A Brace of Midland 2-4-0s

[PatB]

Well, my pair of Midland 2-4-0 kits have arrived.  Purchased in August at Mercian's offer price of 125 GBP each, the intention is to build them in parallel.

 

Although I'm a bit pushed for time at the moment, assisting MrsB with a large public art project and also having some uni assignments due, I've had a peek in the box and my impressions are a bit mixed.  The etches look really good and there are bagfuls of excellent brass and whitemetal castings for detail parts, half of which I can't yet identify. On the downside, I can't find any etches for the splasher tops or loco drag beams, I seem to be missing springs for the leading wheels and a screw reverser, and it's not immediately obvious to me how the sprung leading axle goes together as the parts I have don't correspond to what is shown in the, fairly basic, instructions particularly closely.  However there's nothing that can't be sorted with a little ingenuity and I suspect that much will become clearer once construction begins.  Besides, at that offer price, the kits were staggeringly cheap for main line 7mm tender locos.

 

My original intention was to build both locos in 1920s LMS condition so as to avoid the need to do a lined Midland paint job.  Looking at the bits available to me, though, it looks as if they're going to have to be in Midland Johnson era condition and I'll just have to bite the bullet on painting.

 

Mechs will be Mashima 1833s and 26:1 gearboxes which a back of the envelope calc indicates is about right for an express locomotive of this nature, giving a scale maximum speed of ~80-90 mph.  I'm contemplating 'American' pick-up in order to avoid mucking about with twiddly bits of wire around the undercarriage and in the hope of free running.

 

Not much will be hapening until I get the wheels from Slaters and a couple of lengths of 3/16ths silver steel to act as a basic axle jig.  However, I'll try to find time over the next few days to photograph all those lovely new bits of metal in order to maintain a little interest whilst everything else makes its way around the world.

[Sandy Harper]

IF, you intend running them as a pair, American pickup may not be your best option as, unless you completely isolate the chassis from the bodies on both locos and tenders, you will get a short when coupled up.

 

Consider Split axle pickup on the tenders only. Much neater.

 

Regards

Sandy

[PatB]

IF, you intend running them as a pair, American pickup may not be your best option as, unless you completely isolate the chassis from the bodies on both locos and tenders, you will get a short when coupled up.

 

Consider Split axle pickup on the tenders only. Much neater.

 

Regards

Sandy

 

Ah yes. Hadn't thought of that.  However as I don't, currently, own a layout to run them on at all, whether coupled or not, it may be academic at this stage.  Split axle is interesting but more work although, in the context of building an etched loco, probably not that much harder.

[Londontram]

Well, my pair of Midland 2-4-0 kits have arrived.  Purchased in August at Mercian's offer price of 125 GBP each, the intention is to build them in parallel

 

Did they ever build this class in Taper form............. sorry couldn help my self

[Sandy Harper]

Ah yes. Hadn't thought of that.  However as I don't, currently, own a layout to run them on at all, whether coupled or not, it may be academic at this stage.  Split axle is interesting but more work although, in the context of building an etched loco, probably not that much harder.

Not any harder worker than trying to get plunger or back scratcher pickups to work!

[Mrkirtley800]

Good luck on your building project.  Some years ago, my son bought me a Mercian Models Midland 1F tank kit.  It was for my birthday for me to build, paint etc for his son!  Although I had scratch and kit built many locos in 00 and EM  I had never built in '0' gauge before, so rang Mercian Models for a bit of advice.  They were very good and sent me some scrap etches to practice on.  The kit went together like a dream and very soon I had a very nice '0' gauge open cab tank loco which ran well.  Kit contained spare parts to produce the open cab or closed cab versions, so being a fully paid up Yorkshireman  I used the spares in a partially scratch built closed cab 1F.  So, my grandson has now two locos to run.

If all Mercian Models kits are as easy then building a couple of 2-4-0's shouldn't be a problem.

 

Derek

[PatB]

Well, having got a load of "stuff" out of the way, I had the opportunity today to sit down at the bench for several hours and get a decent start on Mr Johnson's finest.

 

I'm afraid the photos for this installment will be a bit sparse. I took loads and then promptly lost them when I was transferring them to my laptop. I hope to do better in future.

 

Here are the kits for the two tenders. There are a 2,950 gallon and a 3,250 gallon example. Apart from higher sides on the larger one they appear identical. There are some differences between the arrangements of the etches but, again, the two versions appear mechanically identical.

