greenglade

Well, I've been having fun the last couple of days, both in making parts and in learning more details on Gresley's beautiful machine. I have made the handle and fitted it to the cab and I now have a pretty good idea of how the tubes for the Bowden are routed, the best discovery thanks to drmditch and Eddie (LNER forum), being the access slot in the cleading around the firebox where there is access to two grease nipples for greasing the tubes. I don't know the exact size of the slot which is between the two upper washout plugs and below them, I assume in line with the pulley in the cab and is angled forward. I'll try to work out the size of the slot and it's surrounding cover plate later, the plan is though, to not only have this slot but also have the tubes passing behind it and clearly seen through said slot. I just need to remember this when I get to that stage. Ok so to the work done, I have used Don's measurements to give me the size for the handle and its grip, but followed the 30's photos for shape and position which differ a little from Don's design to make it more prototypical. I have also designed a better spigot and bearing for the handle to rotate on, making two bronze bearing blocks that the handle fits in between, hopefully, the picture helps explain this. The handle profile I have followed Don but shaped it to match the photo's, the handle as seen here is the reverse side which is why I haven't bothered to remove the file line at the bottom where I have filled the 10 BA nut down a little so that it clears the main spigot boss. The bolt is 1.6 mm stainless steel studding with two 10BA nuts, one of which is silver soldered to form a bolt, I later filed this head down to a lower profile. This is the handle grip about to be parted off, this is from 1/8th stainless steel, the grip is 3/8 long and the thread is 8 BA. I played with the angle until it looked right, think it's about 2.5 degrees but don't hold me to it.. Here's the handle loosely fitted to the cab (just needs tightening), the bracket began life as 1/2" brass T section which has had one tab removed and the other two reduced to 5/16 and 1/4 respectively, there's also a machined recess that acts as stops for the handle. The bracket is held on by 2 x 1/16th rivets, the holes for which were drilled during the cab construction, same goes for the spigot hole. This hole is tapped 10 BA, as is the main boss so that that section is held firmly against the cab sheet. the handle No.22 hole fits over a stepped spigot which goes halfway into the hole. This leaves the outer bronze bush which is a sliding fit over the stud to be pushed on and held tight with the nut and washer...this gives a nice smooth operating movement, think I covered everything for its makeup. One other thing, Don's drawing shows the pulley on the inside of the handle, this is not what's seen in the photo's and so I have placed it on the outside, which actually makes much more sense as it brings it out close the width of the spectacle plate inner edge at the height. The last picture is to show what I'm going to be up to for the next few days or more, today I received the copper refrigerator tubing and have begun to straighten it out, as can be seen in this picture. I already have some ideas for the clips and their positions, the critical ones being either end as they need to splay the tubes out to the diameter of the pulleys. Don states to keep the rad of any bends to no less than 3/4", I think this will be fine but will bear this in mind when choosing the final route. The only bends that I can see as needing extra care are those around the firebox which will both be close to 90 degrees. Thinking ahead on this one I will be using a slightly larger tube as mentioned previously (I think?) The tube is 2 mm OD and 1 mm ID, the stainless Bowden cable is just over 0.5 mm, this should make life much easier for the Bowden to negotiate the tube and allow more grease to fit. In other news, I have found some good images of the draincocks for my chosen era and their very short pipes which are basically short elbows, IIRC RCTS states they are no more than 2 1/2" but think that may be a bit small as they look bigger in photos, I can scale them from the photos easily enough. Thanks for looking in guys, more next week. Pete

good evening all... Today as mentioned last update I'm going to make a start on the draincock mech although not the drain cock's themselves... Don does his usual here and states they are available from DY and thus gives no drawing... So I need two things, a drawing for the drain cock as drawn by Don or anything similar using a 3/16 x 40 thread and also a works drawing. I'm happy to use commercial-style draincocks for the middle cylinders as they are out of sight, however, I'd like to make something more prototypical for the outside cylinders. The draincocks as fitted today are wrong for my era, shame as I took many pictures of them while at york...lol So if anyone can help with drawings please get in touch, I realise that they are pretty simple things but it's always nice to work to a drawing, especially as I'm trying to make faster progress on the build. I'll also make a start on researching what was fitted to her in the 30's. before describing what I've been up to in the 'draincock' department, I also noted last time that I would be repainting the saddle and making a number of the 56 securing bolts 'dummies'. I have now done this, of the 56 bolts, 44 are now dummies, this involves all of the front and rear bolts and most of the side leaving 2 either end and 2 in the middle as practical bolts. After stripping the saddle the dummy bolts were soldered in place, I also soldered the support triangles, some may recall that previously I secured these with Loctite which was fine but of course, once the area was heated up for soldering one of the brackets became a little soft and so I decided to refit all of them this time with solder. Next, I filled the porous areas as there were many parts that showed up under paint that I wasn't happy with, well you all know about that. So I'm much happier with the saddle paintwork now, I'll redo the smokebox and running boards, hopefully later this year, I'll try not to keep bleating on this year about that damn paint.... A quick word on the chosen paint, It's Eastwood's Chassis gloss black, it's enamel-based but has much more in the mix, it's very hard-wearing, anti-chip and can withstand 300c, it's also chemical resistant, oh and the finish although gloss is not full gloss, approx 80% gloss which in my eye should be about right for 4472. When I get to it, the smokebox will be painted the same with the running boards being painted in Eastwood's extreme chassis black gloss, this is glossier than the original and 3 times tougher, ideal for running boards. The 12 practical holes were opened up to the next size No. drill. Going this route which I'm grateful for the suggestions guys, makes life much easier and means that I can fully seal all of the pipework into the saddle before fitting the boiler. I have taken a picture although it's a bit dark even when using the flash, I perhaps should have put it somewhere other than near the window...lol Draincocks (mech): The draincocks are operated via 'Bowden' cable running through copper tubes on a 'push-pull' system. The cable's leave the cab, run past the firebox, along the left-hand frame and then go down to between the vacuum cylinder bracket and the middle cylinder. there is a shaft that runs under the middle cylinder, a connecting arm which moves in a small slot to operate the middle cylinder and then another arm that links to another shaft that connects the two outside cylinder draincocks. It's simple enough but a few bits and pieces to make. I started with the main shaft that sits under the middle cylinder, this is 5/32 dia and 4 3/8 long, it has a removable collar either end, a crank arm in the middle and lastly the pulley for the Bowden cable. The shaft itself sits in two No. 22 holes, one either side in the frames. One thing that I hadn't allowed for and as far as I recall Don didn't mention was the fact that this shaft runs closely under the middle web of the cylinder and thus would need metal removing for all the parts associated with it to fit? Anyway, the first picture shows the first stages of making the shaft, the crank needs a little more profiling but it's nearly there, note the small 1/16 slot in the middle. To begin work underneath I needed to lift the model, alas I have no rotating building stand but I get by, sorry about the picture, as with the saddle, the light is in the wrong place... Now that I could get underneath I could work out what metal needed to be removed for the shaft to fit, in the picture I have already begun removing metal for the end collars to clear, the white mark is roughly what I need to remove to clear the pulley. In fact, once I had the parts assembled I removed about 0.5mm off the web too, just to give more clearance when fitting the shaft. It's ok when the model is up like this but if I needed to remove it for any reason while in service a little more maneuvering room would be helpful. I then made the two pulleys one for the shaft and the other for the cab handle, I made these as a pair, the picture shows all of the turning completed, I have also drilled the centre No.23 for a press-fit onto the shaft, I have also begun the parting off to make the next stage easier. That 'next' stage was to remove the segment from the pulley for the Bowden ferrules to bit, for this I placed the part in the machine vice and used a cutter that my son gave me a few weeks back, I have used it to CSK recently but found it just right for this job too. The pulley was then pressed onto its shaft with some Loctite for added strength. The last picture for tonight shows the shaft now in place and the area has been tidied up with some fresh paint, I haven't secured the collars yet as I still need to fit the Bowden cable and for that, I need to fit the tubes which will hopefully be here later this week. I'm going to fit all of the parts for the cable, so next job will be to make the handle and bracket for the cab and a number of clips to secure the tubes to the frame/stretchers, I'll temporary mount the cab to do this, I'll also need to look at the best way of routing the tubes past the firebox, if anyone knows how this is on the full size I'd love to hear from you. I think it best to get this done now as there's an awful lot of copper pipe inside the frames which can be routed a number of ways but the draincock tubes need to follow as straight a path as possible for trouble-free operation. More soon guys Pete

