greenglade

Good afternoon folks I have been battling away with shaping these steam sandtraps, not easy being so small but even more of a problem when it became obvious that Don's CTS dimension between the tab holes wasn't too scale (not that far off I hasten to add), but still too large which is why in my last picture the 'tabs' looked more like 'wings' due to being forced too far out by the non scale CTS and thus could never be made to look like the photo that I posted of the real thing. They probably still are a little large and the bolts will be larger but it looks much closer after a bit of a re-work. I didn't want to start again from scratch so just filled in the holes with silver solder and re-plotted their positions. Thankfully Donf (MECH forum) came to my rescue here as he very kindly measured the Doug Hewson scale traps that he has, I would also like to thank him for his very kind offer to give me his two spare traps, I tell you, at times I was very tempted...thank you, Don... I haven't taken step by step photo's as most of the work involved grinding, filing and polishing. The exception to those was silver soldering the two parts together and drilling the angled connecting hole between them. Only three pictures for tonight, to begin with, we have both sandtraps more or less finished, I could tickle them a little more to remove the last few marks but hell, they will be tucked up out of the way and thus I can't really warrant the time involved, perhaps when everything is finished I will return to a few bits, or is that a few hundred later.. I have put them up against a rule to give an idea of their size. I wrongly thought that the bolt under the main body had something to do with the shield which actually makes no sense but did to me at the time when being confused with Don's drawing. I'll have to see if Don gives it's purpose later in his notes but for now it's either to help clear a blocked trap or to regulate the amount of sand being fed, in it's position it could do both. Here they are bolted to their respective sandboxes, this is only temporary to show how they will look. I have only used the two rear mounting bolts to hold them in place, once the shields are fitted I'll have better access to get the front bolts in. For the last picture, I have bolted one of the sandboxes in position, to help show what's next on the menu. So next up will be the shields made from brass shim, for which I'll work out how to do these tomorrow, I have a few ideas. Then it's the steam pipe and it's flange, the pipe takes on a shallow 'S' shape. Looking at the last picture, it comes down, curves to the left and then right under the wheel. I will cut these overlength and then work out their final length once I have made the ejectors and their steam pipe feeds to the backhead. IIRC the two pipes meet at a 'T', perhaps on the 'star' stay. I have a works drawing of a similar class which I'll refer too. Thanks for looking in guys... Pete

5 updates for this week... I'd better slow down... OK, so I'd like to begin by thanking those who helped me find more details on this sandtrap, I'm pretty confident to say that no way could anyone build this by Don's 'words and music' alone unless they were familiar with the parts concerned. The eureka moment occurred when I found this image for the sand trap off 'Patriot' when everything clicked into place. Having now realised that there are 4 mounting tabs, two for the sand pipe and two for the shield (Don's words make a little more sense now) I took a close look at what I had already done and was happy to see that I could still use it for the real shape. I decided as a first step to plot and mark the 4 hole centres, the picture shows the pipe flange holes being marked first which is the lower tabs. I then did the top holes which hold the shield, for this the part was put back in the tilting vice and reset at 30 degrees. For all four holes, I drilled to a depth of 1.4mm not wanting to drill too deep and damage the tabs below. next job was to machine the back off to leave just a small amount of the recess that the other part will fit into. I nearly cocked up here, you can see where I have begun to separate them by the cut, much better to machine the back off as first to keep them the same. Thus I now have the two parts still very much rough and ready to set up for some tricky machining to split the tabs as seen in the first picture for tonight... I've only taken the one (poor) picture to show the tabs split, this was done with a 1mm cutter. Machining the base first, removing the rear part and then the angled top tabs. With that done I then removed some of the excess material around the tabs and also the metal that was left in between. I have left the front of the lower tab as that's angled into the front face in Don's drawing, however, I may remove this and match the photo from Patriot. After taking this picture I removed the part ready for doing the other one and then the 'carpet monster' struck, would you believe that it took me 3 hours to find the damn thing and I had pulled everything out looking, well it is only 14 x 6 mm but you'd have thought big enough to find quickly...lol The result of the sneak attack meant I didn't get as much done as I had hoped, I gave up for a while and began profiling the other one. This last picture shows how far I got, the rear of the tabs are near to the size, I will remove more from the front area to get them as small as possible after getting the second one to the same stage, I'll then finish the profiling which I suspect will take me some time. The shield tabs are going to be pretty small but as they hold no weight I'm sure that they will be up to the job in hand. The sand pipe tabs are about twice the size so will have more meat around them, all are tapped 10BA. Note that the main flange has had its holes transferred to the sandboxes ready for fitting when finished. Once most of the profiling is done I'll silver solder the two parts together and then give them a final going over, need to round off the front more. After that, I guess it will be the shield and then the sandpipe which will require a matching flange for bolting to the sandtrap. For the shield I have kept the offcut pieces from the part made today to use as a pattern, this is why I separated the parts with a hacksaw rather than machining them. More soon guys Pete

On to the other body part for the steam sandtrap, this is a little confusing to both read the drawing and don's words and so I will include said drawing. before continuing this morning I did a little reading on Holt's steam sanding design of IIRC 1885. Having done this, things became much clearer, my reading confirmed how I thought it worked but Don's words are a little misleading, in fact in some ways they are foreign to his drawing? Looking at the drawing you can see the 3 views for the sandtrap body itself, the other drawings to the right are for the shield. Now Don's words for the body suggest that after making the bit that I did yesterday (hopefully you can recognise it in the middle view) the next part starts life as a piece of brass bar 1/2" x 1/4", drill the No.41 hole and chamfer at 30 degrees and shape. However, I wonder if the right-hand view of the body could also be a shield that fits under it with the other shield on top, thus sandwiching the body? This would be sound if not for the 5/64 depth shown for the two tapped 10BA holes that the top part of the shield bolts too? It's confusing as to when describing these holes he warns not to go too deep as it could meet up with two other holes below? or words to that effect. Makes no sense to me, if you're still following me your doing better than I was, I can't follow it even though I'm writing it...lol Anyway, looking at the middle view and reading Don's words, they conflict with the shield design so I'll do my own thing. Here's the drawing; I had no brass of this size so have used some copper flat bar, As with most things I have set up to do both of what Don calls the 'flange' together to cut down on set-ups and ensure the two parts are duplicate. I, therefore, cut a section of copper long enough to do this, I'll part them later, this is 1/4 thick but only 3/8 wide as I wanted to make life easier for machining the part to mate with the other part of the body done yesterday. The picture shows the first stages for one of the traps, I first plotted the No.41 hole which is where the sand pipe will attach too below, next I advanced on 'Y' a distance of 3/16 which is the centre for the other body part, drilled and then opened up with a 3/16 cutter which if you recall is the diameter of the other body part. The drawing shows the shape that I need to make, the other 2 No.41 holes represent the concave curve from the body out to the holes either side which I did by eye using the DRO to ensure they mirrored eachother. The two small dimples are where the tapped 10BA holes belong, I should have drilled these at this setup but due to the confusing words relating to these two holes wasn't entirely sure on what plane they orientate. If I'd looked a little closer at the shield I would have seen that they could have been drilled now. As I think you have probably surmised, things were a little confused in my poor old head at this point, that 5/64 depth and holes colliding really threw me, I must stop reading Don's words... With both got to this stage I tried one of the other parts for fit, looking good so far. I best explain that I will be machining the back edge that the other part fits into until there's barely a hole left, I did it this way so that I could get a nice fit between the two parts and easily keep them aligned during heating. Next up was to machine a 30-degree angle across the top face until it's just touching the edge of the 3/16 holes. once happy with that I needed to work out the angle for the hole that connects both parts of the trap body together. As can be seen, I've used a drill to get an idea of which angle was required, it's not given on the drawing, in fact you can barely see the hole. Before getting to this stage I had assumed that it may just be a case of drilling down after machining the angled face but I could see that this wouldn't work as there needs to be an allowance for the 1/16 thick bottom of the other part with it's tapped 8BA hole. I, therefore, played around with the angle by eye until I had what looked right. I first used a small end mill to flatten off the top of where the drill needed to start, centre drilled and followed up with the No.41 to match the two holes in both parts, hope you understood that lot... Here's a view inside the 3/16 hole to show how things came out, there's enough room on the bottom for the 1/16 8BA section mentioned before, once the two are silver soldered together these holes will be flush with the bottom of the body, I still need to deburr but think the picture shows what I'm trying to explain. And here's where I finished for tonight, tomorrow I'll machine off the back edge, drill/tap the 10BA holes and now that I think I understand the final shape I'll machine down the areas where said 10BA holes go leaving 5/64 depth for the thread followed by parting them into separate entities. I will then move on to the shields which will probably require a small pattern to shape over. I have a plan here to make this easier which will involve a small modification to the body, I'll see how it looks tomorrow.. Thanks for reading chaps/chapesses Pete

