TerryD1471

Beautiful work.

On the LMS there were many possibilities:-

1924 Hughes design for Pacific

1924 Hughes design for Mikado

Both of the above appear as line drawings in E S Cox's book Locomotive Panorama

There was a Stanier 2-6-2 tender loco (intended as an answer to the V2) looked like a short Duchess with 6'0" wheels.

Also there was the Stanier 4-6-4 which was very much like a Duchess, except for 6'6" wheels and a firebox 18" longer (stoker fired 70 sq ft grate) and an 8 wheel tender.

Also the Stanier 4-8-4 with the same boiler as above but with a smokebox about 15" longer and 5'6" wheels.

There is an excellent book "Locomotives that never were" written and illustrated by Robin Barnes which incorporate these and many others.

Hope this helps.

Congratulations on achieving a very convincing looking model. It was only a few weeks ago I thought of the very same formula for creating Princess Anne. You obviously are way ahead of me! I look forward to seeing the finished loco.

Terry D

Hi

Having built 3 of them, (without teaching grandma to suck eggs) can I offer what I hope will be a useful tip or two?

As supplied, the cab will sit too high in relation to the back of the firebox. I had to codge the fit of the cab so it came down about 1 to 1.5 mm. Much more convincing!

Also the join between boiler and firebox has a bit of latitude. Be careful to ensure the firebox top slopes gently down towards the cab.

Thirdly (and this is the bit I found out too late) the smokebox is the correct length as cast, so that when you stick the smokebox door/ring casting on the front, it finishes up being about 1mm too far forward. If I could go back, I would try and rebate the smokebox so the front sits inside rather than on the front.

Sorry I can't comment on the tender sides; don't remember a problem there (but maybe I just bent them to fit?).

Hope this helps. Good luck with the loco.

Terry D

Just a general observation; the usual Romford wheel to use here was the 26mm, because the flange depth was greater on these and the best way to ensure clearance between the wheel flanges was to go down by 1mm diameter. The RP25 flanges on the Markits wheels being shallower meant that 27 mm became practical. The Royal Scot and all the other 3 cyl 4-6-0s also had 6'9" diam wheels incidentally, so the same criterion applies there. Only the Princess had 6'6" wheels for which 26 mm was the correct diameter.

Just as an aside, there were 3 issues I had when I built a batch of 3 DJH Duchesses.

1 The join between boiler and firebox had to be made very carefully to achieve a good visual appearance. The top of the firebox should slope very gently down toward the cab.

2 As supplied, the cab will sit too high in relation to the firebox, so some judicious fettling is necessary here to lower the cab. Check with photos.

These 2 issues I managed to sort to my satisfaction, the 3rd one I didn't!

3 As supplied the smokebox door sits too far forward by the thickness of the casting. The smokebox/boiler casting is the correct overall length, so when you solder/fix the smokebox door casting on the front of this, the whole assembly becomes about 1.5 mm too long. I didn't realise until it was too late, but I have decided to live with it!

Good luck with the valve gear; I confess to using brass plated steel pins to solder the gear together, rather than the rivets supplied.

Terry D

As a quick addendum, and as someone who can use all the Stanier 8P power he can muster, the DJH kit still has the odd difficult bit in it. As assembled, the smokebox door casting fits on the front of the smokebox and the whole thing then is too long; put a DJH loco alongside a Hornby Duchess and you will see what I mean. I've built 3 and I own 4 so it is not something I am happy to admit to, but there it is. My future models will mostly be from from old Hornby Dublo body shells, with serious surgery on the firebox area. Hornby's nice new versions of the Duchess are well-proportioned and run sweetly, but not fast enough nor do they pull enough. My DJH ones with D13 power and 40:1 gears can pull 14 coaches and achieve 140+ scale MPH. I ask no more

Terry D

Very nice work; very pleased to hear your views on Stanier's masterpiece. i agree thoroughly, even though the great man himself (WAS) said that his masterpiece was really the Black 5.

Hi Frank

Good to see you at the Wolverhampton show at the weekend. Good luck with this venture; I watch your posts with interest.

Terry D (aka TerryD1471) from his home not a million miles from 89C's principal sub-shed.