Johnson044

...and here's an Aussie 4-4-0

Another range of potential freelance staples is the Beyer Peacock Metropolitan type. They seem to have built them for various other concerns apart from the Metropolitan and the District Railways - the LSWR had them, from new, I think, and the LNWR bought some too. I think the Midland had one or two, but don't know if they were second hand or direct from BP. The Australians seem to have taken quite a shine to the general type - but theirs were 4-4-0 tender versions - I think pretty much the same as the tank locos otherwise. Some of them were rebuilt as 4-4-2T's in later years. All rather attractive. Then, of course, there was the great sell-off post electrification and the second hand ones went all over the place. Plus, of course, the 2-4-0T relatives...

....and there is a small parcel on the stairs this morning that I think might be Amberdale! I saw your review but haven't looked yet as I didn't want any spoilers. Looking forward to lunchtime!

The little Sharp Stewart saddle tank is with us yet! What amazes me is that there seem to be so many examples of C19th locos in Sweden in such perfect original, un-modified condition. Gorgeous! I'll have a trawl online and see if I can find a recent photo.

It was a concept, and you won't know if it works if you don't at least test it. Absolutely! And the world would be a poorer place without these endeavours.

Mea Culpa! P Ransome Wallis The Preserved Steam Locomotives of Western Europe has the works number as 2597. Trying to do too much at once.- work, feed dog, tidy kitchen and sneak very quick look into railway bookshelf...

Well - that explains the similarity... but not how it comes to be in Sweden.

2596 is one of the T&W ones!

My mistake. The Llanidloes & Newtown one was built by Kitson. The Swedish Sharp Stewart one is Works Nr 2596 of 1876- same year as the T&W ones.

Indeed- either a standard "off the peg" loco or maybe either the T&WR ones or the Swedish one might have been a cancelled order - or someone needed a loco in a hurry and a deal was struck? I have a copy of Steam Locomotives of Western Europe Vol 2 somewhere which has a photo of the Swedish one - maybe it lists the SS works nrs. The Llanidloes & Newtown Railway had something very similar - but a little earlier from memory.

Finally, there is this stunning preserved example, supplied to Sweden, about which I must find something more, but the resemblance to the T&WR pair is very strong: OMG I'm in love!

I don't know if LNWR balance weights were just iron segments bolted between the spokes? Maybe they just removed one segment so that having removed the coupling rod the crank web / boss was still balanced? Who knows.

I think that makes sense in theory as he balance weights don't seem to be integrally cast- however, neither do they seem to be diametrically opposite the crank webs - it's difficult to tell. The more I think about it I reckon Compound2632 is right and economy prevailed. They just fitted a pair (or maybe just one?) of idlers to an unfortunate Samson without coupling rods and gave it a whirl. When the poor old thing came to a wheezing halt in a flurry of tortured metal FW called it a day.

The trailing wheels have balance weights to balance the coupling rods, the experimental locomotive being a withdrawn 2-4-0. Well - yes - but somehow, with all the facilities of Crewe at hand and presumably lots of material from withdrawn locos around somehow I expected FW to have ensured the wheels were balanced- hence my comment on balance weights- I was completely wrong about my suggestion that wheels from a Bloomer might have been re-cycled as @ 6' 6" even those from the Small Bloomers were way too big. Looking at the photo closely you can just see the curve of the crank webs disappearing under the footplate valance at the top. Both driving and trailing wheels are perfectly aligned, almost as if they still had the rods attached, which is curious - when I first saw the photo I thought there were wheels without crank webs. I wonder how the linkage would have worked? Was there a similar idler wheel on the other side? We shall probably never know,and in the overall scheme of things it really ain't important.

Well - I rather think so too TBH - as the idler wheel (or whatever it should be called) is pulled upwards, presumably by some sort of screw system, like a tender hand brake, the forces applied to both driving and trailing wheels would have to be quite considerable in order to achieve the friction needed to pull the trailing wheels around. Would these forces not act on the axles / bearings and try to push the two axles apart? Duuno. Part of me rather thinks it might be made to work - but presumably it didn't. I do wonder why the trailing wheels have balance weights. Maybe the wheels were from scrapped Bloomers?

You're probably right - but this is Francis Webb and no-one dared tell him he might be wrong.

Not sure which thread to post this. Imaginary Locomotives possibly not quite right because it actually existed - but it's pretty wild - this is a new one on me. I've seen an image of an American friction drive loco before but never come across one tried in the UK. Is it just me or is this completely bonkers? I completely see the logic and the difficulty of using gears but rather thought that friction was something to be avoided.

Oooh! Brilliant! Thanks so much for the tip- buying a copy now. Buckingham Great Central still a well thumbed favourite and - all sounds a bit like Craigshire too! I'd never twigged that Ambledon was a follow on from Amberdale.

A trial run to see how it might fit together.

Here are the insulated cylinder mountings. The keeper plates are just copper clad paxolin sleeper strips with simple wire scraper pick ups.

Cylinders are some brass ones with brass slide bars that I also picked up on ebay. The big problem for me was how to insulate them from the frames, so I made up some plastikard spacers screwed to both the cylinders and the frames by separate captive 10ba bolts. The motian plate is made up of N/S, with a section of copper clad paxolin sleeper in the middle, gapped to insulate. Crankpins are some lengths of brass rod that I had that someone had drilled and tapped 10BA. They are soldered to little slices of 1/4" copper tube araldited over the centre bosses to the wheels. This gives quite a strong little assembly. Rods are Mercian but I used only the front etch for the connecting rod and bought a set of rods and crossheads for a Hornby GWR 28xx 2-8-0 in 4mm, and ground off the plating and soldered them to the backs of the mercian rods. I used loctite to fit some short lengths of brass channel top and bottom. This was one of my "cunning plans" for re-using cheap 4mm parts but it's all been a bit convoluted. I've cut the original cardboard cylinders (which are simple tubes)so that I can spring them over the brass ones and preserve the lining out. I won't do that until I've painted the chassis and added brake gear though.

Here's the under works so far - in truth I started this a while ago and I rather ground to a halt with the chassis so turned my attention to the body. Basically as follows: I've assembled and altered some Mercian frames and rods for a 16" Barclay that I got on ebay. The frame profile is very different to the original though. I've cut the bearing holes into slots so I can have wheels permanently on axles and drop them in with keeper plates. Wheels are some ancient aluminium 3 hole ones that I've bored out to take shouldered 3 / 16" axles (to suit the Mercian frames) and insulated with Tri-ang top hat bushes. The motor is a tiny Faulhaber (it's a really light loco and as it's too big for 7mm scale I doubt if I'll ever ask it to haul much) with some Romford 40 to 1 gears bored / sleeved to suit.

Plus some other bits - springs from the Minicraft Vulcan 2-4-0T kit, a reversing quadrant and rod, some buffer beam parts from the Loriot, a brake standard that I've lengthened to suit the 8mm scale cab side sheet height and a chimney (I'll need to re-profile the base somehow to fit the larger radius of the saddle tank).

Living in Dover, a walk along just about any footpath near the White Cliffs usually turns up some bits of short brass tubing in useful sizes (ok - to be pedantic, none of them are truly tubes, as they all taper very slightly). Even so - here are some spectacle rims.

....a true scratchbuilder's scale!