3rd day in a row with an update? I'm clearly on a bit of a roll, to be honest though, as I am taking a lot of pictures I have to post them when taken or there will be too many to post and do the write up for in one go. I took this picture yesterday and forgot to post it, it's just to show the steam filler tube from a distance to give a better idea of it's position. This picture is to show that the other filler tube is also now completed, I have positioned the coupling rod to show how close the tube is, they don't touch although I may need to revisit this once the loco is at full weight. A picture to show between the frames that both tubes are now sitting in their mounts. The last job for the tubes was to fix a retaining hook to secure the lid chain, to do this I cut a small slot in the lip and soft soldered some fine brass wire in the slot and reaching about halfway into the tube. Once cooled this was cleaned up with the protruding part of the wire filed flush with the outside of the tube. The cone recess was also tidied up after this picture was taken. The lid retaining chains have now been fitted, the chains were shortened first to be closer to the prototype but also to give enough length to be able to easily pour the sand in To remove the tubes the chains need to be unhooked, easy enough to do. With the tubes done I then moved on to the sandtraps, for the steam version these are in 3 parts, two body parts which need silver soldering together and the shield which bolts on. I tackled the main body first, the picture shows what it looks like, details are 7/16 OD, with the spigot reduced to 3/16 dia at 3/8 length, this is then drilled/tapped 8BA for the central shield retaining bolt. This was then parted off to an overall length of 1/2" next job was to reverse the trap in the chuck, machine a 1/16 spigot down to 3/16 dia and then drill to a depth of 7/16 with a No.41 drill. Here we have the two main part for the two sandtraps, still to do on this part is the 4 holes around the flange to bolt to the bottom of the steam sandbox. I'll explain the other parts in the next update as their relationship with each other will be best explained when I have made them. I have decided that it's probably best to complete all of the sanding gear except perhaps the rodding and cranks for the gravity sander, so I will be doing the pipes down to the track and their associated brackets, there are no drawings for the brackets, I guess Don thinks them unnecessary on a model. I have some good photo's so will try to copy those. Now for some 'other business', my son has access to an etching machine and has been helping me with the model, there are a few things coming soon but this he did very quickly for me today after helping me over the phone to do the drawing in Inkscape. I'll show the photo that I took of the full-size part first, it's, of course, the dial gauge for the reverser. Here's my drawing, this was scaled directly off the photo. it's small, overall size is 31 x 9 mm, I took this measurement from Don's drawing but followed the photo for slot and grid positions, Don only shows the slot, no other details. The last picture for tonight to show the dial now etched in brass. I have a few things to do here, I need to machine the two slots, the one that can be seen on the front and is marked out in etch but also a wider slot on the reverse which the indicator and control arm moves in. I will then machine a lip around the outside for the gauge to fit into a recess cut into the backhead cladding. The last job to do will be to polish it to remove any visible marks. I have to say that I'm enjoying myself with the small parts made today, there must be hundreds of such parts to do before she steams.... Pete

Thanks, Kev, I'm a member of the North London SME so that will be it's home turf, I do hope to visit other clubs in the future and also join the GL5 guys at some point, I just need to get the transport side sorted out, I have a few years yet before I need to worry about that...:) Cheers Pete

I spent today finishing the filler tube for the driver's side and then repeated the process for the fireman's side, I haven't finished the filler tube for this side yet but have test mounted the gravity sandbox and fitted the lower and upper running boards ready to fit the tube. A few pictures to show help explain my thinking... first shows the tube pushed through the frames and into its mount. the csk screws are temporary, I will change these for round head later. Reason for not using hex heads is me not considering that the flange needed to be wider due to the ring that is machined into for holding the tube securely. I also shaved a little of the sides to give enough clearance for the screw heads. The moral to the story is if anyone else follows my lead, make the flange larger than the drawing states... Here's the filler tube as seen from outside, I've angled the shot so that you can see the mount bolted under the running board. When compared with full-size, this tube is a little larger OD (not much) and the bends are more gentle. The real tube looks like it's been made of short lengths of steel tube which has been cut and welded together to form the bends, I have no idea if this is original, going by how it looks I suspect not, it may even be telescopic perhaps to allow for movement in the suspension. perhaps anyone who knows could enlighten me?. On checking for clearance of the coupling rod it's very close but if the suspension did dip enough to touch the tube it wouldn't be a problem as these tubes are floating and not fixed. I include this picture to show how easy it is to remove the tube while in service, if it gets blocked or the sand in it is damp for instance. As you can see all i have to do is push the tube up through the mount and twist it approx 90 degrees and lower out of the mount. Later I'll paint the tubes black as they are full-size. Lastly a picture of the filler neck from above, the tube has been csk 30 degrees to match the mount opening. I had been stumped a little trying to figure out the best way of securing the chain that is secured to the lid, looking at this picture, it dawned on me that before painting I can silver solder a small hook that the chain can be held by, the hook can be closed up a little to hold the chain in place. This won't affect getting the sand into the sandbox, I'll shorten the chain a little too so that it doesn't get fouled. The last thing that needs my attention in this area will be to find a way of making the lids a tight fit without blocking off the air, I have one or two ideas. Once the other tube is finished it will be time for the sandtraps, Don makes an interesting comment on the steam sandtrap shield, states it's the trickiest bit to make on the entire loco? Sounds fun... More soon guys Pete