Back in the workshop and I think for the rest of this week I'm going to concentrate on some finishing touches and taking care of a few odds and ends. I have now fitted the other gravity sandbox, linked the two together and tested their operation for which I have a video to share. Note that I have just used a length of steel rod as the pushrod for testing, later I'll make up the two rods required along with the cross arm and pivot to connect them all up. The rods will be made from the same size steel rod as fitted for the cross arm link seen here and thus there will be little to no flex. Once connected to the cab control arm I'd expect there to be less movement than seen in the video, after all, the sand feed hole is pretty small and 'open to close' needs very little movement. https://i.imgur.com/BejM7yE.mp4 One of the 'to do jobs' was to ensure that there's enough clearance between the rear bogie wheel and the back of the cylinder. In the early days of the A1 when fitted with the 'swing link' bogie contact was often made here at high speed and needed addressing. To do so the 'swing link' was replaced with the 'side control' (with more sideways movement) bogie and the bogie was moved slightly. As can be seen here, I have relieved the rear of the cylinder to give a little more clearance as ME tracks can be a little tight, I may need to do more and certainly round it off to match the wheel more but it really needs testing on the track first, as, on the bench, I can't easily make use of the bogie side play which is pretty generous. I sense a towing session in the future, both sides have now been so addressed. Lastly, I removed the bogie and lifted the model up high enough to take this picture. Hopefully, it shows what I was trying to explain yesterday in relation to how tight things are under the saddle. Sorry about the quality, I couldn't get the camera to focus on what I wanted in such a tight space. You can see that the saddle flange for the exhaust passage slides down between the steam chest cover and the frame. You can also see how close the exhaust passage arcs over the top of the steam chest and it's valve guide (I still need to fit the oil lines that I added here). I thinned down the flange a little so that it was a good fit in the gap, the bolts that secure this flange have been cut so that they don't protrude unto the guide when fitted. You can now see why it was impossible to secure the flange with bolts from inside the frames. Although that I have now include4d CSK bolts to secure this part of the exhaust flange I'm still in two minds as to whether I need them. The fit is very good and I wonder if sealant alone might do the job, problem is, if a leak developed it would be a majour job in getting to it, but then, with the bolts fitted it would also be a majour job in removing the saddle for any future issues with the timing?? Decisions, decisions...lol In other news, I have now begun to strip the paint off the saddle, you may recall that I was far from happy with the paint on the smokebox/saddle and all running boards due to the hot conditions they were painted in last summer. The frames aren't brilliant, they were good to begin with but of course, as new parts are built or new research discovered things get changed and paint gets knocked. this doesn't worry me at all, once in service, the frames will get dirty pretty quick, all of the top paintwork though is a different matter altogether and I'll strive to get those as good as possible. Once the saddle is stripped of paint, I'll decide on which bolts are to be dummies and solder said bolts in place, filing off anything that protrudes where saddle meets smokebox. I will then open up the remaining holes one size up of number drill to give a little more clearance for fitting. I have the paint that I decided on for the smokebox and saddle and so, will give it a fresh coat of paint, perhaps by the weekend, I need to recall which paint is which first as one is slightly duller than the other which will be used for the running boards. I think that it may also be time to make the main draincock shaft (that which sits under the middle cylinder) and it's associated bowden cable/sleeving, perhaps even in as far as making the handle and it's pulley to fit in the cab, we'll see how that goes Might have a further update for Friday, we shall see... Pete NB: please forgive the size of the images, it seems that the editing software has been changed as i can't access images as before (no image tab), can only download direct from my PC rather than a web host, the PC has the raw image and editing here won't lef me adjust the size...or if it will, I have no idea how too and time is precious..