 

 

First order of business was to open up the axle holes in the nickel silver chassis etches to take the supplied bearings.

 

 

I don't own a tapered reamer but I do own a few small hand reamers with tapered lead-ins. The 1/4" will just go into the etched holes and the tapered lead of the 5/16" will, with a bit of fiddly brutality, will just go into the hole left by the 1/4" and, with care, produces a good clearance hole for the top-hats.

 

 

Before soldering the bearings into place, the chassis etch was folded up using my Poor-Boy folding bars. A pair of chunks of brass angle held in the vice.

 

 

Haviing a lathe and a (horrible) Chines mill-drill, I'm not short of flat surfaces and so the folded chassis was easily checked for square. Frankly, use as a surface plate is about all the mill's good for.

 

 

I used some 3/16" silver steel across the bed of my lathe as a makeshift chassis jig.

 

 

With all three bars sitting flat on the lathe ways and lined up nice and parallel with each other the chassis should, in theory, be true and flat. Because soldering on the lathe was a bit awkward I tacked the bushes in place on the bench, then transferred the assembly to the lathe and, with plenty of flux and a touch of the 80W iron, settled everything into place.

 

It seemed to work because, with the wheels in, a check on the mill table revealed no rock.

 

 

We now run into the lack of photos. After getting all the bearings in I made the final decision to use a simple, rocking axle, oval bush compensation arrangement. A crossmember was made up from some scrap brass etch, and a longitudinal compensation beam made from a length of brazing rod was added. Then the bushes for the centre and forward axles were opened out until the chassis ran freely on my yard of butchered 00 Streamline. The system was set to give a (roughly) 2/3-1/3 weight bias towards the forward axle, putting just enough on the centre axle to keep the wheels on the track and rotating.

 

It should be just about possible to make out the compensation gear here.

 

 

Once the chassis was rolling freely (beautifully so, though I say it myself), it was time for the brake gear. Here are the cast whitemetal hangers/shoes. They are actually handed but there appears to be only one hand supplied. Fortunately they will be largely hidden behind the sideframes so it should be possible to fiddle and tweak them to a level of acceptability.

 

 

And finally, after my usual struggle with soldering whitemetal, I had a functionally complete chassis that ran really nicely.

 

 

I still need to tidy up and tweak the brake gear and also short out one side of the Slaters wheelsets for my proposed "American" pick-up but, after one relatively easy day's work, it's pretty much there. Now to build the second one which should take ~half the time because I now know how to do it .

 

[N15class]

I look forward to watching the progress of this. I have just finished a 3130 class 2f with the same sort of tender. 

[PatB]

As predicted, chassis No 2 went together today in between half and two thirds of the time and is now at the same stage of completion as No 1.

 

I did realise, just as I was packing up, that I also need to put the guard irons on both of them.  Oops.

 

Anyway, just a little fettling to do and they'll be ready for paint and I can move on to the much more exciting, albeit far more appearance critical, bodies.

[PatB]

Off to the shed for more in a minute.

 

One minor setback occurred last night when, as chassis No 2 was drying following its post soldering scrub, Herbert, one of our cats, sat on it and broke off some of the brake gear. Ah well, more practice at whitemetal soldering.

[PatB]

Another day at the bench today.

 

First I needed to repair the Herbert induced damage and stick on the previously forgotten guard irons. Easy peasy.

 

Then it was on to the running plate and outer frames to form a foundation for the body. Here I hit the first significant snag.

 

 

As you may be able to see, the etched mounting holes in the chassis don't line up with the etched mounting holes in the running plate. Not even close. It's possible to shift the running plate so that the front 'ole lines up, but then the wheel clearance holes in the plate don't align with the wheels. That's a pain because I was hoping that the pre-etched mounting holes would set the body position correctly without me having to think about it much.

 

OK. Time to bring the problem solving ability into play. It seemed appropriate to attach buffer beam, drag beam and side frames to the running plate and then line up the holes in the side frames with the ends of the axles to set the fore and aft position of the plate assembly. Then new mounting holes could be drilled as necessary.

 

THere are no guide marks on either buffer beams or running plate to indicat the width between the frames. Clearly it needs to be sufficient to clear the wheels and brake gear for assembly and to avoid electrical shorts.

