Finecast T9 in OO

[DIW]

I have ready to build a Wills Finecast T9 kit, but before the pictures, a bit of preamble.

 

First let's go back nearly five decades (!) to when I was very small, and Hampshire Units were still painted green (that puts the date to before 1967 or near offer). At the time, Fareham station had quite extensive sidings on the east side, and a couple of sidings on which carriages often resided, on the west side. I remember sometimes that there would be shunting performed by a black tender-locomotive - I particularly remember the tender wheels. It is likely that any locomotive which happened to be operable and spare at Eastleigh could have been sent along, and a T9 would certainly be in the frame for consideration. The currently preserved example, (30)120, was withdrawn in 1963. It or other T9s could easily have been among the locomotives I saw.

 

Fast forward to around a decade ago. South Eastern Finecast were at the Woking Model Railway Exhibition along with several other kit manufacturers. As a result I had to decide in the next few weeks whether to have the SE Finecast T9 or the NNK 4SUB for Christmas. I started looking through my book collection for information on them both, then I heard rumours that Hornby were considering making the T9. That made the decision for me, I had the 4SUB kit.

 

Come forward a couple of years, and the Hornby T9 was indeed released. However with the teething problems, I considered it worth waiting for the second batch to be produced and shipped. I bought the Hornby M7 around that time - another Dugald Drummond LSWR locomotive. Of course, I didn't get round to buying a Hormby T9 yet!

 

Now let us come forward to a couple of months ago. At my local Model Railway Club a kindly gentleman who has taken an avuncular interest in the model railway upbringing of my baby son asked if I would accept and build for the lad a Wills T9 kit. I was delighted to accept such a generous offer. The contents are shown (yes the wheels were there too):

 

I very soon phoned South East Finecast, and ordered their chassis, a suitable motor and a gearbox. The chassis is etched in Nickel Silver, and has very fine brake detail.

 

The following week, the kindly gentleman called me to tell me that he had also unearthed the original chassis for the kit. It is in brass (with Nickel Siver coupling rods) and is made by Perseverence.

 

What to do? After some thought I decided to build the kit with its original Perseverence chassis. The brake detail is less refined but bulkier; this would make it much more suitable for young fingers! The T9 will be painted in green (SR), since the lad associates steam engines with green (frequent visits to the South Devon Railway and regular sightings of 3205) rather than blue or black.

 

That leaves me the SEF chassis to build at a later date with another kit as a late version T9 in black.

 

 

So much for the waffle! On with the kit!

Well not so fast - I must finish the SNCF 231D or it will never be completed.

What about the chassis? Can't I just clean up the chassis?

 

Well, not much harm in doing that, is there?

 

The chassis etchings had an amount of discolouration:

 

I remembered a thread about cleaning up brass etches. A bit of searching later cleaning brass etches I found that the 'Shiny Sinks' with toothbrush took off the tarnish, but didn't touch the really dark markings. I tried the fibreglass pen (last resort) and the bristles just came off - perhaps something in the 'Shiny Sinks' reacted with the fibres? Then I tried 'Lime Lite' with the toothbrush, and that shifted a lot of the dark markings. The fibre brush was still needed for the really stubborn bits, but it cleaned up much more easily than a 'trial' piece with fibre brush alone. The etches were given a good soaking to clean off all the residues.

 

The results are below. Note that I didn't clean the EM or P4 frame spacers, just the OO ones.

 

 

Now, back to the 231D for a bit longer....in the meantime, does anyone know of anything about T9s and the Finecast kit which would trap the unwary, e.g. standard or non-standard cab widths/heights/windows which would render certain blocks of running numbers unsuitable for the kit?

[bbishop]

Hi,

 

The T9 class came with two cab widths and with three types of tender. It appears that you have the wide cab version (with superheater) and a watercart tender.

 

I need to go into a bit of history. Firstly, the T9s were superheated between 1922 and 1929. Then after grouping in 1923, a number were transferred to the SECR and LBSCR sections to provide competent four coupled express locos. Only superheated locos were transferred and they were paired with 6 wheel tenders due to small turntables. Tenders with 14 foot wheelbase went with locos to the SECR and 13 foot tenders went with locos to the LBSCR. For whatever reason (which might have simply been the cycle of general repairs providing the opportunity to fit a superheated boiler), a high proportion of the 15 wide cab locos acquired 6 wheel tenders.