I'll let you into a secret....nor did I...:)

Good afternoon all As I said last week, this week I'm fitting the gravity sanders, having looked at this area, I've also decided to catch up and some of those many small jobs that are outstanding. I'll talk about these during describing the fitting of the first sander. The first job was to permanently fit the corresponding outside motion bracket as the sander box shares some of the mounting bolts, with the box being bolted up to the outside of the bracket. This would be the first time that the brackets have been fully tightened to the frames and so to avoid any discrepancies in the fit I also temporary mounted the outside cylinder and it's slide bars. The picture shows this, the bracket bolts had thread lock applied to keep everything tight, leaving the shared bolts until the sandbox was in place. I then fitted the sandbox and tidied up the paint a little. One thing that is becoming clear is that getting to some of the bolts in this area is nye on impossible. Such as the cylinder flange, you can see in this picture that some bolts will be impossible to reach and most are going to involve some form of mini socket set with angled extensions to be able to reach them. It's also clear to see that at least one of the saddle CSK screws will need to be left off if I don't want to remove the sandbox again, this isn't a problem strength wise but I'll make a final decision on this later. With the sandbox fitted I next needed to check that the running boards both cleared the filler neck/control arm mech and that in as far as the lower board was concerned still slid over the motion bracket that has a very close fit stub that goes through the lower running board and that the upper board rests on. A look back at past photos may help with what I'm trying to describe. If the motion bracket wasn't square to the frames in any way the board wouldn't fit. Now, onto some of the small jobs, note that in this next picture the smokebox has been split from the saddle. This is thanks to those who helped in the discussion over the problem with the 3 saddle mounting holes that seal the exhaust passage and are hidden behind the outside cylinder flange. To bring others up to date, Don has these holes tapped in the frames for bolts to secure from inside the frames? Although this is possible on the driver's side, it would be impossible on the fireman's side as the middle steam chest cover and its guides are in this position. Some may recall that I have already machined part of the guide closest to the frames away to allow the saddle exhaust flange to be able to slip between the frame and guide as required. During this discussion it was pointed out that it would be best to have the saddle and smokebox as the split line for when mounting the boiler, I had originally planned to have these permanently joined, mostly due to the 56 bolts involved in splitting them and that the front and rear bolts are impossible to get too once the saddle is mounted to the frames. Hope that explains where we are? Anyway, after going through the advice given and greatly received, I have decided that the split point will be between smokebox and saddle (as per full size) and that a number of the 56 bolts will now be dummies, I'll cover how many in a later update. This will now make life much easier in mounting the boiler to the frames and also in sealing the various openings in the saddle. Going back to the picture, you can see that the upper running board has been laid loosely in place, once bolted down the gaps disappear. I have placed the control arm and the cross-arm in position to check clearance for both the running board and also the gap below the boiler when fitted and lastly to show how they will look. In their current position, the gravity sandbox is closed with the cab arm when fitted being pulled fully back towards the tender. In the last picture for today, I have placed both steam chest covers on which shows that the sandbox has more or less disappeared. once the motion is fitted this will be more or less impossible to see. Tomorrow, I'll make a start on getting the other side to the same position. I really wanted to be able to permanently fit the saddle soon but can now see that in doing so, it would be impossible to fit the motion and then time the middle cylinder and since that can't be timed until the outside motion has been completed I guess fitting of the saddle is going to be sometime away yet, oh the joys of building a Gresley 3 cylinder steam locomotive.. There are other jobs which it may be prudent to do first too... draincock mechanism, brakes and main vacuum pipe being but a few...I'm beginning to feel that the more I do, the bigger the build gets...lol Pete

It's a bit of both, I always try to build any model as close to the real thing as possible. Building miniatures in the Film/TV industry for 20+years adds to this but I've been the same since a very young child. The sanders will certainly be used (probably not often) when/if required, my home club has a fair incline immediately after the steam bays which is covered with over hanging pine trees, it gets very slippery at times, sand would be very helpful. If I use the model in the anual IMLEC efficiency competition, sand would be very beneficial....models of this size can haul (without sand) 25-30 full grown (usually overweight..:) ) men plus all the carriages needed to seat them. Cheers Pete

Hi Guys This will be the final chapter on sanders other than when I refit them to the chassis, hopefully on Monday. All of the parts have now been made and tested, except for the long control arms for the gravity sanders, I'll probably make those when the running boards can be put back on for the final time, we'll see. The first job was to make the 3 control arms that transfer longitudinal movement from the cab to rotary movement in the gravity sanders and also transfer across to the sander on the other side, aligning such up, so that they work in unison. Don shows 3 separate arms, I have made the two that convert longitudinal to lateral as one part, it's just easier to mount to the corresponding sander valve. I have used some offcuts to make these, some flat 1/16 steel and 3/16 dia BMS. The flat bar required two holes in each, No.41 and No.47 respectively at 3/8th CTS, I have formed these a little differently to Don, nothing special, just less work. The picture shows the 90 degree elbow that I have made as one piece, Don has it as two, mine just means I only have to drill one hole in the sander valve shaft that it fits. It looks a bit of a mess in this shot, that's basically as I got the arms the wrong way around to begin with and so had to reheat/fulx etc.... fun this isn't it... In the picture I have just begun to cut the steel flats to size/profile. Here we are a bit further in with all cutting done (I used a cutting disc in the Dremel) and just requiring final filing/shaping to finish. I then took the sanders apart, ensured that the small sanding hole was clear, in fact, I opened it up to No.51. The then used a suitable piece of steel bar to lock the valve to the open position ready for reassembly into the sanders, fit back to the frames for the cross-drilling of the shafts to fit the control arms. Before doing this I had a couple of things to do, first I needed to machine the 'cross-arm link to connect the two sanders and also I wanted to give you a view of the sander's internals. Alas I forgot to take a picture of the cross-arm link but did take this picture of the internals. Left to right, we have the sandpipe that's soft soldered into the trap body. This has two holes, one central for the valve shaft to sit in and one forward of this for the sand feed hole. The valve has a matching hole on the same PCD, you should be able to make out where the body/valve meet. The valve then goes up the shaft until it touches the bearing which sits in the top of the box, this is adjustable with the large nut seen and keep pressure on the valve to ensure it's pressed fully against the trap body. Lastly, we have the valve shaft poking through the bearing ready to fit the control arm...I hope that lot makes sense... Onto the bit that I wasn't looking forward too, cross-drilling the stainless steel shafts, I couldn't see any other way of easily doing this and getting it right, other than to fit all of the parts and drill in situ, and so that's what I did. Don states to drill a 1mm hole and to use a spring clip, I assume he means an 'r' clip to hold the parts together, I didn't like this idea as it would mean some play in the parts. So, I have gone with a 1.2mm hole which was then taper reamed and fitting of the appropriately sized taper pin. I'm very happy with this, no play at all, as can be seen, the cross-arm was used using temporary bolts so that I can get both sides in the same, as mentioned, both valves are currently held in the open position which in the cab should show the control arm straight up and middle of the arm support arc, I haven't actually looked at this yet but that's how I see it would work... hopefully I'm right on this one... I then turned the model around and did the same to the other side, I then also cut the shafts to length, I'll leave the taper pins over length for now. Everything was then taken apart for painting, currently, the parts have had an etch over the bare metal bits and a first coat of satin black overall. Now before doing this I knew that I'd have to test they worked and show you guys...well I only tested one but since they are identical I see no reason for the other behaving differently. From what I have read on how these things work, you rock the control handle in the cab for and aft to agitate the sand and cover the rails, not leaving the valve open or it may dump too much sand, this is of course when the sanders haven't got damp... Anyway, here's the video, please forgive the bad quality, no matter what I did, I couldn't get the camera to focus while using both hands to operate the sander, I may take another later when the boxes are back on the frames. https://i.imgur.com/qFdJ55Z.mp4 On Monday I'll do the finishing touches to these parts, finish profiling the cross-arm and get them all painted. I can then, temporary fit the outside cylinders with slide bars and permanently fit both the outside motion plates and the gravity sanders, I have a number of bolts to cut to size first... I'll be pretty happy then, another tick on that still massive list... Thanks for looking in guys Pete