 

Initially I set it up like this, using a piece of scrap card between the outside of the wheels and the inside of the frame to provide uniform clearance. Note the use of the glass plate from an old flat bed scanner acting as a non-thermally conductive and flux corrosion resistant surface plate.

 

 

Then it occured to me to check whether the backs of the supplied sprung buffers would clear everything.

 

They didn't.

 

The solution seemed to be to move the frames outwards so that the buffers would lie inside them. However, I didn'twant to go too far with this as the axlebox castings are qite chunky but with limited scope for thinning them down, and I didn't want them protruding too far outboard of the edge of the running plate. As a result, I ended up filing away quite a bit of the spigot on the buffer casting which sits in the etched hole in the buffer beam, allowing the frames to come in another 0.75 mm or so.

 

Having done that, the frames were erected.

 

 

Reference to photographs of the prototype to determine how the frames relate to the running plate proved frustrating. Loco photographers tend to snap the fronts of their subjects, leaving tender details annoyingly small and obscure. Ultimately it appeared that the rear edge of the running plate was either flush with the top of the buffer beam or had only a very small overhang. I opted for the tiny overhang, setting this with a slip of scrap card, and soldered the frames to the underside of the running plate.

 

Then it was a case of dropping the embryonic body on to the chassis and pushing it up and down the test track for a while .

 

 

The process was repeated for the second tender and then the positions of the mounting holes were marked through the holes in the chassis. A quick zap with the 2.5 mm drill, and a touch of solder to attach captive nuts and I now have two chassis with the foundations of the bodywork mounted.

 

[PatB]

Today I made an effort to get both the chassis complete, including paint.

 

Pickups needed sorting. As noted before I'll be using the "American" system and so one wheel on each axle needs to be shorted across its insulated nylon spokes. I could have soldered fuse wire, or some such, across the back but I thought I'd try something a little more elegant and sprang $12 for this little tube of conductive silver paint from the local purveyor of things electronic.

 

 

The tube was shaken vigorously (very vigorously) and, using a small brush, the precious stuff was slopped generously over the fronts and backs of six of the twelve wheels. It didn't look as if it was covering teribly well so, in the end, everything got three coats to give a good thickness of conductor. I hope it's going to be enough. Modern can motors don't draw much current (I can't get a Mashima 1833 to show more than 1A, even with the armature stalled) and most of the time all three wheels should be providing a path for the electrons. Here are the treated and untreated wheels prior to painting.

 

 

And here they are after putting back on the axles, masking of treads and axle bearing areas (I've sprayed wheels without the treads masked and find it a pain to scrape the paint off afterwards) and a coat of etch primer followed by two of satin black acrylic (car paint).

 

 

The chassis themselves came in for some atention. A length of fine, flexible wire was soldered to the underside of each. Ultimately this will be routed alongside the drawbar to the loco. Because these wires will be subject to some flexing I put a blob of epoxy over the soldered joint and the first few mm of the insulation to provide some extra mechanical support at the most likely failure points.

 

The chassis then also got the etch primer and satin black treatment but my can of black expired before I could finish. Another has since been obtained but that was it for chassis progress for today.

 

Time to make a start on the bodies. Here are the sides and back of the 3,250 gallon tender.

 

 

The thing that's been scaring me about these is forming the flare along the top edges. I've lacked any confidence in my ability to put in a smooth, uniform, straight flare. Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I used the factory flare rolling accessory for my Poor-Boy bending bars (any resemblance to an old tent peg being entirely coincidental ) and had at it.

 

 

I was, frankly, astonished at how easy it was. The results were amazingly good. That is, they amazed me; I fully expect them to be an object of derision for more skilled metal bashers than myself .

 

 

 

Anyhow, I've read Guy Williams' book and he gives the impression that flare forming is far from being a precision activity .

 

Time to offer up the sides and back to the running plate. The running plates in both kits have half etched lines in the op surface to locate the tender sides and rear. I hadn't noticed untiil now that the gap between the side locating lines is narrower on one than on t'other. I'm not sure yet whether this is an intentional difference between 2,950 and 3,250 gallon variants or whether it is an error. I just picked the running plate which matched the width of the 3,250 gallon parts I'd been fiddling with.

 

The tender sides are laminated fron two layers. There is the outer side, incorporating the flare and the external detail and there is the inner side which, primarily, forms a support for the tank top. I'm crap at laminating things. Even tinning the parts with 145 solder I seem unable to get enough heat into the things to ensure a complete and reliable joint. Maybe I need to raid MrsB's jewellery tools for her little butane torch.