 

This left the following with watercarts:

 

302 - E302 to 5/1932, Bulleid green livery 1/1941

 

305 - E305 to 2/1933, Maunsell green & Bulleid lettering 8/1940

 

337 - dual braked to 2/1933, E337 to 4/1933, black livery after 3/1941

 

338 - dual braked to 10/1934, E338 to 11/1932, black livery after 3/1941

 

This is very simplistic, I haven't dealt with the fitting of snifting valves, the height of the capuchon on the stove pipe chimney and plates to the tender coal rails. You will need to find photos.

 

My source book is LSWR Locomotives, the Drummond classes by Don Bradley ISBN 0 906867 42 8. There are other books.

 

Bill

[Mallard60022]

Glad to see someone else procrastinates by 'just cleaning up' those nice brass parts; very theraputic though!

 

Bill's info is v useful. That book he mentions is also worth looking at.

Try web searching your choice of loco and see if any pics of it fit the bill (sorry Bill ).

I only ever really saw west country based machines so my collection of books relates to that area. However, if you decide on a particular loco, I'll have a dig and see if I can find a pic for you; I've got plenty of time to do that just now.

Cheers P @ 36E

[DIW]

Hi Bill,

 

Many thanks for the information and the book suggestion. I have contacted my favourite bookseller about it.

 

I have had a look at my copy of 'Railway Liveries - Southern Railway' by Brian Haresnape, and number 305 looks like an early candidate of choice from the view of livery.

 

 

Glad to see someone else procrastinates by 'just cleaning up' those nice brass parts; very theraputic though!

 

If only that were the case! Cleaning the brass was for some sanity - a break from fitting pipes to the 231D!

 

Thank you for your offer of help. As above I have an early candidate, but I'll need to get more information and read it before making the proper decision. In particular the amount of lining will also have a strong bearing on the livery decision.

[DIW]

Some progress to report!

 

I bought 'The Book of the T9s' by Richard Derry (Irwell Press). It gives me lots of pictures and info on each individual loco, as well as class-wide information.

 

I have made a start on the chassis, and also put together the body parts which make up the footplate. The boiler has been drilled for the handrail knobs. I'm waiting for the hornblock assembly jigs to arrive so that I can start the compensation part of the chassis. The front driver bearings were fitted to allow the chassis to be built square.

 

 

 

I have temporarily fitted the motor and gearbox to the chassis, and checked its fit within the footplate and boiler.

 

 

There is a question (of course) which I have for you; in order to fit the Perseverence chassis it will be necessary to remove some of the front footplate casting above the bogie. Does anyone know how much needs to be removed?

 

It is easy to remove all of the whitemetal frame and then pad out to give the correct ride height, but I would like to retain as much of the weight of the whitemetal frame as is practical, which means that I only want to remove as much as necessary.

 

Cheers,

 

Dave

Edited June 30, 2022 by DIW
Re-inserted pictures

[37114]

I shall watch this with interest, I have been asked to finish my dad's one which has been in build for 40 years! It is nearly complete assembly wise, chassis wise has a cast block no the lovely etched version you have though.

[DIW]

Hi Rob,

 

You have Wills Finecast's own chassis then. It should be easy to fit that chassis to the loco body.

 

Now more on the build:

 

A bit more has been completed on the T9 - the front bogie has been put together. One of the small rivets which holds the inner frame to the outer frame was long gone, so I added an extra piece of scrap etching to the inside frame on each side, and tapped through. The outer frame is now held with an M1 screw. The point of the rivet construction was to allow the bogie to be built as a compensated unit, separate from the rest of the chassis. The screw allows the same construction, plus I can tighten and loosen the screw to get the best amount of play (before locking the screw eventually of course).

 

 

The 10BA screw holding the arm to the bogie will be cut to length when the chassis compensation beam is fitted (the beam bears down on the screw).

 

I'm held up now - I need the hornblock assembly jigs to continue with the chassis, and the turned handrail knobs to proceed with the body. I ordered them a week ago, so I hope that they're on their way! I can use the break though to make a start on lining my SNCF 231D.