Good evening folks Still battling away with the sandboxes, I suspect the parts that I plan to do now will probably take another week or two, anyway, for tonight's update. As stated last time I'm sticking with the steam sandbox for now and for tonight I have made a start on the filler neck which is somewhat more involved than the short straight section on the gravity boxes. I began with the flange plates that bolt to the top of the box, I seem to have missed a number of photos here so will describe what has been done. I can show you this picture, this was simple turning and here I am checking that the 1/4" copper tube fits nicely. This flange is (will be) a two mounting hole type with the excess being removed, filed to shape, I can show this later. I have modified this flange, the drawing shows a flat plate which I assume you silver solder the 1/4" tube too there's no sign of a recess to hold the tube as I have done here. I studied the drawing and noted that to remove the filler neck would involve removing the sandbox and all of the parts connected below and then slide the tube out through the slot in the frames, again assuming that it wasn't joined to the neck plate bolted to the running boards? I decided that it might be prudent to have the neck itself as a push-fit and thus easy to remove it on it's own and leave the box etc in place. I'm also going to leave it unfixed to the plate above, thus it is truly independent of top and bottom fixings. I'll explain more in a minute. I then moved on to the mounting plates that bolt under the running boards, the picture shows there basic shape having been machined, I should have had one upside down to show the difference. Anyway, the side that you can see is the top, the spigot (filler neck) is 3/8 OD and the unseen spigot below is 1/2 OD, OD of the flange is 7/8. With the basic shape done I then returned to the lathe to machine the cone in the top, this is where the sand enters. I ground up some tool steel and set the cross-slide to 30 degrees for machining. It was then the turn of the underside which is tapered also at 30 degrees, this being the last turning operation, done last as I wouldn't have been able to do the top if doing this taper first. I then drilled/tapped 10BA the holes around the flange using the rotary table(forgot the picture) and transferred them to the running boards. I have offset the hole positions, they are mirrored both sides but not square to an axis. I did this as they seem to be at an angle full size, mind you, they are different and more of full size but certainly not square. I clocked them in the best position for clearance for both the nameplates and on the driver's side, the lubricator, just in case I need to unbolt the neck bracket at some point in service.. A little more explaining here, I should have left one of the lids off to show what I mean. The filler neck bracket hasn't got a recess to hold the tube like the bottom bracket has, my thinking is that with a floating filler neck, I can lift it up through the bracket clearing the lower mounting flange, turn it approx 90 degrees and drop it out of the bottom, hopefully, the elongated slot in the frames will allow me to do this, so far it's looking good but I haven't finished the first tube yet so we will see. BTW, I'm very glad that the paint got ruined due to the heat when spraying and that I decided to do them again at some point, I hadn't thought about these bracket holes and I'm sure that there will be more to do still, so a nice new coat of non-orange peeled paint will be most welcomed... I also test fitted the gravity boxes to see how they look, the neck is a little high, later I'll reduce it to match the steam boxes. Just one of those hundreds of fettling/finishing jobs left to do. The last picture shows the steam sandbox with it's finished flange mount attached for the filler tube to push into, I have painted the flange black as I'm thinking that it should be part of the tube which most certainly is black, jury is out on whether it will stay that way, looks odd now but may look fine when the neck is in place. I have made a start on the first filler neck, it's going to take a number of heating sessions before it's finished, I'll post a picture when I have done both sides Cheers Pete

Thanks Tiger...:) continuing with the sandboxes, I have now finished the lids and given the boxes their topcoat. I didn't take any pictures of the heating operations to finish the lids so will describe what I did. First I made up a small 'U' shape for the buckle that holds the chain to it's respective lid. The 'U' shape was made from fine brass wire and had a right angle at the bottom of it's legs, this was to make it easier to silver solder to the underside of the lids. Also, for the gravity sandboxes, I silver soldered a short length of brass rod to the other end of the chain, the chain being off centre to help if I need to remove the lid at any point. BTW, I have now tested the fit of the lid in the running board and they fit nicely, no need to remove them, not at least not that I can see for now. The last job was to cut to length some brass rod, file the ends to be a good fit within the lid recess and soft solder in place. The first picture shows all 4 lids, one of which is fitted to it's gravity sandbox. In the next picture, I have simply removed the lid to show the chain attached. I also painted the sandboxes, black for the gravity and red for the steam, this picture shows the steam sandboxes after the first coat, I wasn't happy with this result and gave them another (wet) coat last thing tonight, I'll take a look at them in the morning to see if they are good enough to move on. I'm not going to go OTT on some of these parts that are hidden from view, especially those that are going to get covered in oil and ash during service, life's too short... and lastly, the gravity sandboxes painted satin black to match the frames, once dry I then lightly rested the lids on top to spray those too, just seemed like an easier option for these. The lids for the steam sandboxes have also been sprayed although for those i placed them on some wood with holes drilled for the chain to full through. Tomorrow I'm going to make a start on the other parts, I'll probably start with the steam sandboxes and I'm toying with not stopping until all boxes and their relative parts are made, except perhaps the various connecting rods and handle apparatus for the gravity boxes. Nor will I make the steam valve and it's pipework, that will have to wait until much later in the build. BTW, Don doesn't give a drawing for his steam valve, stating that it's available from DYD which of course no longer exists. I don't think that I need it (unless I'm missing something) as full size uses one of the valves on the manifold which I'll follow. Pete

Evening all, I managed to find a couple of hours today and so have continued with the sandboxes, today I'll go through the lids, or in as far as I have got with them. Here's Don's drawing, it looks more or less the same as the photo's that I have. Here's a full-size picture of the lid on the steam sandbox. To do these parts I first needed to make two tools, one for the recess underneath and the other for the dish on top. I'll begin with underneath, for this, I have used an old 7/16 endmill, heated to red, let cool naturally and then machined in the lathe. I began with a large centre drill to open up the taper which sits inside the sandbox tube. BTW, the tube is 3/8 and the lid inner is 7/16 (outer is 1/2"), this is too allow air to get in and replace the sand as it leaves the box, I guess if airtight the boxes wouldn't work. The picture shows the second heating, I had to do this in two stages as my gas is low and thus I struggled to heat the tip thoroughly. Sorry about the quality of this picture. The second session with the centre drill gets me to this stage... I machined to a depth that let the filler tube fit into... Once happy with the cutting edge for the outer edge I then needed to shape the inner edges to be able to cut the cone shape that sits in the middle and allows for the dish to be machined above. I basically did this with the Dremel using a cutting disk to grind the shape trying to keep the 4 prongs as equal as possible. Once happy I used an oil stone to sharpen the edges and also a triangle and round needle file to finish the inner edges. I then did a test to see how the shape was, the plan was to do a test and then harden/temper the tool, the tool cut the brass being used for the lids so well that I omitted this stage. Here's the tool before filing and final polishing/sharpening. Here's the result of the first lid inner machined, as the centre is slightly recessed in the lid, before using the profiled tool I machined a slight recess with a smaller endmill, the drawing hopefully shows what I mean. The brass began life as 1/2" hex, only because I had no round bar of that size, the OD is very slightly under 1/2", I'll explain why soon. It was then a simple task of repeating and parting off at the required 7/32 height. The picture shows the state of play so far, the eagled eyed among you will notice that there are 5 lids instead of the required 4. I thought it best to make a spare, just in case one gets lost in service. I now needed to machine the upper recess for the handle, again I have used an old cutter, in this case, a 3/8 slot drill and angled the edges to give a taper, no need to heat this time, I just used the belt linisher and oil stone. I have tried to angle the tool close to the inner cone as shown on the drawing but I wasn't overly concerned with this, just getting something that looks close was good enough for me. There is no depth given on the drawing so again I have gone to a depth that works for the handle to be added later, it also works in as far as airing on the side of caution a little, not wanting to go too deep. You can't see it in the picture but I marked the tool so that I got all the same depth. Going back to why I machined the OD slightly undersize, this was so that I could tightly hold some 1/2" steel in the chuck that the lid could push against as I machined the recess. You can't see the 1/2" steel bar here but you can see that I have wrapped the lid in masking tape to both protect it's outer face and also so that it too is held tightly in the chuck for machining. This is how far I got with the lids for tonight, I'll remove the machine marks later. The chain is to retain the lids and stop them getting lost, this will be cleaned in citric acid and fixed to the underside of the lid, I'll silver solder a small 'U' buckle on each lid for them to attach too. For the gravity sandboxes, I'll fix a length of round bar to the other end of the chain and drop it into the box, that should stop it coming out easily. The steam sandboxes are not so easy as the lid's feed a long tube, I'll find another way to secure these chains, all lids have to be removable from their respective boxes as I don't think that they will fit through the holes in the running boards after being painted, I'll check this out when I can. The handles will be added last with soft solder. Another full-size picture showing a lid removed and it's chain attached. The last picture for tonight shows the boxes themselves, the filler tubes have been soldered to the gravity boxes and all holes have been drilled, the smaller hole near the filler tube has also been tapped, IRC it's 5/16 x 40tpi. Boxes are in acid primer and now ready for their topcoat, black for the gravity and red for the steam boxes, or at least I think the steam boxes should be red? The small dents that were in one of the gravity boxes have been filled. Thanks for looking guys Pete