 

Anyway, the sides were, eventually, stuck together adequately. The tender rear was tacked into place, checked for square and soldered solid.

 

 

Then the sides went on, with just a little attention from the file to make the corners of the flare meet satisfactorily. They'll clean up nicely.

 

 

That was it for the day. the instructions reckon the coal plate goes in next, followed by the tank top. However, the front end of the tank top requires some forming to follow the inner sides and I reckon it'll be easier to do without the coal plate in the way. Tomorrow we'll find out if I'm right.

 

All in all a satisfying day. It was mildly irritating not to be able to fully complete the chassis, but, on the other hand, I've tried and succeded at a new and previously frightening process so it's a win really .

 

 

[PatB]

Another day, another handful of burned digits .

 

First it was time to get the chassis finished. Masking tape was peeled from the wheelsets and a certain amount of seepage was scrubbed off, the unfinished frame was given another spritz of black and then it was time for final assembly. The brake shoes were tweaked as close to the wheels as I dare (which isn't very, but it's mostly hidden anyway). Then the two units were lightly oiled and pushed up and down the test track for a while with a mutimeter attached to check for shorts and then correct pick up.

 

Then it was back to No 1 body. The tank top required forming, bending a reverse curve using a length of round bar as a former. I have to admit that the curve doesn't fully sit down on the inner sides but any discrepancies here will be buried under a layer of coal so I'm not too bothered.

 

 

Then the coal plate went in and the surround for the shovelling aperture sweated into place.

 

 

The side and rear coal rails andf the coal plate top beading came next, followed by a plonk onto one of the chassis and a further play on the test track.

 

 

That's almost it for the brass work on the first tender. There are some steps and a couple of minor detail overlays to go and I probably need to have a hunt for any information about lamp irons but, mostly, it's now a case of clean up and then fitting a zillion bits of whitemetal. And paint of course. Oh dear.

 

 

[mswjr]

Nice work, Bud,,Do not be to afraid of painting,Ive always used the auto paint,If you can get it where you live then your sorted.

there is a car colour for midland red too,ford danask red.Primed with red oxide first.People on here will give you advice when you get to that stage. Garry

[PatB]

Nice work, Bud,,Do not be to afraid of painting,Ive always used the auto paint,If you can get it where you live then your sorted.

there is a car colour for midland red too,ford danask red.Primed with red oxide first.People on here will give you advice when you get to that stage. Garry

 

Thanks. Yes I've been looking at car aerosols. Anything which says either damask red or burgundy seems to be close. It's not so much the base colour which worries me, it's applying the lining which, even in Deeley's simplified form, is still going to be quite involved. Transfers may help (but cost money which I don't currently have) but I'm also looking at the possibilities of a range of (non-railway related) paint pens which I've recently discovered.

[PatB]

More progress today.

 

First were tender steps on the 3,250 gallon unit. Very simple right angle folds were required, followed by soldering into place. This tender's frames don't have half etched locatiing marks (the other's do) and so there was a certain amount of eyeball based judgement, comaparing against the other frames and photographs. They went on OK eventually, along with some tiny etched circles which, I assume, represent the brake cross-shaft bearings.

 

 

Apart from the usual (for me; accomplished solderers don't need to) tedious scraping and scrubbing of excess solder, that was it for the 3,250 tender. The remainder is detailing.

 

Time to move on to the 2,950 gallon unit. First of all, having removed the parts from the fret, I checked them against those locating lines in the running plate and discovered that yes, the lines are correct, the tender bodies being of differing widths. I think there's a lesson there, to never assume anything, however superficially similar two kits may at first appear.

 

This time I decided, for the sake of variety, experiment and possibly superior results, to build the body from the inside out, assembling the back/inner sides/coal plate/tank top box and soldering it all to the running plate before attaching the outer sides.

 

I pinned one of the inner sides down to a flat piece of wood.

 

 

And then attached the tank top, progressively forming and soldering into place.

 

 

 

Then the other side.

 

 

The back.

 

 

And the coal plate.

 

 

Forming a substantial subassembly which could then be soldered firmly to the running plate.

 

 

Then on with the outer sides and I have two objects which are starting to genuinely resemble late 19th Century water carts .