 

Cheers,

 

Dave

Edited June 30, 2022 by DIW
Re-inserted pictures

[DIW]

There has been a fair amount of progress made in matching the chassis to the body, in spite of my attention being drawn elsewhere (Group banners!). I've been taking pictures; I just haven't got round to uploading them until now.

 

My packet arrived from Markits, containing the hornblock alignment jigs, handrail knobs, handrail wire, and clack valves. I needed the jigs to carry on with the chassis.

 

The chassis has been designed for a T9, and the instructions mention the Finecast body in passing. I wonder though whether the chassis had been tried as such before the instructions were written! The compensation instructions are written for a 0-6-0 loco. The chassis instructions admit this is the case, but advise that the leading bogie is taking the place of the 0-6-0 leading driver. so far so good, I understand that. The chassis even has holes ready made in the frames to take the compensation beam's pivot rod - looks great! So the bogie was fitted and the compensation beam followed, with the pivot rod soldered to the frames as instructed. The leading driver axle was fitted, and the compensation beam was adjusted (OK bent) to give the perfect ride.

 

 

 

The problem comes when it is determined how to fit the chassis to the body. The frame spacer with the fixing hole is directly above the bogie pivot, so no access there without taking the bogie off. That's not usually a problem.....but the bogie is held both ends of its fixing arm by locked nuts & bolts. The bogie end of the arm is inaccessible (when the body is fitted), and the other end of the arm has the bolt obstructed by the rod holding the compensation beam.

 

The solution was to remove the compensation beam (i.e. unsolder its support rod) and remove the rod entirely. A 10 BA nut was soldered to the frame on one side at the hole for the rod, and the compensation beam was refitted using a 10BA bolt as the pivot rod. Such a simple fix, which allows the compensation beam to be removed and replaced as required.

 

The nut is just visible here:

 

and here:

 

The nut has been filed down a bit to give more clearance to the wheel since the picture was taken.

 

Now the body - I drilled the holes for the handrail knobs, and filed off the cast boiler bands. The boiler was soldered together (the previous pictures of the boiler shows the two halves only sitting together).

 

 

The boiler sits well on the footplate assembly:

 

 

To get the chassis to fit the body, I cut away most of the casting at the front below the footplate, so that the frames would sit flush against the footplate. The frames were too long for the footplate though, and after checking alignment of wheel centres to splashers, the frames were shortened at the rear to sit within the back of the footplate.

 

 

With a bit more work on the footplate casting it was possible for the frame spacer to sit on part of the casting - there has been a bit more casting removed to give clearance for the wheels too.

 

 

A piece of brass was cut, folded and soldered in place to locate the frame spacer against the casting:

 

 

This meant that a screw fixing would be needed at the front. As mentioned above, the designed-in fixing is obstructed by the bogie. So, I removed the front frame spacer and re-fitted it on the lower edge of the frames.

 

 

When the frames are located in the footplate, there is now a space in which I can fix a 8BA nut to the footplate, and screw through the frame spacer to fix. In the fullness of time when it comes to adding couplings this fixing gives me the option to add the coupling to the body in case adding the coupling to the bogie produces difficulties.

 

 

Something that puzzled me was that there didn't seem to be a cab floor in the kit, nor any reference to one in the instructions or diagram.

 

This puzzle was solved when I obtained another T9 kit which included the Wills Finecast chassis block. This answered a lot of questions! The Wills block carries only the driver wheels, thus the bogie screws to the castings below the front of the footplate (the parts I had to remove to fit the brass frames). The Wills block is designed to take an X04 (or similar) and as such the worm is in the cab area - hence no floor is possible.

 

Another look at my Perseverence chassis with its Branchlines gearbox showed that with a bit of care it should be possible to hide the mechanism. First, the gearbox frames needed some attention:

 

 

With the parts reassembled, the cab area is indeed capable of having a floor now. the worm and first gear will be hidden behind the firebox front:

 

 

The Perseverence chassis, for all the niggles in building, is certainly far better than the Wills cast whitemetal block. Not as quick to build though!

 

So, why have I bought another kit (i.e the one with the Wills block included)? Well in post 1 I mentioned that I have the South Eastern Finecast nickel silver etched chassis, to be used for my own T9 when I've finished the current one for my lad. A T9 kit came available at a better than suitable price, so I grabbed the chance to add it to the to-be-built pile.