I'm very close to finishing these sandboxes now, the boxes are certainly finished (bar paint), just need to fabricate the linkage arms and their associated control rods and then the big day with a test, perhaps by this weekend. I didn't take pictures of the processes as they are self-explanatory but will list what they were. First was to shape the sandpipes and soft solder them to the trap bodies and then drill through the sand feed holes. These were then attached to the sandboxes which were temporarily fitted to the frames for the final shaping of the sandpipe to fit over the bogie mudguards and then around the wheel circumference, last job was to cut the pipe to length, Don states 5/16 above the rail, I'm a little closer, for now, I'll look at this again and their final shape once the model is sitting on rails, same goes for the steam sander pipes. I'll cover the valves in the next photo after this. here's the other sandbox with its sandpipe pipe fitted but not fully shaped yet, it's also overlength, this I measured/cut once the sandbox was fitted to the frames. You can also see the valves, I have made these differently to Don's words although did note his comment latter, IIRC that it would be better to make them in two parts, or was it one? I forget... His words make these in 3 parts, I have done them in two, the main body with the valve flange at the bottom in one piece and the shaft as a separate item. To join these I attached the valve and shaft to the sand trap so that the valve body was flush against the trap and held these together with a clamp, I then silver soldered the other end where the shaft exited the valve body. I have also used brass for the body instead of steel, only because I had no steel close to the required size. Whether this becomes a problem with wear in the future I'll just have to wait and see, they are easy to make. You can't see it in this picture but the valve flange has the required small hole drilled through it at the same PCD as the trap body. In operation, the valve rocks (twists) from side to side which opens and closes the feed hole allowing sand to drop through the hole, it's pipework and under the leading wheel. In addition to the drawing, I csk the top of the flange valve hole to allow easier passage for the sand to drop through into the feed hole below, I just used a small centre drill for this. The valve shafts are overlength, I'll cut these to size once the arms are fitted, the driver's side being longer for the control arm to fit too, on Gresley A1's the driver controls the sanders and the fireman controls the draincocks. Last picture for tonight to show the other side, in this case, taken to show both gravity and steam sanders. Tomorrow I'll make the 3 arms, synchronise the two sanders in closed positions and plot/drill through the valve shafts so that they open/close in unison. Once that's done I'll make the connecting rod that runs across the top of the frames to connect the two up and then do a quick test. I'll leave, for now, the much longer rods and pivot/arm that joins everything up with the control arm in the cab, yet another part to make. In general, one rod runs from the sander arm (driver's side) behind the leading and middle splashers to an arm that is pivoted between rear and middle splashers which then brings it out in front of the rear splasher and then behind the firebox cladding and into the cab, a fair bit of work to do here but will have to be left until much later. More soon guys Pete

Only a small update for today ( just two photos)and still with the sanders, I have to say that I didn't think that they would take as long as they have although to be fair there was a large break for Xmas and the new year. Continuing with the gravity trap bodies, it took me most of the day to shape these by hand, not there yet but close. I took this picture to show both front and rear views, once I have heated them up to remove the 5/32 stainless steel rods used for the turning operations, I'll be able to finish off the necks where the tubes enter the body. I thought it best before removing the rods to first mount the traps to their respective sander box, reason being is that the rod helps to align the body with the box for drilling/tapping the 10BA holes. These boxes have now been handled so much that they clearly need a tidy up and new coat of paint, I'll do this once all of the work has been completed on them. Once they are finished I plan to permanently mount them to the frames along with the outside motion brackets. This will involve temporarily refitting the outside cylinders and their slide bars to ensure all is running true. After I took this photo I did quickly place the right-hand box as seen in the picture on the frames and was happy to see that the trap is clear of the bogie rear mudguard and that the rod was between the mudguard and leading coupled wheel. The rod was just touching the top of the mudguard but this is fine as the tube will be formed to clear this and also follow the rad of the leading coupled wheel when made. BTW, the untidy elongated slots in the bracket are from getting the box backplate piece to line up during construction a year or two ago, being a dogleg type shape it took a bit of manipulation, you should be able to tell which is the first back made... I decided early on that I could live with this as it's well and truly hidden once on the model and is painted black so would never bee seen, of course, I've told you lot now, so my secret is out. Mind you, just take a look at the full sizes boxes, I rest my case... Next job to do are make the valve that sits within the sandbox, make the 3 arms that fit to the top of the valve where it pokes through the running boards. The valve rods need to be drilled for split pins and this must align up with the valve opening hole in the body below, it will hopefully, become clearer in the next update or two. I tried to find an image of the full-size gravity valve body but failed to do so, having now learnt how close Don's steam traps are I suspect he has again followed the prototype. I did read some interesting things though, I knew that these can clog due to damp but hadn't realised that they empty quicker than the steam sandboxes if left on. In fact, I believe that in operation, the driver, rocks the control arm back and forwards so that it regulates the amount of sand used, I would assume that this also helps clear any blockage in the sand feed hole during operation. I plan to make a slight mod to the valve which should help with this, I'll cover that later. Thanks for looking in chaps/chapesses... Pete