This is probably the last update for about a week, I have a few things to take care off up till next Thursday, we shall see... So, continuing with the sandboxes, today's task was to finish the steam boxes with their angled face for where the filler neck bolts too and mark out all of the hole positions for all 4 boxes. I'll drill the holes once I have taken a close look and perhaps built the various connectors that fit them. First I had to mark out where the angled face fits on the steam boxes, here I have marked out where I need to cut. Alas, I forgot to take a picture of the result after removing this section. Once the part was removed, I cut an oversized piece to plug the hole and soft soldered it in place, I also took care of any gaps in the silver solder. The picture shows a start being made on filing the part to blend in with the rest of the box. Here is the first steam box now shaped as per drawing... I now needed to plot the exact positions for the various holes, the ones in the bottom were just marked as per drawing, for the top ones I decided it would be prudent to fit the boxes and check that the positions lined up with the holes that they needed to go through. Here I have temporary bolted the right-hand gravity box in place, this is the one that needs to front tidying, I'll do this after the holes have been drilled. Oh, btw, I've just been catching up on Don's words, I tend to highlight them after I have tackled the job in hand. I noted a comment where he advised to drill a hole in each box before heating/assembling, evidently, since they are a sealed item the resulting vacuum may pull the box in...so, perhaps the ones that needed some gaps filling are the ones that didn't compress? and that it wasn't me being heavy-handed, makes some sense. Anyway, any blemishes/small corrections needed will be sorted before being painted. I then fitted the two running board sections, both lower and upper and using a transfer punch and checking that it was upright on both axis I gave it a slight tap for each hole. for the gravity boxes that's two on each. One for the filler neck and a smaller one for the pivot for the operating rods. I did this on both sides. And lastly I plotted the holes for the steam sandboxes, in this case I fitted the boxes and checked they hole positions lined up with the elongated slots. You can see the slot on one side in this picture. I now know that there is no way of fitting these boxes with the connecting rod in place, I couldn't even do it without removing the weighshaft, perhaps my hands are just too big... More soon folks... Pete

Having given this some thought, I decided that the next job that must be done is to make the sandboxes. I did mention before that I'd need to do the gravity boxes before I could fit the outside cylinder slide bars but having now finished the inside connecting rod, it was clear that once installed I wouldn't be able to easily (if at all) fit the steam sandboxes which sit forward of the crank between the frames. So, sandboxes it is.... First I cut up some wood to make dummy boxes to check for the fit and also use as templates, these boxes were scaled allowing for my chosen materials to fit around them. The first picture shows these, I'll point out that the steam box with it's angled face will be done after this update, I have made the box but not done this face yet. I'll now go through a sequence of pictures, this is my second attempt of writing this, first took an hour and I lost it...lol. Sorry, but this will probably be a little shorter.. Here's the gravity box ready for silver soldering, I have used thinner materials than specified and scaled the templates accordingly. And after heating, I used silver solder for the extra strength, I have given this a pretty large fillet of solder as these boxes will need rounding off a little when finished. As each box was made I checked the fit on it's backing plate which you may recall I made and fitted to the frames some time ago. Before soldering the backplate on I then got the steam boxes to the same stage, these are smaller in area but much deeper. Here are all four boxes soldered to their respective backing plates after having a soak in some citric acid, here they are seen in the rinsing tray. And now after a quick clean, there are a couple of gaps in the SS that I'll fill with soft solder when I fit the angled face seen in the first picture. Some are intentional where the angled face buts up against the backplate and there's a couple where I decided it wasn't worth continuing with the heat, didn't want to push my luck too far. The front faces were shielded but better safe than sorry. The second from the left box has a dent which was my fault, I held it too tight when cleaning up, I should have thought that the brass is now very soft, for the other boxes I used a piece of wood to protect the front face. It will be taken care off in due course, I have a number of holes to drill into the boxes so may be able to press the dent out, if not it will be filled. These boxes are still very much in their 'rough and ready state' The last picture hopefully shows why I felt it necessary to make the boxes now, as can be seen, the boxes will fill a large part of the area either side of the crank and once the rod is fitted I doubt that I would be able to get to these. Next job will be to fit the angled face to the steam boxes and also finish shaping them. I can't stop there though as I'll need to make up the various parts that connect to them and drill/tap the mounting holes involved. I won't make everything, for example, I won't do the pipework yet as I think it est to do the brake system first, I'll see how much I need to do now so that I can mount the boxes and forget about them, it will all depend on where I have access and where i don't, it's going to get very crowded in between these frames soon... More soon folks... Pete

Evening chaps/chapesses.. I've spent this morning giving the workshop a good clean and maintaining the machines ready for the next round of work. I did also find time to fettle the inside connecting rod, I think that I'll call this finished, there's the odd blemish but nothing that stands out and hell, I have to call it a day somewhere>.. Actually I think it's smoother than the coupling rods although I do still intend to revisit them nearer the completion of the model. Work done, other than the tidying up was to drill the oilways in both ends. For the little end, I have done my own thing, Don's states to drill a No.41 hole, I have drilled a No.57 and opened it out for a short depth using a 41 to act as a reservoir. The big end as mentioned previously has been drilled/tapped 6BA for the spare oil cup that I had to hand. Later, I'll make a sprung lid for this cap to keep any grime/ash out. The idea being that if sprung I should be able to prise the lid open using the oil can nozzle to oil which will then close itself, considering the access to this I think this may be a wise move. From what I can tell with the oil cup fitted it's not going to hit anything during it's arc, I'll know for sure once the rod is fitted. 3 pictures to show a little more detail, I have laid the rod on the chassis to show it's size, which is probably close to 10" in length. View along the top Side view And close up of big end Tomorrow I'll make a start on the next piece to the puzzle, not entirely sure what I'll choose, all will be revealed soon... Pete