 

That's all for now.

 

Dave

Edited June 30, 2022 by DIW
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[DIW]

Goodness, two months have passed since the last update! It's high time another update came along......

 

I'll pick up the story from the previous missive; I had made the attachments for fitting the chassis and footplate together.

 

Bear in mind that this model will be for my lad when he's older, and will likely be running on train-set curves (having said that, the curves on my HO layout are sharper in some places than third-radius Hornby curves). It was necessary then to ensure that the bogie wheels don't foul on the chassis frame in corners. The frames were half-etched on the inside to indicate where they should be cut for wheel clearance, and these marks were used to cut away the frame as intended by the maker. The problem of course is that the clearance marks run very close to the top of the frames, leaving very little metal at the frame top and thus no strength. to counter this, I strengthened the frames with some brass angle, soldered along the inside edges of the frames from the front to near to the compensation beam pivot bar. This returned the strength to the frames.

 

Next the bogie wheels were found to still foul on the tightest curves; this time against the mounting for the fixing screw I had so carefully fitted previously. Nothing for it, the fixings had to be changed. The clip fixing was designed to be at the front of the chassis, and the screw fixing under the cab - simply the reverse of the previous version, though much easier to say than to do!

 

The next picture shows the brass angle along the insides of the frames above the cut-outs for the wheels, and a piece of brass angle soldered to the insdie of the buffer beam to act as the fixing clip at the front end. The brass angles along the frames are interrupted where they meet the remaining frame spacer; the front frame spacer has been removed completely. (The frame spacing at the very front of the frames is performed by the brass angle fixed to the buffer beam).

 

 

The brass locating plate soldered to the footplate at the cab end has now become the screw fixing plate - the nut-on-brass-tube assembly has been relocated from the front of the footplate, as shown in the next two pictures.

 

 

Once the wheel clearances were sorted out and the frame to footplate fixings rearranged, the wheels and frames were painted. A piece of circuit board was cut to size and scored through as required, and soldered between the frames at the top, between the driving wheels. Some suitably shaped pieces of brass were soldered to this, and finally some phospher bronze strips to the brass, to act as pick-ups.

 

I had previously bought some miniature connectors from a supplier suggested on another thread on RMWeb. A pair were dug out of the box, and the socket was soldered to the circuit board such that the pins lined up with the areas to which the pick ups brass pieces were soldered. Another couple of dabs of solder, and the pick ups were complete. (It looks so much more simple written down than it was in practice).

 

The plug was wired to the motor, and with appropriate checks to make sure that I had the polarity/direction the conventional way round the wires were fixed to the motor body. This reduced the strain on the connector when all had been aligned, and allowed the wiring and motor to fit within the body without fouling.

 

 

Further progress as seen in the above picture is the fitting of the crankpins and crank rods. Some fettling has been made to remove the binding points - I had made the crank rod holes a fairly snug fit on the pins, and found that the binding was due primarily to the crank pins - a little tweak to make them perfectly perpendicular to the wheels soon sorted that out! There is still a curious aspect of the compensation which I hadn't foreseen (I certainly haven't seen it before on an 0-6-0 chassis, perhaps it is a two-axle thing); the driven wheels seemed to have a bit of wobble. Several dismantlements and re-assembly later I discovered that the wheels were indeed square on the axle, it was the up and down motion of the hornblocks when driven by the rods which gave the appearance of wobble. Sure enough a finger on the axle stopped all that nonsense! I had to relent my nice tight tolerances, and open out the holes in the crank rods just a tiny amount, and that pseudo-wobble problem went away.

 

The tender has been started now (no pictures to hand yet). The body has been put together, though I found that the hole in the tender chassis and through the tender bogies was much larger than the diameter of the bolts supplied to fix them together.

 

A bit of measuring and I ascertained that some 3mm OD brass tube would be an appropriate solution. The bogie holes were reamed out slightly larger, and the tube was fitted to the tender chassis with a length of tube extending where the bogies were to be attached. This allows the bogies to swivel on the tube, while being retained by a bolt through the tube. The bolt can be tightened as required without making the bogie too tight on its mount. A picture will certainly explain it better, when I can sort one out.