 

 

Of the two construction methods, I'm reluctant to say which, if either, is "best". The second tender has definitely come together more quickly and neatly but that may be more a matter of having now had more practice. If I were to build another I think I'd go with the "inside-out" method again. However, these tenders do not use the body/running plate/outside frames as structural members or for axle alignment. If they did, it may influence my decision. I suspect that "inside-out" may be more prone to distortion.

 

Regardless of construction method, I now have two very attractive Johnson tenders to detail.

 

On which subject, I have a couple of queries for the collective knowledge of RMweb.  First of all, can anyone tell me what these ar?

 

 

They're the same sort of size and shape as the bodies of the supplied sprung buffers. I wondered if they were some sort of dumb buffer between engine and tender. Alternatively, are they tank vents?

 

I'm also unsure as to whether to fit the tall mushroom vents supplied.

 

 

I can't find clear guidance in Jenkinson & Essery as to whether they were fitted to all tenders or just those with water pick-up gear. Any pointers would be welcome.

[N15class]

More progress today.

 

First were tender steps on the 3,250 gallon unit. Very simple right angle folds were required, followed by soldering into place. This tender's frames don't have half etched locatiing marks (the other's do) and so there was a certain amount of eyeball based judgement, comaparing against the other frames and photographs. They went on OK eventually, along with some tiny etched circles which, I assume, represent the brake cross-shaft bearings.

 

P1020661.JPG

 

Apart from the usual (for me; accomplished solderers don't need to) tedious scraping and scrubbing of excess solder, that was it for the 3,250 tender. The remainder is detailing.

 

Time to move on to the 2,950 gallon unit. First of all, having removed the parts from the fret, I checked them against those locating lines in the running plate and discovered that yes, the lines are correct, the tender bodies being of differing widths. I think there's a lesson there, to never assume anything, however superficially similar two kits may at first appear.

 

This time I decided, for the sake of variety, experiment and possibly superior results, to build the body from the inside out, assembling the back/inner sides/coal plate/tank top box and soldering it all to the running plate before attaching the outer sides.

 

I pinned one of the inner sides down to a flat piece of wood.

 

P1020665.JPG

 

And then attached the tank top, progressively forming and soldering into place.

 

P1020666.JPG

 

P1020667.JPG

 

Then the other side.

 

P1020669.JPG

 

The back.

 

P1020670.JPG

 

And the coal plate.

 

P1020672.JPG

 

Forming a substantial subassembly which could then be soldered firmly to the running plate.

 

P1020674.JPG

 

Then on with the outer sides and I have two objects which are starting to genuinely resemble late 19th Century water carts .

 

P1020675.JPG

 

Of the two construction methods, I'm reluctant to say which, if either, is "best". The second tender has definitely come together more quickly and neatly but that may be more a matter of having now had more practice. If I were to build another I think I'd go with the "inside-out" method again. However, these tenders do not use the body/running plate/outside frames as structural members or for axle alignment. If they did, it may influence my decision. I suspect that "inside-out" may be more prone to distortion.

 

Regardless of construction method, I now have two very attractive Johnson tenders to detail.

 

On which subject, I have a couple of queries for the collective knowledge of RMweb.  First of all, can anyone tell me what these ar?

 

P1020663.JPG

 

They're the same sort of size and shape as the bodies of the supplied sprung buffers. I wondered if they were some sort of dumb buffer between engine and tender. Alternatively, are they tank vents?

 

I'm also unsure as to whether to fit the tall mushroom vents supplied.

 

P1020664.JPG

 

I can't find clear guidance in Jenkinson & Essery as to whether they were fitted to all tenders or just those with water pick-up gear. Any pointers would be welcome.

I asked the question about vents for my build. It seems that the 2950g tender definitely does not have them. I was told they were only fitted to tenders with water pick up, how right this is I cannot say.

[PeterR]

Hi,

 

As you surmise the ' buffer castings' are for the front of the tender - attached is a (part) photo scan from Midland Engines Vol1 showing their location.

 

The tank vents were fitted on each side, roughly in the middle and were needed IF the engine had water pickup gear - generally shown by whether there were two vertical shafts at the front of the tender - one of those was for the scoop, which was, on a side view visible between axles 2 & 3, numbering from the front. The tender front shows only one (on the right) vertical shaft - for the brakes so that tender did not have the gear fitted.