good day, all... The inside connecting rod is nearly there, all machining operations have been undertaken and shaping completed. Jobs left to do are to drill/tap the big/little end oil ways and to give it a final file and polish. Alas my files are now a little past their best, too many times getting mixed up for which metal they were intended for...lol, I also need some new 3M sanding pads, Xmas is close, perhaps a hint to the children... So although the rod is more or less finished, I will revisit it for a final finishing exercise later. Ok, so the 'how did I do it? stage... I will state that for the entire fabrication of this connecting rod I have not done as Don suggested, I have done what seemed the best method for me with the tools available. Continuing from where we were Tuesday I began machining the flute, I first machined a section down the middle parallel to the middle of the rod. The picture shows the first side so machined, I have cut to a depth of 0.080 taking care either end not to go too far. For the little end, extra thought is required to allow for the fact that this end still needed to be machined to a thinner width. Once the first side was done I then removed the rod from the jig and flipped it to the other side, leaving the jig in place and thus set for doing either side. I then adjusted the angle of the jig for machining the first angle, once the vice was tightened I tapped a small panel pin under the jig to stop the possibility of it moving during machining, wasn't really needed but instilled a little more confidence in having a solid obstacle under the jig for support. As with the middle, once the first side was done the rod was flipped for the other side. The other angle was just a repeat of before but with the jig now tilted the other way. With the roughing out of the flute now done this left the final machining operation of reducing the thickness of the little end. For this, I just held the rod in the machine vice and reduced the little end from 0.343 down to 0.312, the metal being taken off equally from either side. The rod isn't level here as the rotary table, which I still need to use, was in the way but not important for this operation as it has no effect on the job in hand. with the machining finished it was time to get dirt, oh and sore fingers, I haven't taken pictures for the various stages but will describe how I tackled this shaping by hand. I first scribed a line from the flute edges, top and bottom, around to where it meets the big end, small end is now finished after thinning the little end down. With this done I then used a cutting disc in the Dremel and carefully cut a line just inside the scribed mark. Changing from the cutting disc to the sanding drum I began to form the concave shape. This took a number of goes, alternating between each side to keep them even. I cut the sanding drum insert down to half it's width so that I didn't accidentally mark the other side. Once I was happy with the shape and that the previous marks from the cutting disc had been blended in I then changed to a floppy abrasive disc for the final shaping/polishing. As I said, I will return to a final file/polishing session to remove any remaining marks once I have got some new files/sanding pads to do it. Two last pictures, first is the rod assembled, note that I have now machined the proper nuts. Oh and while talking about the nuts, one operation that I had forgotten to add was to machine a round recess into the rod, top and bottom, for the turned part of the nut to fit into up tightly against the rod tab, This again was done by hand using a small sanding drum and a small cutter, it wasn't possible for me to use a counter bore here. Plus I have also now been profiled, ie rounded off, the rod tabs and blended this curve into the lower part of the strap as per the P2 photo I showed previously. Hope I have forgotten anything else... Lastly, the component parts that make up the inside connecting rod on a Gresley Pacific, as noted I have followed the design as used for my chosen era, ie no strengthing rib around the back of the strap. I have however done two things, first the strap thickness around the back where the later rib was added, I have increased this for extra strength. Second, in the drawing that Eddie sent me of the correct rod, it shows two sets of fastening nuts, assumingly they lock against each other, both plain, ie, no turned section. I have used the later type as I think that it will lock better against the rod tab, it's also easier to use than trying to lock two together if required in service, I will use threadlock on final assembly. Pete

seems that I'm on a bit of a roll this week so will post this update covering the machining of the rod sides now, the next update, hopefully, weeks end could well see the completion of this important piece to the jigsaw. Might still have the little end bearing to do and the big end bearing shells but otherwise, I might just get the thing finished... So here's how I tackled this stage, it's basically the same as for the coupling rods for those who have been following the progress for a while, I'll go through it again here though for those who missed it. The first picture shows that one side ( R/H side as I wanted to finish with the other side, reason why coming up) has already been completed, as can be seen, the jig is now sitting vertically in the machine vice and checked to be true. Having checked the drawing I noted that the width of the rod midsection needs to be 0.281, IIRC this meant that I needed to remove 0.031 from either side. For the stop points fore and aft, I went by eye first, taking note of both Don's drawing (no dimension given) and the photo that I posted on the new rod for the P2. Once happy with the positions and allowing for the fact that as the cut got deeper the distance would increase I noted the DRO readings and proceeded to cut metal. The aft position being most critical as the edge of the cut is in line with the rod tabs, hopefully, you can see this in the picture. also worthy of a mention is that both buttons were trimmed so as not to interfere with machining. Here's the rod now machined both sides, that didn't take long did it? I got very lucky here as after a rummage through my cutters I found this one which was brand new, in its box and untouched, it was like chalk vs cheese, cut like going through butter, one day I'll invest in a decent tool cutter/grinder... one day...lol So, things to point out, with the first side machined, before doing the other side I searched for some suitable shim to pack the back to stop any possible flexing, this involved two sheets of brass shim. Now, the reason that I wanted to do this side last was so that while at this setup I could machine the big/little end faces for the oil points. This can be seen in the picture, I may go off script with the big end and add an oil cap with lid for two reasons, one to give a larger capacity of oil and second to make it easier to reach the oiling point once the loco is built. I can't see there being any height restrictions involved but will take a closer look later. As it happens I have a couple of 6BA oil cups spare, leftover from those I fitted to the front bogie for extra oiling of the axle boxes. I'll add a lid, perhaps something that's sprung loaded, we shall see. Lastly a picture of the setup for what I'm going to be doing tomorrow, the cutter is the same as used for the coupling rods, it had lost it's sharpness after that mammoth task but I have tried to use an oil-stone while running the lathe in reverse to bring back some form of sharp edge, followed by a little hand work, it certainly seems much sharper, fingers crossed. Barring any disasters, I hope to get the machining finished over the next two days middle cut first and then the jig propped up using the digital scales for doing the angled cuts, if my fingers hold out I may also get all of the hand filing/grinding done by Friday, might be a tall order but I will try. Oh and one last thing to point out, I have now changed to the Clarkson auto-chuck for doing the fluting operations. Cheers Pete

I have now completed the machining or the basic profile, there's still some hand filing to do on this but I'll do this after all other machining operations have been completed. A few pictures to show where I am... First up doesn't really need much text, it's the shaping of the little end which was very similar to the big end. This time though I had to set 'X' to zero and use 'Y' as the arc is much larger than for the other end. I now moved on to the angle from big to little ends, the rod was bolted on to the plate/jig in the vertical position and using the digital scales I checked it was level. I then rested the scale on the rod to measure the angle, as can be seen, it's not very much. Next, I measured the width of the small end neck which was IIRC 0.430, this needs to be 3/8 (0.375) and so I halved the difference and scribed the edge as a guide, I marked both sides but will only use the first, once down to the line I zeroed 'Y' to repeat for the other side, choosing to flip the rod over rather than try to match the same 0.6 degrees on a swivel vice. BTW, I just approximated this gradient and then checked by running a cutter (not powered) along the edge and adjusted until happy that the angles matched. For the big end, I also needed to note where to stop cutting for the flair of the rod, Don's drawing states that at 1 3/32 from the face of the bolt tab the rod is 1/2" wide, I, therefore, marked out accordingly and noted the DRO readings for both ends as I proceeded. The large cutter in the picture was used to line up the angles, not for cutting. This is how far I got tonight, the step seen near the big end will be done by hand once I have machined the sides and the fluting. this is my next job.... Pete

Last update for this week... I have now made the jig and the two buttons and their associated parts for holding the rod to both the jig and the rotary table. The first picture just shows the jig, this is the same one as used for the coupling rods, I have machined away most of the deep cuts from when profiling the other rods, I've dome this as I need this face flat to hold in the vice. As you can see I didn't bother removing the deeper cuts from when testing the various woodruff cutters for the fluting. In this picture, the surface is now flat and square. Next up was to fit a large 1/2" thick plate to the old jig to hold the connecting rod which BTW is longer than the coupling rods, hence why the added part. In this picture, we can see the plate now attached to the old jig and the accurately positioned two mounting holes drilled/tapped for the rod to be held by. This setup has had a little thought put into it for all machining operations for this particular part. In this position, I can machine the top and bottom angle for the rod, I can work out the angle by repositioning this jig so that it sits upright in the vice and using the digital angle scale can get an approximation of the angle required, I just then need to swivel the vice to said angle and cut. When it comes to the fluting which also needs to meet this angle I'll again set the jig upright in the vice and with the digital scale sitting on the rod lift the appropriate end until the angle reads zero. The fluting for each side will be done in 3 stages, the middle first and then top and bottom meeting the two angles required. This will be much clearer when I get to do this next week. The bolts for mounting the rod are 6mm for the little end and 8mm for the big end, this allows me to hold them properly and also be able to fit the two sized buttons. here I have now accurately machined the two spacers which I have also tapped 6 and 8 mm and held the rod in place. Of course, all drilling was done square to the bed to ensure the rod is running parallel along 'X' once held in position, same goes for the plate fixed to the original jig. I have also drilled/tapped extra 8 mm holes ready to clamp the rod down during machining. With the jig ready I then turned my attention to profiling the two ends beginning with the big end. As can be seen, I made a start on machining the curve, the uneven part to the left is just where I have cut away excess metal ready to flair the curve of the strap into the rod itself, this to be done by hand. I've included this picture to show how I held the work in the rotary table, two buttons with the lower one seen here having a spigot that's larger than the nut below. The spacer in the rod as mentioned is also threaded so when all tightened they were not going to come loose and I'm happy to say, they didn't. The spigot was held tightly in the rotary table chuck and with the large button between both chuck and job it was very stable. For the little end, I'll need to be careful although I have made the bottom button larger than the required top which is to size for the required rad. BTW I didn't bother hardening the buttons, I saw no point as they are a one time only use. last picture to show that the rear of the big end cap/strap has now been roughed out. Once all machining is completed I have some more shaping to do here as the rod tabs need rounding which then flairs into the strap itself. I also need to machine the top of the oil housing, I'll do this when the rod is set vertically in the vice. Next week I'll start with the little end profile and then tackle the angles, should be fun... Pete

