Sirdouglas' O gauge

[sir douglas]

a chance sighting of Monks ferry wagons in a Crook Street video just posted in a pre grouping thread

 

11:41 23:17 24:09

 

[sir douglas]

finally got some Dettol yesterday and got one side of the van soaking over night, all the paint, even the old stuff from before i bought it has easily come off but now it has gone back in for a few more hours to eat into the bits in the corners and plank grooves 

[doilum]

On 21/02/2021 at 18:06, sir douglas said:

i know its going to be hot an very dangerous and have no plans on doing it without the precautions. Also forgot to clarify that the 100g is just the swarf but the tub of bits is much more. its going to have to wait until a warm day when the window and door can be left open if i pluck up the courage to try it myself

I have just caught up with this. As a teenager we used to make fishing weights from scrap lead pipes. The essential ingredient was time, mother needed to be out of the house for at least an hour. We used her "egg pan", a small thick bottomed example caked in carbon having been used by previous generations over an open fire. It is important that any wooden mould is absolutely dry, as moisture will cause spitting possibly explosively. Many years later I used the same technique to cast cylindrical weights to ballast an LNER G5. These were a good fit inside the boiler and helped overcome the inherent problems associated with 0-4-4 locomotives. The were done in the greenhouse with a propane burner!

[sir douglas]

On a different note, ive sortede all the remaining missing photos after the flickr thing 2 or 3 years ago

[sir douglas]

The midland van was stripped but i had to pick out the corners with a knife, most of whats in the grooves isnt budging but i'm not that bothered. I noticed that something was wrong with the wheels (i have never done anything to them since i bought the van) one set had 2mm side play while the other had the axleboxes splaying out. The axleboxes on 1 side were cut off to get them out, they look to be the same aluminium wheels as i used on the monk but the axles are different too each other. 1 of them is longer overall but the other is longer over shoulders. I'll not bother trying fix them and just replace with new slaters, i also noted that all the buffer stocks are cracked so i would prefer to fix that too.

 

all the melting damage is not my doing

Edited April 1, 2021 by sir douglas

[sir douglas]

Brake gear on the monk wagon is ready for painting but ive run aout of matt black, a new pot is on its way though. the boxes had lifting eyes in the middle made from styrene which i was being really careful to not damage but it only took a few days to forget so my procrastinating to not do them in brass has come around to bite me

 

Also without that black, i tried the Hunslet diesel in gloss, but i really dont like the look of it. Elsewhere, a few weeks ago i wired up the chassis and tested it, it doesnt work because and axle gear has split

Edited April 2, 2021 by sir douglas

[sir douglas]

The matt black came and the wagon was duly painted and the stencils are ready to go

[sir douglas]

the lettering is on but still needs some touching up until i'm happy with it. number 21 chosen just because of the current year

 

posing with Rebecca Polly just like the photo

 

or if you prefer with Hestia Mermaid

[sir douglas]

And back to the overtype, replacing the sloppy expansion link, i originally did a poor job of the block which sits in it, so both have been removed and remade. The expansion link was also too long and rubbed against the boiler, the new one is shorter. The old one was prototypically curved while the new one is straight as trying to make the block run smoothly ended up making it sloppy.The block was just a cube with a hole in it with nothing wither side to hold it in place.

 

The new block, made of 2 halves, i tried making of 3 pieces but couldnt solder them together while in the expansion link while these sit in place and dont need to be soldered. for an idea of size, the pin is 0.7mm dia'

 

new expansion link and new fork to connect to the valve piston. all the rodding for the reversing lever has been removed to replace as well, here a new longer tube has been fitted. just ignore he mess on top of the firebox, there is no point cleaning up until i know its done and ready for painting

Edited April 14, 2021 by sir douglas

[sir douglas]

I noticed that one of the eccentric rods was longer than the other, making the expansion link rock off centre, i was halfway through rectifying this when my iron stopped working, i dont know why but it is most certainly my fault. Another is on its way but in the meantime i have turned to the fruit van.

 

i got a set of wheels and buffers i was going about the process of refitting the axleboxes with the new bushes but they still had old bushes inside, a type i'm not yet familiar with, more like a cap to hold the axle end rather than a full bush. This is in the bottom of the hole so i just cut the axleboxes off and replaced them. The new ones are from a second hand sprue of different midland axleboxes. I went with the thin flat sided ones as they are in the photo i'm working from in the Essery book (dia' D375), though the sides of them needed some filling as they had hollows where it hadnt moulded properly.