evening all Today is the first day that I've been able to get anything done on 4472, not much to show but at least I got something done. As left off before xmas my next task was to build the gravity sander gear, today I have made a start on the valve body, all of the turning is done but still lots of sculpting left to do, I'll show the drawing first and then how far I have got today. Here's the drawing, I'm not going to give all of the dimensions in the following pictures so please refer back to this drawing for any info required. Using some brass bar, the first body was turned up as seen here, I'm just about to part it off in this picture. In hindsight I could have removed more from the wider section where it parts, I wasn't sure how much metal I would need for the part that holds the sand tube and sticks out of the lower side of the body. The centre hole is a No.41 and in this will fit the bottom 3/32 spigot of the valve itself, this will become clearer later next week. Before doing anything else, I checked the bodies for their fit and that they were aligned properly with the bearing above, the picture shows this. I then needed to drill the 3 No.51 holes, 2 for the flange and 1 for the sand feed, alas I forgot to take a picture of this stage. The holes were drilled while held on the rotary table, the 2 flange holes at 180 degrees to each other with the sand feed (smaller PCD) in the middle of the two. While at the setting for the sand feed hole I also used the drill to mark the outer edge to make things easier to line up when held in the tilting vice which can be seen in this picture. The vice is set at 30 degrees and before starting to machine, I set up the Y and X axis to zero on the centre as shown here. The vice has a small V cut into it for holding round bar, I drew a line at 90 degrees to the jaws and used this to plot the job's correct position to be held. Basically I turned the part until the marked line was in line with the small notch that I drilled into the outer edge, this ensured that the sand feed hole was on this line. Next job, was to machine the flat which then needed to be drilled to accept the 5/32 OD copper tube for the sanding tube. There's no measurement on Don's drawing of where this hole is, nor any words on it other than to use a No.23 and rill to a depth of 5/16. I, therefore, scaled off the drawing to give me a guide as to where the hole needed to be, the drawing will help to show what's involved. The picture shows the part having had it's hole drilled, IIRC I moved along 'X' approx 0.157. This worked fine as the 5/32 hole intersected the smaller No.51 hole along a shared axis as required. I took this picture to try and show how the No. 51 hole is in the front sidewall of the 5/32 hole, once the tube has been fitted this will be drilled through the tube so that the sand can flow once the valve has been opened. I decided that the next job to do would be the small spigot that the tube enters, to do this I soft soldered a length of 5/32 stainless steel into each body ready for turning. The picture shows the parts after being soldered together, you can also see the notches on the outer edge of the flange which as used to help line the part up in the tilting vice as described. This last picture shows how far I got for tonight, both bodies have had their tube spigots turned to size, well oversize for now. Next week I'll have a good few hours ahead of me sculpting these two bodies to shape, after that it will be the valves themselves... Cheers Pete

You are correct, I just checked with the boiler builder, capacity is 9.2 ltrs.. Cheers Pete

Thanks for the input sir...I'm not that clued up on the physics/maths when talking boilers... I've just checked my cert which states maxium working pressure 100psi(6.9 BAR) which I guess I have read as capacity rather than max pressure...I've not done the maths but assume 100psi is 6.9BAR so my mistake I'm sure that I have the capacity written down somewhere...the other detail given on the cert is max allow pressure x capacity of 63.48 bar/litres. Perhaps it's possible to work out the capacity from this knowing the max working pressure is 100PSI? As I said, much of this is still new to me....:) Pete

You're very welcome sir, IIRC my boiler for this model is about 6.9 Bar/litres which is nearly double that of my other Gresley pacific in the smaller 3 1/2 gauge. Pete

Ahh..now there's a question...too much for me to type out an answer here..this link should help answer any questions. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.sfmes.co.uk/ydrRoot/committees/boilerSC/Forms/testCode2018_volume1.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjzyI7UsOPmAhVGPcAKHbktBT8QFjAEegQIBRAB&usg=AOvVaw2RjWAH9RBqbZuyekVELOh1 I can tell you that for a live steam loco like mine, just like full size, it's boiler requires regular tests for both hydraulic and steam. The hydraulic cert lasts for 4 years and is tested to 1 1/2 times max working pressure, the steam cert lasts for 12-14 months. In contrast the full size IIRC the steam cert lasts for 10 years. There's much more to this but you're best to look at the link for full details... Cheers Pete

Hi guys, hope you all got what you wanted from Santa... I have stayed out of the workshop during the last few days for more family time but do get restless doing nothing. So today I thought that I'd do something that can be done indoors which does have a passing relationship with 4472 but with no building involved. This extra activity involves putting together a hard copy album on 4472's boiler, nothing special, just some build pictures with notes and a copy of the boiler certificate etc. I thought of doing this a few months back when finding an old (but as new unused) photo album in the garage (old workshop) The cover is showing some wear but the pages within are all fine. I have created this album to not only give a back-up record of the boiler's contruction and paperwork but also as something that can be presented to any boiler inspector if required in the future. A few pictures just to show that I have been doing something over xmas... Front cover Some of the build pictures: A number of drawings, here's one of the backhead... And of course a photocopy of the (IIRC) ten pages of paperwork for the boiler's construction etc..here's two of them... I have shown but a small sample of what's contained within this album, I have put the build details in the front and paperwork to the rear, this leaves the middle to fill as and when I get to the rest of the parts concerned, IE: all fittings and superheater details. The plan is to get back into the workshop on Monday, for the weekend I have a few things to do on the car...live steam and classic cars... never any rest... Pete

