are on a part that is almost flat and there's not enough of it to curve around the bottom of the tank on either side...

 

It's also too long.

 

I couldn't be bothered to send yet another email and wait another week for a replacement so I cracked on and decided to make my own wrapper. I'm not confident of cutting sheet brass to fit perfectly, or to get 90 degree corners so I came up with a plan that is so cunning you can brush your teeth with it.

 

Having measured the correct gap twixt firebox and smokebox, and having deducted from this the thickness of the three formers, I turned up some spacers from 1/2 inch brass bar. This gives me perfect 90 degree corners that I can butt the parts up to and solder to with the aid of a machined block, magnets and a length of machined angle iron.

 

The next stage will be to roughly cut the wrapper, solder it to the formers and then file the excess flush with the ends.

 

And finally...

 

Buffers soldered to bufferbeams, heads blackened and fitted - and yes they are sprung.

 

Also, one cylinder painted and lined, ready to fit.

Edited January 11, 2013 by Ruston

[N15class]

I think so, Mark. I've already used this colour on my Peckett but I may line this one. I'm thinking yellow and black.

That will look very nice. That colour lining sits well on S&DJR so see no reason why it should not on your little tank.

[Ruston]

Boiler backhead.

 

 

In cruel close-up. There's not much detail with the kit as it comes and some of it is, frankly, unusable. Yet again poor brass castings have meant that they've become landfill.

 

As it comes the kit provides the regulator handle, the firehole doors, manifold, and gauge glasses. The gauge glass castings were awful so I made my own from plasticard and plastic section with bent wire for valve handles. I also made flanges on the boiler, where the gauges fit, as there were none on the castings or on the etches.

 

Another added detail is the washout plugs and pipework. The pipework is simply copper wire and the plugs are slivers of plastic rod with cubes of square rod glued to them.

 

I've painted the gauge glasses white but it doesn't look quite right. I suppose I should have made them from clear plastic but I don't have any. I might paint some black diagonal lines on them - opinions welcome.

 

Next will be to make a representation of the firehole door opening mechanism

 

 

[Arthur]

Very nice Dave. Gauge glasses, maybe a coat of silver, and when dry, a coat of gloss varnish just tinted with a bit of blue/green to give that thick glass look? Never tried it, maybe worth a bit of experimenting.

[Ruston]

It's worth a try, Arthur.

[Jol Wilkinson]

Me too, Arthur........Dave`s work always inspires; and having seen those neat RSU results; I`ll be saving-up hard to make a purchase.

 

John Redrup of London Road Models has just invested in a new batch of RSU cases (now in stainless steel), so availability is assured fro some time. However, with the cost of raw materials continually increasing, he cannot guarantee that the price will remain  at £175.00 for too many months.

 

He can be contacted at lrmenquiries@hotmail.co.uk to check availability, price and place orders for collection at shows (listed on the home page of the new LRM website www.londonroadmodels.co.uk)

[Arthur]

Thanks Jol, I'll follow that up.

[Ruston]

I've finished the tank and have begun to paint the rest of the bodywork.

I've stopped short of undercoating forward of the toolbox as I'll have to clean the primer off to solder the smokebox to the running plate. At the moment it's just loosely sat on there. The tank has a slot in each end where lugs fit, one fixed to the smokebox and one to the firebox. Once the smokebox is soldered to the running plate it will hold the tank in place but I'll slap a load of epoxy around the lugs on the tank inside to make it all rigid. Therefore I won't need to solder the tank and risk damaging the paintwork.

[Ruston]

Things are still happening with this but at a much slower pace.

The lining is complete but it's rough. I found it hard to keep the line a consistant thickness, especially on the curves. It'll all disappear under the weathering though.

The smokebox is only shiny because I'm stupid and picked the tin of gloss black, instead of the matt, without looking at what was on the tin lid.

The cast sandboxes are yet another source of trouble. The two halves of the mould must have been teribly misaligned because one half stands .5mm higher then the other, making the whole thing list to one side. This is after filing and grinding the join line to something approaching acceptable.

The (only?) preserved member of this class (w/n 1604 of 1928) has sandboxes that are circular in plan so I may turn some like that. Or make my own pair of rectangular boxes from plasticard.

 

[Ruston]

Almost there now. I've had most of the weekend to work on this so all that remains is to fit a decoder (and hope it runs after all this!), make and fit some window bars for the rear of the cab, add some bits and pieces (oil cans, fire irons etc.) and to finish the weathering. I've already done some weathering on the bufferbeams and the cab steps.

 

As you will notice, I have made and fitted a pair of circular sand boxes. I was going to line them but decided it would be a bit OTT.

 

 

[N15class]

Looks the part, I see you went for the round sand boxes in the end.