 

The louvres were filed and cut from 1mm sheet and stuck to pieces of 0.5mm sheet cut to fit in place on the body

 

A corner of the roof was cracked and a chunk missing which had to be filled, a piece of styrene was cut and inserted. I tried to file and sand carefully but still ended up with the roof being thinner in that corner so a patch was glued over and smoothed down, the red paint acting as a fine filler and making it easier to see the contours and how smooth it is

[sir douglas]

brake gear, hook plates and a first coat of grey

[sir douglas]

I'm re using the old lever but shortened it about 2mm at the shaft end to bring the kink in the lever to its correct place closer to the rack

 

With black on the roof and underframe, the grey is a bit too light but I currently dont have a suitable shade. Ive had an idea to put a dark grey wash over it which should drken the shade while at he same time giving some weathering, i'll give a test on the other side

[sir douglas]

The wash worked to a adequate state, as for the lettering i thought i would give transfers ago this time, might as well since we were given some old sheets of Slaters methfix from a friend to practice with. Ive just used the MR while the solebar plate is painted

 

comparison with the other van to show how it usde to be like

[sir douglas]

I can see most of my fiddleyard tracks again now with most of the half built projects out of the way, though there is instead a growing to-do list on the existing stock of things i forgot. The GN horse started years ago has been scrapped, i made a mistake in the constrcution which would have to start again anyway to fix. Lately i found a drawing for a LSWR horsebox i like the look of so the salvaged parts will go onto that.

 

a reminder of what the horsebox was like, the side was an inner 1mm layer with a thinner outerlayer for the frame but i forgot things that needed scribing before hand

 

 

On the little NB brake, one of the wheel back-to-back was out and one of the axle bushes was 1mm high making the van rock, had to take the footboards of first to get the axleboxes off. The errant bush is sorted and just needs reassembly.

[sir douglas]

New iron arrived some days ago so back to the overtype. the eccentric rod was sorted and the motion runs a lot better the ctanks and shaft that lead around to the reversing lever have been replaced and i'm now working on that.

 

I'm attempting to make the lever fully working and locking, first it was drawn out to 5X size, the actual thing is to the right of the drawing, it took 2 hours just to finish the collar. Bottom right is the old lever and reach rod now removed and just above that is punch rivetted frame to represent the water tank sticking out below the bunker and decided to put the filling pipe in the bunker, its a bit of tube soldered in with a lid on

 

a but of a close up of the lever and drawing

 

close up of loc and tank

 

the tank fits in under the rear (right hand) and is held in with the rear fixing bolt

 

[sir douglas]

The lever is going together but needs some reworking and fettling so 2 other jobs have been ticked off the list; smokebox door and draincock pipes

[sir douglas]

spending retirement as a stationary engine

[sir douglas]

Buffer Blocks next, firework sticks sandwiched between the bufferbeam and a nickel face, held in by 2 brass pins through all layers and soldered in and flatened off.

Im also working on the feed pump but not quite there yet

 

Edited May 9, 2021 by sir douglas

[sir douglas]

Feed pump as said, it runs off an eccentric behind the flywheel, it is just like an axle or crosshead pump on conventional locos but this is built into the clack valve. This arrangement is more common on Portable engines, less so on traction engines which have them horizontal on the firebox. I'm also thinking of putting a steam injector on the right hand side. Another thing is that the firebox front doesnt sit in properly, for some reason it never has but now the gap has got a little bit bigger. This of course will have to be rectified before completion. Other little additions are the brake column handle and the tops of the crankshaft bearings with 2mm rod for oil pots

 

Its difficult to photograph detail with it all being complex shapes with some places shiny and others dirty

[sir douglas]

The reversing lever is just about there now, i had to redesign and replace the lever and locking collar, the parts arent fixed in yet as it needs some sort of springing to hold down the collar and stock it from rattling and unlocking, maybe a bit of buffer spring or thin piano wire. The forward and reverse slots wont be cut until the lever is fitted onto the loco and the positions can be marked with the reach rod made and fitted

Edited May 11, 2021 by sir douglas

[sir douglas]

The lever is sprung and the motion is lockable in 3 positions. its a bit of 0.3mm/15thou piano wire which pinches on the pins, pulling the collar down

 

its a bit stiff going into forward gear but it works

 

Something actuall done a few months ago but shown here, painting the wheels and middle gear

 

With the other buffer blcoks on i couldnt resiste painting the buffer beams, and i got a bit carried away with the oxide, it will all be done eventually as a base coat but i kept resisting the urge until its all done, also seen here is a Pressure gauge added above the backhead made form 1/8th brass rod and a start on the brake gear with the hanger brackets. The backhead itself is very simple with the only fitting is the water gauge, seen here after a coat of oxide then black

 

[Johnson044]

Coming together! Your best yet, I think- really enjoying this build. 

[sir douglas]

definitely the most technical things ive ever built

 

i keep having naughty thoughts of scratch building a 153 unit but scaling up a drawing ive found brings the overall length (including corridor connectors and couplings) to much bigger than i thought at 533mm or 1'9"

[sir douglas]

Chimney next, 

A- Nylon cap

B- brass connector

C- aluminium tube

D- brass connector

E- base

 

then the milliput was put around the base

 

 

the throat plate was replaced and file away the right hand side of the firebox to the remove the gap problem

 

[sir douglas]

Another problem but more theoretical than physical, the brake shaft and internal connection with the column cant exist in the same space as the water tank so i might have to compromise on the thought that there is a cut away in the tank, but it would be a substantial cut away on what is already a small tank, i dont want to move it under the smokebox because that would make the loco look front heavy. i know that teh Avelings have the coulumn way out on the right hand side to avoid this, i might have to have the column on the side of the bunk

 

thoughts?

 

Edited May 16, 2021 by sir douglas