Afternoon chaps/chapesses My son dropped these off today, he etched these at work for me and I'm both very happy and impressed with the results. A few parts to mention here, the large builder's plate is to be put on a wooden plaque and be displayed with the model at shows when on its display stand, there's a spare too. The smaller plates are to be secreted somewhere on the model for security reasons, all of these plates are made from stainless steel. The two brass plates are for the reverser dial gauge, these were scaled from photo's that I took off the full-size when at York in 2016. One is a spare as these still need to have the dial slot machined along with the wider recess on the back for the dial marker to travel, these are made from 2.5mm brass. There's one other item still to come which will be the loco/tender fall plate which will have the diamond grid etched along with my name in a middle section, not sure yet if the etch will be deep enough, I'll deal with that when the time comes. The part has already been etched but was accidentally left at my son's work, hope to get it in the new year.... Pete

This more or less completes the steam sanders... I'll need to do a little tidying on final assembly but otherwise, they are done. The last few days involved fabrication of the 'Tee' for the 1/16th OD steam pipe feed, making the 'unclogging' bolts for the bottom of the sand traps, painting those parts that need to be black, fabricating the joining brackets to support the pipes and running the copper pipe from the sanders to the joining 'Tee'. The first picture shows the 'T' before silver soldering, you may notice that the 'T' isn't central, there's a reason for this which I'll show in a later picture in tonight's update. I then turned up the new bolts for the traps clearing hole, I have made these to facilitate easy removal and thus easier to clear any clogging during service without needing to remove the entire sandbox. These are 8BA thread with a turned shoulder (1/8th) to bring the hex further out from the trap so that I can both see and reach it from below. After having all the parts ready I began fitting the first ejector and its pipes (fireman's side), I have left the steam feed unpainted, it's not very clear in this picture but there's a bracket holding the two pipes together, I didn't take any pictures of its fabrication but IIRC it's the same as those made for the tender all those moons ago. This picture shows the first pipe run, you can see in this picture why I didn't fit the 'T' central to it's body, once the first part had been silver soldered I then added a thick plate behind the body with a mounting hole to one side. this holds the 'T' off the star-stay to allow the union nuts to be easily tightened up. Also worth noting is where the pipe has the 90-degree bend, I have a temporary bolt here but later once the other pipes (they'll be quiet a few) have been added I'll make up a proper bracket to hold all of them together. For this I have used the 4 redundant holes either side of the frames which are tapped 6BA, When I drilled all those holes in the frames I didn't realise that these particular holes aren't required for the A1, they are a later addition for the A3. I'm pretty happy that they are there though as drilling new holes in the frames (there will still be some) isn't the easiest of things to do. the last couple of pictures are just to show that both sanders and related pipework have now been fitted. This picture from underneath to show the two ejectors fitted, you can also get a better idea of the bracket to hold the pipes that I mentioned. And lastly a view from above, on looking at this I can see that I need to level the 'T' and also touch in a few areas of red, I'm generally happy to get these fitted though. Next up I think needs to be a good tidy of my bench, it's a mess..lol I'll then get on with the gravity sander gear, hopefully, should get this done by next week, it's amazing how much time these little bits and pieces take. Kind regards Pete

Thanks for sharing the drawing Roger... I'm not too worried about the pipe layout, reason being that the pictures that I have from the 30's are all different and clearly this part must get knocked a lot or rerouted during service. If you look at the 1934 photo above I posted of the 100 mph run the pipes are different to your drawing too. The pipes are easy enough to move about, I'll probably look at this closer near completion of the model and after the brake gear has been fitted. Also the photo that you are comparing it too was for the test, tonight's update will show the pipes closer to the 1934 photo but not entirely there yet. Kind regards Pete

Hi guys... Just to clarify something that I wrote in my last update... I said that the steam supply goes to the manifold, well it does but what I should have said is that it terminates there, with the isolator valve, there is, of course, the steam valve in between. IIRC this is attached to the reverser but I'll look closer at this when the time comes... Thanks to Eddie for pointing out my omission Pete

hi guys I've been a bit busy with grandparent duties since the last update but have this morning done a little more on the steam sand ejectors. I first needed to check that the other ejector was working and once happy with that I played around with the nozzle jets. I have now shortened them a little so that as you look at the ejector in the first picture image the jet is just a little forward of the main body into the nozzle itself. This has increased the vacuum by about 30% and still only at 65 PSI, I would expect the inHG to increase further at the max boiler operating pressure of 100 PSI. Only two pictures for today, the first shows one of the ejectors in its correct orientation/position in front of the main driving wheel. The steam pipe is just temporary to test that the sandbox works, it will be routed in a slightly different way once painted/finished, I can see from the works drawings that it goes up to the stay above and joins a 'tee' piece, there's a lot going on in the drawings which may take some time to plot its proper route and what I don't need to fit. In simple terms, I need to meet the pipe from the other side and then route it back to the manifold turret which I obviously can't do for while yet. I think what I will do, is decide on where the two pipes join the 'tee' and fit those accordingly, the section to the cab will have to wait for now. I have tried to take a video of the steam sandbox working using air, it's very difficult to film the sand leaving the nozzle as it's so small and faint in colour, I have placed a sheet of W&D under the wheel so you can see some of the sand as it builds up, most went on the floor... I have directed the nozzle a little outboard of the wheel, one to help show the sand but also to stop sand from getting blown too much around the model as many parts have oil on and I don't want the sand to mix in with this. https://i.imgur.com/7xyOJ6U.mp4 Tomorrow I'll finish the ejectors and pipework and paint the parts that need painting black. I'm in two minds as to whether to fit the sandboxes properly to the frames, I'm worried about knocking them but then I can't really fit the inside connecting rod until these parts are fitted so I guess my hands are tied, I'll just have to be careful. Next up will be to finish the gravity sanders and get these working, once that's done I can fit for the last time the outside motion brackets and then hopefully, get back on with the rest of the moving parts. During this, though I need to repaint the smokebox and mount that for the last time too as this needs to be done before I can fit the outside cylinders and their slide bars... I tell you the list of parts is endless and they all need doing before each other, or so it currently seems...thanks for looking in guys... Pete