 

The tender wheels and bogies are being blackened at the moment, so that I can fix the wheels into the bogies and not have to try to paint behind them.

 

Right that's enough typing for now. Must get on with it!

Edited June 30, 2022 by DIW
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[DLT]

This project is progressing very nicely; 4-4-0s and 0-4-4s can be notoriously difficult to build, what with getting enough weight on the drivers and sufficient swing to the bogie.

I'm looking forward to following this build, and I have one question already; what is the gear ratio of your Branchlines Multibox?

Many thanks,

Dave.T

[DIW]

...... I have one question already; what is the gear ratio of your Branchlines Multibox?

Many thanks,

Dave.T

 

Hi Dave,

 

It is 40:1 - that's the ratio recommended in the original Wills Finecast instructions, and since it is what the chap at SE Finecast sent me, I must assume that the recommendation still applies. Other ratios are also available!

 

Cheers,

 

Dave

[DIW]

Here are some pictures to illustrate some of the notes towards the end of post number 9.

 

On 10/08/2011 at 20:17, DIW said:

A piece of circuit board was cut to size and scored through as required, and soldered between the frames at the top, between the driving wheels. Some suitably shaped pieces of brass were soldered to this, and finally some phospher bronze strips to the brass, to act as pick-ups.

 

I had previously bought some miniature connectors from a supplier suggested on another thread on RMWeb. A pair were dug out of the box, and the socket was soldered to the circuit board such that the pins lined up with the areas to which the pick ups brass pieces were soldered. Another couple of dabs of solder, and the pick ups were complete. (It looks so much more simple written down than it was in practice).

 

The plug was wired to the motor, and with appropriate checks to make sure that I had the polarity/direction the conventional way round the wires were fixed to the motor body. This reduced the strain on the connector when all had been aligned, and allowed the wiring and motor to fit within the body without fouling.

 

Here are a couple of pictures in which I have attempted to photograph one of the pick ups and the connector for the motor. The connector is visible below the label of the motor:

 

 

 

On 10/08/2011 at 20:17, DIW said:

The tender has been started now (no pictures to hand yet). The body has been put together, though I found that the hole in the tender chassis and through the tender bogies was much larger than the diameter of the bolts supplied to fix them together.

 

A bit of measuring and I ascertained that some 3mm OD brass tube would be an appropriate solution. The bogie holes were reamed out slightly larger, and the tube was fitted to the tender chassis with a length of tube extending where the bogies were to be attached. This allows the bogies to swivel on the tube, while being retained by a bolt through the tube. The bolt can be tightened as required without making the bogie too tight on its mount. A picture will certainly explain it better, when I can sort one out.

 

Here is the picture of the brass tubes fitted into the tender chassis, with threaded rod fixed in:

 

On 10/08/2011 at 20:17, DIW said:

The tender wheels and bogies are being blackened at the moment, so that I can fix the wheels into the bogies and not have to try to paint behind them.

 

And a picture here of one of the tender bogies, suitable blackened behind the wheels, fitted on the tender. The other tender bogie pivot washer is on the brass tube and the fixing washer and nut are with the bogie on the work mat:

 

So that's it up to date.

 

Cheers,

 

Dave

Edited June 30, 2022 by DIW
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[DIW]

Good Grief! It is over fifteen months since I last added to this thread!

 

Most of that time has been taken up in painting the body and lining it (especially the lining part). I would now consider that lining is (for me) the most tedious part of the job. I have to wait until I will have a quiet, undisturbed period of time; hunt down the relevent tin of lining paint, set up the lining pens and loco body, then draw a couple of lines. That's it! To do the next line or lines, the body needs to be turned, which means waiting for the just-painted line(s) to dry - which in turn means waiting until I am next able to have a quiet, undisturbed period of time.

 

Still, at least by following the order of lining recommended in Ian Rice's book  👼  I was able to avoid the need to return to a side/section I had previously covered with the same colour, otherwise it still wouldn't be finished.

 

Anyway, it is done now; here are a couple of pictures. I'm pleased with the result. Couplings will be fitted later when DIW jr takes possession of the model; I will be able to fit couplings which are compatible with whatever the standard (for him) will be at the time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 30, 2022 by DIW
Re-inserted pictures

[DLT]

Good Grief! It is over fifteen months since I last added to this thread!

