Ruston

This is work that I didn't really need to do but when I made the frame overlays I made them full frame depth, not taking into account how the Hornby chassis block isn't full depth, due to the keep making up part of the overall depth. It means that I can't use the original keep and pickups. The new one slots nicely between the overlays. The 12BA screws are screwed into the Paxolin and protrude the other side to make contact with the sprung plungers in the chassis block. This makes it, like the original, removable without being tethered by wires. It only picks up on 4 wheels because it would be a lot more trouble to add pickups for the centre wheelset and as the loco will be DCC with Stay Alive, it's not going to cause any difficulty with pick up. The other parts are cylinder gland, slide bars and motion bracket for one side. I have had to make these because the Hornby slide bars can't be transferred to the new cylinders and are impossible to solder. I don't know what metal they're made of but no matter what I tried last time they simply refused to solder to anything.

As far as I'm aware, these codes are only for the motors. I've seen N30, too, which is the same width and shape as the N20, but longer. I was saving this coreless motor for something else, but I'll use it in this MW instead. It will give plenty of power and be smoother overall. I have chopped out part of the boiler casting to get it to fit as it's about 5mm longer than the N20 and it will need to be epoxied in place. Because of that I will ensure that everything associated with the pickups, wheels and motion are working perfectly before fitting it. I have some thin-walled brass tube to use as stubs to be soldered to the frame overlays to carry the brake hangers, so fitting those is the next job. The brake assemblies can then push into the tube stubs and be held by Loctite.

N20 attached to one of those integral brass and steel gearboxes, certainly, but the N20 on it own wouldn't move much at all in O gauge. With the integral gearbox they are incredibly torqey at the output shaft but Hornby use only the motor and a fairly high gear ratio.

It's no nearer to being able to run but I seem to have eliminated the worst of the gap between running plate and cab. I've splattered some more paint on it, too. The livery is based on a 17-inch MW that worked for the NCB at Hafodyrnys colliery, in Gwent. I say based on because although it had the yellow stripe on the smokebox door, and the yellow and red vertical stripes on the buffer beams the thickness of the buffer beam stripes was different. I'm not sure about the buffer beam stripes but I'll see how they look once weathered. It weighs 186g, which is 11g over the original Peckett weight and it hasn't even got a motor in it yet. There is space for at least another 15g of lead in the bunker but I'm wary of overdoing it. The motor is only the standard N20 that Hornby put in these things, the W4s and the little Ruston 48DS models.

The cab isn't exactly straight along its lower edge. Simply screwing it to the running plate isn't going to work, so I'll try screws and epoxy in an attempt to close the gap between cab and footplate. It obviously means that the two assemblies will permanently become one but I can't be having such a gap. If the printed parts were used as intended they would sit in a recess in the printed running plate and the bend would never be visible but there you go... I may have said this the last time I built one of these but I won't do another like this. It seems like a good idea to use a RTR mechanism and 3D-printed bodywork but when you try and blend the two, with scratchbuilt improvements, made from brass it's a load of work. I could have just scratchbuilt things such as the cab and the tank and it would have probably been less hassle to do so. It's things such as making boiler fittings where I tend to come unstuck. 3D printing large items with proper straight edges in this resin, or whatever it is, simply isn't a proper engineering solution. Anyway, it is what it is and I will have to persevere with it.

Balance weights added. 5 thou plasticard.

A little more progress with the MW build. I have been sanding print lines and doing a test fit of the printed body parts to the brass running plate assembly. The cab floor has been made from 60 thou. engraving brass, drilled and tapped for a pair of 12BA screws. A 'floor' has also been made for the bottom of the smokebox, also drilled and tapped 12BA. These brass floors will be epoxied into the printed parts and screws will then affix the body to the running plate. Lead sheet has been glued into the tank sides and bunker floor. There is enough space in the tank to fit a decoder and speaker, with a Lais Stay Alive fitted in the firebox, which leaves the smokebox to be stuffed with lead. Extra lead can be added to the bunker, too and I'm confident that the original weight can be easily achieved. I have made all the replacement brake parts but have yet to assemble and fit them. New cylinder glands, slide bars and motion bracket will be required as the Hornby parts will not fit the new cylinders.

What did I say about the office cat doing the research at Hornby these days? 🙄 No Kit-e-Kat for him or her tonight.

Hang on... I haven't seen a photo of the cab rear on this particular model. Have they really done it without rear windows?

Do you know the works number and year of this one? Was it an actual Thomas Hill build or did they rebuild it from a Rolls Royce/Sentinel? The profile of the engine casing looks to be Sentinel but the cab looks typical TH, albeit much taller than usual.

The Low Moor Iron Co., in Bradford, had at least 3 3ft. 10 1/2in. gauge Manning Wardle locos that were designed to shunt standard gauge wagons on mixed gauge track.

Vacuum brake equipment was fitted back in the early 90s, when this loco was based at the Middleton Railway, Leeds.

Will the Ruston be able to pull that wagon? 🙂

The wrappers for the cylinders are made from 5 thou. Plastikard so that they can be dented and scraped. You see so many pictures of industrial steam locos with battered cylinder wrappers but no one ever models them that way.

The Manning that I'm basing this model on had 17x24" cylinders and the B2's 14x22" would look too small and puny and so I am making new cylinders. I don't have a drawing to work from, so it's being done by eye and by comparing what's on other models, such as the Pi Victory (17x24") and the Hattons Barclay (16x24"). Mine are larger than what's on the Victory but not as large as what is on the Barclay but then I've always wondered if Hattons got the cylinders right on that model as they look huge.