Good evening chaps..ok so a slight change of plan... after I posted the last update it was pointed out to me by Kevin Fisher and Peter Pope (FB) who I believe both worked on 4472, that I had copied the wrong ejectors, evidently the ones in my photo from 2016 are air ejectors off an 08 shunter, now this would never do. First I must say a big thank you to these two gentlemen for pointing out my error for which I'm most grateful. having learnt this I duly took a look through my photo's from the 30's to see what I (yes I know, I should have done this to begin with) could find. I found 3 pictures where once I zoomed in I could get a good idea of what the ejectors really looked like, as it happens Don's drawing is very good although he shows no union connections in his drawing. To be fair when looking at the photos I had the ejectors and connecting pipes all looked different and one early photo had no nut for the sand pipe connection but did for the steam pipe. I eventually settled on a photo which was taken in 1934 after 4472 broke the 100mph barrier, the photo in question showed the driver and firemen standing in front of the coupled wheels where the steam ejector was clearly visible. It looks like it had union/nuts for both feeds but I won't swear to it as it is a little blurred when zooming in. Doesn't matter to me as I said before I chose to add the connection points for ease of maintenance. Here's the photo in question...Note that there's no flange or hanging bracket and that the orientation of the pipes is different, with the sand pipe angled directly above the ejector rather than to the inside as seen on the air ejectors. It's also very clear to see how much longer the steam feed is before meeting the sand feed and also that it's now in line with the wheel flange rather than being angled inboard resulting in the sand pipe being more in line with the wheel flange.. So I needed to make a decision, do I remake them, or do I modify those already made. After taking a look at what was involved I chose the latter, well I do so enjoy a bit of grinding.....not. After spending most of the day working on these the result os shown here. I have extended the steam inlet, I could have made this a permanent attachment but decided to leave it as a screw-on part in case I ever get a stuck jet where it will be much easier to remove the extension and grip the protruding jet than trying to tap it through from the front. The bracket has gone although the part around the nozzle remains to give that part more length to match the photo, the flange wings were cut off and then all blended in removing much of the extra width of the sand feed body. I then soldered on a small washer to give me a finished front which was backfilled with solder which again was blended in. Also, I have reshaped much of the underside of the sand feed body, again to better match the prototype. It's not perfect and I could define a crease between the two body parts but this might exaggerate that the two parts are of differing sizes for the reasons given, it's a damn sight closer than the air ejectors were, ie they look like steam ejectors now. Once I'm happy with both ejectors they will now be painted black, with the nuts left bare metal, again in an attempt to match the prototype. This all took a good few hours today but I'm happy with the end result and again wish to thank both Kevin Fisher and Peter Pope for their input. To finish with I decided to test the ejectors using air, the compressor was set at 60/65PSI, any more resulted in the temporary pipes getting blown off which I couldn't physicaly hold as I needed my other hand to operate the camera so used a lower setting. I'm happy with the test, it's an old boost gauge but looks like I was getting 6-7 inHG. BTW the jet is a 1" length of 1/16 copper pipe with one end swaged so that it doesn't get blown through. I have followed Don's drawing as to where the jet ends in the nozzle, I guess I could play around with this to see if the result changes... perhaps that's for another day https://i.imgur.com/LiIPz2t.mp4 Thanks for looking in all, next update should see the steam sanders finished and then I'll be on to the gravity sanders... Pete

Hi everyone Continuing with the ejectors, I now needed to make the sand feed that will need to be silver soldered to the nozzle. As with the nozzle I have followed the prototype and included a nut and union for joining the sand pipe to the ejector. This was basically the same method as with the nozzle but now with a larger diameter body, in fact, I have made the body from much wider material than required, I'll cover the reason why shortly. The picture shows that I have turned down to a 1/4" spigot which was then threaded 1/4 x 40 TPI, the length of which was determined by testing how close I could get the nut to the body and adjusting accordingly. After parting off, I moved onto the tilting vice and machined an angle, Don states 35-degrees, (55 from this position) but I needed to allow for clearance for the union nuts and thus settled for 45-degrees. In hindsight I should have drawn up what I wanted here as a little more length for the nozzle would have been more beneficial and closer to the prototype, I followed Don's overall dimensions which means I was limited in choosing the angle. Live and learn as they say.. The flat edge on the front is to butt up against the bracket flange, both bracket and flange being extras to what Don has drawn. This gives us this pile of bits ready for assembly. Note that the bracket flanges have also joined the gang, I have drilled these offset as the photo looks like there is more to the flange on the top face than bottom, it could just be a trick of the camera but this will work, right or wrong. It was then time to silver solder the nozzle to the sand feed body. I think the picture shows my method for doing this, you can also see why I machined a small part off the front of the sand body to give it a better location against the bracket flange. I'm sure that in real life this flange will be separate but I have silver soldered them to the ejector as it should help hold the ejector in its correct position, ie.. less chance of the ejector moving in service. As can be seen, I have used a short length of copper tube to hold the two body parts inline for heating, luckily this worked well. BTW, in the real size photo, it can be seen that the flange and bracket are joined by two bolts and nuts, for ease I have threaded the flange 10BA so that I don't need to have the nut on it's back which would be a little tight with the angle used between the two body's. With those parts now joined I began to form the shape and before I got too far I remembered that I hadn't yet drilled through the sand feed body into the nozzle. For this, I played safe and inserted two drills that were a good sliding fit into the nozzle from both ends and drilled through the sand feed body until I could see the top drill move. I then took the ejector out of the lathe, removed both drills and continued drilling the hole by hand to avoid damaging the inside or worse still going right through. It took me some time to shape the ejectors to how I wanted and having now looked at this closeup picture I can see that I still have a little left to do but they aren't that far off. As can be seen, I have blended the parts into each other to make it look like a single casting, this was the reason for making the sand feed much larger than required so that I could grind, file and sand it to blend into the nozzle. I will leave the ejector unpainted except for the nozzle outlet as per prototype. Next job was to shape/cut the sand pipe to size and to silver solder the nozzle on. For this, the pipes were filled with sand and sealed either end. I tested this first with one sandbox bolted to the frames as seen in this next picture. Two things to note, I later reshaped the curve more and also that here the ejector is in the wrong position, what I mean is that the steam feed should be inboard, not the sand feed. This was just how it went naturally with the angle of the parts, I think though that I can manipulate this to be in the correct position, the parts are only loosely bolted together here and I'll need to have them fully secured before trying. Lastly, a picture to show both sandboxes at the same stage, for the second I just mirrored the first, no need to turn the chassis around to fit the other sandbox if I can avoid it. Tomorrow I'll finish off shaping the ejectors, fit the sandboxes securely to the chassis and look at how best to shape the pipes. I'll need to be careful here as they are no longer filled with sand. Once I am happy with the ejector position I'll take a look at fabricating the brackets. Not sure what they bolt too but looks like they go to the sandbox itself which if so makes life much easier. My plan is to bolt them to the nearside flange bolt that holds the sand pipe to the trap, I'll hopefully, show what I mean in the next update but I think the full-size picture shown in the last update gives a pretty good idea of what I intend. Pete

