5&9Models

That's beautiful. A shining (literally) example of how thin the line can be between modelmaking and fine art. Superb!

Aha, thanks very much for the advice MikeOxon.

Thanks MikeOxon, I agree about the shiny rims. My concern was electrical pick-up from the track. I'm a bit niaev regarding the use of metal black, do you still get good conductivity through it then? If so then I'll certainly apply some. Any recommendations on brand? Thank you for the tip.

Thanks Mikel, As you say, there's still so much to be modelled. I'm not sure the long list of what I want to make is good for my health! As for what goes behind Royal William, I would like to try and interpret the very limited evidence regarding the London and Greenwich carriages. Many of them were low slung curiosities and I fear any model would be highly conjectural but that's unlikely to put me off...!

Thanks John

Thanks Richard, I've just weighed it and it's 86.5g. It would be interesting to compare that with an RTR loco, a L&Y Pug or similar. Perhaps we should start a 'guess the weight of my loco' craze! The rivets are little tiny slices of Plastikard glued onto the Plastikard frames, but then those were used as masters for casting in white metal. However, in the case of my 0-4-2 banker which has brass frames, I glued a 5 thou Plastikard layer on the face and stuck the rivets to that. Hand of God coupling in the style of Monty Python would be more like it in my case, especially if I can't remember where I put my glasses!

Thanks Wenlock.

Thank you. It's a really good point, the term pre-grouping covers a huge range of possibilities if you're willing to put the time and effort in. I find it's just as much fun researching source material about whatever you're working on, as building the thing itself. Sometimes a model can only be a 'best guess' if the reference material just isn't there, but still a very valid way of understanding and interpreting our early railway history. Apologies if I get a bit evangelical about it, I wish more people would have a go at the early stuff.

London & Greenwich Railway No.1 Royal William - Pt.5 This is the last part of the series on Royal William for now until I make the Stephenson tender to go with it. It's all done, an interesting project and a good opportunity to try out a few ideas on the cheap! So the lessons learned are as follows: Sprung plunger pick-ups on such a tiny engine were more trouble than they were worth. In the end I simply fitted some tee shaped wiper pick-ups between the wheels. Easy, simple and effective. The use of a coarse worm and pinion with such a low ratio gearbox has created what I can only describe as a fine stutter as it moves. It runs beautifully slowly but the click, click of each pinion tooth engaging with the worm just shows. As it speeds up that disappears but it's a useful lesson. A finer worm and pinion and higher ratio box would be a better balance. I'm sure this is quite obvious to those who build engines more often than me! The casting of the main chunks in white metal has worked very well. Anything lighter and I'm sure it just wouldn't have the weight to pull itself along. As it is, it will pull a short train of third class carriages at distinctly third class speed. Good enough for me! I haven't yet fitted the nameplates. They're only small but the name Royal William is quite long and rather fills the boiler side. I might fit them with a spot of PVA so they can be picked off again without trace if I decide they look too daft. I hope this blog has inspired somebody to have a play with those odd motors and gears and wheels that gather in the bits box! Go for it!

Thanks Ian, Need to make a few tweaks on the pick-ups to get it running a bit better. If there are any other painting recipes you need to know, just email me...I write everything down so it's no problem to look it up.

Thanks Mikel, I had two gear boxes and they weren't very much money so I thought 'if I screw this up I'll just fit the other one and not tell anyone' Thankfully it worked.

London & Greenwich Railway No.1 Royal William - Pt.4 RW is now painted and final tuning is underway. An issue cropped up on track testing that I had my suspicions might just be the case. It was ludicrously slow! The spur gearbox is very effective but the ratio much too high. So what to do? After staring at it for some time over a cup of tea, I decided it was possible to remove the final pair of gears and shunt the final drive gear back to take the place of the gear that drove the shaft. The photo shows the removed gears which involved dismantling the box and turning down the rear spindle of the final gear on the lathe. A spacer was required to prevent the gear shunting forward and a 1/8th axle bearing was spot on. There are further details to be added and the pick ups on the drivers need easing off as they give too much resistance at the moment. I was pleased with the painted wooden boiler lagging, basically Humbrol Matt 62 with Matt 160 shading and Matt 63 highlights all blended in. Good ole Matt 98 was used on the very dark seams and corners. I find that colour so useful for dirt and shadows etc. Here's the 50p shot I promised! Oh, and that tender still needs to be tackled!