Drilling the little and big end holes... To do this i held the rod in the machine vice and packed up either end with timber, I also packed out the narrower end of the rod when held in the vice to keep it running true along the 'X' axis. I did a few passes before starting to drill to ensure all was correct. Before starting I wanted to get a feel for how the rod was looking when the two holes were plotted. I began at the little end lining up with the centre mark of the ring and advanced along 'X' by 8.5938 to arrive at the big end. the first picture shows where this ended up, I was very happy to see this, things were boding well for today's operation, what could go wrong? Now that I was happy with the position I first centre drilled the big end... I then opened up the big end by step drilling up to 5/8th and then before changing over to the boring head, I went back to the little end to drill this out to 9mm. Here I had a problem, my fault, I mistakenly picked up a very small centre drill and began drilling as if I had the larger size that I had begun with. Using the same force as before this led to one outcome, yep, the damn tip broke off in the job. The tip was too deep to chisel out using a punch and after thinking for a while of a way around this I decided the only thing that I could do was to turn the job over and drill from the other end, this time starting with the correct centre drill. I was reluctant in doing this as it meant resetting the job but didn't really have any other option. Anyway, here's the picture of the big end being opened up to 5/8th before the mishap. I'm happy to report that drilling from the other side worked, first centring and then step drilling out to 9mm. The first drill did hit the broken tip but just pushed it clear (most of the metal around it had been removed with the chisel) and since it was only small, had no effect on the overall little end hole. Thank god for that... The picture shows the rod with both holes now to size, as can be seen the big end hole was completed with the boring head and gave a nice finish which is spot on for both distance from the little end centre and between the rod tab, this will be seen better once I part the two pieces which won't be for a while yet. Last picture to show the rod removed from the vice and on lying a flat surface. A have a couple of things to do next, I need to make up a jig including spigots with 8.5938 distance between centres to hold the rod securely for machining the profile. The same spigots will be used to hold the rod in the rotary table for machining the two ends. I will machine the ends first, then the face profile while holding the jig flat, once that is done the jig will be held vertically (on it's side) for the side profiling. this is basically how I did the coupling rods, I'll hopefully get the first part done before the weekend. Thanks for looking Pete

Continuing with the connecting rod... I then machined the strap recess for the rod tab to fit into, this was a tight fit, here the rod sits a little proud of the strap. Once removed from the vice a small tap with a hammer made it a good fit. Now we come to an error that I made which I duly fixed and then discovered that I didn't need to fix it at all...lol The next picture shows the strap now pushed fully home onto the rod and as can be seen, I have placed it more or less central to the rod. What I hadn't realised is that the step on the top of the strap (you can just see where I have begun to machine a slight step to replace that which I removed earlier, mainly due to one corner being burnt off during the laser cutting process). After getting to this stage and looking at a recent picture of the new P2 rod I could see that this step's top edge should have been placed at the top of the rod tab, hope that makes sense? This would have been more obvious if the tabs on the rod hadn't been the same length making me think that the strap fitted central to them. So if you look at this picture you'll see that once I got to this stage I realised that the top part of the strap didn't have enough material on it for the rib that is shown on Don's drawing. IE: the centre of the rod tab into the strap when the big end hole is drilled left no material for the strengthing rib. Not a problem I thought, a quick trip to my son's for him to give a fillet of weld around the back edge using his brand new all singing all dancing fancy welder, resulting in this. great I thought, I'm back on course to produce something like this picture of the new inside connecting rod for P2 Prince of Wales. As it happens just in time I received another email from Eddie this morning giving some more very helpful details on the 1934 crosshead and also a drawing and article on the 'correct' inside connecting rod for 4472 in my chosen era. You see, the design as drawn by Don is the one designed to stop an issue of the strap parting a little doing service, to cure this they added a rib around it's back edge, yes you guessed it, the very rib which I had just had some weld added for me to be able to machine to Don's drawing......oh the joy's of Model engineering....many thanks again to Eddie in helping me keep the model as she should be for the late 30's and thus there will be no rib on my strap, shame as it looks great. This picture also helps to show how the rod will hopefully look when finished, as can be seen 4472's rod tabs will be rounded off as seen here to a height of where the step starts on the strap top and blended into the bottom. My rod will look very much as seen here, but without, of course, the rib, I will add a little extra metal to the back of the rib to avoid the issues seen in the 1920 rod design which is what was fitted to 4472 in the late 30's Next job was to drill/tap the strap 2BA ready for the studs that I needed to turn up. Here we have the two studs duly turned, these were loctited into the strap and left to cure, short thread end going into the strap. This gets me to this stage, I need to counterbore the rod where the studs are as they are being pushed out a little, the stud positions are as drawn, ie, very close to the rod, not central in the strap ends, most of which will be rounded off later. The two brass nuts are what I have will as a temporary fix for the nuts which will need turning up with a section that fits into the counter-bore. This will become clearer later. With the strap bolted up tight ( I have used some K&S tube to mimic how the proper nuts will be when done)II clamped it down to the mill bed and started to rough out the thickness from 0.390 to the required 0.343, this of course is the thickess part of the rod which is only at the big end, the rest will be reduced much further but to ne able to do that i first need to machine all of the rod (both sides) down to a common thickness. I can hear some saying, 'why not use a flycutter' I think this next picture explains why. I needed to be able to hold as much of the rod down flat as possible. I looked at a number of ways to machine this rod, (unlike the coupling rods i needed to get the faces flat before drilling the two holes which i could then have used to fix to a jig) including using the vertical slide on the lathe, I didn't like any of them and settled for this rather laboured method and why no flycutter was used. This is the last picture for tonight, the thickness is approx 5 thou oversize to allow for final filing/polishing once the rest has been machined to profile. First thing tomorrow I'll spend some time setting the rod up on the mill bed and drill both little and big end holes, once that is done I'll make up another holding jig as used for the coupling rods so that I can finish profiling and then get onto reducing the centre section, little end and finally do the fluting, still a few days work left there I suspect. Thanks for looking in chaps, more soon... Pete

No sir....except for backhead fittings and the dome and loco brake shoes all castings have been completed...I think?...it's mostly solid bar stock work from now on...:)