With the shields finished I can now move on to the 'ejectors' first a couple of pictures to show where we are with the sandtraps...I have given the traps a coat of Eastwood's radiator enamel, the same paint as used on the middle cylinder which requires no undercoat and has a very fine spray. Also in the picture are the two flanges ready for the 1/8th copper sandpipe. Here are the traps bolted to their respective sandboxes. Next, I silver soldered the flanges to two overlength sections of 1/8th copper pipe. Prior to doing this, I did a quick test in filling a length of pipe with sand, sealing either end and bending it to an 'S' shape. This went without incident suffering from zero kinks, however, I decided to anneal the pipe anyway as I plan to bolt each sandbox to the frames and then after bolting the pipe flange to the trap bend each pipe to shape. Annealing the pipe first will allow me to do this much easier and thus impart little strain on the traps. The picture shows the flanges silver soldered in place and the pipe annealed. I have deliberately placed each flange a little way down the pipe and will then file the pipe flat so that I get a good seal when bolting in place. I now moved on to the ejectors, Don states that his ejectors not only work but work very well, I, therefore, do not need to change the basic principle, but changes I have made in both manufacturer and look in my aim to make them look as close to the prototype as practical and be easier to maintain. To begin, here's Don's drawing... And here's a picture of the full-size main driver sanding ejector that I took in 2016, the steam sanding gear used today is different to that of the '30s but the principle and general layout are the same. I will begin with the ejector nozzle and as can be seen in this picture I intend to have the ejector removable as with the full-size rather than braze it all up as Don has drawn, this is both for being able to service it if required and also to make it look more like the prototype. The picture shows that I have turned down some suitable brass hex to accept a 3/16 x 40 union and ferrule. I played around with the depth of the spigot and the depth of the cone depth until I was happy with the look. The part was then drilled to accept the 1/16 pipe that will be used for the steam supply and also to make the nozzle jet. I took this picture to give some idea of the ejector internals, the 1/16 pipe has been pulled up higher than it will be when finished just so that I can show what's going on inside. BTW, this short section of 1/16 pipe will be swaged and held in place by the cone fitted the steam pipe of the same size, hope that makes sense? The last picture for tonight shows the two ejector nozzles and the sand pipes attached to their flanges and having been polished ready for silver soldering on the ferrule when I have decided on the pipe length and of course not forgetting to include the union nut. I did make one cockup, I had found that the length of the nozzle and the hex section that I had included to match the full size sat nicely in the chuck with the hex being at the right position to sit in one of the jaw recesses. Alas when holding the first nozzle in reverse so that I could drill the recess for the 5/32 copper pipe which fits into the end, I didn't tighten the chuck enough which duly spun and removed my little section of hex...lol I didn't make this mistake with the second nozzle, I may just put this down to one of those things as the hex isn't that prominent anyway or I may look at added it later, we shall see. The next part to do is the sand feed, again I will have this with the union/nut as seen on the prototype which will be slightly larger at 1/4 x 40 and needs to fit the nozzle at the 35-degree angle that Don has drawn. Hope to show that in the next day or two, thanks for looking in... Pete

As well as playing around with sand today I have also made a start on the trap shields, since these look like castings full-size they look like a good subject for those among you who have a 3D printer.... Being a pauper myself I had to make do with some brass shim, first job was to make a pattern to shape the shim over. The picture shows the result of a few hours playing around with the lathe and mill taking measurements from the traps to judge sizes. The centre section is from copper and was made a drift fit into the brass round bar which as you can see is partly machined with a 30-degree angle to match the trap. It was then put on the rotary table to have some removed off both front and rear faces leaving the area where the tabs are, a little hand filing gave us what we see here. I then cut up some brass shim and drilled two 1.8MM holes for the mounting tabs and allowing for the raised section that needed to be formed, this section btw is to allow air ingress into the trap as the vacuum draws the sand/air through. I guess if no air can get in it's possible for the vacuum to just crush the sandbox. I recall when making the vacuum reservoir that Don stated to test it at 100psi, of which I'm happy to say it passed, that seems an eternity ago now. After drilling the holes, the shim was heated cherry red and formed around a round bar and then bent out using flat-faced pliers. It was then bolted to the pattern and held in an old machine vice for the next round of heating. This is after a few more heating sessions, I did perhaps another two or three after this before calling it a day and then set about with a cutting disk and files. I used a small hammer and blunted chisel for doing most of the forming And this is where I got to for tonight, there's a couple of blemishes which I can either live with or add a little soft solder to fill them in, I'll see how long it takes me to get the other shield to this stage before deciding on that. assuming I get the other shield done in good time tomorrow morning I'll then make a start on the sand pipes, I'm looking forward to those... Pete

In answer to whether sand will work on this scale, today I did a short test. Please forgive the wobbly camera, trying to film while holding the sand pot was a little taxing... The sand is some old play sand (silver sand) that has been in the grandchildren's play pit since summer, it's contaminated and was very wet, took a few days to dry out for the test. I strained it as best that I could, best put SWMBO's strainer back before she notices... First, a picture to show the very Heath Robinson test rig, the copper pipe is 1/8th thinned walled which is what will be used on the model, so it is a faithful test. A hole was drilled into the plastic cup and the pipe was set in it as low as possible, nearly flush with the base. The sand fell easily through the copper pipe. here's a link to a video that I filmed, ...it works very well and I would expect much less sand to be required than the amount that fell through in these few seconds. Alas i don't know how to post the video directly to this forum.. https://i.imgur.com/gUt8sQ9.mp4 I'm very happy with the result, on the model things should be even better. With the steam boxes, you have the added force of the vacuum sucking the sand out of the box, which of course also blasts the rail clean with the hot steam. For the gravity boxes, the operating lever can be rocked to help move (agitate) the sand if it gets stuck for any reason, I think as long as the sand it kept dry it should work just as well as seen in the video. Regards Pete