 

As your locos are not 'express' locos I do not think the vents, and scoop etc would be fitted, depending on the time that they were running. However the Kirtley 2 4 0's (which were fast runers, so could be called 'express' locos, did have vents on the tender, from a c.1903-07 photo; and in LMS days the rebuilt with a belpaire boiler 2 4 0's also had tender vents, again from photos in MR Locos Vol 2.

 

Yours Peter Bunce.

[PatB]

Hi,

 

As you surmise the ' buffer castings' are for the front of the tender - attached is a (part) photo scan from Midland Engines Vol1 showing their location.

 

The tank vents were fitted on each side, roughly in the middle and were needed IF the engine had water pickup gear - generally shown by whether there were two vertical shafts at the front of the tender - one of those was for the scoop, which was, on a side view visible between axles 2 & 3, numbering from the front. The tender front shows only one (on the right) vertical shaft - for the brakes so that tender did not have the gear fitted.

 

As your locos are not 'express' locos I do not think the vents, and scoop etc would be fitted, depending on the time that they were running. However the Kirtley 2 4 0's (which were fast runers, so could be called 'express' locos, did have vents on the tender, from a c.1903-07 photo; and in LMS days the rebuilt with a belpaire boiler 2 4 0's also had tender vents, again from photos in MR Locos Vol 2.

 

Yours Peter Bunce.

 

Thanks Peter, that's tremendously helpful and, as a bonus, I've now got a reference for the tender front handrail arrangement too .

 

I think I might leave the buffery things off as I'd like to keep as much ability to go round small radius curves as possible. I can also see them shorting the loco and tender bodies.

 

It's also a relief to know that I don't have to fit the pick up gear. Castings are supplied but I've now put a brake pull-rod in the way and I'd rather not muck about with the chassis any further. If anyone objects I can always claim the engines are running temporarily with non-pick up tenders while their regular trailers receive works attention .

 

Once again, thanks. I knew I could rely on the collective wisdom and generosity of RMweb .

[PatB]

A little more progress today (although not much considering how long it felt like I was at the bench). The coal rails are on the 2,950 gallon tender and I went on to fit front handrails, brake standard and water valve handles.

 

I was interested to note, from the photo scan kindly suppled by Peter, that the brake standard on these tenders appears not to have a self supporting cast column but instead to be a bare shaft, supported at the top by the handrail bracketry. It explains why there were no castings in thekits .

 

 

[PatB]

Back to the bench after a break and I managed to get the lamp irons on to the first tender (sorry, no photos; MrsB was out and had the camera), thus completing the soldering on it. Only one of the tiny brass castings went pinging off into the assorted debris on my bench so I regard that as a win. I'm going to cop out and glue the whitemetal castings into place.

 

I do seem to have started having problems getting good, neat soldered joints. I think the tip on my 80W iron is knackered and there is just too much brass for my little soldering station to deal with. I've got a length of 3/8" copper rod on order, to make some custom tips for the 80W. I'm hoping to make one with a fine point to make detail work easier but still with sufficient thermal mass to cope with 7mm brass models. However, our postal service is...erm...leisurely at the best of times and over the holidays we're lucky to get one delivery a week so it might be a while.

[PatB]

More progress.

 

Having got the detail parts on, it's been paint time over the last couple of days. Photos are still a bit scarce as MrsB continues to hog the camera I can use, leaving me with her (much more sophisticated one) which I can't, so I apologise in advance for the rubbish quality.

 

Here are the two tenders at an interim stage of painting. The 3,250 is in etch primer and the 2,950 has its first coat of red. The colour is actually much less red than it looks under the dodgy built-in flash. It's Holts Dupli-Colour burgundy and looks, to my eye, as good a representation of Midland red as any I've seen.

 

 

Painting will continue but, obviously, it's going to be a slow process, allowing paint to harden between coats and so forth.

 

As a result, it looks like it's time to start on the exciting bit, the locos themselves .

 

Here are the kits and assorted ancillaries laid out.

 

 

First order of business, for want of anywhere better to start on the chassis, was to figure out how the leading axle suspension arrangement was supposed to work. The instructions show a cast hornblock attached to the outside of the inner frame and guiding a (sort of) prototypical square axlebox with slots in its fore and aft faces. Very nice, but a hunt through the bits provided didn't show up anything remotely resembling the illustrated axleboxes. There was a cosmetic, brass external axlebox to fit to the outer frame/footplate valance but nothing that was both square and capable of carrying axle. Instead there were some grooved, round bushes that didn't seem to have any obvious home anywhere else.