Inside connecting rod I'm fairly busy with family commitments this week but have found a little time to make a small start on the inside connecting rod, my thinking is to get the inside motion done first as it's relatively easy, well not in as far as the components are concerned but in relation to there being much fewer when compared to the outside cylinders. The items concerned are the connecting rod, crosshead (thanks to Eddie, I now have a copy of his superbly drawn LNER crosshead for 1934 which is what we think can be seen on the few photo's available for the late 30's),2:1 lever, pin, bearing, valve spindle/bobbin and valve connecting rod and their connecting pins. These will be what I'll concentrate on the most but may well do a few other bits and pieces to break up the amount of machining involved, we shall see. You may recall that Malcolm (MEL) laser cut my blanks for me, I think that I mentioned before that I am in two minds as to whether this makes life easier or not, it certainly involves a lot less swarf but needs more care in setting up as you have no flat datum to start with. The first picture shows the blank as supplied, this particular blank is cut very close to the final dimensions, closer than I would like which makes life a little harder and setup is crucial. I spent some time looking at this blank working out how best to mark out and begin, the method I arrived at is probably not the best but I couldn't see any other way of tackling this particular part. I began by splitting the two parts, scribing a line down the middle of the rod and roughly marking out the big end tab, using the scribed line as a guide I held the blank level in the machine vice and machined the end tongue that will fit into the strap recess. The picture shows the blank after this had been completed. Best I show how I held the blank and also state that the tongue depth is critical, requiring a distance between centres of 8 19/32 " I have no way of accurately measuring this at this stage so I have used a rule and dividers to get it as close as possible. Once I get to the drilling of the little and big ends I will start from the big end joint (split bearing) and then advance along 'X' by 8.5397 (more likely to be 8.5398 as my resolution is 2 microns)to give me the exact distance between centre's required. I'll cover this in more detail when I get there. I wonder if the reason that Don states for the piston rod length 'check to place' is to allow for any discrepancy in the rod? Here we have one side near to size, I used a small engineer's square to line up the blank to ensure it was horizontal and tightened very tightly, once I got to this stage I rechecked the distance from tongue to little end centre, it was 15 thou oversize which made sense as I still hadn't reached a clean edge on the 3/8 step back to the bolt tabs from the tongue edge(centre of big end hole). the top of the tab has been left oversize for now, I'll finish this when the strap is attached. I also machined the front face of the tab leaving it 6 thou oversize for now. We now have the rod end machined to size and moving onto the strap which is also seen here. Two changes here, I have made the width of the tongue a little larger, about 40 thou and the strap blank as seen will have it's joining face machined flat, removing the step as it's too large for my liking and there's more than enough meat on the strap blank to do this, as it stands it impeeds the bolt location. Reason for widening the tongue is to give more meat on the tips of the hole once it's been drilled, I don't really like them going to a 'point', especially as the hole centre will be by eye just as much as by measurement having no datum to measure from, one of the con's vs the pro's of using a cut blank, this will become clearer later. This picture is just to show that I have machined away the step on the joining face of the strap. This is where I have left things for tonight, I won't be back in the workshop till next week. The strap blank was, of course, clocked for it's centre point and here I have begun to machine the 3/8 deep slot for the tongue to be a tight fit. I'll get on with this on Monday. To summarise, once I have drilled/reamed the big end/little end holes I'll do as with the coupling rods and mount them onto a solid steel base for the profiling and fluting, lots more work to do on this little gem... More soon Pete

Final update for the week and yes I have fitted the middle cylinder securely in the frames although is push really came to shove I'm sure that it wouldn't take much to remove it again. I spent some time looking through all of the drawings, in particular, the draincock arrangement and could see no reason to put it off any longer. before doing so I took an accurate measurement of the distance between the port outer edges and noted it for later. To aid timing and bobbin alighnment I will leave off the front and rear covers so that I can check when making the bobbin that all ports are covered when centrally placed. Yes, I can still fit them while in the frames. Ok, so on to the work for today, mostly logging what needs to be done next, I'll go through that at the end, but I began by lapping the front cover guides for the valve crossheads. I did this by using the jig that was used for soldering the parts together and some fine grade auto valve lapping paste. I held the jig in the vice and worked the guide up and down until a nice sliding fit, the valve crossheads are still to be made so I can now make them a good sliding fit once I get to do them. Picture shows the setup... Next, I repainted the cylinder with the high-quality radiator paint that my son had introduced me too, for this I loosely fitted the two steam chest covers and the piston cover, the aim being to protect the mating faces of all. I placed the front cover jig in it's guides to protect them also as can be seen here. And we now have the cylinder where it belongs using fresh new 6BA CSK screws,. A few jobs done here, the middle cylinder mounting holes were CSK deeper as some screws had been just proud of the surface and I also CSK the lower screws for the smokebox/saddle as I had forgotten these all those years ago when making the frames. Well actually, not so much forgotten as hadn't noticed that they need to be CSK as the outside cylinder flange plates bolt up over them, this is why I have to fit the smokebox before the outside cylinders. Once all this was done, I masked up and resprayed the area satin black to remove all blemishes left during recent construction. So, what's next, well the list is endless even just for getting to the stage of fitting the smokebox, which BTW still needs to be stripped and re-painted. I think it's only when you get to this stage that you realise just how much work has to go into a live steam model of this size, even putting aside all the extra detail i have planned it truly is a daunting task that still awaits my attention. Here's a small list of my next jobs.. Drain cocks: Bowden cable+ outer sleeve to be routed Drain cock main shaft and pulleys, I'll leave the cab detail for now Links between the 3 cylinders Cross shaft and mounting trunnions for it Draincocks themselves Middle cylinder connecting rod, bearings, piston rod (to adjust) plus crosshead 2:1 gear lever, plus it's pivot and bearing, connecting rod, middle cylinder valve crossheads, bobbins, spindle plus the connecting rod between them. Main vacuum pipework to buffer beam Oil piping from lubricators to cylinders, both steam and for the valve guides/slide bars Gravity sanding box and pipework (push/pull rod system can be left till later) That lot is daunting enough but still, before fitting the smokebox I have to repeat this twice more over for the outside cylinders and considerable more including timing and running on air. Cleary I am certifiable as are all you other ME hobbyists....the joke is on all of us....:) See you guys again soon.... Pete

will do, but it's always asking a point in case I'm forgetting something... so many parts on this thing that this is very possible... cheers Pete