That would explain why its dropped off my radar!

 

Its looking very nice indeed Dave, I hope Junior appreciates the work thats gone into it.

How are the running qualities?

 

Cheers, Dave.T

[N15class]

Looks very good. I do think most of the LSWR 4-4-0's are lovely looking machines. It is just missing it's 3 red oval numberplates. The number on the rear of the tender should be an oval plate. I think only some tank engins got numbered like that.

[DIW]

That would explain why its dropped off my radar!

 

Hmm, sorry about that!

 

Its looking very nice indeed Dave, I hope Junior appreciates the work thats gone into it.

 

Thank you.

 

How are the running qualities?

 

It ran very well indeed when I last tried it (must be a year ago now). There was ever such a lot of effort put in to sorting out that Perseverence chassis. It's compensated by design and I thought hard about whether I should make it rigid instead, bearing in mind its intended end user. Having subsequently obtained a Wills Finecast chassis with another T9 kit (i.e. solid whitemetal rigid chassis) I think I made the right choice to build it compensated. I suppose too that I can't be sure how well junior will lay track; if it's not very flat then the compensation will be very beneficial.

[DIW]

Looks very good. I do think most of the LSWR 4-4-0's are lovely looking machines.

 

Thank you.

 

It is just missing it's 3 red oval numberplates.

 

I pondered whether it would be wise to have such items on the model,considering its intended end user. Little fingers would be temped to try to pick them off! If I stuck them on with 'weak' glue, they would come off easily (or fall off) and maybe leave a mark, which would be on show when the plates become lost . Or, if I stuck them on with 'proper' glue (my thanks to 'Coachman' for advice in the past on such matters) then determined little fingers would bring some paint off with the plate, thus spoiling the finish entirely! Thus, a conscious decision on that aspect.

 

The number on the rear of the tender should be an oval plate. I think only some tank engins got numbered like that.

 

Perhaps you should draw this to the attention of Mr. Richard Derry, and tell him the photographs are wrong in his book, 'The Book of the T9' (ISBN 978-1-906919-12-2). All the pictures which show the tender rear in Maunsell livery have the numbers there (although one has it in 'shaded' numerals rather than the plain numerals on the others). Of the tender rears in BR black, one is blank as you mention and the other has a BR number across the back (I would have regarded that one as unusual).

[N15class]

DIW

You could be right if little hands are involved.

As for tender rears I was going from memory from the livery register, which I think said tender locos had 3 ovals one on the tender. Tank locos using up numbers from pre group for bunker rears. But it is always good to find out new things. When and if I make my 7mm one I will get the book for reference.

[DIW]

..........I will get the book for reference.

Yes, do! It is a good book; I don't know (considering your location) if you are familiar with the series 'The Book of the "...." '. Just in case you have not had the chance to see one, the books attempt to provide photographs of each example of whichever locomotive is in the title. The T9 book does indeed manage that.

 

I have thought of something else I deliberately left off, the brakes! Even on the perseverence chassis they are quite delicate, and thus somewhat out of keeping with the solid, nearly childproof nature of the rest of the model!

 

When I get around to building my own one (same engine but in BR black and the prefix 30 on the number) I intend to fit all the trimmings applicable from the modern, brass chassis from SE Finecast. That will be quite a while yet before it gets started though; don't hold your breath!

[N15class]

Yes, do! It is a good book; I don't know (considering your location) if you are familiar with the series 'The Book of the "...." '. Just in case you have not had the chance to see one, the books attempt to provide photographs of each example of whichever locomotive is in the title. The T9 book does indeed manage that.

 

I have thought of something else I deliberately left off, the brakes! Even on the perseverence chassis they are quite delicate, and thus somewhat out of keeping with the solid, nearly childproof nature of the rest of the model!

 

When I get around to building my own one (same engine but in BR black and the prefix 30 on the number) I intend to fit all the trimmings applicable from the modern, brass chassis from SE Finecast. That will be quite a while yet before it gets started though; don't hold your breath!