 

Here are the lost-wax hornblocks part way through clean-up and the corresponding bushes.

 

 

And here are the four hornblocks cleaned up and with the bushes slotted into place, having achieved a nice, sliding fit with careful use of files.

 

 

Rather than mucking about with coil springs, as shown in the instructions, I'm going to solder a length of piano wire between axle bush and inner frame which will act as a leaf spring and perform the secondary function of preventing the bush from rotating in its slot.

 

As for the driving wheels, they will be compensated as an 0-4-0 using what is becoming my usual, simple, oval bush/rocking axle arrangement. Filling the firebox and aft end of the boiler with lead should ensure that the loco acts as an 0-4-0, the leading axle merely being present for current collection and cosmetic purposes.

 

Next step will be to get the inner frames and coupling rods under way. That might be fun as, whilst the frames are provided with three stretcher locations and three stretchers are shown in the instructions, only two are provided with each kit. I may have to chase the chickens off the lathe and turn up another couple .

[PeterR]

Hi,

 

The colour normally suggested for MR maroon is Rover5 Damask Red, but all maroon/red colours are thin - that is they need some good undercoats - the choice of course is yours.

 

Would it be an idea to have some weight on the front wheels to assist in guiding round curves - just a thought .

 

The tender look good.

 

Yours Peter R

[Mrkirtley800]

I love this project and by the way you have started, it looks as if you will have two rather nice locos at the end of it.

As far as running of a 2-4-0 goes, I find a beam compensation arrangement between the front driving axle and the carrying wheels. I found this the hard way, having scratch built tree Midland 2-4-0's in EM gauge. One, a Johnson 1400 class, my first attempt at scratch building. I wasn't happy with it so gave it away, The other two were the Kirtley 800 class outside frame jobs. My favourite loco and also my user name derived from it. The compensation arrangement sets up the carrying wheels to guide the engine into curves, and you can put a bit of weighting in the boiler.

Good luck with the rest of your project.

Derek

[PatB]

Hi,

 

The colour normally suggested for MR maroon is Rover5 Damask Red, but all maroon/red colours are thin - that is they need some good undercoats - the choice of course is yours.

 

Would it be an idea to have some weight on the front wheels to assist in guiding round curves - just a thought .

 

The tender look good.

 

Yours Peter R

 

I was looking for colours with Damask Red in the title but I'm limited by what's on the shelf in Australia. Rover have no real presence here and haven't since ~1980 so Rover colours aren't a stock item. I just had to pick something whose cap looked about right and Burgundy was the one. It doesn't even appear in Holts' local applications catalogue so goodness knows what it's supposed to match. Maybe WA supports a large number of MR modellers who buy it all . As noted, it looks far better under natural light than the flash photograph would suggest and falls comfortably within the spectrum of Midland colours which I've seen previously.

 

I love this project and by the way you have started, it looks as if you will have two rather nice locos at the end of it.

As far as running of a 2-4-0 goes, I find a beam compensation arrangement between the front driving axle and the carrying wheels. I found this the hard way, having scratch built tree Midland 2-4-0's in EM gauge. One, a Johnson 1400 class, my first attempt at scratch building. I wasn't happy with it so gave it away, The other two were the Kirtley 800 class outside frame jobs. My favourite loco and also my user name derived from it. The compensation arrangement sets up the carrying wheels to guide the engine into curves, and you can put a bit of weighting in the boiler.

Good luck with the rest of your project.

Derek

 

Thanks for sharing your 2-4-0 experience. I may weaken and try the three point arrangement on one of the locos and apply my own theories to the other. I'm intending to put enough (sprung) weight over the leading wheels that they will remain in firm contact with the track and provide lateral guidance. I'll be going for zero sideplay on the driven (third) axle, + or- 0.5ish on the centre and not much (whatever the hornblock-bush clearance allows) on the leading wheels. Hopefully that will see the loco led into curves adequately. Whilst I understand the theory behind three point compensation, and have used it on the tenders, I want to see whether sprung leaders+compensated drivers offers any advantages in construction, given that the kit is designed for a sprung leading axle, whilst running about the same (I'm not sufficiently delusional to think it might be better ). If it doesn't work, it shouldn't be too difficult to take the springs out and retrofit a compensation beam later.