I wasn't going to post again until tomorrow but I have a question to ask so will get the details for today out of the way first. First I have now machined the other outer motion bracket to size, I had slightly more to remove for this side but not much. Pictures shows that the inclinometer for this side shows 0.3 degrees. this picture just to show that both sides are now done and things are now getting exciting although I can't mount the outside cylinders permanently just yet, more on that in a minute. few weeks back when I was fitting the liners I mentioned making up a tool to measure the distance between their outer edges for the bobbins. Someone asked if I could show what solution I came up with (sorry I forgot who?) It's pretty simple and material-wise involves K&S brass square tubing, I have used a number of sizes and slide them into each other for strength for both the inner and outer portions. For the innermost I bent the end over 90 degrees and crushed it flat and then reinforced with some solder, this was then soldered into the next size up permanently joining them together, this gave me the inner sliding part. For the outer, I ground/filed off a section leaving just one flat edge and bent that up 90 degrees, this was then reinforced on it's leading face (the one not needed to measure) with a smaller section of brass tube, another tube the next size up was soldered over this for its length and again at the far end of the tube yet another tube was soldered over that. This was just to give enough meat for a hole to be drilled/tapped 6BA for a locking screw. The final job was to file down the sides of the two 'tabs' to give more movement within the port and thus help when the two ports didn't line up with each other, hopefully, that makes sense. Here's the tool in question... A view from beneath to show the two tabs, the operation is simple enough, I just place the inner section into the steam chest until the first tab drops into the far port, I hold that there and pull back the outer section until the second tab drops into the closest port, by pulling the two against each other and locking the screw I now have the distance required. I then carefully remove the tool by lifting directly up until it touches the other side of the liner and remove the tool. Doing it this way the tabs aren't knocked during removal. The last job is to measure the distance between the outer faces of the tabs with a vernier. The ports on one cylinder are just slightly out of line for the tool so I will do this a number of times before being happy, once decided on the sizes I will turn up some bar that's a sliding fit to the decided size and double-check if I have measured correctly. BTW, all steam chests have now been reamed out to 11/16 as per drawing Now for the question, I think that I've reached the stage where I can fit the middle cylinder for the last time, I certainly need to get some parts permanently fitted or I'll never get the thing finished.. Unless there is a reason why not I plan to repaint the middle cylinder tomorrow and mount it for the last time using thread lock, along with it's top slide bar (bottom slidebars will be left until the crossheads are made and the piston rod has been machined to length). When it comes to the middle cylinder there is plenty of room to fit the bobbins and check their position while it's between the frames, the piston can also be removed which it will need to be as the rod is still overlength noting Don's note'check to place'. I have an awful lot of important parts that are near ready to be permanently fixed but can't while other parts aren't... For example, the outside cylinders share the same bottom row of holes as the bogie centre, so that is still loose but I can't fit the outside cylinders until the smokebox has been fitted and sealed along it's exhaust passage through the frames to the outside cylinders, I'll also need to make up the cylinder cladding and drill the holes to fit too. Once I have the cylinders permanently fitted I really am on a roll, so my question to you old hands at this game for tonight is...can anyone think of a good reason to not fit the middle cylinder? Draincocks and their associated cable/tubing/rig and the relief valves I believe can all be fitted in situ. Cheers Pete

sorry chaps, yet another update... I've been pretty busy today and best post the details or it will be too much to write up in one go....8 photo's for today.. With the lugs sorted I could look at drilling them for the slides to fit, as I said before things in this area are very close with being able to drill these two holes. So close in fact that I have moved them out a little to save risking damage to the piston gland plate face. The first picture shows how close things are, in fact, the holes are just under the gland face, hence why I have moved them back a little. Note the slide in the picture is under its mount for working out where the holes need to go, just in case someone says I'm putting it in the wrong place.. and so, with the holes drilled I could temporarily mount the slide bars for the left hand outside cylinder and here we have another conundrum... How the hell am I supposed to fit nuts in that tight space seen in this picture? The answer will be in the following picture.. Oh, BTW, you can just see that as I mentioned before that I did grind a little of the liner edge to flare it into the exhaust passage, you can also see that I have yet to ream the liners and hone them, mustn't forget that. With these little niggles building I took another, more, closer look at the prototype and the answer was there as clear as day. If you look closely at this photo that I took 3 years ago you'll notice that the top of the upper slidebar has a step machined into it to give more room for the nuts, I will follow big brother and do likewise, problem solved.. Now that I had the slide bar sitting one the cylinder (btw both cylinders are at this stage) I could turn my attension to getting the outside motion bracket slipper machined so that I had the correct angle/position for said slidebar. The picture shows that the L/H cylinder has been bolted to the frames, along with the outside motion bracket with the slidebar held under it . 0.2 degrees, not bad... So, with the bracket held in the machine vice on it's one datum, ie the face that meets the frames I slowly took a little off and then did a trial fit, actually I must have done this about 6 times before getting a zero reading. Once I got to this stage where the angle was zero while just being held with a plastic peg I was happy and then could mark out the position for the 3 bolt holes to be drilled. End result is the cylinder is mounted with it's slidebars and motion bracket and looks in it's correct position, I won't really know how this all fits until I have made both the connecting rod and the crosshead, if there is to be any fettling I think it will be very small if at all. One other check to do before calling it a night was to see how the slidebar relates to the connecting rod position, I have to say that I'm pretty pleased with how things went today, tomorrow I'll repeat the process to the R/H cylinder and then I'll have all 3 cylinders with the slidebars connected in situ. After this, I'll need to take it all apart again...lol.... More soon Pete

Completion of slide bars except for bolt/nuts The next job was to drill the two front holes into the bottom slide bars, starting with the middle cylinder. I first clocked one bar so that it was central and then with the opposite bar swung out of the way I used the top slide bar to correctly position the holes. Not seen here is that I used a piece of shim as a spacer for the first hole which has already been drilled in this first picture, I then zeroed this hole and advanced on 'X' by 0.187 to drill the next hole. With one side done I repeated the process for the other bottom bar by swinging out the bar just drilled, I didn't need to clock for the next bar as it's the same as the first, just zeroed 'X' again for the first hole, hope that makes sense. One picture that I forgot to take was the drilling of the brass packing pieces. I first loctited both rear and front packers to the top slide and drilled through them, once the bottom slides had also been drilled, with the packers now clamped between both slides I could machine them to width, finishing will be done with a file. The picture shows the front brass packers having just been machined, rears where done in the last update. This then brings me to the slippers for the crossheads and a bit of a story here, well two, in fact, thanks to Eddie's (MECH forum) timely intervention which I'll go into more in a minute but the first thing is a not very good batch of gauge plate from eBay. The first time that I've ordered such from there, my mistake and I won't be doing it again from that supplier. First problem was that the plate was approx 3 thou oversize, should have been 0.1562 but was closer to 0.159, no problem I thought, I'll just machine it down a little. I duly did that and it warped? was this even gauge plate I asked myself? Not to be deterred, I checked it's thickness with a mic and it was just over 0.156 along the length of the part I had cut off from the 18" bar that I ordered. So I heated it to cherry red to normalise the metal and while still, a dull red, put it in the vice to straighten it. Let it cool, polished it and to my surprise with no further work required it was a perfect fit in the bars? Sometimes life just works... Anyway, here's the part slid in between one of the bar sets. I then cut the bar into 3 sections and machined them down to a length of 1.250 each as per Don's drawing and this is where we come to the second story. Eddie kindly contacted me to say that don's drawing for the crosshead is wrong for my chosen era, IIRC it's a BR pattern circa 1948. He happens to be working on his own crossheads for his superb models of an H4 and K3, you guys need to check these out on the Tyneside ME site, true masterpieces. Thus, I then did a little research and could see that Eddie is 100% correct, and so am in the process of looking into this. Now some things I have to follow what Don has drawn to avoid any conflict later in the build, these will be the length of the slippers and the distance from bottom of the slipper to the centre of the piston rod, I may also need to look at any step within the drop link but will still be able to build a crosshead that looks like the correct pattern, it looks like 4472 shared this with the V2 and P1/2 but I'm still looking into this. I have deviated from Don anyway as his crosshead incorporates the slipper with the head, I had already decided early on to make these in two parts planning to machine a groove down the centre of the slipper and a tongue on the top of the head and then silver solder together, at least that's the plan. with the crossheads temporary on hold I will move on to the important task of getting the outside cylinder slide bars mounted to them and also to the motion brackets. I first need to drill the two mounting holes into the cylinder lugs and have to say that this is very close. My plan is to set up each cylinder and transfer the holes from the slide bars from underneath, they can't be done from above due to the steam chests being in the way. To do this I have to clean up the lug's underside and the last picture for tonight shows the first cylinder having been done. This is not critical so I just held the cylinder in the machine vice at approx 1 degree tilt to ensure I could remove the offending material leaving just the minimum to remove with a chisel so that the bar will fit up against the stop,, ie the lower bars. next update might actually have the slidebars in place, we shall see... Pete