Beautifully modelled, they really look the part. Best wishes for the wedding too!

'Absence of evidence is not evidence of a absence' is an excellent point, although I think Carl Sagan was referring to little green men from outer space. Perhaps he had an interest in early railways too? I think it's worth considering standard practice of the period. The basic return flue boiler used in early locos was nothing more than a mini version of a Lancashire Boiler. I'm certainly no expert in such things but I can't think of any lagged examples from that period. If the Trevithick loco in question was lagged later on, that's possible, but as built? Not convinced. Great to see a post about an old Airfix kit can create such an interesting discussion!

Hi, Fascinating blog, really looking forward to seeing it built. A word of caution on the cladding though. The loco you're building never had any boiler cladding of any sort. Catch Me Who Can did but not this little feller, so I wouldn't be tempted to add something that was never there. Bear in mind it did take a while for it to sink in that insulating such things improves efficiency. Cylinders were often not clad either for a good few years. If there was any evidence of boiler cladding at any stage the replica would have it too. Save for a couple of extra safety features and some internal modifications, the replica is pretty accurate. Chris

Delightful scenes and a fascinating post, thanks Ian.

I could look at your work for days on end! It really is superb. The standard is something for us all to aspire to. Outstanding! Thank you so much for sharing it.

That looks great! Ready for a good days work.

Thanks. The insulator between the axle and the cast wheel was an undersized HAMA Bead rejected by my son! I kept it as it was just right for the job....waste not want not!

Royal William Pt.3 A little more progress and I've been able to trial fit the driving wheels. Clearance was a bit tight on the central boiler stays but I think this is due to the slightly over-scale flanges on the 00/EM tyres. A bit of fettling to the stays with a swiss file sorted the issue. The leading axle is only a spare carriage one at the moment, just to get a feel for where the front axle rocker should be and to determine the correct height and levels etc. It's difficult to appreciate how small the loco is so next time I'll pose it against a 50p piece, that's if my daughter hasn't spent it on chocolate.... I'll update this again soon as since I took these pictures, the leading axle rocker is fitted and the whole lot has been cleaned and etch primed. I still have axle boxes to fit, the final connection between motor and pick-ups, firebox stays, leading axle and wheels to fit and the valve gear 'gubbins' to make and fit between the smokebox and buffer beam. Then all the painting to do. Oh yes, and the small matter of a tender! More pics to follow shortly....

Thanks Boston Lodge, The boiler is grooved using a hard sharp engineers scribe. The brass tube is laid in a vee block which is essential to hold it steady and give a parallel edge to work to. Otherwise the lines can go awry very easily and the eye picks it up! I'll take a photo and it it to the post tomorrow.

The motor is a tight sliding fit. There are two flats soldered inside the boiler to prevent rotation, and two end stops at the smokebox end which hold it firmly in place. Because the boiler separates from it all you can just push the motor out with a pencil.

Royal William - Pt. 2 Having made a bit more progress over the last few evenings, here is a little more about the loco itself. The image below shows the mainframes with firebox and flimsy inner frames (more trunk guides than frames). The firebox and frames will be detachable from each other in order to remove wheels in the future, although I can't image a scenario where I would want to do that. The boiler and smokebox are also detachable in order to extract the motor if needs be. The little motor and spur gearbox with coarse Romford worm fits inside the boiler and the two springs should make contact with a piece of PCB sleeper glued inside the smokebox, seen to the right of the image. From this, two insulated copper wires (courtesy of a friend who works for BT Openreach) protrude between the trunk guides and will be cunningly disguised as piston rods. These will connect to a pair of sprung plunger pick-ups tucked under the firebox in contact with the back of the driving wheel tyres - thus motion will be achieved (we hope)! It's all very Heath Robinson but the loco has so far cost less than a tenner.....! The added photo above shows the boiler scribing process. The brass tube is supported in a vee block which prevents it shifting and a hard point engineers scribe is used to mark the planks against a straight edge, held parallel to the edge of the vee block. Boiler bands are added afterwards.

Thanks Ian, Glad you like it. Bit more progress to post soon.

A straight up no nonsense chimney. Wouldn't look out of place on a woodburning stove!