Yes I do know the series I probably have some. I have about 200 kg of books packed up in the UK, I would like to get them shipped but at about £20/kg it is cheaper to buy new. I have only been here a year and a half. I got some on my last visit home, but with so many other things bring back here the luggage allowence is soon gobbled up. I am ok buy books and getting them sent here as there is no duty. Unlike kits when I have them sent here it is 60%.

Once our house is finished I was thinking of getting a LBSCR E2 and make the nephews a Thomas to play with when they come around to see us.

[DIW]

I have just got around to starting the second T9. This one is to make use of the South Eastern Finecast chassis which is shown in post 1 (April 2011!) and the kit mentioned as recently purchased in post 8 (June 2011).

 

This model will depict the  same locomotive, but later in its life; numbered 30338 and in unlined black.

 

The chassis kit has survived the passage of time very well:

 

 

 

 

 

More description will follow as the build proceeds.

Edited June 30, 2022 by DIW
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[DIW]

Here are a few pictures showing some of the progress made on the second T9.

 

The chassis from below:

 

 

The chassis from above:

 

 

The Southern FineCast chassis has been built with the compensation included, although it seems rather more rigid than that of the Perseverance chassis. It is a replacement for the original design of solid-cast whitemetal chassis from Wills. Accordingly it only replaces the main drivers; the front bogie is a separate assembly which attaches to the model's footplate in the same way that the Wills cast bogie assembly did.

 

At this stage of the instructions it is suggested that the chassis is trial-fitted into the locomotive body.  So, assembly of the footplate and sides is required. There was an awful amount of flash to remove from the castings and cleaning up required:

 

And the chassis is fitted after a bit of fettling of the whitemetal.

 

To prevent the gearbox intruding in to the cab, some cutting away was required. I printed a copy of the motor/gearbox assembly from the previous build, and used that to guide me in cutting the excess gearbox frame.

 

A trial fit of the gearbox into the chassis showed that the compensation pivot intruded, so more gearbox frame was cut to clear it:

 

A trial run of the motor and gearbox in the chassis:

 

The chassis was painted, the wheels fitted and pickups fitted too. The pickups were fitted above the chassis as they were on my previous build. The parts supplied in the chassis kit are designed to be below the chassis, but obstruct the fitting of the ash pan. A connector was fitted so that the motor and chassis could be separated, also it would be possible to easily reverse the polarity of the motor direction / pickups if that became necessary.

 

The brake gear was fitted, and the chassis was placed on a rolling road to run in.

 

 

Tea time now, more later...

 

Dave

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 29, 2022 by DIW
Pictures re-uploaded

[DIW]

To continue....

 

The chassis attachment nut, the bogie fixing bolt and the boiler were all fitted to the footplate assembly:

 

 

Some further removal of whitemetal was required within the footplate-boiler assembly on order to provide clearance for the chassis and wheels:

 

After which, the chassis and footplate fit together well:

 

Next, the bogie was assembled. In order to fit OO wheels, it was necessary to leave off the outermost pattern etches from each side:

 

The bogie was trial-fitted to the footplate:

 

 

Next will be the tender.

 

Edited July 29, 2022 by DIW
Pictures re-uploaded

[hayfield]

I have one to build, hoping that an EM gauge is possible without too many issues

[DIW]

The kit for the tender bogies included a set of slightly narrower frames, so that the detail etches could all be applied even with OO wheels. The frames were assembled and given their initial paint:

 

and checked on the tender chassis frame:

 

The next stage for the chassis is the fitting of the brakes, so I wimped out and built the tender body instead:

 

 

Further fittings were added to the locomotive boiler:

 

The dome in particular was a very poor casting; flash all over it. I was fortunate that I could use my previous build to see how it should look, and file it to shape. Now the loco and tender bodies are ready to be filled where necessary, and the primer coat applied...except that my Milliput is so old that it has gone hard, so I've had to order some more. While I'm waiting for it to arrive, I have to go back to the tender chassis brake gear - oh joy.

 

The tender wheels are fitted to the bogies, then the brakes are fitted. It looks so simple written down!

 

And the tender looks reasonable tidy:

 

Now we are up to date - I've had time to do these posts because I'm still waiting for the Milliput. I've ordered from two sources so that if one is very delayed I shall have the other to use.

 

 

Edited July 29, 2022 by DIW
Pictures re-uploaded